Among the most detailed Cadillacs in miniature to be had are the plastic kit
cars and promotional toys that were issued each year by Jo-Han, USA under license to
Cadillac Motor Car Division of General Motors.
We owe the finely detailed Jo-Han replicas to tool maker, John Hanley, who
decided in the late forties to use his skills in another area: scale models. He began with
model aircraft (it was the time of the Korean conflict and the kids wanted to be ion on
the action of their fighter-pilot heroes. Scale cars came later, with a contract to issue
some Chrysler and GM lines.
The former Jo-Han production facilities in
Detroit
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A mixed collection of 1:25 scale models by
Jo-Han (and others - front row)
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Early models were molded in soft, acetate and tended to bulge, buckle and warp
with time, e.g. the 1958 and 1959 Cadillac Series 60 Special. In the late
fifties, however, a switch was made to a harder styrene plastic and the results were
instantaneously better.
The first post-WW2 Cadillac model by Jo-Han
was this finely detailed Series 60 Special sedan
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Working closely with the Big Three (GM, Ford and Chrysler) Jo-Han were
able to offer each year at least one of that year's new models almost simultaneously as
they became available in dealer showrooms throughout the country.
I was introduced to the Jo-Han line in the mid-sixties when, for my 24th
birthday, I got a gift of one of the Classic Cadillacs in the new Gold Cup
series. That was the start of what was to become the world's largest (at that time)
collection of Cadillac scale models, toys and replicas.
What I like particularly about the Jo-Han series is there accuracy, both inside
and out. Many of the kit versions came complete with miniature V-8 engines and
detailed - though delicate - steering assemblies.
Unfortunately the "promotional" fad went out the window in the late
seventies. Fewer dealers bought them and consequently fewer Dad's offered them to
their kids, or vive-versa. The last of the promos was the 1979 Cadillac; it was the only
Jo-Han offered that year.
Existing molds continued to be used well into the eighties and many older
Jo-Han promotionals and kits were re-issued for the toy industry. You can still find
many of these re-issued kits in toy stores today. There is also a huge market among
collectors of Automobilia for the older, original Jo-Han cars, that may fetch very high
prices on places like e-Bay, the Internet auction site, or your local antique store.
I am no expert on these toys but since a representative number of them were
included in my former Cadillac toy collection, I thought I would devote a page of The (new) Cadillac Database © to them. If you own
a Cadillac and would like a fine scale model of it on your office desk or in the den at
home, check this page to see if it was ever offered by Jo-Han in 1:25 scale.
There is a Web site devoted to Jo-Han models at this URL: http://www.johanmodels.com/
Part 1
up to 1967
[ skip to Part 2 ]
