My boy came home with this from a local antiques store. Great find, especially since he's 3. I had to trade him a SpiderMan car for it, but I'm sure he'll end up with it eventually. Anybody ever seen anything like it? It's bigger than the standard Matchbox cars, obviously 1/43 scale...
Yummmmmm, lead paint! A friend of my parents was given permition to travel to the old soviet block in the 70's. She brout me back a Moscow'itch car like yours, blue just like yours but a 4 door sedan. My Mom threw it out I think. The toy stunk, and stunk bad. I remember my Mom refering to the smell calling it a gas refinery. No dout the toy being new at the time and being made where it was, it was most likely still givving out fumes from the paint. Thats a great score though, awesome. But I am serious when I say don't let your child play with it, it brobobly is lead bace paint.
that is certainly interesting, I wonder what kind of car it is supposed to be? EDIT: AHA! Its a "lada" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lada I think the first picture at the very bottem may be what it is, a "Lada Riva"
I've done a little Googling on this. The car is a model of a Moskvitch 427. I'm still trying to weed through the lettering on the bottom to determine the manufacturer of the die-cast model. Here's a Wikipedia entry on the Moskvitch model line. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moskvitch If I figure out who made the die-cast I'll post more details.
It seems that the Moskvitch station wagon line is popular amongst collectors like ourselves as well as "tuners"...shudder. I found a few that had been lowered with rally stripes etc. Here's one for sale!! http://www.motorbase.com/classifieds/viewad.ehtml?a=1086278042;s=;page=25
Here's a brief history of the manufacturing plant as well as a nice selection of AZLK diecasts. Still not sure who makes the diecast itself. http://translate.google.com/transla...art=10&hl=en&sa=N&rlz=1G1GGLQ_ENCA293&prmd=iv
Nearest I can figure has the car manufactured in the 70's. Possibly by Tantal(Litan)/Radon(Agat). I'm not sure which of those names the company routinely went by but they were renowned for making models with more highly detailed interiors and engine compartments. They began production in 1972 so it seems pretty likely that they would be at the height of their abilities in the mid 70's when AZLK produced the 427. Sorry for the rapid barrage of posts. I wouldn't have been able to get any work done today if I didn't find at least some leads before I left for the office.
Sorry, I'm a geek and I really can't seem to let this go. I love finding old diecast at antique markets and researching them to death. Needless to say, the wife generally strolls away on her own when I discover a toy that I haven't seen before. I found several cool Cyrrilic translators online but it didn't give us much in the way of new information. москвич 427 = Moscovitch 427 (Most Cyrrilic translators seem to interpret this as "Muscovite". Which makes sense I guess. сделано в ссср / it is made in USSR This one was pretty obvious but I translated it anyway. модель / model
Nice find, TeeJ. I can see your boy is already a chip off the old block! Congratulations; you've got a very interesting little model car there.
Wow, cool info guys... And a good thought on the lead paint. I had actually already 'acquired' it from him (fair trade for that SpiderMan car) but that was mostly to make sure it didn't end up in the yard and/or broken.
