Datsuncog

PSNI 'Streetbeat' Vauxhall Vivaro, today. First registered August 2013, so it's been knocking around for a while...

Aha. Ahahaha. Are you sitting down? Mirrors/ aerial seems to be broken off too. Bargain-tastic.

What can I say? Sometimes I just get a bit of a hunch... (Probably caused by bad posture at my desk, admittedly.)

A frosty dawn raid on the unsuspecting discount stores of the city did not yield very much... Poundland stores round here appear not to have got the memo on half-price Matchbox: All still offered out at full whack. Oh well. I don't need any more... I'm just a sucker for some of these castings. Two branches of Poundland yielded very little in the way of Matchbox - unlike the Abbeycentre branch - and loads of Hot Wheels, but tragically all just last year's Q case selection. I had a brief surge of hope at The Entertainer when I saw fresh Hot Wheels cases on the floor and being opened - but they were still older Q cases too. They seemed to be stocking out some Premiums as well, though - I could see some Rotsuns, and might see if I can get back later in case any flat-front Mk2 Escorts have put in an appearance... A quick dash through B&M revealed plenty of HW in stock, both in short card and long card formats, but they dated from positively antediluvian times: Those white Cruisin' Bruisers are from when - 2022? 2021? Semi-premium F&F cars were also there in abundance - the yellow 240Z was kinda nice. But tragically - no Proton for me. Yet. But it's okay, I felt similar despondency about the SII Land Rover with the surfboard and the purple Datsun Bluebird estate, and now there are loads of them everywhere... Last stop was Cash Converters, just in case... Roughly 1/18 National Lampoon Wagon Queen Family Truckster was unexpected - but with no box and some paint chipping, maybe not much of a delight. Norev Peugeot 504 Break with high-roof conversion was quite nice, though. Ah well. Weather permitting, we'll see what tomorrow brings, hey?

They're decent enough wee models - and shouldn't be too hard to track down. I liked this one as it looks like a farm hack; but there are a load of other versions in the range, including Police, Fire & Rescue, Royal Mail, safari, British Telecom and Mountain Rescue... if eBay doesn't yield much, they crop up fairly often at the market...

The snow's getting a bit melty around here, so my last chance for some more OFF ROAD YO antics, on a small scale. 1/43 scale, to be precise. Just a pair of Hongwell Land Rovers I happened to have to hand. SIII LWB pickup is quite a nice little thing, with opening doors and posable front wheels. Defender wagon is maybe slightly better detailed, but has no opening bits to amuse this simpleton. This can only end in disaster. Just as well the pond ice is pretty thick. I know I've a snow plough somewhere, but I just can't find it right now...

Another vote for red, here - just looks nicely tidy when it blends in with the body colour, based on the mock-up pic. I am something of a fan of integrated driving lights anyway...

Which brings me up to date - with yesterday's snowfall, and my newfound resolve to crack open my blister packs, not hoard them... I'm really pleased with the Hot Wheels Land Cruiser. Great lines, good detailing and restrained graphics all make for a delightful little toy. Even venturing out onto the frozen pond... Just lovely. One I missed when it was a current release in 2022, and all thanks to @Split_Pin for offering me one for the price of postage - just fortunate that one eventually showed up locally for less than Royal Mail's pricing! The 240's slightly over-large wheels actually kinda work on this sort of terrain; I also really like the semi-matt paint finish which makes it much easier to photograph, without reflections bouncing everywhere. Just gorgeous. Front and rear tampo prints look pretty good. I wonder if they'll bring out another version with the smaller chrome-hub wheels later in 2024? Very pleased with this little lot!

