Nash Dealer promo model


Charles Smiley

Charles Smiley

cspmovies
My dad bought a new '49 Nash from Casho Nash in Berkeley, CA when I was three. Anyone remember that company?

I got this car at the dealership. Boy were they crude models compared to die-cast car models I own today. This is the color the car came with. The bottom view looks like they used melted carburator slag to mold this thing with.

We took the Western Pacific California Zephyr (when it was a new train) from Oakland to Chicago and drove a rental to the Kenosha plant to pick the car up and drive back home.

So I thought I'd post photos of the "model".
 
Very cool that you kept that promotional model all those years. I have a Promotional Models Price Guide from 1987. In there, all those years ago, your little Nash was worth $85. Its probably worth several times that now.
 
Honestly I think the model a pretty darn good replica of that Nash. Overall it is far better rendered accurately than a great many of the automobile toys of the era (and what was used on period O and HO layouts back then), which were often much more in the way of crude caricatures. Anyone else recall Tootsie Toys vehicles commonly used on pikes of that era?

NYW&B
 
Really nice little model. Looks like it needs a bit of restoration work on the bottom, just like a real example would.
 
I have a number of these promotional models, but they are not this crude. They are made of plastic and are rather well detailed. They are actually banks. On the bottom, there is a metal plate with a slot to insert coins. The old nash was a great car. I happen to have a real one in my shop that I am thinking of doing a restoration on. Unfortunately, even in great condition, thay are not particularly valuable compared to other classic cars.
 
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NYW&B said:
Anyone else recall Tootsie Toys vehicles commonly used on pikes of that era?

NYW&B
Click to expand...

I sure do. The local Woolworths 5 & 10 store had a table full of them and other brands as well. Farm tractors, a stake bed truck, and taxi cabs and police cars just a few I recall. Some were cast and some others were stamped tin. Priced way under a dollar each. When I had a few extra dimes I'd buy one for my American Flyer "empire". Plasticville buildings for less than a buck added to the realism that a 9 year old's mind sees. :)

Another cast toy maker of that era was Dinky Toys. Been a long time but I think they made a cast iron motorcycle with a cop riding on it. Way too big for S or even O scale but I had one on the railroad anyway.
 
I remember those Nash cars. That's all my Aunt, who lived across the street would buy.

As for the Tootsie Toys cars, some were HO scale. I had a Rolls Royce TT, and it was perfect for HO. I think that I only found 5 that were true HO scale. The rest were too big.
 
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