Toy cars are a passion for the petrolhead. If you can’t afford the real thing, chances are you can buy it as a toy car. And then you don’t need to stop at just one. You can buy your whole dream garage that you can play with in the evenings now that the weather is turning cold! The bedroom is your open road to new journeys, far-flung destinations, adventures and memories. What a load of twaddle. Toy cars are brilliant no matter what you do with them!
Toy car casting and sculpting have got better over the decades. Matchbox and Hot Wheels are cast pretty accurately these days but there is something about finding an old toy you or a friend had. Something you always played with or picked. With online auction sites and toy fairs, you can more often than not, pick up a piece of memorable die-cast.
But problems arise when you find 2 makers, sometimes 3, sometimes more, all selling the same car. This isn’t such a problem when looking at those toy cars discontinued from a manufactures catalogue or a company that went belly-up a long time ago. What if you were looking for a VW Beetle? The much disliked 1303. You find the Polistil one your friend had that you so wanted yourself but suddenly you also find one from Gama.
You know Polistil toys. Made in Italy. They made some pretty great toys. And they were better than Bburago too. Gama on the other hand were rare exotics. No one you knew had Gama toys and if they did it was probably because they had been to Germany for a holiday. I knew no one who went to Germany.
So let’s go, toy shopping, pitting Italy and Germany against each other, not on the open road, but the carpet in the bedroom. Just a warning but I get quite geeky and the result might just surprise you.
Polistil 1303 1/24 scale. Priced from £13.29
Polistil has got it wrong. Like so many, trying to cast that bulbous bonnet of the 1303 falls flat. Majorette had a go on small scale with the 1302. They just gave a 1300 a big nose. Polistil looked like they based their casting on one that had driven bonnet first under a lorry. It lacks the exaggerated curvaceous bulbousness. It also lacks the VW emblem but more on that with the Gama because Polistil got that right. The badge they did get wrong was the 1300 on the deck lid.
In the side profile, the rear is a little lacking in the Beetles’ famed curve. It is made up somewhat with nicely detailed wheels that were a trademark of Polistil toys. And wipers that were correctly positioned for a lefthand drive 1303.
Other details around the model are slightly exaggerated like the door hinges. That said, any Beetle fan out there will only be too happy with these because it was an integral design feature of the car.
Gama 1303 1/25 scale. Priced from £42.10
There is so much good in the Gama Beetle. For a start, the bonnet line is correct. It’s big and bulbous. After the failed attempts from Polistil, Majorette and Imai plastic model co. this is beautiful. But then you notice it has a VW badge and even worse, it has air vents. That’s from a 1302. This bonnet is from a 1302. You then note it is also too long to be from a 1303. A quick internet search and you discover that Gama also made a 1302. This then is a bit of a fake 1303 especially when the details get worse the more you look.
You see, the bumpers have separate black deluxe trim. This is a really nice touch but your eyes can’t overcome the fact the wipers are parked in the wrong position. And that bonnet badge. It was deleted on the 1303. It was only ever used on VW press photo cars.
Things inside go from bad to worse too. Ignore the nicely sprung-loaded sliding sunroof because the dashboard on this is from a 1302. And it has a Mercedes steering wheel fitted!
And this is a shame because while it has the correct 1303 badge on the deck lid, the chassis has 1302 stamped into it. In the real world, you would feel cheated if you bought this cut-n-shut. And I am slightly like that too.
You may also note from the picture that it has an opening deck lid. It does but let’s not talk about how wrong a German toy manufacture got the most produced engine ever so very wrong.
Shelf Space Winner
It should be tricky to decide this. Both have their good and bad points. However, it’s the Polistil Beetle that is the one I would recommend. For what it lacks in the fine details and the not-so-good bulbous bonnet, it is better if anything because its wheels are better proportioned and it doesn’t cheat. Taken from the 73 Beetle brochure: “LOVE IT. Everyone who drives a Beetle can’t help but develop a special fondness for it. It’s given pet names and trusted like a friend. Perhaps, because the Beetle has the essential qualities that make for friendship; reliability and loyalty.”
And that’s just it, the Polistil is reliably more Beetle and loyal to the details be it badly cast or not. It’s also cheaper to buy and because of that, and because Polisti made a convertible version, you can have 2. Or 3 if you find the much-coveted snow splattered ski model.