[Closed] Many Brands are not Manufacturers

Then the belated Rextoys was not a Manufacturer? I believe

Vitesse did production and assembly for Rextoys. In another range, Great American Dream Cars had products made and assembled in England, but, as did Rextoys, produced some unique models.

I think the point is moot Pete! If Minichamps did not initiate production by conceiving the model and then "ordering production", whether that production is in China, India, or the future "low cost countries" like Germany, Holland etc... 😉 , there would be no models!

So calling the Chinese (or whatever) production units "manufacturers" is as true or unrue as calling Minichamps the same either!

It is perhaps more semantics than anything else, but I am certain that without the concept and control from the "brands" there would certainly be a lot less models than we have now.

The global economy we have these days make most of those people that we knew in the past as manufacturers, at best assemblers of "ready to assemble" modules produced elsewhere, usually in countries where it is cheap to do so.
This is as valid for models at it is for consumer electronics or passenger airliners!

Nothing to worry about really, just buy the stuff you like. I do!
Cheers,
Arie

Pete-Companies

Sorry Pete for using the incorrect word.Its Companies.I hope I am forgiven

That would seem to be a matter of semantics. I think you are splitting hairs.

Call them whatever you like, manufacturers, brands, companies, producers, etc.

Duplicates

When companies buy from others and don't limit third and fourth parties buying the same models you could buy the same model twice. Case in point is Maxicar. They came and went so fast that they may not have had a factory. But they were good salesmen. They sold to Corgi (DY91XX) series, Darda (non-racing,) and others (my models and notes are in Michigan.) So I am sure I bought several duplicates. I know the Corgis had a red plastic insert in the baseplate that said "Corgi." High Speed does the same as Maxicar. I would like to get the history straight before it gets too old.

Pete Foss

Some info

This is what I learned about Maxicar a few years ago. I believe this is accurate.
Maxicar brand was owned by a company in the East (I think Taiwan or Macau). They had a website address printed on the box, but it was either dead by the time the models got to the market or never created in the first place. The whole series was a private order of a European supermarket chain, which either rejected it at the end or went bankrupt. The models were then sold to someone in Europe. They were going REALLY cheap in England in 2003-2004; we are talking around 2 pounds of sterling for a very decent quality. I always believed that the same factory who was making Ixo made these. The boxes are very similar too. Also, one Maxicar model was a military amphibious vehicle, which was identical to the Victory one, which was a subdivision of Vitesse Group before it went bankrupt in 2000 or so. Ixo inherited a lot of those molds, so did Sunstar. So Maxicar did not make anything on their own.
Ixo is owned by Premium Collectibles, which seems to have its own factory. They also own Premium X, IST and J Collection.

High Speed has its own factory, I believe, and sells models under its own name, as well as selling them to Schuco for the Schuco Junior line, Darda, Corgi and other. Some partworks were made be them.

Even happened in the good old days Pete with the .....

first Dugu models made by Rio, late production Dinky Toys, France made in Portugal by Auto Pilen, late '70's Dinky Toys made all over the place: Italy - Politoys, France - Solido and in Hong Kong! Old Mebetoys and Politoys moulds went to the USSR. In the mid '60's Tri-ang, the owners of the Dinky Toy brand sourced a range of US cars from an unknown third party in Hong Kong.

Now even in the 'High End' market MR have their brand 'Look Smart' made in China!

So it has always happened and in the case of small scale models it is even harder to locate the original maker.

Cheers Chris

This is a good move Pete this sort of information does ....

need recording for the benefit of collectors in the future. With the kind of interest today it is an easier task than trying to find who made certain toy cars in the early post war years from the UK.

Good luck!

Cheers Chris

Vitesse made all the Rextoys models except the Rolls-Royce.

Post War Japan

In post was Japan many toys were not made in factories. Families would make a part, like wheels, other families would make other parts. A guy would come by every week and take them to the last family that assembled them. Then they would be collected by an American importer that may put his name on the box. Try to get all this info!

Pete Foss

Sounds like North London in the early Post War era .....

many small factories were turning out all sorts of stuff. So a toy car would have the body casting from one firm, wheels/hubs from another etc... Plus there was little in the way of identification except something like "Made in England"!

In the world of toy figures in the same period in Britain the factory would do the mouldings. Then home workers would fetch these, paint them at home and return them to the factory. Many home workers were used so here is another try and sort it out for historians!

Cheers Chris