And still my weekend diecast odyssey was not yet at an end... I was passing a branch of Smyths on my way back, so I pulled over. Seems I needn't have got my knickers in a knot about The Entertainer's stock of Chevrolet race packs, then... Literally dozens of them here. And they had plenty of the Rover set and all.. Not discounted, though still a bit cheaper than The Entertainer's shelf price of £19. Ah well. A couple of Roadkill Rotsuns were on the pegs too: No Mk2 Escorts, though. Nice, but a fair whack at £9 a go. I'd been hoping to find the latest case of Hot Wheels, in an effort to secure myself a Proton Saga, but no such joy - still just the same old case containing the blue Jeep FC and copper Willys Gasser. Since it was nearby, I also popped into a largish branch of Poundland... which was fortuitous. Is that...? Oh, finally! I knew a Volvo 240 would pop up eventually. Persistence does pay off, it seems. There were three left on the pegs, but I'm happy enough with just the one. The Ford tractor unit in throwback Lesney Thames Wrecker colours was quite appealing, but I left it for now. I also thought I'd have a quick look into another independent toyshop nearby, after my Stewart Miller success, but sadly it turned out to be very much gone. Tough business, toys.

OH NO There's moar SNO

After the thrill of finding a decent, old-school local toyshop that actually stocked things I wanted at a not too steep a price, I then also was lucky* enough to experience the polar opposite straight afterwards. It was my own fault; I knew I was tempting fate but I went in anyway. It's one of those self-styled 'quirky' shops that likes to pretend it deals in antiques, only it's mostly reproduction enamel signs and Beano annuals from 2002. I knew they had diecast. I knew they were wildly overpriced. But still - I couldn't help myself. First off were various Corgi Classics commercials piled up - faux-Stobart ERFs and Scammells - labelled with ballpark figures of around £50. I did not give these very much of my attention. A small basket of loose stuff attracted me, though... Though much of it appeared to be a bit rubbishy, worn and/or broken. A quid for a Rockets Morgan, even if missing its chassis and windscreen, didn't seem too ridiculous... but that was about the height of it. However there were glass-fronted cases over at the other side of the shop, and there seemed to be more diecast in there... Ha. Hahahaha. £20 for a so-so Lesney Daimler ambulance? If you say so, squire. £3 for a very dusty cheapo no-name generic pickup truck seemed equally in the realms of fantasy... and the modern pull-back Mercury with a missing grille priced up at £15... ya dreamin', pal. It's hard to make out, but I can assure you that's £35 on the playworn Dinky Cadillac Superior Ambulance on speedwheels. Fairly certain the Lesney AEC Merryweather fire tender behind it, priced at £25, is a repaint. There were cases and cases of this sort of overpriced guff, but at this point the (assumed) proprietor started harrumphing and tapping a sign saying 'no photography in the shop', so here endeth my photojournalistic efforts. There were quite a few boxed Lesney Superfast, but again prices seemed to swing wildly between £20 and £40 regardless of age or appeal, so there was little odds of me splashing that sort of cash. They were mostly combine harvesters, construction vehicles and hovercrafts too - the sort of stuff that only the most hardcore of collectors would bother their arse to acquire. There were also more of those wretched Readers Digest vintage cars, just like the ones which turned up at Friday's market: Fiver each? I don't think so, somehow... One of the few genuinely appealing models was an unboxed but tidy Bburago Mk2 Escort RS1800 Zakspeed, the same as a rougher one I picked up at the market a few years back: I wouldn't say £35 was wildly overpriced for one of these- certainly not as ding-dong batshit as the Dinky ambulance - but still, it wasn't going to be a sale today. I came, I saw, I left. I'm not sure I'll be back anytime soon.

