Kaiser-Frazer toys

[joefrazer]

A quick look at eBay reveals several for sale...but the $40 shipping effectively doubles the toy's price.

[westmorland]

It's the booklet that came with the car.  There are a bunch of different models in the "Unforgettable Autos" series and they all seem to come with a booklet about the car.

I've got more photos of the booklet, but for some reason, the forum will not let me post them.  I've tried about 10 different times.

I submitted offers to a few of the sellers and was able to get it for the same price as Gordie. (basically $75 shipped).   Anything of South America seems to have really high shipping costs.  From what I can see, the seller I bought it from shipped a bunch of stuff to Miami, then repackaged and mailed to me from there (they cheated the system a bit and sent it media mail. so they probably made a bit of extra money on the shipping costs)   These may come down in the future, since they are very new, but there is a pretty limited market for these, so who knows.

[Gordie]

The Carabela model that I had ordered from Argentina came in the mail today and I was anxious to compare it with the Brooklin 1954 Kaiser model.  Upon close inspection there was not much difference in size or details or appearance of the models.  The big difference in the two is that the Brooklin model is made of heavy diecast and the Carabella is lighter metal and plastic and weighs much less.  The outside door handles are mounted a little higher on the Brooklin model and the Carabella is more correct.  the bases are completely different and the Brooklin has more detail and with a rectangular gas tank which is not correct where the Carabella has the correct round design for the recessed spare tire in the middle and no gas tank shown.  The Carabella uses dark windows and you can barely see the seats where the Brooklin uses clear windows and the interior is easily seen.  The bumper guards are mounted wider apart on the Brooklin and the Carabella's are correct.  The rear V emblem is larger on the Brooklin and the Carabella is more correctly sized.  Both have licence plates front and rear and Brooklin uses that to show the model number of their products while the Carabella has a Argentine license.  Even though the Carabella is from Argentina the bottom of the model says "Made in China".  For accuracy of detail I think that I like the Carabella a little better than the Brooklin and they are almost the same except that one is definitely a Carabella.  If you are a collector you will want them both!

[Gordie]

An interesting Kaiser model appeared on eBay that is a 1953 custom Kaiser truck.  It has a custom cab over engine type cab with a streamline car carrier body on the back.  It is of resin and has a '53 Kaiser grill and bumper, the Darrin dip in the top of the windshield and the wide chrome moldings on the lower part of the cab and body .  I had never seen one before and it was bid to over $75.00.  It was eBay item number 183379647649 if you would like to see what it looks like.  It is 1:25th scale so should be about 10 inches long.  Another interesting custom is a sedan delivery body that is made to use with the Revell Henry J all plastic dragster kits.  The sedan delivery body alone is still available on eBay.

[Gordie]

Wow!  Another Carabella has appeared on eBay with a seller named "vainilla" in Argentina and he is offering 1:43 scale resin models of several cars including a Carabella and for only $1.95 plus $37.00 shipping.  He has four colors, red, blue, black and those colors with a white top and they do not have interiors or rolling wheels but look nice in the illustrations.  I bought two and will try to combine the postage.  I can't believe the price but he has sold several already.  I am sure that he is making money on the shipping but it still seems like a good price.  I'll report back when they arrive in the mail.

[westmorland]

I've actually been working on something similar.  I wanted to put a small kaiser at my father's grave, so I've been playing around with creating silicon molds of some of the Kaiser toys I have, so I can cast one out of either resin or concrete/plaster.  I've got one that's decent, but not quite the quality I want.   My workbench is currently buried in kaiser parts, so I haven't been able to do much in the last few weeks.  I'm hoping I can get back to it this weekend.  I'll post some pics when I have something.

Wow!  Another Carabella has appeared on eBay with a seller named "vainella" in Argentina and he is offering 1:43 scale resin models of several cars including a Carabella and for only $1.95 plus $37.00 shipping.  He has two colors, red and blue and they do not have interiors or rolling wheels but look nice in the illustrations.  I bought both and will try to combine the postage.  I can't believe the price but he has sold several already.  I am sure that he is making money on the shipping but it still seems like a good price.  I'll report back when they arrive in the mail.

[Gordie]

What a nice idea!  I have seen resin copies of the Brooklin '53 Kaiser sedan as well as a 1951 Kaiser Deluxe sedan in 1:43 scale as well as the Miller Memoriabilia 1953 Manhattan copied from the larger Banthrico  Promo model.  All are hard to find but they would be sturdy and realistic if you could find any.  Maybe they would not be too hard to fabricate.  We'll look forward to your info as you make progress and if they come out nicely I'll bet that you could sell some of them to collectors.

[joefrazer]

The Argentina eBay seller's user ID is 'vainilla22'.

