Adonai

Thank you very much for this answer, this already helps me a lot. And thank you also for sharing the eBay link, I can see many similarities between that model and mine. At the moment I am simply not sure what exactly I have here. The translucent body and the “Pat. pend.” marking made me wonder if it could either be: an original early production variant, a restored/repainted model, or something modified later. To help with the discussion, I would like to share two additional photos. In the first picture, the body shell can be seen separated from the chassis and the transparent inner window section. I did not force or break anything apart — the hood/body can actually be removed quite easily. Also interesting to me: there are no visible glue traces around the roof section, which I have seen mentioned for some later variants. The second image shows the body illuminated from below with a phone light. The red plastic itself appears translucent, which made me question whether the body is painted or actually molded from colored transparent plastic. Maybe these details are useful for identifying the production period or authenticity more precisely. But at the moment, I put the beetle as "maybe original" in a box ^^. And here the second picture...

Hello everyone, I am new to this forum, so please excuse me if this is not the correct section for my post. I recently acquired a vintage LEGO VW Beetle from the late 1950s / early 1960s and I am currently trying to determine whether it is an original production variant or possibly a reproduction / restored model. The car has some unusual characteristics: translucent red body “VW1200” and “Pat. pend.” markings on the chassis removable body shell with separate transparent inner window section Since I am not very experienced with early LEGO HO vehicles, I would really appreciate if someone with expertise in vintage LEGO cars could help me analyse it. I can provide detailed photos of: the chassis the translucent body markings and light transmission through the plastic. Thank you very much in advance!