Out and about on Saturday morning, then - and it's fair to say my mind was wandering a little after the discussions last week about model collecting, and the various shops that signposted the routes each of us took into the wonderful world of miniature shite. I'd a few errands to run, but the intention was to head down to Bangor after I was done and have a poke around some of the diecast emporia we last visited over the summer. Now that didn't happen, but it's okay. Having collected some pictures from the framer in Holywood, and left them back to the car, I went off to procure some pancakes from a bakery at the far end of the street. And this route took me past Stewart Miller, a newsagent/ confectioner/ toy shop. Stewart Miller used to be a small independent chain with about six or seven stores locally, but I think there are only two left now. But, on reflection, they played probably just as big a role in shaping my collecting as McCulloughs or Leisure World did. So - I nipped in. The Siku spinner was one of the first things I saw: They're slightly cheaper here than in The Entertainer - £4 to £6 for the individual models, £9 or £10 for the twin packs or big commercials. I kinda like this Sprinter, but they're strong money - and only get dearer as opening/ working features come into the mix: I like Siku, but somehow their new stuff doesn't do all that much for me. I picked up a few 2023 catalogues for perusal later, though (and let me know if you'd like one, free of course). Stewart Miller also had a fair few Hot Wheels, and a smattering of Matchbox, too... ...which was appropriate, as their branches were the only place I knew that stocked Hot Wheels when I was a nipper. And, scanning the shelves, I realised this was what made them pretty compelling to me when I was young - they actually carried a proper range. Cheap pocket-money toys were readily available... (Yeah, for some reason the Teamsterz singles are more expensive than Hot Wheels equivalent.) And then there's other wheeled toys of varying quality at about the £5-7 price point. But also stuff that's kinda more models than toys, at the same price: (I was a bit interested in that Bburago Mini with a shop, for £7 - I doubt my ten-year-old-self would have been able to resist.) Then there were playsets - the sort of stuff reserved for Christmas or birthday gifts, or the fruits of several weeks of pocket-money saving: These Matchbox Action Driver Sets were nowhere near as cheap as the ones Home Bargains were churning out for £6.99 last summer, but it's probably not an outrageous price for this set. Fair bit of playvalue there. And, the cherries at the top were of course the 'adult collectables' - Bburago and Maisto models at 1/24 and 1/18 scale. At £19.99, I'm not sure how long those big Bburago BMWs have been lurking, but nonetheless - it was this kind of stock selection that drew me along a pathway from Matchbox and Hot Wheels singles, to bigger, better detailed models. And it's kinda nice to know that it's a pathway that's not been totally closed off to kids growing up today. I know that big-box stores like Smyths also do a decent range, but there's something about the accessibility of a High St shop that enables it to be built in to a Saturday shopping trip - somewhere like Smyth's seems more like a shop you'd have to call into for a specific reason. Stewart Miller is somewhere you'd feasibly call into when you were passing for a greetings card or a lottery ticket or a magazine. I was also a little surprised to see that Mattel seem to have relaunched a load of 'classic' action figures... Plus, apparently, there's a Masters Of The Universe reboot: Well, okay. Figures were always more of Cog Minor's interest, but still - despite possibly relying on brand recognition for the parents (and possibly grandparents), it's still good to see. Unexpected, but good. The Stewart Miller branch in Clandeboye Shopping Centre was kinda pivotal in my early diecast collecting - I vividly remember being bought a red Corgi Juniors Vauxhall Nova from there around 1983/ 1984, which I loved dearly (and still have, 40 years on). I was also enthralled by their range of Scalextric cars, especially the police Rover SD1 with working lights - that just seemed like the coolest thing. Unfortunately, the shopping centre burned down in July 1987, taking Stewart Miller with it. There was another branch in Upper Main Street, which had an entire upper floor of toys, and stocked Corgi, Matchbox and Hot Wheels, as well as Lego and Playmobil, and was a regular place for me to go and ogle diecast. Annoyingly, this shop was blown up in a car bomb attack in March 1993, and I was particularly irked to learn the premises were levelled with all the stock still in it - apparently the structure was too unsafe for anyone to enter. I was pretty sure that the diecast (which were all down at the very back of the shop) would probably have been ok. Stewart Miller reopened in smaller premises further down the street, and carried accordingly smaller lines of toy cars. However, with Corgi being bought out by Mattel in the mid-90s, and Matchbox going over to Tyco, and me becoming less interested in toys and more interested in 'proper' models (and music), there wasn't so much reason for me to be hanging out there anymore - other than because they were one of the few newsagents to stock Jalopy magazine. I think the last thing I bought from Stewart Miller was a large, unbranded NASCAR set containing about a dozen models, Matchbox-sized, with rubber tyres and all-metal bodies and bases and what looked to be a variety of different castings with reasonably authentic looking advertising liveries (STP, Pennzoil, Exxon). That was a good toy set, though I was probably a bit old for it - I used Scalextric track to set up a banked oval raceway. The old shop in Main St is now a branch of Caffe Nero, and although they had a branch in the Flagship Centre too, the whole mall shut down a few years back. There's just the branch in Holywood, and one in Newtownards left now. So - nice to go back, and nice to see it's kinda still there, in a way. And nice to get a Hot Wheels I've been trying to find for a while, at not too bad a price... Use 'em or lose 'em, hey?

