Estrela HO Slot Cars

Estrela HO Slot Car

1965 Brazilian Estrela HO Chassis

History

The Estrela 1:43 scale brand (Auto-Rama) was made in Brazil under a license obtained from Gilbert USA and typically featured Formula cars. The HO brand is believed to have been licensed through Atlas or possibly Lionel.

Estrela has produced numerous sets and cars since the 1960s to today. Both of its own design and licensing from several diferent manufacturers, like A.C. Gilbert, Scalextric, AMT, Strombecker, Revell, Cox, Russkit, Monogram, Garvic and Carrera.

Their first set in the early 1960s was licensed from Gilbert, hence the "Auto-Rama" namesake. That set was so popular that in Brazil, it is still called "Auto-rama".

Estrela had licensing deals for both chassis mechanicals and the body molds.
They purchased motors from a Brazilian company called Oxford, which designed their own motors: A 5-pole open motor, a 16D and a 36d, used in some 1:24 cars. Oxord's motor designs were based nostly on Japanese motor designs. Estrela also designed chassis, and sometimes mixed with the licensed designs. For example, their Lotus 38 has an Estrela-designed brass chassis, a beefy REB 16D, red, blue or green colors, use the Strombecker mold, but with a Scalextric pilot head!

The COX ISO-FULCRUM and the original Gilbert were the only chassis that Estrela licensed something. All other estrela's 1/32 scale chassis were of their own design.

The Jaguar D and Ferrari 156 were licensed from Scalextric, their Chaparral 2, Lotus 38, Ford J were licensed from Strombecker. The Ford GT and Cheetah were licensed from Cox, and the Mustang was licensed from AMT. Their 908-1 Porsche was licensed from Marklin, their Alfa 33 from Fleishmann and so on. Some other ones were Estrela's own designs. This combination made up for some "collector dreams", because you can actually see a white Cox Cheetah, or a Red Strombecker Lotus 38, or a Red/White Cox Ford GT! They were the only ones to make 1:32 injection molded lola T70 coupe as a slot car, their own mold. Doesn't quite hold up to the quality of a Fly, but it was unique. They also had an Injection molded 1:32 Willys Interlagos, a Brazilian sports car, the design of this car was licensed from Alpine. It's largely based on the Alpine A108, but there were differences. Estrela also made a Puma, another Brazilian sports car.

In the 1970s they began to produce cars of their own design, mostly 1:25 scale 1970s F1 cars. In the 1980s, they did the same for '80s F1, but the quality of the molds began to slide seriously. Today, they produce F1's that are fairly "generic", non-descript and undesirable by collectors.

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