Fun Ho! Toys

The earliest Fun Ho! race cars made in the late 1930s were mostly generic midget, sprint, and salt flat cars of simple casting with two axles, and four rubber wheels (sometimes the rubber was white). The first cars were made out of lead.^[2] Most of the cars had a driver that was part of the casting. Only a couple, like the Cooper and Mercedes Streamliner were replicas of real cars.^[1]

Early diecast Fun Ho! cars were a Ford Model A, a 1949 Ford, a Packard Roadster, an Austin Healey 100, a Studebaker saloon, a Humber Hawk, an MG TD roadster, a Jaguar XK 120 convertible and coupe, the above-mentioned Mercedes Streamliner and an interesting early 1950s 'High Boy' hot rod that looks suspiciously like the design that Auburn Rubber toys used in their inventory. A caravan house trailer was also available. A Morestone-like motorcycle with sidecar and single motorcycle with rider were also offered.

A couple of tractors were also offered and more were added into the 1950s. Again, some were generic while newer models were a Fordson, a Massey Harris, a couple of Fergusons, and a swept fender Oliver. A few farm implements, like a disc harrow, plow, and trailers were made. A number of fire engines were also offered, along with a number of trucks, buses and construction vehicles. There were also a couple of fighter aircraft and a train with several cars.

Most vehicles were of a small 'Matchbox' or 'Tootsietoy' size, but a few were larger 'Tonka' like dump trucks, tractors and other construction vehicles.

Typical of an early diecasting firm, also made were sundry diecast buildings, road signs, doll house furniture pieces and yard working shovels, pitchforks, rakes and other implements. Some of the larger toys and doll house accessories were apparently tooling from Tri-Ang of England as the Tri-Ang name appears with the clown and Fun Ho! logo on some toys.^[1]

One interesting aspect in the casting of Fun Ho! toys is that when a changeover from lead was made, the logical industry choice of zamac or similar zinc alloy was passed up and most Fun Ho! toys are made of aluminum.

Summarize Timeline Fact Check

The Fun Ho! Midget Scale Model series was introduced in the mid 1960s with other models introduced later by Underwood into the 1970s.^[2] Though through the years, Fun Ho! made over 250 different models, there were at least 60 models in the Midget series. The new line was based on the acquisition of the tooling for nine existing models that were made in Melbourne, Australia, in the late 1950s by Streamlux. Streamlux sold the tooling to Fun Ho! in 1962.^[3] These models included a tractor, Holden FE sedan, VW bug, BOAC double deck bus, VW Transporter, Austin tipper truck and tanker, and a simply cast Mercedes Streamliner, These models formed the backbone of Fun Ho!'s Midget Scale Model Series.^[3]

Later, Fun Ho! introduced several new models. At first glance these appear to be dies from both English Lesney and Budgie Toys, but not-so-close inspection shows the Midget Models to be much more crude and, in many cases, smaller, than the original models from those companies. At least 15 models seem similar enough to former Matchbox (brand) models to eliminate the possibility of coincidence. Some of these are: the 1964 Chevrolet Impala (née 'taxi' as a Matchbox), Dodge wreck truck, Jaguar XKE, Jaguar Mk. 10, Ford Zephyr, Morris pickup truck, Scammell dump truck (sans plow), Merryweather Marquis fire engine, and the bulldozer and excavator.^[4][5]

Cars were very simply cast, and rather austere. They had neither windows nor interiors, whether plastic or metal.^[6] The only exceptions were on a couple of models like the MGB where metal seats protruded into the interior, but only as part of the casting of the chassis.

Several other trucks and buses were also seen and may have been Budgies in spirit if not in actual tooling. A Hillman Imp and several articulated trucks are very similar to previous British Budgie offerings.

The origin of the tooling of a few Holden models and other Utes is uncertain, as was the inclusion of the MGB which is not seen elsewhere in 'Matchbox' size.^[7] Two different car trailers and a farm trailer were offered.^[8] Several of the Midget series including the Road Roller, two different Excavators, and Road Grader were offered in dark green military colors along with a Jeep, Half-track and trailer. Other models were sold in Fire Service gift sets and painted all in red.

For a time, some Midget models were used as promotional models for Mobil Gas, and recognizable by their red and white boxes. These were packaged similar to regular Midgets but called "Mobil Midget Models" and displaying a Mobil gas pump on boxes and instruction sheet.^[6]

Some dies later arrived in Australia and were produced under the name Message Models. These were apparently the Jaguar Mk 10, Ford Thames Ute, Holden HR Ute, Holden HR sedan, and Chevrolet Bel Air.^[9]