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I never heard of Impys growing up in the mid to late 60’s in eastern USA but over the past 10 years I have found perhaps a dozen Road Master Impys. Looking on line for information on them has not yielded much.

They appear to be mid 1960’s “made in England “ with very nice detail and proportions on the metal castings. The interior plastic parts are a bit crude but otherwise great little models.
The paint on the Impys I have is generally in great condition; much better on average than the loose Matchboxes I usually find at flea markets and boot sales. All the jewel headlamps are still in place. I wonder if that means they were not played with very much.

Were Impys marketed to kids or toward adult collectors?

Please share if you have any info or links on Impys.

Thank you!
Kurt

Kurt

There is a booklet titled "Lone Star The Toy Company And Its Model Cars" by Andrew Ralston that includes a section on Impy Cars that you might find useful. It is from 20 years ago but occasionally turns up on Ebay UK. The ISBN reference is 1 900482 14 2.

This booklet states that the main selling point was that Impy cars had more opening features than Matchbox and given the era I think they were aimed at children rather than adults

Like Matchbox thay have their harder to find models which include

Ford Taunus in blue or rarer metallic red
Jaguar MK10 in red
Grand Turismo Coupe (Chevrolet Corvette Stingray in all but name) in light blue
Chrysler imperial in very rare yellow
Volkswagen Caravette in light green

I am sure there are many more but that is all I can remember at present

Even the common colour models can come with a variety of different interior colours including ivory, red, orange, blue and green. One point worth noting is that standard models were also available in special packaging - some of these were for the USA market under the name PeeWee Motors of Durham Industries of New York. I think another packaging name that was used in the US market was Semichem.
Hope this is of some help to you

Happy Collecting

Sebastian

Please note that we have a dedicated area for Lone Stars (here), and I can heartily recommend the late Geoffery Ambridge's two books on the wider output of the Lone Star factories (here).

also marketed in the USA as MiniMite
hardest casting to find in the flyers range is the Corvette Stingray (not the GranTourismo)) although the Firenza is the most sort after and commands a high price even though there is usually 2 or 3 at least on ebay every week (there was 8 this week )
harder to find are the Politie (police) issues VW micro bus and Mercedes , there is also a range of "Silver's" which covers some of the flyers and commercials range from 1977 and released for the silver jubilee most common of these is the Routemaster bus

the larger Roadmasters are quite easy to find and the rarest casting of these appears from my observations to be the Citroen DS, some of these were also made in the USA as Tootsietoy : Cadillac, Rambler, Skyliner and Chevrolet Corsair

and I really need to expand the Lone Star's as I have added quite a few more to my collection

Gentlemen:
This gives me lots to read and learn.
I’ll post a photo tomorrow.
Thanks so much!
Kurt

fixer wrote: the larger Roadmasters are quite easy to find and the rarest casting of these appears from my observations to be the Citroen DS, some of these were also made in the USA as Tootsietoy : Cadillac, Rambler, Skyliner and Chevrolet Corsair

Reg

According to the booklet by Andrew Ralston I made reference to earlier, Lone Star struck a deal with Tootsietoy to manufacture a range of American cars but as far as I am aware these were all made in England but with the Tootsietoy name on the base for marketing in the USA. I cannot be definitive on this as I only have one Tootsietoy Cadillac which is exactly the same as my other Lone Star versions from the same era except for the tootsietoy name on the base (with an 'r' in a circle presumably meaning registered trade mark).

This Tootsietoy Cadillac in light blue with a white roof has the usual Made in England in circular writing towards the rear of the base.

It would be great to see your new Lone Star additions on the forum

Sebastian

Some information here on the tootsietoys lone stars...

viewtopic.php?f=28&t=6350#p70890

Ghosthunter.