Straco Express Layout, Part 45 - Topless entertainment

Read all the installments of the Straco Express layout project here.

The last time I wrote on this subject (see: Part 44 - Haji like a tanker?), I was able to definitely the maker of one friction car by comparing it to the chassis of the other. One of the two had Haji's trademark on it. But because construction was uniquely identical to both, I felt certain the other vehicle was also made by Haji.

Recently, something similar happened -- although the results weren't so conclusive.

This time around, I purchased a convertible. For larger vehicles, Japanese manufactures would attempt to simulate convertible interiors with stamped contoured tin.

For this small vehicle, though, I think the options were limited. The friction motor takes up a significant amount of space, so the vaguest of outlines was impressed into the body shell, and lithography did the rest. As you can see from the photos, the interior seems to bulge out of the car, rather than be recessed into it!

There's no logo on this vehicle. It's a three-wheeled car, so I compared its chassis to that of the other three-wheeled vehicles I had. It was dissimilar to the Haji vehicles, but was a perfect match for my green sedan.

So once again, I was able to match a logo'd vehicle with an unmarked one. Unfortunately, it's not clear  (at least to me) who the Indian head logo of the sedan belongs to (more details in: Part 41 - Indian Head Mystery).

Two peas from an unknown pod - the Indian head logo green sedan, and
the orange convertible.

All I can say for now is that I have two vehicles made by the same company, which may or may not be Ichinko!

Convertible (l) and sedan (r) -
- it's a match!

On the other hand, I'm happy to have a vehicle that's colored primary red, blue, or green. And since it's one of the few vehicles with no drivers or passengers depicted, you'll see it most often placed in the station's parking lot -- at it is in the shot below.

Puzzling out the origins of these toys and the relationships between manufacturing runs is part of the fun of this project. So doing a little research on this convertible I found quite entertaining. Hence the title of this post.

Total cost for the project:

Layout construction:

• Pegboard: $4.95
• Flathead Screws: $0.40
• Molding: $2.49
• SilClear: borrowed from a friend
• Green Paint: left over from another project
• Wood Screws: $3.60
• Felt Pads: $1.99

Power Pack: $5.90
Small Houses: $3.00
Testor's Gray Paint for road: $1.29

Bandai Areo Station: $8.99
2 tinplate signs: $1.00
4 tinplate signs (with train) $5.99
Cragstan HO Light Tower $20.49

Vehicles:

• Two Japanese toy cars: $2.00
• A.W. Livestock truck: $4.99
• Taxi: $2.99
• Ambulance: $2.99
• Two Japanese patriotic cars: $6.99
• Haji three-wheel sedan $3.00
• Haji three-wheel tanker $5.00
• 1950's sedan $2.99
• LineMar Pepco Truck $8.50
• LineMar Bond Bread Van $8.00
• LineMar Fire Engine $4.95
• LineMar Dump Truck $12.99
• LineMar GE Courier Car $10.98
• Nomura Red Sedan $5.00
• Nomura Police Car $2.52
• Nomura lumber truck $3.48
• 6 Namura vehicles $16.99
• Orange Sedan $10.99
• King Sedan $9.95
• Indian Head logo sedan $4.99
• Indian Head (?) convertible $18.00
• Yellow/red Express truck $9.99

Total Project Cost: $209.37