This article was also published in the monthly toy magazine: Antique Toy World of March 2025
Product name: Auto-Fusée made from 1932 (Product number see in the text below)
The Fernand Martin factory has had three owners in its history, the first being of course Fernand Martin himself, from 1912 Georges Flersheim and the last one from 1919 was Victor Bonnet.
Victor Bonnet & Cie has been administratively dissolved in 1933.
During these administrative dissolution process some of Victor Bonnet & Cie’s assets were transferred to Victor Bonnet’s privately held company.
This Victor Bonnet’s privately held company was producing household items and after the dissolution of Victor Bonnet & Cie in 1933 they started producing existing toy models from the old company and very soon a lot of new toy models.
In all the published books the writers have concluded this period with the: Voiture Nounou Poupon (pram with nanny) with number 265, but in the meantime evidence has been found that some other toys (at least 4 but probably more) were produced until the company closed down in 1933.
A few names of toys on this original bill, whose numbers are not yet known to us are:
??? Le Corsaire ( a pistol )
??? Auto-fusée ( a race car )
We see the name Auto-fusée mentioned in the bill from 1933.
From this Auto-fusée (a race car) I have not been able to find a manufacturer number that was used till the end of 1933.
The Auto-fusée has a length of about 20cm / 7.87 inch
It is completely made of tin plate and has no driver figure.
This car is made in two different mechanical versions, one with a system “Crémaillère” mechanism and the second version has no mechanism.
This car was made in two colored versions, one in silver/gray and one in red.
Some factory history:
Victor Bonnet & Cie used from 1919, until they administratively dissolved in 1933, the logo V.B.& Cie and V.B. on toys and sometimes the well-known triangle with number 138 to. (From 1897 Fernand Martin placed the triangle with the text “Article Francais” and around it the text “Marque Deposee” and under the triangle the number 138, this triangle sign was granted from the “Chambre Syndicale des Fabricants de Jouets & jeux” to French toymakers.)
Victor Bonnet started in 1934 the toy production in the Victor Bonnet’s privately held company that had been installed 8, rue des Tourelles Paris where he used already the logo VèBè.
After 1933 Victor Bonnet also no longer uses the old FM logo and the triangular logo with no 138 underneath. There were no reasons for Victor BONNET to continue using them, as the FM logo was obsolete, and the triangular logo had been created at the end of the 19th century, and probably had lost any meaning by the thirties.
This race cars are produced by Victor Bonnet in the old Fernand Martin factory till the end of 1933 but they produced this car again from 1934 in the other Victor Bonnet location, it was the same car but with some changes to the lettering on these cars.
My hypothesis over the production from this race car :
Until the end of 1933:
-A silver gray one with number 5 and the marking V.B. Paris on one side and a triangle with number 138 on the other side, with mechanism.
-A silver gray one with number 5 and the marking V.B. Paris on one side and a triangle with number 138 on the other side and without mechanism
-A red one with number 5 and the marking V.B. Paris on one side and a triangle with number 138 on the other side, with mechanism.
From 1934:
-A red one with number 8 and the marking VéBé Paris Marque Déposé on one side and Made in France on the other side, with mechanism.
-A red one with number 8 and the marking VéBé Paris Marque Déposé on one side and Made in France on the other side and without mechanism.
I have seen till now, these 5 versions: But maybe there are even more various versions to discover
My conclusion is that the red and silver gray cars with number 5, marking with the triangle and V.B. Paris are only made until the end of 1933 at the location Boulevard de Menilmontant Paris (the old Fernand Martin factory) and the red one with number 8, marking Made in France and VéBé Paris Marque Déposé from 1934 and later, in the location at the 8. Rue des Tourelles Paris.
As can be seen in the advertisement from the Vébé catalog 1939/1940, these toys have been given product number 8 and were packed in a box per 6 pieces.
The advertisement also states that this model was for sale with and without mechanism, the model without mechanism get product number 80.
What is striking is that they still used the same image in their catalog and advertisements of the model with number 5 as produced as before 1934, you can see also the triangle with number 138 on the side of the car that was used before 1934.
System “Crémaillère”
Several “Crémaillère” systems have been invented based on the same principle, some names of these inventors are March -Riggenbach – Strub – Locher and Von-Hoff.
The toy manufacturer Tantet and Manon was presumably the first to use this system in toys and T & M had his version patented in 1889 in a very nice toy: “Train du Plaisir”, a Locomotive followed by three open panorama cars with passengers.
The invention of the “Crémaillère” (a rack and pinion) is, like any good invention, of great simplicity. To make toys move instead of a spring / gear mechanism, use of a flywheel, furthermore a coarse toothed gear and a toothed rack and with that resembles the “Crémaillère” transmission.
The simplicity of the invention makes it possible to set toys in motion without excessive production costs.
By this Victor Bonnet race car the toothed rack (1) with on the end a push button (2). When the push button is pushed into the car, the wheels moved by means of the coarse toothed gear (3) that is fastend on a larger finer gear (4), they let a smaller gear (5) (that is attached to the shaft (6) with the back wheels) moving, these back wheels have the function of the flywheel and put the car on the ground and it sets itself moving.
Where does the name Auto Fusée come from?
It could be that Victor Bonnet named this toy “Auto-Fusée” from the Fritz von Opel rocket car, in 1928 this car was a sensation, in the French press this car was named “Auto a Fusée”.
When you set this toy car, which is equipped with the system “Crémaillère”, in motion, it also takes off like a rocket just like the car from Fritz von Opel.
Fritz von Opel was the grandson of Adam Opel, the founder of the Opel car brand.
Fritz von Opel tested his invention on March 15, 1928 with his first rocket-powered car, the Opel-Sander Rakete called the RAK 1, powered by 12 missiles
Fritz von Opel reached in his first run a top speed of 75 km/h with his RAK 1.
Two months later, his RAK 2, which was powered by 24 missiles, reached a top speed of 230 km/h. The Opel RAK 3 rocket train powered by 30 solid rockets, reached a speed, in June 1928, of 254 km/h (157 mph). On the second run the train jumps the track and is destroyed. (Information from the side http://weebau.com/history/opel-rak.htm)
In the years around 1930 many inventors from various countries tried to invent and design better and faster versions, sometimes with success but also sometimes with fatal outcome, after which “model” Victor Bonnet designed his “Auto-Fusee” is not known.