ESTRELA was founded in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in 1937, by German immigrant Siegfried Adler. He acquired the remains of a bankrupt toy factory which produced rag dolls and wooden toys cars. This production initially was continued, but later, in the early 1950’s they started producing plastic and tinplate toys as well. A Sao Paulo based company named MIRIM, later renamed into ATMA Paulista, produced the plastic toy cars for ESTRELA.
Its logo is a four-pointed star, a sort of compass, referring to the Company name "ESTRELA" which means "star" in Portuguese. The Company still exists as producer, importer and distributor of major toy brands and is a major player in South America.
Tin body (slightly elongated) with cut out windows and good details of front and rear hood, door seams and rear oval window with 15 air louvers, usually painted silver. Also, with or without silver painted taillights and license plate light. Tin fluted headlights and front hood trim with the VW insignia. Tin stamped chassis, usually painted black, with friction motor and tin metal bumpers. The chassis attached to the body with 3 screws. No chassis markings. Sometimes mistaken for a German DUX Oval VW.
In 1958, Volkswagenwerk changed the VW Sedan rear oval window to a larger window. The larger window is referred to as the “Baby” window version. ESTERLA also changed their manufacturing tooling to a slightly larger rear window to reflect the larger window change made by VW. This version also included three different motors, a common friction, key wound clockwork and key wound clockwork with regulation direction.
Just to note: The Baby window version is often referred to and sold as the Oval Window version. Both versions are shown in this listing.
