Mears and Freeman certainly are responsible for the 'MAFWO' tourer.johnboy wrote:Unchecked at the moment but MAFWO could possibly be Mears & Freeman
Been in contact with Robert Newson by email and I saw him at our Monthly club night in Windsor. In his farming book he has an entry under 'MEARS' as being active between 1947 to 1949, working out of 211 Northumberland Park, Tottenham, London N17.
The Mears name is part of Mears And Freeman WOodware which when contracted makes 'MAFWO' and was founded by a Mr Frederick C. Mears. The company clearly attempted to make and market wooden based toys products as the company has traded these under Mafwo Products, Woodware manufactures. There was also a division called Mam Products, die-casters under the control of Frederick C. Mears & Sons.
There clearly were great intentions from the Two divisions with such clearly defined names but confusion as always helped simplify things by adopting Mafwo Products and Mam Products names.
Mafwo products we know exist as evidenced by the Two car models, a Third model exists in the form of a Farm Tractor, but it does not display the Mafwo name, instead it displays the name of Mears & Sons.
The Mam Products name has not been found on any items so far.
The open tourer car we saw in the picture posted by "Idris" at the start of this thread, appears now not to be based on an Alvis. In the reply email from Robert Newson, he included a link to another website that featured an Aston Martin, as shown below.
- 1934-36 1.5 Ltr Aston Martin.jpg (160.94 KiB) Viewed 1275 times
and I quote..."The racer started life as a simple copy of Dinky 23a, in which guise it had MINITOY cast underneath. Then the die was modified to give it extended axle supports, and this version had MAFWO PRODUCTS cast".
Big personal thank's to Robert Newson and pointing me in the direction of his 'Farming in Miniature' books, still available at £49.95 each. If any members want them I can put you in touch with Robert via email.
Ghosthunter.