I wrote out a lot of wittering about models and railways and shops last week, in the wake of the Hattons announcement, but then deleted it. This article says pretty much the same thing, though. ‘An aged hobby’: enthusiasts struggle to keep model railway industry on track | Hobbies | The Guardian Still think a lot of what's said about railways applies to diecast collecting too - the local model collecting Facebook group now only seems to exist to post obituaries for its members...

I think Dinky's version was based on the one-off Pininfarina concept which eventually morphed into the production Dino but did wear the same badging - the Dino 206 GT Speciale, shown at the 1965 Paris Salon: The production Dino 206 GT of 1967-69 was quite a bit different, with a more conventional front end treatment (styled by Bertone), and using the new Lampredi-designed V6 built by Fiat - the Dino 246 GT was a further development on a longer wheelbase for 1969-74, with the option of a targa roof (264 GTS). I seem to recall (from an ancient Classic & Sportscar article) that the 246 GT and GTS didn't wear any Ferrari badges - the only badging said 'Dino'. The Dinky #216 'Dino Ferrari' was launched in 1967, but at the point it was designed and tooled up, the management at Binns Rd likely had no idea that a substantially different car with the same name would be launched by Ferrari around the same time!

Well now... there's an excellent question! They only had that MR2 plus a modern Porsche left on the pegs, but both appeared to be 2023 releases. I know Poundland had some Moving Parts going out the door for a few quid a year or two back, but they were old stock that had probably been languishing in a container since COVID. This place is an independent retailer, so I'd be curious to know how they're doing it too.

Just had the pleasure of rediscovering a PROPPA TOY SHOP this morning too... Contrasted, for maximum impact, by a nearby Antiques & Collectables place where the proprietor clearly doesn't have a scooby about toy cars, but he's not gonna let that minor impediment stand in his way... Aye, £15 for a broken, recent, Chinese-made Mercury pull-back. Right. More on this story at eleven...

Out and about with the HW Rover P6 this morning. Hadn't realised til I got it out of the packaging that the front wheels are much smaller than the rears. As Hot Wheels has a general tendency to overwheel its toys, it's kinda odd seeing ones that are probably reasonably accurate in terms of scale - they just seem super titchy, comparably. It's an unexpected choice of subject matter, but good to finally have one of these impressive touring car racers - I was tempted by a red single-pack version early last year, but I dig the van and trailer that comes in this set.

There was one Fairway in dark green on an M-reg regularly parked on the Donegall Square East rank, but I haven't seen it since the Pandemic. Seems a lot of cab drivers decided to retire around that time; there's nowhere near the same amount of hackneys visible as there used to be. For the TX1, it's probably a simple enough old beast and there's maybe not much of an incentive for the driver to upgrade while it's still functional - no vehicle age barriers here. There's plenty of TX1s still operating from the ranks in Belfast - they're generally on X or Y plates, so I don't tend to bother photograph them unless they're spectacularly hanging...

