Dugu Miniautotoys

In the early 1960s, Bartolomeo Chiodo, an auto enthusiast, named his company Dugu from the name of one of the two districts of Varallo Sesia that was Mr. Chiodo's home – 'Dugu' means owl; the other district was 'falcet' – meaning falcon. So, 'Owl Models' was born in 1961 and the logo for the company became a stylized angular owl with large round yellow eyes. This follows somewhat of a tradition of other European toy companies naming named their lines after cute or diminutive animals (e.g. Corgi, Husky, or Budgie).

The first Dugu Miniautotoys were made by Stampopolastica for a year, and like the name some of the first Dugus were molded in plastic. In 1962, Stampopolastica started making its own models under the Rio name). Chiodo then started making his own models and thus the Dugu line was similar in concept to Rio Models, Brumm, or Minialuxe. Later a new line made Italian makes for the Ruffia Automobile Museum. These models were mostly vehicles featured in the museum and sold in the museum store. 1970s collector Cecil Gibson stated that normal Dugus for retail sale were more complex, while the ones available for the Museum (the 'Museo' series) were less detailed, which seems 'cart before the horse'. Still, the company was similar to the German Cursor Models or French RAMI by J.M.K. which mainly made models for the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Germany and, respectively, models in the Malartre collection in the Château de Rochetaillée-sur-Saône in France.

Dugu and Rio, thus were two of the earliest model makers of veteran age cars, setting the stage for Solido, Corgi, Brumm and several other manufacturers to make toys representing the nascent auto era.