Solido

Solido is a French manufacturer of die-cast model cars and trucks based in Oulins, Anet, France, 40 miles west of Paris. Vehicles are usually made of zamac alloy in varying scales, but mostly 1:43. Typically, Solido's main competition in France was Norev, but internationally, Polistil, Corgi Toys, Dinky Toys, Mercury, and Tekno produced similar style toys.

Solido was the brand name established in 1930 by Ferdinand de Vazeilles of the "Fonderie de précision de Nanterre" in the western Paris suburb of Nanterre, France. The company was one of the first European firms to champion the "virtues of unbreakable diecast metal" (Rixon 2005, 9). Vazeilles' first product was a metal Gergovia brand spark plug on wheels (Force 1993. 5). In 1932, some of the first vehicle kits were made in Zamac, labeled with the theme "toys with transformations" referring to their spring-loaded motors that would propel them across the floor. The feeling was somewhat like what Schuco was offering in Germany. In 1953, de Vazeilles bequeathed the company, then called Solijouets SA, to his son Jean René (Militaires Solido website). By 1960, Vazeilles' three children, Charlotte, Jean and Colette were running it.

After World War II, the company factory was relocated farther west to an old stone former hydroelectric power building in the town of Ivry-la-Bataille in Normandy (Militaires Solido website). In 1974, the company opened a new factory in Oulins, about three miles to the southeast. Later information on the Solido boxes labeled the company home as in nearby Anet, a postal designation.

At the end of the 1970s, during a financial crisis, Solido entered the Jouet Francais Group which included Jouef, Delacoste & Heller. The new company was called Heller-Solido SA, and the Vazeilles family no longer had control. At the end of 1980, this company went into liquidation and was purchased by Majorette (Militaires Solido website). The Majorette takeover brought many cost-saving measures and though the Oulins factory remained in operation, some contract construction of toys took place at other facilities, including prisons (Militaires Solido website).

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