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Rank: Advanced Member Groups: Member
Joined: 6/5/2007 Posts: 2,754 Location: Sarasota, Florida, USA
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I see (thanks to Ian/Cranes Etc.) that the Spanish model maker Joal has closed for business. I know several of my collection pieces were made by them. I hope all goes well for the workers and hope too someone might pick up their tooling as some of their models were pretty nice for the price.
Dain
I'm a kid at heart, so I will play with any model construction vehicle from 1:87 scale to 1:1 scale!!!!
Age is a state of time NOT a state of mind!!
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Rank: Advanced Member Groups: Member
Joined: 4/17/2014 Posts: 186 Location: Somewhere on the west coast of Canada...
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Yes it's a real shame about the closure. I really like Joal, they made fairly good quality models with good functionality. All for a reasonable price. "It's O-gauge or no gauge..."
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Rank: Advanced Member Groups: Member
Joined: 1/7/2014 Posts: 213 Location: Arizona
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I hate to see them go. No one want a company to go out of business. But I have to admit that I just sold off my old Joal to buy more detailed items. And I think that the lack of detail may have been their downfall.
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Rank: Member Groups: Member
Joined: 5/29/2014 Posts: 86 Location: HANGZHOU
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bad news. joal models are solid heavy and easy to play with and most important thing is affordable.
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Rank: Advanced Member Groups: Member
Joined: 12/21/2007 Posts: 2,873 Location: Eastern Pennsylvania
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This is a shame but I guess I could see it coming. When I first started collecting a lot of my first models where by Joal, and I still have about two dozen of them in my collection. I think my favorite is the Volvo L70C with work tools. I guess what killed them is that they where making for decades the same models of machines whose generations where long since discontinued today without updating the tooling or creating new castings to represent the current machines available on the market today. I know that was the case with their Volvo models.
-Mike, Collecting 1/50th Construction Diecast Since 2003. View My Collection Here, As of 09/21/23
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Rank: Advanced Member Groups: Member
Joined: 3/21/2006 Posts: 5,046 Location: B-town
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Something I was told; is that in order to sell their product, they wanted you to have either a great quantity of their product or it was you had to have all of their current items in inventory whether you wanted them or not. I'm not a dealer so only going by what was shared with me.
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Rank: Advanced Member Groups: Member
Joined: 12/30/2008 Posts: 3,439 Location: Good ol' Indiana
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Sad news to hear, but the writing has been on the wall for a while now.
-Ethan Collection 8/2/2016For more of the Diorama and my collection: On Facebook or On YouTube
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Rank: Advanced Member Groups: Member
Joined: 6/5/2007 Posts: 2,754 Location: Sarasota, Florida, USA
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Cat345bl wrote:This is a shame but I could see it coming. When I first started collecting a lot of my first models where Joal, and I have several dozen of them in my collection. I think my favorite is the Volvo L70C with work tools. I guess what killed them is that they where making for decades the same models of machines whose generations where long since discontinued today without updating the tooling or creating new castings to represent the current machines available on the market today. I know that was the case with their Volvo models. I have several including the loader like you. I also think one of their downfalls is they started doing more off scale models like the 1:70, 1:32 and so on. I've seen them decline on the number of 1:50 scale in the last few years.
Dain I'm a kid at heart, so I will play with any model construction vehicle from 1:87 scale to 1:1 scale!!!! Age is a state of time NOT a state of mind!!
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Rank: Advanced Member Groups: Member
Joined: 3/16/2015 Posts: 154
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Joal tried to be too many things for too many people in too many scales. It is not surprising.
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Rank: Advanced Member Groups: Member
Joined: 9/30/2010 Posts: 461 Location: My house.
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When I was young I had the Joal toys and played with them in the dirt. I mean really dug dirt with the Cat 225 and scraper, the Volvo L70, all of them. I still have them in a box somewhere, paint missing and teeth wore down. I can't imagine doing that with anything from Norscot or Wsi or Nzg these days. The price point was something impressive for the stoutness of the model, in that my parents didn't completely freak out that I was more or less destroying them. My father was totally on board- he would often play with me outside and we would build roads and dig holes for hours. I wouldn't dare do that with a $100 dozer, even then. Those Joal models fostered a joy in collecting at a very young age for me that has lasted 30 years. Now the ones I collect have a sentimental value to me as I try to get everything I have run, as well as being ridiculously expensive. They sit on a shelf and that's the extent of their life. The Joal toys however, were a functioning small scale excavating company, of which I have many fond memories.
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Rank: Administration Groups: Administration
Joined: 6/27/2007 Posts: 1,267
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Hi guys -
I wanted to chime in on this post too. Joal is the reason that DHS is in business!
I was looking for toys for my then 7-year-old son Zach at a train show in Cleveland, Ohio when I ran across the Joal Toys. I didn't purchase a Joal model for Zach that day as I remember them being expensive, but I really liked what I saw. The models were very realistic and I was impressed by them!
Went back home and looked them up on the internet (this was 1999 so the 'net looked a lot different in those days). Found that a guy with a company called Dave's Model Toys was a Joal dealer near me. Called Dave and in our first conversation, he asked if I wanted to purchase the company from him. We worked out a deal and there you have the "D" in DHS Diecast.
One of the references that Dave gave me when I was checking out the industry was his Joal Distributor (Intermarket) in Florida. After speaking with Maurice (who is still a good friend of mine), I decided to purchase Dave's business.
So really the reason we are in this business is because of Joal!
How about that for a story!
