1958 Bandai, Lincoln Continental Mark III Convertible in Original Box
Outstanding brilliant white tin litho Lincoln Continental Mark III Convertible by Bandai. Fabulous near mint condition. Complete with original box! Dubbed the "land yacht" this was the biggest Continental ever produced. Heavily sculpted it featured a retractable hardtop (the car, not the toy), slanted quad headlights, an exclusively styled grille, and a V8 375 horsepower engine. It appealed to a wide customer base (Vice President Nixon owned one and so did Elvis Presley), but its $6283 sticker price limited production to just over 3000. The toy is all embossed tin litho with twin, checkered yellow and orange bench seat interior, detailed dashboard, plastic steering wheel, original blue tinted celluloid windshield, red painted tail lights, and a single solid black plate chassis. It's friction powered and works great. It also features a huge polished tin (not plated) wrap around bullet-style front bumper, grille, rear bumper, door handles and windshield frame. The brass finished Continental III metal logo was separately tabbed into both front quarter panels. Tires are solid black rubber with embossed lithoed wheel covers. The underside is embossed Bandai and Made in Japan. And, of course, it has its original yellow plastic Lincoln Continental hood ornament still in place. The box cover has a full color panel-wide ¾ perspective view with the model name printed in the lower right corner. The catalog number was 704. The words "classic elegance in motorcars and" was factory printed over some of the text. I can't recall ever seeing this before. It was not hand-printed. The underside of the box bottom was coded and priced in black grease pencil at $1.75. The tiny letter "EEA" were also penned on one of the side aprons, but it's very faded. Purchased from an Ohio collection where it resided for many years. Size: 11½". Sold: Jul. 2012
Price Sold: $ 656
