Who produced the first die-cast scale model DeLorean's?

[pk2678]

How can the answer be "Hot Wheels" when they didn't make a Delorean? They made something that looked like a Delorean and was called Turismo.

To me if it ain't called a Delorean it ain't a Delorean.

That depends on how you interprete "produced". If we are talking about mass production, it seems to be Zee-Toys. If we are talking about "making some", it should be Hot Wheels / Mattel. See here http://hotwheels.wikia.com/wiki/Turismo for the real DeLorean prototype models made before they changed the die-cast-tooling for producing the Turismo.

--Peter

[DeMopar]

There wasn't much out there in the 80's. I remember hunting for a Hot Wheels or Matchbox Delorean in the mid 80's and finally came across Turismo. It almost looked like a Delorean but something just wasn't right about it. (I didn't realize until much later that it was based on Proto-1) It was the closest thing I could find so I bought several of the yellow versions and painted them silver. Some time in '85 or '86 I came across the Zee Toy car which looked more like a Delorean, but seemed to have a cartoon-ish look to it. I also remember trying to find photos of a Delorean which were also hard to come by back then. All I could find was an old Road and Track article and the famous "Coke" poster. I often wondered why Delorean stuff was so scarce back then? Was it because of licensing issues or the bankruptcy?