In the early 1950's it was not allowed in Finland to import non-essential goods from abroad and spend valuable foreign currency on it to pay for it. Therefore many foreign toys were produced in Finland by Finnish companies using moulds from foreign toy brands. Unclear is whether it was with the consent of these companies. Hihra Oy, based in Turku, Finland, was a metal sheet products producer who also produced toys. Known from them are a gas station that may have been copied from Arnold and the Göso VW Bus that is featured here. They sold the products under their own HIHRA name. The company ceased to exist as it was bought in 2006 by a company called Stera Technologies, which is still located in Turku, Finland.
The HIHRA OY VW Bus is basically a copy of the German GÖSO Götz und Söhne VW BUS V1, also listed on this site. The body of the Panel VW Bus was made of 4 tin sections, top, front, lower and opening door. The sections were lithographed and very colorful red and yellow with detailing as well. Details included the doors, window outlines, side air vents, barn door engine lid, license plate light and taillights and stop lights. The rear license plate was lithographed A10412. The very edge of the lower rear section is printed HIHRA OY TURKU. There is an opening tin side door with a lever to add the final detail of the body section. On the side of the body the name PANAMA was featured. There was a tin front bumper and no rear bumper depicting an early 1950 era for this VW Bus.
The tin chassis is usually unpainted, has a key wound motor with the key protruding out the side of the body. There are plastic rims with rubber tires. The front wheels do not steer. The chassis attaches to the body with metal tabs of the body. HIHRA OY also made a very nice tin lithographed tankstelle which paired up nice with the VW Bus.
