Casting : Super van





Years of Production:

1975 to 1977


Country of Origin:

Hong Kong


Casting Variations:

With or without protruding side marker lights
Metal or Plastic Base


Paint Colors and Variations:

Standard Color: Black
Cutoff Canyon : Blue
MotoCross Tampo : Plum
Geoffrey TRU Promo : White


Interior Colors:

Black
Blue or Grey Tinted Glass


Other versions of same casting:

1975 Paramedic
1976 Khaki Kooler
Super Chromes Super Van


Comments:

The The Super Van, first issued in 1975 as part of the Flying Colors line, was based on the Chevy Van that was popular in the mid 1970s.



1975 Chevy Van

In that first year of production, the Super Van was issued with three different paint color tampo variations.
* Black with Red/Yellow Flame Tampo * Blue with Red/Yellow Flame Tampo * Plum with the "Motocross" Tampo *



1975 Releases of the Super Van

The black version was the normal release. The blue version was available only in the "Canyon Cutoff" set and the Motocross
version was released in BP albeit a much shorter production run than the black version.


Also in 1975, two variations were made for the Herfy's Promotion and in 1976 a version for Toys-R-Us was released.
* Black with orange 62 KGW Radio tampo * Black with orange KING Radio tampo * White Geoffrey Van *



1975/76 Super Van Promos

The combination of the three normal Mattel releases and the three promos made for six production versions issued as the Super Van.

Later in 1976 and 1977, the Super Van was released twice as a Super Chrome. Also in 1977, the casting was again released under the
new name of "Khaki Kooler" and a second version of the Paramedic was issued, this time in yellow. Thus there were 10 different versions
of the Super van casting.




Base Variants; Chrome Plastic - Metal - Black Plastic

The Chrome plastic base came first followed by the metal base and lastly the black plastic base used only on the Super Chromes version.




Glass and Casting Variations

The glass came in grey or blue tint throughout the production run. The marker lights on the front fender and also on the rear are absent
in the earlier releases.

As shown above, there are casting variations, base variations and glass variations to consider when listing all of the unique Super Van
casting variations. If all of the variations could be found on each of the ten versions, then a total of EIGHTY variations are possible.
However, this appears to not be the case. The Variation Chart below identifies the eight combinations of Casting, Glass and Base variations
and which of the ten color versions are actually known in each combination.



Super Van Variation Chart




1975 Cut Off Canyon Set Super Van

The blue version of the Super van is by far the rarest of the production versions.




1975 Motocross Super Van

This plum version of the Super Van is one of the harder to find variations,




1975 Herfy's Promo in Baggie

Neither of the two Herfy's promos ever came in a blister pack, only in baggie with the Herfy's header card.
The KING Radio version is much more difficult to find compared to the 62KGW version.




1975 Toy Fair Super Van

In 1975, the Super Van casting was used internally by Mattel for the New York Toy Fair give-away car. These are the rarest of the Super
Vans. About 200 or so of the white version was made but a few chrome versions were also made AND only a very few were made in gold chrome.

! CAUTION !
Interested buyers of a Toy Fair Super van should exercise extreme care as the tampo has been reproduced with decals allowing for
customized reproductions. One should demand proof of provenance and consult with other owners to be certain that the van is genuine.




Prototype of a Steerable Super Van!




Super Vans


Photos and info credits: Albert Cervantes, Ted Gray, Jeff Pownell
Additional photos contributed by Roy Nakamura, Jack Clark, Bruce Pascal and Bob Rosas

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