In 1964, British toy manufacturer Lines Bros was the outright owner of both British Meccano / Dinky Toys and Meccano France / Dinky Toys. Although there was limited sharing of completed toys and tooling, the two companies continued to operate separately in their own markets.
That changed in 1971 when Lines Bros went into receivership and Dinky was split. The British side was sold to Airfix; the French to part of US Food conglomerate General Mills. Both new owners had the same business strategy: to close the problematic main factory and relocate production to cheaper sources. Although Airfix didn’t take action until 1979, General Mills moved quickly. The historic French Dinky factory at Bobigny was closed almost immediately and much reduced production (of mostly military models) relocated to another factory in Calais between 1972 and 1973. They then started to negotiate lower cost production elsewhere.
In 1974 lower cost production of Dinky cars for the French market started in SPAIN, made by Pilen SA in Alicante. All remaining Dinky then production in France ended.
This 011500 French Dinky Citroen 2CV was made in Spain by Pilen of Alicante.
According to Dinky historian Jean-Michel Roulet, the contract with Pilen was to run up to 31st December 1978 but was extended for three years until the end of 1981. Some of these Spanish made French Dinky Toys used original French tooling while others were new. Part of the deal allowed Pilen to use the Dinky tooling for their own domestic Spanish ranges. This explains why there are identical Pilen versions of some Dinky Toys as well as recolors unique to Pilen.
The Dinky and Pilen versions of the Citroen DS 23.
Images: Vectis Auctions and Miguel Soto
Also in 1981, Airfix went into administration and another part of the General Mills empire bought British Dinky as well, but they clearly had no immediate plans to use the brand.
Interestingly, Pilen SA were located alongside several other Spanish diecast manufacturers in Alicante and models very similar to some of the French / Spanish Dinky Toys such as the Ford Fiesta and Chrysler-Simca 1308 / Alpine (in Spain: Chrysler 150) later turned up in the MIRA range.
Images: Miguel Soto
When the contract with Dinky ended in 1981, Pilen instead turned to their own production as well as replicating older Corgi, Solido and Tekno models without license.