In 1940, the Italian entrepreneur Nunzio Briguglio started a company named INDÚSTRIAS BANDEIRANTE manufacturing toys and children's playgrounds. In 1952, the US investors C. W. McKinney and H. L. Bewick bought the company from Nunzio Briguglio and founded the TOYS BANDEIRANTE on June 24, 1952.
BANDEIRANTE TOYS entered the market with the manufacture of balls, skates, tricycles, pedal cars and baby carriages, in addition to the children's playgrounds. They settled into a building of nearly 5000 square meters, in Mooca (São Paulo). In 1952 the first pedal car was produced, it had a metal body. In 1964 the first pedal car with plastic body was produced, it was the VW beetle Cabrio.
The BANDEIRANTE VW Cabrio is a pedal car made with a colored plastic body. Since the body is plastic, there are more defined details such as the bumble bee wing on the front hood, door seams, rear deck lid and 24 raised air louvers. The plastic headlights and taillights are attached to the body. The sitting area of the body is about 200mm X 300mm and the length of the car is 1050mm, 420mm wide or about 1/3.9 scale. There is a metal frame for the windshield and a metal shaped handle for the front hood and rear deck lid.
The two front pedals with long metal bars are connected to and are the drive for the rear wheels. The wheel rims are made of white plastic and have black plastic tires. A three spoke steering wheel turns the front wheels. Front and rear bumpers and the BANDEIRANTE I.D. plate is attached in the rear deck lid license plate and finishes off the details of this VW Cabrio pedal car. Note: the first four photos are originally what the BANDEIRANTE VW Cabrio pedal car should look like. Over the years, original parts may have been broken or lost and restoring these vintage VW Cabrios may use updated parts.
