Polistil S.p.A. (initially called Politoys) is an Italian toy brand and former manufacturing company headquartered in Milan, with production center in Chiari, near Brescia.

Traditionally, the principal Italian competitors to Polistil were Mercury, Mebetoys, and the shorter run Ediltoys.

The company began as "Politoys APS" about 1960, and started production of 100 plastic cars in 1:41 scale (Sinclair 1979, pp. 387–388).

Most, but not all, of Polistil's lines were prefaced with letters: CE, RJ, S, MS, etc., but the company did not start with the beginning of the alphabet.

Dinky and Corgi were also strong competitors and Politoys never matched their success in the United States nor did they produce as wide a range of models as those two leaders in the field.

The cars had many moving parts (normally 2 doors, hood and trunk opened) and the engines and even undercarriage had good detail.

This contrasted with Dinky and Corgi which tended towards the "toy" market with gimmicks and TV and movie vehicles.

One ad in the American market by U.S. representative Lynn International showed the 518 1965 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud III (Mulliner Park Ward "slant eye" version) in pieces and asked "How can a boy own a Rolls Royce..be a collector and a mechanic all at the same time!

By the late 1960s, the M-Series range had expanded to 37 models: Numbers 526 (Fiat 1100), 535 (Porsche 904), and 538 (Volkswagen 1600 TL) are not mentioned in this data from an original catalog sheet as they were introduced later (Politoys 1968).

Unique models produced that were not found elsewhere were the Iso Rivolta seen above, a later Chevrolet Corvette Pininfarina Rondine Coupe, and the first Lamborghini – bugeye – 350 GT (Rixon 2005, p. 37).

Similar to Corgi, Dinky, and Mebetoys, Politoys M used jewels for headlights, while French Solido chose more realistic clear plastic lenses.

Some of the early models in these series were still up to the Politoys M in detail like the well done Lamborghini Espada and Islero (which had folding headlights)(Gardiner and O'Neill 1996, p. 73).

Body details were often very good with clever features, such as the Alfa Romeo Alfasud with complete ski equipment on the roof.

On later 1970s issues like this one, however, the models sported toy-like generic chrome plastic wheel designs that were pretty ugly.

In the late 1970s a variety of previous Polistil castings were shipped to Mexico and sold as the McGregor brand (Force 1992, 208).

Though proportions on the larger scale Polistil vehicles was sometimes slightly off (so were some of the Martoys, and both Bburago and Maisto later improved), creative presentation made up for it.

By the late 1980s, though, the larger models were the backbone of Polistil sales, while it would last, and the 1:43 size was now being left to higher end collector brands like Eligor, Vitesse, and venerable Solido.

One very nice military offering was an Afrika Corps BMW motorcycle with sidecar in desert beige.

In addition, Mego and Lion Rock military action figures were marketed under the Polistil name.

One area where Polistil probably did better than any of the competition was in racing vehicles of various scales, mainly covering Formula 1, and at reasonable retail prices.

The 1:41 scale CE series appeared in 1978 and featured Renault, Ligier, Lotus, Brabham, Alfa Romeo and Williams, among others.

So, this is an interesting case where the Asian toy giant is responsible for resurrecting two well-known Italian brand names – Bburago and Polistil, but the products are now made in China, and no longer in Italy.