[museum]

Here are 2 Mitaka Sangyo suit case sets we have here at the slot car museum in Houston. These are very rare sets. The lettering on the briefcase in the lower right hand corner says in gold lettering "Racing Circuit SS/ Gauge". The transformers says Mitaka Sangyo. Sangyo translates to "industry" or "manufacturing" in Japanese and is a common suffix for many trading and industrial companies. Many Japanese companies released a slot car set in the 1960s using already made cars and track from other slot car manufacturers like the 2 rare Pioneer sets we have at the slot car museum. There is a Mitaka company that produced surgical instruments and telescopes , etc which may describe why this set has SS Gauge on the front of the suitcase. Well anyway these sets are leather covered briefcases with lined felt inside. The cars are a 1/32nd scale white BMW 507 ,a red Jaguar XK 120,a white Jaguar XK120, and a white Ford  Thunderbird. All of these cars and the controllers are made by Tokyo Plamo, though the track and fence look like Bandai. The hardtop cars use no clear plastic windows and have no interiors, no drivers, & no wheel covers so the cost can be kept down. The track has rails more for shoes instead of brushes. I could not find any information on these unique briefcase sets in any of my Japanese literature or on the internet. I would of course appreciate any help in finding out more about the company or history of these sets. Its strange that I have been collecting since 1989 & I have never seen or heard of this set and all of a sudden 2 sets appear within a month of each other. Collecting is strange sometimes