Clocked that tidemarked S-reg TX1 in Central Belfast again on Thursday lunchtime. Parked in a coach bay, rather than a hackney rank, and I'm pretty sure it's badged as a private hire cab these days (it's wearing a white badge, which I believe is for minicabs - public hires display green badges). It's quite rough, body-wise, but I've seen much worse idling at the rank. There was definitely an R-reg cab still knocking about a while back; I haven't given up hope of finding that...

So - how does today finish? We've got a 'Majo Transport' Saviem for @flat4alfa And quite a mildly used but complete little Mercedes airport foam tender for @Spottedlaurel This rather tasty Skoda Octavia dealer model, at the request of @AndyW201: This later version of the Lesney Super Kings Jaguar XJ12 in rozzer clothes, for @Split_Pin: And similarly this BMC VA 'Noddy Van', in Roadline colours: The pair of K-11 DAFs I'm now feeling weirdly ambivalent about: Are they really something I'll cherish forever, or just big things I'll need to somehow store? I'm super-pleased to have found them, but I'm not sure I really need them both. If anyone reckons they can do something with the blue & gold one, I think I'd be okay with letting it go for the fiver paid. I'm mildly regretful at not picking up the 1/24 Audi Quattro that was in one of the tubs - incomplete, yes, but otherwise not bad. First, news of the Fuego, and then the Quattro - that's two cars I had no idea Bburago had modelled until this week. Even though I don't really collect that scale... But hey - ain't that just the way it goes? Not a bad day, by any stretch. Happy Friday, kids.

Well, the short January day's closing in fast, so time to light the lamps and see what's what... Quite a day for commercial vehicles, it's true. These two were pretty good finds, I reckon - I've been after a regular-wheels K-11 DAF transporter for a good long while now. The blue-and-gold version, as Any Fule Kno, is the rare one - only issued for the 1969 catalogue year Annoyingly, while the paint's not too bad on this one, there's some stress cracks to the windscreen. And something's occurred with the front suspension too - this is on its bump-stops, evidently. And there's a crack in the support/guide bracket at the back. It doesn't affect the working of the mechanism, but it does count as casting damage, annoyingly. Some tyres have gone AWOL, as tends to happen, and of course the deck retaining tabs are long gone - but that's not such a worry. The yellow and orange regular-wheeled version was made for the 1970 catalogue year only, before being replaced by the Superfast wheel version for 1971 onwards. So it's probably not much less rare than the blue version, but because it doesn't look so very different from the common Superfast wheels version, it doesn't seem to attract quite the same level of interest. Both early types also had unpainted baseplates and grilles on the tractor unit, while from '71 on these were painted red. I couldn't not drag out my late-issue K-11, owned since I was quite young... and, of course, 'superdetailed' with my Tamiya silver paint pen, as was my wont when I was twelve or so. It required a bit of precision excavation, as the transporter lives right at the bottom of my toybox... Just you lot stay there, and don't collapse. There's gotta be a better way to store these... But! A transporter-tastic day, I'm sure you'll agree. (The Guy Warrior wasn't from today, don't fret - I just had to move it out of the box to get to the DAF.)

Forgot to mention, Alan had just finished setting out his famed 50p Tray at the point I was exiting the market (for the second time): Not much to get in a flap about, sadly - other than two non-matching Matchbox Connectables: Oh well. Which was maybe just as well, since I'd already lost my last pound coin - fumbling my change from the coffee shop, I dropped the coin, then watched as it scooted off on its edge with startling velocity. After rolling nearly the entire length of the market, it came into contact with the shoe of an old biddy shuffling the other way, sending it spinning back down towards me... at which point it glanced off someone else's shoe, and vanished under a stall selling movie posters. I poked around but couldn't see it. Annoying, as I'd vaguely thought of picking this up from the charity stall... But then, the original's probably better anyway.

I think he wanted four or five pounds for it - seemed a bit stiff since it was incomplete.

You're in luck - I hadn't quite made it as far as the crossing, so turned back... Yours for a fiver!