Jean Plastic
Introduction
In Plastic Aircraft Kits of the Twentieth
Century (PAK-20) [1],
John Burns lists the West German manufacturer JEAN as "n.p."
[not producing] with the following entry: " Only one kit was
issued by this company in the late 1950's, a 1/200 Boeing 707
Lufthansa". There was also shown a rather faded black and
white picture of the boxtop.
I may have taken notice of this
entry already in 2009, when I browsed in PAK-20
for German manufacturers inspired by a thread about "German Brands" in the Airfix Collecting Forum [2]. One
time or another I did
a research for the JEAN PLASTIC Boeing 707 over the years
with no success.
Finally in June 2015 I found photos of the
kit in the Lufthansa model-collection website
[3], see
pictures right. That was a breakthrough.
Additionally from the text in the captions I got the right keywords to
find more information in the web about JEAN PLASTIC, which was a
brand of the German company Jean Höfler + Co.K.G. based in
Fürth, Germany
History of Jean
Höfler GmbH
In 1923 the brothers Johann, Georg, and Leonard
Höfler founded the Metallwarenfabrik Jean
Höfler & Co oHG in the town
Fürth, Germany. They started
with cans, promotional articles, whistles,
and toys made of metal. In 1938 Lohann and Georg leaved the joint
company and founded their own companies in Fürth.
Georg founded a company for tool-making, Georg Höfler
Werkzeugbau, Johann founded a company producing metal toys,
the Metallwarenfabrik Johann Höfler.
In 1951 the brothers Georg and Johann decided to merge their
companies again. In 1953 after filing for bankupty their company
Johann Höfler was taken over by their brother Leonard,
who still ran the original company Jean Höfler.
Both companies as well as their product lines remained
independent.
In 1954 Johann's son in law Ernst A. Bettag took over Johann
Höfler and starting in 1957 converted the toy
production completely from metal to plastic in a few years. The
company
boomed, changed their name to Johann Höfler Metall-und
Plastikspielwarenfabrik, to big plastic in
1962 and finally to BIG in 1966 [6].
Jean Höfler still remained
independent, though Ernst A. Bettag became a co-owner. In the
end of the 1950's or 1960's the brand JEAN PLASTIC (see
picure 4, right) was
created changing to JEAN in 1970 . The Product line of Jean Höfler
comprised cheap articles from plastic, like figures, cars, doll
house furniture, later developing to more sophisticated toys (see
catalogs in
[4] ). The
Boeing 707 reviewed here was produced by this company.
In 2000 the brand JEAN appeared as part of the BIG product range.
Ernst A. Bettag died in
April 2003 and BIG was
taken over in 2004 by the Simba-Dickie Group [10], Fürth
Germany.
Sources: History
[5
and 6].
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Plastic Kits/
I
Picture 1: JEAN PLASTIC Boeing 707 in Lufthansa livery.
To the courtesy of M.S.
Lufthansa model-collection ©
Picture 2: JEAN PLASTIC Boeing 707 in Lufthansa livery.
To the courtesy of M.S.
Lufthansa model-collection ©
Picture 3: JEAN PLASTIC Boeing 707. Fuselage detail.
To the courtesy of M.S.
Lufthansa model-collection ©
Picture 4: Logo JEAN PLASTIC shown in the lower right corner of
the Boeing 707 box. |