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The French company Minialuxe once distributed a small range of their diecast cars in chain stores under the name 'Punch'. Among these models offered under the label Punch were also a handful of Volvo 144 models. The model of the Volvo 144 was exactly the same than those offered under the brand Minaluxe. The scale model sold under the name Punch came in a different box and the colors varied from those by Minialuxe. The two models on the following pics are the only one I have come across so far.
Minialuxe is once again in business. The company celebrates his 62nd anniversary this year. A new owner took over the company and has started to manufacture scale models in France. They are manufacturing today models which they used to offer in the past with newly tooled forms and molds. Minialuxe has not yet revealed if they will reproduce the Volvo 144.
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 I just came across this Volvo 144. It is for me the first time that I see this tinplate model with its original window cardboard box. This model has been made in the 1960's by Bandai in Japan. The car is 20 cm long and has a detailed and colorful tin printed interior. This model does have a friction drive. But these models also existed as battery operated cars functioning with a cable attached remote control.
Courtesy of vectis.co.uk Here is yet another packaging version of the Volvo 144 Taxi that has been distributed in partwork collections by several companies all over Europe. I will show you here the Bulgarian, Polish and Greek version. The same Volvo 144 Taxi model has been available in France, Spain, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Bulgaria and also Greece :
Please let me know if you are aware if it has been offered in other countries. The models are theoretically everywhere the same. But in the end the released versions for each country differ in some details. The most noticeable is clearly the various packaging versions and of course the folder coming with each model. But there is more. You can detect many tiny differences when checking in deep the various details and overall finish.
Poland              
Differences between the models released in Bulgaria and Greece : Just have a look at the following three photos to see some obvious differences between the Volvo 14 released in Bulgaria and the one released in Greece :
                    This model is already listed in the database which means that it is not the first time that I have seen one like this. But what does this make more special is the the fact that the Polis version was only sold in Sweden. And this one comes even with the original box which is a indeed a rare occasion to get one of these tinplate models.      Photos used with permission.
A Volvo collector from Greek recently told me that the Volvo 144 Taxi Stockholm was also offered there as a 'Kiosk' model by DeAgostini. This collection was discontinued at number 56. Probably due to a lack of interest, the previously 70 intended models were never released.     |
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