One toy for a desert Island Joustra Eldorado Cadillac
The very first toymaker interested in the 1955 Cadillac Eldorado produced by General Motors was Marusan, the japanese firm. This all tin car was widely and successfully exported to the US in the fifties. Then, the german toymaker Gama included this new release in its tin toys range. And finally the french firm Joustra established in the east of France made this mythical american car in 1959.
As a mechanical tin toy, the car created by Joustra is more sophisticated than the Marusan model. It is one of the most faithful representation of this mythical american car and one of those that best demonstrate the profit to be drawn from simple sheets of iron by lithographing them, cutting them out, stamping them and joining into a whole.
The french toymaker had previously worked with german toymakers like Kohler or Gama so he used the molds of the Gama version and contrary to Gama, only produced a « limousine » version. All Joustra cars were available in red and cream (roof), some examples can be find in
black, green, orange or yellow. The car is a splendid model and looks good in a scale of 1/18. Unfortunetaly this Cadillac is not build with opening doors. Notice that the rear wings are inspired by the P38 Lookheed fighter.
The alsatian Joustra company put the Gama badge above the front grill on all toy cars and there is no obvious variations between the german and the french tin car. The badge « Gama 300 » appears on both sides af all cars and curiously the name of Cadillac is not present, perhaps because General Motors did’nt gave any authorization to do so.
The whole cars range is fitted with strong mechanism or occasionally electric driven (see picture above). The wheels are made in black rubber. The big impressive« dagmars » bumpers are very realistic in the front of all cars and made the toy very adorable.
It is one of my favourite sixties toy « limousine ».
The toy weights 850 grammes, measures 12.2 inches long, 3.9 inches high. First issue in december 1959 under the reference 300 EA (electric version), in the Joustra catalogue from 1959 up to 1961. The period retail price was around $ 40. A high price for the period kids indeed!
A Joustra cadillac, electric powered, has been recently sold for $ 400 by GALERIE DE CHARTRES auction house.
Above : the two Cadillac sold in the Gama catalogue. The german car was only available in yellow.
The original box with a nice watercolour drawing
Despite that the doors are not opening doors, the cute car is fitted with large rhodoid glasses and the dashboard is well detailed. The two holes in the rear bumpers are the exhausts like the real Cadillac cars in the streets. The JOUSTRAfirm was among the most prolific toymakers in the fifties, specialized in clockwork mechanisms toys and animated figures.1200 workers were employed in the factory and 200 items were made in 1955, all made of tin lithographed metal sheets. The company closed his business in 1969, the tin process becoming to expensive, then sold to the CIJ new plastic manufacture. It was the end of the golden tin toys era!
The Joustra cars catalogue entails numerous large tin cars in the fifties, most of them friction driven. The lithography of the tin is always gorgeous and well detailed. Here are a few samples produced from 1955 to 1965. The commander car shown above was the most expensive toy car drawn from the 1956 catalogue and was included in the called « Luxury » range.
Story by Pasky, thanks to Nicolas Leonard for the superb photographs used in this story. Email the author at paskytoy@orange.fr