Chuck
P.S. I have confirmed with my contacts at Joal that they are in what we call in the USA "Receivership" and are selling off some of their stock still. But it appears they will close sometime in 2015. I know it is difficult to manufacture in Spain and the laws and rules that they have to follow are overwhelming. The history of this company is just amazing. I wish the best of luck to Jose and Alphonse (JO and AL), the current owners and their families as they leave behind the legacy company. It is sad to see a giant in the industry go away after so many productive years!
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Rank: Advanced Member Groups: Member
Joined: 8/24/2006 Posts: 2,185 Location: Grapevine, Tx
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Very interesting story Chuck, glad you shared it with us. I remember my first 2 crane models were purchased from Dave's.
Jeff
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Rank: Advanced Member Groups: Member
Joined: 11/26/2008 Posts: 2,559 Location: Edmonton, AB
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I always found Joal models attractive, not too much detail, but they were different. My first model ever was in fact a Joal 375 back in, I would think, 1998.
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Rank: Advanced Member Groups: Member
Joined: 7/1/2006 Posts: 2,486 Location: Buffalo, NY
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Great stories here, I guess I will add in on my Joal history!
Going to the toy & train shows when I was younger I was always fascinated by the construction "toys" back then. Had every one of them I think that we're in the aisles of Toy R Us, Hills and whatever other retail store there was. Anyhow, the dealer that was always at these shows was Brandon from Buffalo Road Imports He would always have all kinds of different models on display and of course I'd always get something. I remember having the CAT clam bucket crane, the Volvo loader with work tools and a hell of a lot of other things from not only Joal but NZG too.
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Rank: Advanced Member Groups: Member
Joined: 10/3/2013 Posts: 744 Location: North Wales, UK
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I think most of us UK collectors forst came accross JOAL models after a family holiday to Spain. Everyone seems to have come back with a JOAL model or 2. As for the detail on them, under that paint there is some pretty good detail. I recently stripped the paint of my PC1100 excavator bucket and was supprised by the level of detail. That nuclear blast resistant paint covered a lot of good detail.
New UK based Scale construction forum. www.scaleplantandconstruction.co.uk
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Rank: Advanced Member Groups: Member
Joined: 6/5/2007 Posts: 2,754 Location: Sarasota, Florida, USA
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My first JOAL is also the Cat 225 crane with clamshell bucket. It was bought at the Pageant of Steam in Canandaigua, NY back in 1985 (i believe that's the right year). I still have it in my collection yet. Only "dirt" it has seen is rice, I have a good 10,000 operating hours on it digging up rice, hehe. I have used rice for play dirt as it is small enough to actually work with but big enough to easily pick up at the end of an operating session!
Dain
I'm a kid at heart, so I will play with any model construction vehicle from 1:87 scale to 1:1 scale!!!!
Age is a state of time NOT a state of mind!!
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Rank: Advanced Member Groups: Member
Joined: 10/9/2012 Posts: 551 Location: Ontario, Canada
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Hi Chuck, that is a very interesting story about the importance of Joal to the genesis of DHS as a company. As other members have indicated above Joal was definitely my first forray into construction models. I loved the Volvo logging machines and the Euclid dump trucks. The Joal Euclid R85B was the gem of my collection growing up (which would be woefully eclipsed by the ultra class haulers I now have). It is a shame that their product line will not be available to inspire future diecast enthusiasts with their balance beween detail, price point and durability. They were in essence my gateway "drug" to diecast collecting. LOL!
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Rank: Advanced Member Groups: Member
Joined: 6/21/2012 Posts: 519 Location: N. Cal
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I can remember doing chores (for what seemed like all summer) when I was about 7 or 8 to save up enough for some of their stuff. I bought them to take in the dirt and play with them and they help up really well. My Facebook page: NorCalDiecastCustomsClifton
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Rank: Advanced Member Groups: Member
Joined: 6/30/2003 Posts: 4,918 Location: Melbourne, Australia
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Such a shame, this is still my favorite model of all time due to sentimental value... Rowan. 1:25th scale CAT 375L excavator
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Rank: Advanced Member Groups: Member
Joined: 8/10/2002 Posts: 1,762 Location: out of jail!!
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This is too bad........ I remember back when i started collecting(Early 90's) i did'nt think much of Joal, bevause the way they presented their models made them look more like toys than scale models.I mean when they offer a set including a Cat 225 and a D10 that fits on the same 2 axle lowboy, in my minds, it does'nt look very serious!! But my opinion radically changed when they introduced their line of Komatsu models, with those, they hit the nail right on the head.Some of those are among my favorites in my entire collection. About the Komatsu stuff, i noticed Joal included a détails on some of their models that most of the high end model makers(NZG, Conrad, CCM,......) failed to include, the hydraulic cylinders to open and close the bucket on the Komatsu 1100 and Akerman EC620 front shovels. The only other model i know that has this feature is the Ertl(Norscot??) Cat 5080. Another little model from Joal that i really like is the log loader on the picture..... Sorry to hear. Max.
Cat 245.....Now and Forever I am looking for industrial auction brochures from Ritchie Bros, Miller & Miller, Forke Bros, First Team Auction, Max Rouse, etc from the 70's, 80's and 90's.I am a collector and heavy equipment enthusiast and these pamphlets are loaded with nice pictures of cleaned and freshly painted equipment.Thet don't have much value once the sale is over but they are a great help to me in preserving the memory of machines that are no longer being built.Please, help my hobby by looking in your old storage boxes and file folders for these old auction sale brochures.Your help is much appreciated.
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