Lucy, of the "Peanuts" comic strip, driving a Jeep. It's clearly a high-hood CJ-3B, which suggested to me that it could date from the mid 1950s. The purple Jeep, approximately 1/55 scale, carries a United Features Syndicate copyright date of 1952, but this appears to refer to copyright on the Peanuts character rather than on the toy itself.
Peanuts was first published in 1950, but Lucy Van Pelt and her brother Linus were introduced to the strip in 1952, and Peanuts began its rise to national prominence just as the Willys Jeep CJ-3B also entered its heyday. Peanuts creator Charles Schulz was first awarded the National Cartoonists Society cartoonist of the year award in 1955.
Initially released under the Aviva name (owned by Hasbro, maker of GI Joe), this toy was part of a significant industry based on the merchandising of Peanuts. It was apparently also sold by Hallmark, the greeting card company which held the rights to many Peanuts products. It had a folding windshield and an opening hood with a chromed engine inside, and appears to be based on a Tomica casting of the Mitsubishi J3R, with an incorrect five slots instead of seven in the front grille.
Peanuts collectors date this toy as mid-1970s to early 80s. This is supported by the name on the bubble-pack cards from Aviva and from the later Hasbro editions, which are labelled as "Snoopy Mini Diecast" or "Snoopy Handfuls." By the 70s Snoopy the beagle had become by far the most popular part of the Peanuts franchise.
Note: a price of 96 cents circa 1975 would be the equivalent of almost five dollars in 2021.
By the early 1980s the packaging was rebranded with the Hasbro name. Snoopy's feathered friend Woodstock also appeared on the "Snoopy Handfuls" cards from Hasbro.
There was an extensive series of different small diecast vehicles with the Peanuts characters in them, shown on the reverse side of the card (350K JPEG).
Peanuts creator Charles Schulz died in 2000 and the comic strip ceased daily publication, but the massive merchandising industry seems likely to continue for many years (see Wikipedia).
There were some variations from Aviva in casting details and paint color. Jeff Schwarz took a photo including a brown version (70K JPEG).
Unlike the Tomica J3R model, the base was plastic (140K JPEG) and showed its manufacture by Aviva in Hong Kong. Photo by Len Mullenix.
Thanks to Dennis Woyma for this photo of several slightly different versions. See also a rear view (60K JPEG).
The details on the hood and the hose reel in the rear suggest that the original Tomica source casting may have been a fire Jeep, but although Mitsubishi fire Jeeps were not uncommon in Japan, I haven't seen a Tomica model based on them.
Thanks to Jarek Skonieczny for his photos. -- Derek Redmond
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