André Citroën toy, C6, in yellow painted metal, red with blue thread, one opening door, mechanical motor, good general condition.

History of the André Citroën Toys brand.

All those who were interested in the life of André Citroën, his creative genius and his commercial sense have certainly remembered the famous toys that bore his name. One of the great passions of this dynamic industrialist was advertising, a form of communication that he knew how to use with the greatest talent to promote his automobile production.

Its most famous "find" remains, of course, the illumination of the Eiffel Tower, used as a gigantic advertising billboard to the glory of Citroën. The scale toys bearing the double chevron are part of an identical approach, their raison d'être, consisting in ensuring the promotion of the brand to children, considered by the firm as future potential customers. Often respectable in size (40 centimeters long, on average) these scale models were also used as decorative objects in the windows of the brand's dealers. Very well done, they helped give children of the time a taste for cars, to such an extent that the idea was then taken up by Renault, and more recently by the big American firms (the "promotional" models in plastic marketed by AMT). In a comparable spirit, we can also cite the brands Gama, Minichamps, Schabak which renewed their catalogs of scale models in close collaboration with German car manufacturers such as Opel, BMW or Mercedes, Solido and Vitesse to then finally UH and Eligor.

Mass production at scale. It is at the initiative of François MIGAULT, a Parisian toy manufacturer, that the first prototype of a Citroën scale model (at 1 / 10th) will be produced and presented to André Citroën, very enthusiastic about this project, the boss of the Quai de Javel will immediately consider launching production on a scale faithfully reminiscent of its automotive range. Using the plans provided by the factory, a first series of toys will be put into production in Paris, before being entrusted to Marcel Gourdet, a boilermaker established in Briare. It is he who will give Citroën toys their style, their authenticity and their endearing finish. In 1930 his company, the "Companie Industrielle du Jouet", was transferred to Paris.
In agreement with the factory, Marcel Gourdet will strive to keep pace with the renewal of the automotive range.

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