‘Chrysler Airflow’ Convertible

Wooden trucks, pedal cars, prams and motor vehicles in tinplate, plastic or diecast metal – practically every variety of wheeled toy was made at some point by the giant Lines Brothers’ Tri-ang company.

The Minic range dates from 1935 onwards and consisted of more than 70 tinplate models powered by clockwork motors. Subjects such as the London double-deck bus, fire engine, taxi and ‘£100 Ford’ all had such an unmistakably British feel that the American Chrysler Airflow doesn’t quite seem to fit. However, right-hand-drive versions of the car were in fact assembled at Kew, and its streamlined styling made it look so different from other cars of the period that toy makers couldn’t resist it; Dinky Toys also made a model of it at around the same time, in diecast metal and to a smaller scale. A Tri-ang advertisement in the

Meccano Magazine for June 1935 showed a model described as a ‘streamlined closed car’, about five inches long, with a body pressed out of tinplate and bearing a clear resemblance to the Chrysler Airflow. Inside were two wooden bench seats and a clockwork motor. The following year it was joined by a streamlined sports car, featuring a windscreen frame and folded hood.

The full-size Airflow was a sales disaster but the reverse was true of the Minic replicas – the sports car version lasted until the early ’50s. Pre-war issues initially had white tyres, superseded by black in the later 1930s. Post-war, the wheel centres were diecast rather than tinplate, and finally plastic.

Even today, these Minics remain relatively affordable on the collectors’ market and sell at auction for £40-80.