It’s time for another look back at seldom seen toys or toy brands. Here it took me some effort to find the info regarding this toy. Here we have a Friction powered plastic double decker bus.
Previously I have written a blog regarding The Lucky Toys brand which was manufactured in Hong Kong. There I also described what is a Friction powered toys.
This is another one of my surviving childhood collection. Being plastic I was surprised there were no damaged on it. Only missing thing is the paper label on both sides. The only thing I have to start with on my research is the number 118 and Toyland. At first I thought that Toyland was the brand but I finally found what could be the actual brand of my toy. The pictures below indicated the box that it came with.
The front of the box itself only indicated Friction Double Bus but no brand. It was only when I found the 3rd set of picture which showed the side of the box that I found out that the brand is called CM which I then noticed that it was engraved on the lower left side of the bus as well. I also tried to research the origin of this company but have not found any info regarding it. You will also note that the side of the box indicated Empire Made. This just indicates that the toy was made in a British Empire with Hong Kong being one of the former British Colony. My bus however has the Made in Hong Kong engraved at the side.
According to Vectis this bus is similar to Triang Minic vehicles. I believe this may also be a copy of either Dinky Toys or Corgi. So how does this plastic bus compare to a die cast?
The bus itself show only modest detail but as this is marketed to kids at that time it is considered pretty good. The last picture shows a reissued Corgi brand die cast beside it.