This remote control Oval Window VW was produced by R. & W. Link from Schwenningen under the brand name MIGNON. LINK bought in 1951 the name and trademark “MIGNON” of the Staiger Company. LINK started producing the toys with cable steering. LINK was in principle a mechanical company, produced the tin parts themselves as well as the technical parts of a toy. The body was bought from other manufacturers: the Oval VW had an Arnold body. R&W LINK / MIGNON did not advertise anymore after 1957. It is unclear when the Company ceased to exists. Most probably that was around 1958/1959.
The MIGNON Oval VW V1, was a hard plastic Oval Window SCHRÖDER body that had a key hole slot in the rear quarter panel. The hard plastic body appeared with cut out windows and very good details of front and rear hood, door seams and rear oval window with air louvers. The MIGNON Oval VW V1 had a formed tin interior with a black/white, non VW, lithographed interior and steering wheel.
This MIGNON Oval VW V1 was a manual remote control VW and was first introduced with two hand held thumb controls that were about 1 meter long and attached to the rear of the VW. Pushing/pulling one control steered the VW and pushing/pulling the other caused the VW to move forward.
The chassis was stamped out of tinplate, painted black and had the bumpers, wheels and mechanics attached and was no manufacturer markings.
Just to note: it is common to find the MIGNON Oval VW V1 with the remote control cables missing or damaged as they were fragile and not attached to the chassis very well.
Just to note: The first release version was actually a hard plastic Split Window VW body and the chassis did not have the MIGNON script on the bottom (see MIGNON-SCHRÖDER SPLIT VW). Actually, when looking at the plastic bodies used on the MIGNON VWs, they were produced by a plastic toy company named SCHRÖDER and the SCHRÖDER insignia appears on the bodies.