[Gordie]

Wow!  Another Carabella has appeared on eBay with a seller named "vainilla" in Argentina and he is offering 1:43 scale resin models of several cars including a Carabella and for only $1.95 plus $37.00 shipping.  He has four colors, red, blue black and those colors with a white top and they do not have interiors or rolling wheels but look nice in the illustrations.  I bought two and will try to combine the postage.  I can't believe the price but he has sold several already.  I am sure that he is making money on the shipping but it still seems like a good price.  I'll report back when they arrive in the mail.
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The first of these two models appeared in my mail box today and the seller did not send the two purchased at the same time together.  The postage is 575, is it pesos in Argentina?  I will have to try to figure out how much money that really is as he has charged me $74.00 postage in American money for the two models.  The models are very attractive and seem to be a thin plastic shell with the interior completely filled with resin and areas dug out for the wheels to sit in.  They do not turn.  The rear wheels don't fit in the dug out area so the rear end of the car sits way too high.  I removed the rear wheels which were glued in and it will be an easy fix to dig out more area for the wheels to fit better or grind off a portion of the tire so it fits better in the wheel well area.  They are painted nicely with silver bright work and dark windows.  There is no Carabella emblems so it looks just like a Manhattan.  It even has simulated windshield wipers. In comparing it to other other Argentine Carabella model It appears to be an exact copy except for the non detailed base and it is much heavier.  Even the wheels and tire treads are the same.  These come in a cardboard box with a see thru plastic window and the brand name is Cartrix.  I think that the original is quite a bit nicer but it is hard to complain about the $1.95 price.  They get you for very high postage on either one.  There are very few '54 style Kaiser models available and even fewer Carabella's.

[Gordie]

I have owned one of these almost twelve inch models in two tone blue for about five years and never took it out of the well secured  see-through box as I could see the model quite well in the packaging.  Upon receipt of a second variation of the model with Chrysler styled wire wheels I decided to take it out of the box and was very happy with a closer inspection.  These are two door models which are quite scarce in the real cars.  The hood, both doors and trunk open as well as the front vent windows.  With the hood open you can see a nicely detailed green engine with the accessories and spark plug wires in black and some of the engines accessories trimmed in silver including the radiator cap and battery cable connections.  The engine compartment even has an under hood pad as was original.  The interior is in two two tone colors with cloth seats and carpeting on the floors and lower inner door panels.  Very authentic door handles and window roller handles compliment the padded dash, Hydramatic controls and steering wheel that actually turns the front wheels. It also has an inside rear view mirror and matching sun visors that actually can be moved up or down.  The headliner is in cloth.  The trunk area has an authentic round spare tire cover with handle that looks like it could be removed and can revealing a wide whitewall tire mounted on the proper standard wheel.  Even the top of the interior of the deck lid has the proper bracing and concealed hinges.  Other accessories include radio and antenna, twin spotlights with mirrors, proper wide whitewall tires with either wheel covers or the wire wheels as this model has, chrome window vent shades and even a chrome gas filler door trim which was not an authorized K-F accessory but was very popular.  The bottom of the model shows a highly detailed black frame with green engine pan, gray Hydramatic transmission, a silver colored exhaust system and kidney shaped gas tank and even emergency brake cables.  These models come in either two tone authentic colors or solid color as model number SKU#50348 or SKU#50347 with wheel covers instead of wire wheels and outside dlx. mirrors instead of the spotlight mirror combination.  They are by far the best 1953 Kaiser replicas that you will find and can be purchased on eBay for from $70.00 up to $200.00.  Take your time and look for a good price and pick your colors.

[kaiserfrazerlibrary]

I found that the Highway 61 1953 Kaisers were made with different sets of die cast tooling.  The most significant difference between the sets were the doors; how far they went into the roof.  Of the 3 sets of tooling the light green 2-doors seem to me to be the closest to the actual car.

At least 1 set of the tooling was damaged (perhaps beyond future use) in an experiment to turn the two-door into a 4-door Manhattan and a 4-door Dragon.  A set of rear doors were scribed into the quarter panels but the roof line in that area is not the same as actual 4-door models.  Pictures of prototypes are attached.

[Gordie]

Thanks, those are very interesting photos.  Did they make any four door versions for resale?  I have never noticed one.  My wire wheel version has a gold plated hood ornament but the other version has a chrome hood ornament and the pictures with the antennas up made me realize that they actually do go up and down.

[kaiserfrazerlibrary]

The 1953 4-door project got no further than the prototypes pictured.  Reviewing the prototypes, the company management realized that it was no where near the level of accuracy they felt the marketplace would accept.  I don't know if the actual samples are still around or not.  There was also a 1953 Manhattan sample car which failed for the same reason.

[Gordie]

Brooklin Models which already has many variations of 1:43 scale 1953 and '54 Kaiser sedans have two new variations available and they only made ten of each.  Both are 1953 taxis, one in orange and black and an Israeli version in yellow and black.  Unfortunately they are priced at $215.00 each so they will not appear on all Kaiser collectors toy shelves but they are interesting models.  There are already two other taxis in different colors.

[Gordie]

I have found what appears to be a 7/8" plastic black tire with tread and a chrome Kaiser hub cap on one side and a Ford hubcap on the other side.  Does anyone have an idea what this was from?  Thanks