[SAMPSON]

Hi
Heres a electric raceset made by Paruna scientific toys. Some say the set was made before ww2, some around 1947. There seems to be only around 4 sets known to exist. The car is diecast & slotless with 2 brushes in front to make electrical contact. The track is handmade of wood,either brass or copper,& a circuit type board. I dont think very many of these sets were ever made. The track made an oval with 1 side raised so you could add another set & have 2 cars racing.

thanks,
Bernard

 

[dgersh]

Thanks for posting this Bernard. The Paruna set is really a mystery; even in France we just don't know that much about it!

The box cover says "Les bolides du Man", or "Le Mans Racing Cars" - even thought they're more GP types!

I just noticed too that the transformer also has English on it - very strange, especially for pre- or post-war toys in a France that wouldn't be exporting all that much.

I'll have to get my Patent attorney doing a search on this one...

Don

 

[Mirrorman]

WOW .. that stylised car is fantasic.

 

[loosesalute]

Right, I give up Bernard!
Where do You find all this amazing stuff?

Cheers,
Kev.

 

[superhornets]

Hi
The car looks like it could have been based on a alfa romeo 308c GP car which i think raced in the 1938 season ,not very succesfully ,if it was then it would have given the french around a year or so before the panzers rolled in to design maufacture and market it .
I suppose they might have carried on manufacture after 1939 but it seems more likely that it would have been made after 1946
However if it wasn,t then I suppose it accounts for it being so rare

Cheers tony

 

[dgersh]

That's pretty much our thinking Tony, which is why we lean to post-war, but the model type still gives reason for pause...

In any case, it's almost certain that if it were really produced at all, it was in very small numbers - still, a fascinating set. No real documentary evidence either, but that may depend on a lucky find of a period catalog or something siimilar. I've started looking, but it's like looking for a Paruna in a haystack.... And if it were a real cottage industry product, it wouldn't have been advertised in something like the big department store catalogs (unlike the LR set for instance).

Where's Maigret when you need him?

Don

 

[Rob J]

Wonderful (again), Bernard.
A Google search for Paruna voiture (car) brings up at least one example of the set, describing the track as made of bakelite and laiton (brass), and showing a red car in good condition. As Tony said, it seems to be a 1938 Alfa 308.
It doesn't say when the sets were made, but the panzers didn't roll into France until 1940, so that may give a little more time for them to be designed and produced. I don't know when production of toys would have stopped.
The example I looked at was at the top of the search list. There may be other material further down and there would be other words to search on, but I shouldn't be spending time on this today and I'll leave it to someone more fluent in French (guess who).
Rob J

Later: Couldn't resist having another look down that search thread, but found nothing more. Probably needs a search on other words.

 

[TSRF]

CLICK HERE...

The Paruna sets keep appearing here and there, but are quite rare in intact condition. They were almost certainly manufactured after WW2, and produced as a toy until at least 1954 because I remember have seen one in the window of a toy shop in Paris when I was a bit younger.
Don refreshed my memory a few years back in showing me a picture of a set, and we wondered what/when/where then, but then I recalled seeing the thing, because my uncle/godfather wanted to buy me a set for Christmas and instead I wanted the Schuco Varianto with TWO cars (well, a car and a truck) for the same money... I pinpointed the year because other things happened then that could not have happened before or after, like where I was in school and where we lived.
I got the Schuco set, I should have bid on the Paruna!

 

[TSRF]

Another one for sale in the Chartres auction this month.

 

[Rob J]

Well, many of the postwar grand prix cars, up to 1951, were prewar designs -- the Alfa 158s, Talbot-Lagos and Maseratis (though those did evolve) -- so the 308 model wouldn't have looked badly out-of-date in the early 1950s. A great shape by any standards. Looks as though at least Paruna's production and sales were postwar.
I sympathise on the Schucos, Philippe. They were very desirable.
Rob J

 

[SAMPSON]

Hi,I finally found paperwork establishing the year Paruna was made. We now know it was not pre war but 1949-1951. Up until now some thought this French set was made in the 1930s.This paper work should solve the mystery surrounding this rare & unusual set.

Im sure Don can better describe the paper shown here. Thanks,Bernard