Datsuncog

You're right - I picked this one up in June 2021. And I previously had this version, which I sold on for buttons back in 2018. I must have done a bit of digging on these in the past, as I seem to have arrived at the conclusion that the glazed examples were sold through branches of Mothercare... Nope, they don't seem all that desirable unless mint/boxed (and even then, not really) - the HobbyDB listing for the Cubs range is incomplete and pretty half-arsed. They don't really do it for me either, but I'd be happy to put a few back to the purpose for which they were made...

Wow, nice! The milk delivery van seems to be one of the very last, with glazing fitted. I didn't even know the racer or roadster versions existed before now - it was only a bit of an internet trawl on Sunday morning that led me to find out what the range involved. If you think you might be wanting rid of any of yours, let me know... there's no rush though! It'll be Christmas before they'll all be back over here again, so I've a while to find some stuff.

So, I didn't get round to getting into more detail on the weekend's arrivals from Dan... due to Other Pressing Matters on the agenda. But here we are now. So first up - it's this little beauty. Ooft. I've been after a K-22 Dodge Charger for years. It's one of those semi-mythical models which I'd heard so much about, but had yet to see in the metal. Indeed, one of my go-to idle daydreams as I putter up the motorway towards the market on a Friday morning is maybe there'll be a King Size Charger on the stall today... So far, there hasn't been - after 132 weeks of Friday morning tat-trawling (yes, I counted). I mean, I did have the later drag-strip styled Speed Kings version, in orange with the bodyshell all hacked about, but I hadn't very much affection for it... This, though - this is different. It should go well with my other King Size cars - the Mercury Cougar, Lamborghini Miura, and Mercedes ambulance. Just the Mercury Commuter cop car to find, now... Very very pleased with this one - thanks Dan! Another long-sought-after item is the Corgi Mercedes Faun street sweeper. This is so heavy. All-metal construction does not make for a lightweight toy. Although missing a few of its stickers and hose attachments, it's actually not in bad nick. All the rotating bits still work, and I'm tempted to just give this one a good clean and maybe a tickle with a black sharpie to spruce it up a little. Perhaps some surprise that I took these... Though they're not for me, honest guv. Nope, This is part of a covert programme to influence my brother's kids into liking smol cars. They're a bit young to be handling diecast just yet, but these wooden Hot Wheels might be just the ticket. I'm also stockpiling other items which may be of interest to them in a few years' time. Like these Corgis. The Routemaster bus is in decent enough nick, as is the fantasy breakdown truck - could do with a bit of a scrub, but they're fundamentally sound. The Corgi Cubs tanker is pretty clean too - there's a bit of play wear, but that's fine. I've been aware of the Cubs range forever - I had a couple when I was a kid - but the generic nature meant I never really paid them very much attention. Even the big Van Cleemput book on Corgi pretty much ignores them. So I've been doing a bit of my own digging on the range, just to see what might be out there - as it was quite an interesting concept for Mettoy to produce. There's rather more models in the line-up than I ever expected - twelve castings in total - including helicopters and MG-style roadsters that I've never seen in real life. These three appealed to me because they're not so tidy or rare that I feel guilty giving them to kids to play with, but nor are they so knackered that they're obviously rubbish. The same logic applies here... Ultimately, I'm trying to build a small box of interesting toys - I should probably take a look through my own toybox, as I know I have doubles... I'm not a huge fan of Ferraris, but these three might appeal to youngsters. I'd consider getting some lengths of gravity racetrack too, and see if that amuses the young 'uns... probably not too hard to track down some Matchbox or Hot Wheels stuff. But these three are for me... A Renault R17 without damaged pillars, a Mazda RX500 with the rear engine hatch still in place, and a beach buggy with the engine still attached. And these are also staying with me. I'd thought the motorcycle trailer was a later 1980s one in orange from the Two-Packs, but instead it's a much earlier one with regular wheels. Intact and just needing a bike! Pleased with this. And the Leyland finally completes a near-forty year loss - reuniting my original trailer with a replacement cab unit that's broadly in the same condition as mine was the last time I saw it - in 1985 or so. I'm fairly sure it was lost in the rubble after a garden greenhouse was demolished, and I couldn't help playing in the broken-up cement footings with my construction toys... my ERTL Pontiac Bonneville police car also went missing that day. My own fault. Still, good to have it back, in a manner of speaking! Cheers for these Dan - much obliged!

Such a thing does exist, sort of... Don't think it's been updated for a while, though.

If it ever did, it appears to be long gone - just like the parcel shelf, the lid of the dash cubby, the wheelbrace, the handbooks... I'm not even convinced Redex is all that useful - but my grandfather swore by it for his assorted end-of-life Austins and Morrises, so every now and then when it's on special offer in Tesco I impulsively buy a bottle for £2 or whatever. But it was absolutely fine going into the Corolla's filler neck up until the latest bottle redesign.

No idea why Redex decided to redesign their bottle, but the neck's now too short to push past the little valve on the Corolla's filler neck - so it all just floods out and pours down the side of the car. I had to use a lolly stick out of the bin to jam the flap open, then tip the remains down into the tank. Last time I'm buying that, then.

I also happened to be in The Biggest Home Bargains In Ireland ™ over the weekend, and surprisingly they didn't have any single mainline Hot Wheels on the shelves, unlike my closest branch (possibly the Smallest Home Bargains In Ireland). They did have some Hot Wheels 5-packs, though: I think these are 2022 packs - but could be wrong. Even so, at £7 they're a good bit cheaper than Tesco, Entertainer, etc. This branch still has a few of those Matchbox Service Centre playsets available too. Well, of course they do. I feel almost guilty now for flattening all those pensioners in my frenzy to track one down back in early February, believing as I did that all my future happiness lay in acquiring one. Speaking of Tesco... A quick guddle in the Northcott branch indicated a good few of the better 2023 toys, like the Nissan Hardbody, AMC Eagle and Ford Ranchero - but I think I've found all I really want from this particular case. Hot Wheels in the same branch looking somewhat depleted - most surprised to see a Dodge van still looking for a home, and is the Deora III the new airport Cargo Truck in terms of unpopularity? A good selection of 2023 5-packs from both brands - at a price. So just to recap, my current high-to-low Mattel retailer checklist looks like this: Home Bargains: Hot Wheels Mainline (£1.49) Poundland: Hot Wheels Mainline (£1.50) Matchbox Mainline (£1.50 - 2023 short cards and some limited stocks of 2021 long cards) The Entertainer: Hot Wheels Mainline (£2.40 BUT 3 for 2 offer seems to be perpetually in place, so £1.60 each if you're bulk-buying) Hot Wheels Semi-Premiums (£2.99/£3.49) Hot Wheels Premiums (£9.00 - Car Culture etc) Matchbox Mainline (£1.92) Matchbox Hitch & