A large percentage of the Volkswagen toy cars that were produced in the 1940’s and 1950's era were made in West Germany due to the fact of course, the Volkswagen is of German origin. Well, now is the spotlight on a tin plate Oval Window VW toy produced in Japan. Over the years we have seen the popularity and rising prices of Japanese tin cars of the 50' and 60's. This tin VW toy car is not only desirable to VW model and toy collectors but also to collectors of Japanese tin cars in general.
Anyway, getting back to the spot light, our feature VW Oval Window toy was manufactured by the Japanese toy company by the name of ALPS Shoji Ltd., Tokyo, and they used a trade mark insignia of a mountain (insignia looks more like the Swiss Alps than that of Mount Fuji). The body of this VW car is made of tin plate and has a very nice VW silhouette with little distortion except in the rear quarter panel area. Because of the basic VW shape itself, the tin bodies of the toy cars are usually distorted and have stretch marks. Metal fatigue is common in the front and rear quarter panel areas as can be seen on this tin car. The tin body had cut out windows including the oval rear window and door wind wings. Stamped in the body is the front hood indentation, door seam lines, rain gutter, rear bumble bee wing rear deck lid. There are even 14 cut out engine air louvers under the oval rear window. A clear plastic insert with a tin molding is used for the front windshield. There is also a raised indentation along the side of the toy car and is painted silver for the side molding detail. The body is not painted but lithographed with colors of red, blue, green or gray. The taillights, license plate light and rear hood handle are lithographed into the design of the body graphics. Nickel-plated metal button headlights and front hood handle finish off the details of the body. The over all size of the ALPS VW is 200mm or about 1/20 scale.
The interior of the ALPS VW is a tin plate insert that has a lithographed detailed interior. Unfortunately, it is not that of a 50's era Volkswagen. I am not sure what it represents other than perhaps a fancy golf cart or a carnival ride vehicle. The red/white/blue "tuck & roll" seats, red steering wheel, airplane style dashboard with "all the gauges and lights glowing" is definitely not a VW. Looking through the rear oval window is the ALPS name, mountains, "Made in Japan" and a globe with Saturn like rings. The globe insignia representing this toy is for the export market.
The tin chassis was usually lithographed a black color and had a high torque friction motor attached. Rubber tires and shiny hubcaps, with or without the VW emblem, were installed and the front wheels did not steer. There was only the basic straight forward and reverse direction. The chassis, which had tin nickel plated front and rear bumpers, was secured to the body with eight metal tabs. The ALPS Oval VW was shipped in a cardboard box that came in two different style graphics of a Volkswagen.
Just to note: there was produced a similar toy VW from the Japanese company by the name of TOY NOMURA (T.N.). The T.N. VW featured a rear deck lid with 3 colored plastic inserts. There was a friction motor with a sparkler that sparks could be seen through the plastic inserts. The T.N. Oval VW was produced in several colors and the body and chassis was painted instead of lithographed like the ALPS VW. It is believed that the body and chassis metal die stamps of the T.N. VW were modified and later the ALPS VW toys were produced. This explains why the rear deck lid of the ALPS has 3 raised indentations where the T.N. toy had the 3 plastic inserts. Both the ALPS and the T.N. Oval Window VW toys are very similar when compared together but further detailed information as to why is not available. If only these toys could talk. In general, the ALPS Oval Window VW is very scarce, hard to find and is a very desirable vintage VW toy amongst collectors.
