gogotomica

gogotomica

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Mandarin Toys - Singapore

I would say this is an oddity maker of diecast to your usual Tomica or Matchbox. Introducing Mandarin Toys of Singapore. Not many people will know much about Mandarin Toys, neither do I. The reason why I started searching for our nation's "pride & joy" because I wanted a piece of our nation's history in the toy industry too. It is believed that Mandarin Toys started in late 60s or early 70s in the toy scene. Many people believed that Mandarin are based (or inspired by) on Tomica but I think not. I have yet to see a Mandarin that is using a Tomica casting. According to Ken (from Ken's Garage in Hong Kong), the green bus which you see below shares the same casting as a Matchbox Superfast. I have given the below London Bus to Ken for his custom project as he has a "thing" for Londoner Bus. Mandarin toys are usually packed in blister which some blister as suspiciously shared the same packing as Playart for the plane series. In fact, some trucks are actually Playart and Mandarin might have bought some die-cast from Playart. Other than bus, truck & planes, Mandarin Toys do make a series of tanks under the brand name called Mandico which are packed in box or blister. The cars I have seen from Mandarin are Corvette Stingray, Nissan Skyline, Ferrari (which I could not recognized the model), Fairlady etc. The quality is very rough or should I say poor but who cares if you wanted a piece of Singapore history.



Mandarin Toys London Bus before restoration



Mandarin Toys London Bus after restoration into a Hong Kong bus by Ken's Garage


Mandarin Toys fleet of planes that they own

Douglas DC-10, Eastern

Boeing 707, Malaysian Airline System

Mandarin Toys - Air France

Vickers VC-10, BOAC

Boeing 727, Unknown Airline (anyone knows?)

Boeing 747, TWA

Boeing 737, Singapore Airlines

Made in Singapore by Mandarin


Another London Bus by Mandarin Toys


Garbage Truck by Mandarin Toys
Notice that this is actually a Playart


Chara MX-30 Tank by Mandarin Toys


7 comments:

  1. "According to Ken (from Ken's Garage in Hong Kong), the green bus which you see below shares the same casting as a Matchbox Superfast."

    Well... It is very similar to the Matchbox MB-17 Londoner (1972) but it is different in many details. (The whole back section, interior, shape of the front door, etc.) You can find great hi-res photos of the Matchbox at Areh's page to compare it. http://areh.de/HTML/Bas292.html

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Sam, thanks... will take a look...thanks for your link.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I own a single model produced by Mandarin. As I am a collector of models Majorette, I looked at the VW Foiurgon that Mandarin faithfully copied from the original model of Majorette. Look to my blog, I posted several pictures of this copy: http://carrinhosdiecast164.blogspot.com/2011/01/majorette-mandarin.html
    Now add in your text that Mandarin also fabricated a model Majorette!

    ReplyDelete
  4. hi,just bought a mandarin,dune bunggy (as printed on bottom)about 1/36 scale,is crude,but I collect dune buggys

    ReplyDelete
  5. I have a Mandarin "truck series" fire engine, same model as the refuse truck

    ReplyDelete
  6. I was diagnosed of hepatitis b Virus in 2016 and I have tried all I can to get cured but all to no avail, until i saw a post in a health forum about a herbalist man who prepare herbal medication to cure all kind of diseases including hepatitis b virus, at first i doubted if it was real but decided to give it a try , when i contact this herbalist via his email and he prepared a hepatitis b herbal cure and sent it to me via UPS delivery company service, when i received this herbal cure, he gave me step by directions on how to apply it, when i applied it as instructed, i was totally cured of this deadly disease within 14days of usage, I am now free from the deadly disease called herpes, all thanks to Dr.Akhimien you can rich this great herbal doctor via his email: (drakhiniemodion@gmail. com)call or whatsapp him on his mobile number +2349033126596
    He also have the herb to cure:
    (1) ALS,
    (2) DIABETES,
    (3) HIV&AIDS,
    (4) URINARY TRACT INFECTION,
    (5) CANCER,
    (6) HERPES

    ReplyDelete
  7. TESTIMONY ON HOW I GOT CURED TOTALLY FROM HERPES VIRUS BY DR ISHIAKU HERBS

    I want to inform the public how I was cured of herpes simplex Virus by a herbal Dr called  ISHIAKU. I visited different hospitals but they gave me a list of drugs like Famvir, Zovirax, and Valtrex which are very expensive to treat the symptoms and never cured me. I was browsing through the Internet searching for remedies on Herpes and I saw comments of people talking about how dr ishiaku cured them. I Was scared because I never believed in the Internet but I was convinced to give him a try because I had no hope of being cured of herpes so I decided to contact him on his email, i searched his email on the net and I saw a lot of people testifying about his goodness. When I contacted him he gave me hope and sent a Herbal medicine to me that I took and it seriously worked for me, am a free person now without any problems, my HERPES result came out negative. You can contact him on his email: (ishiakuherbalcure@yahoo.com)or what - sapp him via (+2348180828544) and get all your problems solved.

    1)Sickness of any kind
    2)Help to cure  HEPATITIS B, DIABETICS, HIV
    3)Marriage problem, To Re-unit or to cast a spell
    4)Pregnancy problem
    5)Financial problem and Job promotion
    6)bad mouth odour or tooth problem
    7)eye or ear problem
    8) enlargement of manhood

    Website: www.ishiakuherbalcure.Wordpress.com

    ReplyDelete