We already dedicated a whole entry to a model made in 1:36 scale. In that case, it was a Ferrari Daytona made by Corgi. In that entry, I commented that 1:36 was a “rare” scale for a toy car. In that case it was true, since corgi was famous for it’s 1:43 series, and also for their 1:64 “juniors” series. Why did then they produced a series in a bigger, different scale?
The Guisval case is completely different. Guisval never had a 1:43 series before, they were doing great just with their “Campeon” series (1:64) and they directly launched their “Escorpión” series, which was since the very beginning a 1:37 scale series. This made the cars a little bigger than the others that were commonly available in toy shops at the time: Pilen, Joal… and this could easily be a sales argument: “for the same price, you get a bigger one!”.
The Escorpión series started in 1972, with references 101 to 107, and performing several models: the Chevrolet Astro I (Ref. 101 “copy” Corgi’s model from 1969), the Ferrari Can-Am (Ref. 102, very similar to the one released by Joal) and a Ford Capri in three different versions (103 normal, 105 ski and 107 rally, similar to the Corgi model, but clearly made from a different cast).
In the following years, it expanded with new models and new versions of the existing models. Note that the same car can have several repainted versions, or even some plastic add-ons, like sirens, spare wheels, roof-racks, rally headlights and so on.
Precisely the accessories present in some models, make them great collector items, and very difficult to find complete. Most of those roof-racks were made of plastic, and broke very easily. Plastic figures, sirens and so on, tended to break while playing with the cars.
Some trucks were also released in this “Escorpión” series (starting in 1976), but they were in 1:50 scale.
This extract from the 1980 catalogue is courtesy of Miguel from miniaturasenmetal.jimdo.com
Although the catalogue image is very small, we can see that the applied stickers are different from those finally applied in the cars, I don't know if this could be a variant, or if all cars produced are like mine, and the catalogue picture was simply a prototype.FACTS AND FIGURES:
- Name: PORSCHE CARRERA “RALLYE” (Nr. 141)
- Scale: 1:36
- Year: 1980
- Company: Guisval (Spain)
- Size: 13 cm
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