From The Archives #2

If you have read the website on the History of the Venus, you will know that in the early 50’s, Japanese toy manufacturer Nomura (“TN”) released a steel friction-toy of the “Ford Venus”. From what I have been able to find, they made 2 different versions in 3 different colors…red, dark blue, and light blue. Over a period of many years, I have been fortunate enough to have been able to purchase an example of each, along with the original box. These are quite rare and not cheap! Below are some photos of the Venus friction toys (please click for larger image)

In the above photo, note the difference between the engines and slight interior change. All three have clear plastic covers for a hood (hard to see). The red and light-blue versions have the same engine design and use a 9v battery. The dark blue version is an older style friction-toy where sparks are made with a flint (I think).

Last but not least, there are 2 styles of boxes:

 

In the first box example, note that everyone is driving a Venus (what a wonderful world THAT would be!), and, there’s a yellow one to boot! (No, I haven’t ever seen a yellow version of these toys).

Yeah, I know….too much information; too much time on my hands…but I think this is just so coool! But now that I have all three versions, I can relax. Sure seems that Nomura went to an awful lot of trouble to replicate a car of which less than a dozen of the real thing were ever made.

Before I forget, here is a link to a very nice article on the Venus, written by my friend Harold Pace for Kit Car magazine:
http://www.kitcarmag.com/preview/0711kc_venus_kit_car/index.html

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