Here a number of new pictures of the Portuguese futuristic bus.
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Futuristic Bus, PSA (Plásticos de Santo António), Portugal
1961 ? |
... and here a picture of the one they have at the Museu do Brinquedo (toymuseum) in Sintra : (unlike mine, it has a driver and painted hubcaps)
NEWS ! I have been contacted by Mr. Miguel Ritto, (managing director of Plásticos de Santo António, Lda.) and this is what he reported (I am publishing this with his authorization):
Dear Geoffrey,
I realised that your blog presents a couple of photos of the Futuristic bus which we launched in 1961.
Plasticos Santo António was established in 1955 by my grand father, and I am running the company (but we stopped making toys in the early seventies).
Our Futuristic bus was launched in 1961, and we called it "Autocarro atómico" ("Atomic bus") most probably because in those days Atomic energy was very recent.
Our bus is a miniature of a concept bus "The Golden Dolphin" by the Turin-based designer Vibert, in 1956 : you can find a photo at
Our bus was a copy of a bus that my grand parents bought in Italy, which probably was produced in Italy. Therefore some collectors may have the toy produced in Italy. I have never seen the one made in Italy, but ours has the number plate PSA-61
We only produced this bus from 1961 till around 1967. The reasons are:
- in 1964 we launched another bus (Ref. 178 presented in the attached file "img 6).
- the bus launched in 1961 required a lot of labour to assemble, and therefore was more expensive to produce than the bus Ref. 178
I was born in 1961, and I do not remember having this toy (although I remember having the one launched in 1964).
Note : The attached files (img 004 to img007) are our toy catalogue from around 1970. The Futuristic bus is not presented in these catalogues because it was no longer produced.
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| Img004 - courtesy of PSA |
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| Img005 - courtesy of PSA |
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| Img006 - courtesy of PSA |
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| Img007 - courtesy of PSA |
Best Regards
Miguel Ritto
(Managing Director)Plásticos Santo António, Lda.
Rua Manuel Simões Maia
2416-901 Leiria
Portugal
www.psaplast.com
And here some images of the real "Golen Dolphin" and of the "Italian ?" toy (the box shows Viberti - Torino, but it may have been made under license by the Spanish company CLIM for the busmaker ...see
here.)
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| The real thing ! |
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| Commercial poster from VIBERTI |
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| "Italian ?" toy, presumably made by Spanish company CLIM |
And this is the description of the CLIM toy (which had a tin underside compared to the plastic chassis of the Portuguese PSA toy) :
Se hacía constante mención a que estaba fabricado con licencia de la "Officine Viberti" de Torino (Italia), lo que tampoco tendría nada de raro a la vista de la exactitud de sus formas respecto al original.
Su comercialización puede situarse entre 1956 y 1960, con la referencia 105.
Raro autobus de clim climent hermanos años50 el delfin dorado friccion nº105 lic. officine viberti ch - modelo poco visto la friccion funciona tiene en zonas de bajos zona con oxido tratado, le faltaria el pequeño emparrillado que va delande cromado pon dairum buscador mas articulos no paya rico sanchis jyesa
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| Clim toy - internet image |
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| Underside of Clim toy - internet image |
