#263 GUISVAL – FORD MUSTANG I, II 1:64 (1973, 1976, 1981)

GUISVAL'S FORD MUSTANG plus "CLUB" AND "JUNIOR" SERIES

The cars presented in this entry are all Ford Mustang. Guisval had two casts for this particular car model, the first one is a quite old cast (1973), and the second one was issued a few years later in 1976.

The first cast seem to be the “Fastback” model from 1965 (1^st generation), while the second one seems to be the Ford Mustang II coupé (II stands for 2^nd generation), none of these cars were ever sold in Spain, but they usually appeared in films and tv series, which might be the reason why Guisval decided to reproduce this particular model and not any other.

Chronologically, the first Mustang was issued in 1973, but I do not own any of these.

It was the nr. 37 Ford Mustang “Circo” (Circus) in purple. The car had on the bonnet the head of a clown, while through rear windshield some kind of seat can be found. This seat might have been planned to sit some kind of figure. That same year, a VW Bug was released with an alien figure seated on the back, as it would be here.

1973 – Nr. 37 – Ford Mustang “Circo” (Purple)

Picture: todocoleccion.net (seller: Humber)

And just one more note, Guisval released in the beginning of the 70s a lot of vehicles with “Circus” stickers, clown, lions, monkeys and more. This is obviously not a coincidence, but the result of the popularity of the tv-show “El Gran Circo de TVE”, which was aired from 1974 to 1981. One year earlier (1973, the year of release of this car), there was another tv-show “Las aventuras de Gaby, Fofó y Miliki” with the same characters and the same idea. 

One year later, a second version of the Ford Mustang was released. In this case, the head of the clown was replaced by a dragster motor, and the back seat was occupied by an orange plastic figure depicting the driver of the car.

1974 – Nr. 35 – Ford Mustang “Gymkhana” (Blue)

It is interesting to mention, that almost at the same time, Scalextric released a dragster version of the Ford Mustang. Maybe a sudden interest in dragsters?

Note that the design of the wheels and compare them to the “classic” Guisval wheels of the car behind. Both the “Circo” and the “Gymkhana” versions were originally released with the “chromed hubcap” wheels, but, as they were sold during several years, at some point, they were released with the other type of wheels.

In 1976, the orange pilot figure was removed from the car, so it is also possible to have a complete model without the pilot. But, attention!, at this time there were only models with the second type of wheels, and the plastic part representing the motor is slightly different, it does not have the air intake on the top.Additionally, there are versions whose chassis has two round holes that were used to attach the car to the jewel box. This peg system was changed afterwards, and most guisval cars and vehicles have two big square holes to attach to the cases (and also to some trailers).

Ford Mustang with different plastic motor part. The second picture presents a red motor (factory error?) The car on the left picture has two round pegs in the chassis, the one in the right, two square holes. Pictures: Todocoleccion.net (seller: Periode)

The “Circo” version was available until 1976 and discontinued in 1977.

The “Gymkhana” version was available until 1979 and discontinued in 1980. Remember that there are two versions: 1974-1976 and 1977-1980

1976 – Nr. 15 – Ford Mustang II 

 

In 1976, a second cast came in to Guisval’s Campeon collection: Ford had redesigned their Mustangs (“2^nd generation”) one year earlier, so Guisval decided to make a new cast and produce new Ford Mustangs. The new model was also designed as a dragster, and came with a black chassis that comprised the back of the car. Apart from a big motor over the bonnet, the model had three exhaust pipes at each side between the chassis and the body, as well as big rear wheels (bigger than front wheels). The exhaust pipes are the same piece than the interior, if you look through the windows, you’ll recognise one single seat in the same chromed colour.

This cast also knew two different versions. The colour was changed from purple (1976-1979) to green in 1980, to be discontinued in 1981. It is important to note that the front motor is always the same; in some pictures, the purple model might be mistaken by the Escorpión model, which had a different motor (with a very tall intake). The Escorpión model is made in 1:36 scale.

Now we have to make a short interruption to talk about the Spanish economic crisis by the end of the 70s. Surely it had its beginning in the (referred as) 1979 energy crisis (although this tendence cames from much earlier -1973-, a strong downturn was caused by the Iranian revolution in 1979) that affected most western countries. With a weaker economy, and higher production costs, the sales would descend, so Guisval (and many other toy companies) had to offer cheaper products. The only way to do that was offering less detailed models that the ones they were offering until now.

In 1981, Guisval launched two new series that would be very successful over the following years. They’re very similar, so sometimes it is difficult to tell between the two. These are the “Club” and “Junior” collections, and the comprised exclusively “Campeón” models but produced in a cheaper way.

"Club" Stand. Picture taken from miniaturasenmetal.jimdo.com

The “Club” series for example have no plastic interior, and the windshields are dark (normally dark green or dark blue) in order to “hide” this absence. None of the models had practicable parts, and some casts had to be modified to reduce the manufacturing costs. Take the blue Ford Mustang in the picture behind the “Gymkhana” model. The bonnet (which had a “hole” to fix the motor or the clown head) is now flat. Exactly the same happened with the Ford Mustang II (see pic below). The Datsun Patrol came as a “pick-up” (without plastic accessory on the back) or the Jeep Willis came without the plastic canopy and plastic pilot figure.

1981 – Ford Mustang (Series "Club")

Ford Mustang "Club" (left)

1981 – Ford Mustang II (Series "Club")

Some of the new “club” miniatures, came with very appealing stickers were applied to the car, with race numbers and rally decorations, but other came with absolutely no stickers. The models with stickers in Guisval collections are often referred as “rallye”, for example: “Ford Mustang II” and “Ford Mustang II Rallye” might differ in the stickers, although in the models in my picture it is not the case. The stickers were mostly applied randomly.

The price of these models were lower than the “campeón” models, and could range between 85 and 110 pesetas (0,51 to 0,66 Euros) and they were available in nice stands that hung in toyshops and kiosks. Some of these stands were made of cardboard, in which the cars (with or without that green jewel case) were inserted. Similar stands for this collection were made of expanded polystyrene.

The “Junior” collection was a mixture of “Club” cars and ordinary, loose “Campeón” cars. These models came with interior and practicable parts, but were slightly older models. I guess this was the way to reduce the number of toys in stock that were not sold during the last few years. “Campeón” models in the “Junior” collection do not carry stickers at all.

"Junior" Stand. Picture taken from forocoches (user: coupetin)

I forgot to mention that cars with plastic pieces like the dragsters in this entry, or that pilot figure are very likely to be damaged or missing in played-with toys. Stickers and decals also.

This entry deals Only with 1:64 cars. There were also some Ford Mustang released in the Escorpión collection (1:36 scale), which are out of the scope of this entry. 

EDIT: Very recently (some sources say around 2008), the cast of the Ford Mustang II "Dragster" version has been reused by Guisval in new models. These models have the simulated motor from version I -without driver-, are decorated with tampographies and the interior is made of white plastic (instead of chromed), so they're easily distinguishable. I include one picture here:

Picture property of "thementalpower" from uno64.mforos.com

The newer model was sold in a blister pack with black cover. The car was placed kind of ramp, and the name of this new series was "Tunning Extreme". I have seen at least a pink, a white and a grey model, apart from the green one here. All of them have different tampographies. 

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: FORD MUSTANG “GYMKHANA”, FORD MUSTANG, FORD MUSTANG II, FORD MUSTANG II RALLYE
• Scale: Approx 1:64
• Year: 1973, 1976, 1981
• Company: Guisval (Spain)
• Size: approx. 6-7 cm