Eligor

Eligor was established about 1976, in Martignat, France (about 30 miles west of Geneva), by Jacques Greilsamer, who had previously written the Catalogue of Model Cars of the World. The location is interesting as Martignat is just south of Oyonnax, the home of plastic model maker Minialuxe and origin of Norev. Greilsamer used older molds previously used by Norev in making plastic models. Eligor's models, however, were diecast metal. In an interesting parallel development in Germany, the Danhausen Catalog would eventually give birth to the Minichamps brand in Germany.

In occult circles, Eligor is a powerful demon, but here the name simply reflected Greilsamer's 1976 combination of the names of two garages of his father - "ELITE" and "VIGOR".

The company was later purchased by Louis Surber, who had reproduced earlier Quiralu model cars and trucks. For a time the company was headquartered in Paris. Early catalogs stated in French that Eligor's purpose was "Model Production". Further boxes and catalogs stated that the company made "the Miniature Automobile of the Connoisseur". Later Eligor was acquired by HobbyCar S.A. in Lausanne, Switzerland. In this period, when stating the name of "Hobbycar S.A." packaging and catalogs proposed the idea of "Creation – Diffusion", which sounds more like Christian Evangelicalism instead of model car production.

In 1996 Eligor was bought by Paul and Anne Marie Vullierme, the founder of Vulli and the son of Joseph Vullierme who created Jouets MontBlanc that had made miniature cars in the early 1960s. In 1998, they relocated the company to Izernore, France just to the east of the old home of Martignat Their son John Vullierme operated the U.S. office of the company in Earlysville, Virginia.