Supercar – The World’s First Character Car

If you were to ask the average collector what the first diecast car to tie into a TV or movie series was and who made it, 9 times out of 10 they’ll you it’s the Corgi Toys James Bond Aston-Martin DB5. But they’d be wrong. Not only was the DB5 not the first character car, but Corgi also weren’t the first diecast maker to hit on the idea of cashing in on a popular character. The prize for doing that goes to another, far less well-remembered British brand; Budgie Toys, with their model of the equally obscure Supercar.

Budgie’s Supercar with its original box.

Founded in London in 1946 by Sam Morris, first as Morris & Stone, then as Morestone, the company became Budgie Toys in 1959. Their products included toy musical instruments and a range of diecast vehicles in several sizes. Unusually, these included several horse-drawn carts and carriages, including a Hansom Cab which was a huge success, staying in production for 10 years. Their models were somewhat crude but low-priced and became fairly popular in the UK as a result.

Morris, however, had something of a knack for innovative marketing, including doing a deal with Britain’s Esso petrol company to sell Budgie models in Esso promotional boxes. And in 1962 – two years before Corgi’s Bond DB5 – the company introduced their model of Supercar.

Debuting on Britain’s TV screens on January 28 1961, Supercar was the second TV series from producer/puppeteer Gerry Anderson. It was also his first foray into science fiction and the first to introduce TV audiences to his groundbreaking technique of Supermarionation, a sophisticated form of puppetry combined with scale model special effects. Anderson would, of course, go on to combine these elements to enormous success later in the decade with his biggest hit shows, Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet.

Supercar followed the adventures of test pilot Mike Mercury and his team as they operated Supercar, a futuristic vehicle capable of flight and underwater travel in addition to using its jet engines for high speed driving. Stationed at the Black Rock Laboratory in Nevada, Mike & co embarked on daring missions, often thwarting the nefarious schemes of his nemesis Masterspy and Masterspy’s sidekick Zarin.

The choice to have the show revolve around a car was made partly because Anderson hadn’t quite perfected how to show the puppets walking. So if Mike Mercury could remain seated in Supercar for large portions of his adventures, that was a big help. But it also made the show ideal for a tie-in model, an idea that Budgie swiftly pounced on.

Measuring 122mm long, Budgie’s Supercar was released as No.272 in their larger scale series. It featured retractable wings which could be pulled out by hand and was produced in two variants. The first featured a red upper body and wings and a silver lower body. The second had the colors reversed. The show was in black and white, but the second version was more authentic – it’s also much rarer.

The second – and rarer – Supercar variant, with silver upper body and red lower.

A few sample models were also produced with yellow and blue detailing to match the pictures on the box. All variants had a silver baseplate with the name “Supercar” applied as a large vertical transfer, as did the model used in the show. There were three small diecast wheels for the car to roll on.

Inside the car sat a plastic Mike Mercury figure, visible through the non-opening clear plastic canopy, while behind the cockpit was a plastic whip antenna. The sliding wings were notoriously tight-fitting, so much so that their paint would often scratch when they were pulled out or pushed back in.

Like the vehicle in the show, the Budgie Supercar had its name spelled out vertically down the underside.

While it sold fairly well, the Budgie Supercar is now hard to find in good shape. Many examples have lost their fragile plastic antennas and canopies and often have paint damage on the wings. The model can also suffer from metal fatigue, further reducing the numbers remaining in circulation. In the UK, excellent boxed examples sell in the £400-£500 (About $500 to $650).

Supercar was successful enough to last for two seasons, selling to the US where it ran on over 140 TV stations across the country. But the Budgie toy doesn’t seem to have been exported in any numbers and, while Anderson’s career would go from strength to strength with his later shows, spinning off countless tie-in toys, this would be the only one made by Budgie.

A playworn example of the Supercar, with the wings extended. Not the paint wear on the wing tops, caused by the fit being too tight.

Budgie went out of business in 1966, roundabout the same time their competitor Dinky Toys signed an exclusive deal with Anderson to make diecast models of the vehicles from his series. These, of course, included FAB1, the famous six-wheeled pink Rolls-Royce from Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet’s Spectrum Pursuit Vehicle and Joe 90’s car from Joe 90.

So while it may not be well-remembered today, the Budgie Supercar deserves recognition for being the first model to open up what would evolve into a multi-million dollar part of the market. (Johnny Lightning gave it some respect with their later rendering.) Without it, countless tiny plastic ejectable James Bond bad guys might not have gotten lost on carpets, countless kids might have had less fun – and countless collectors less to collect!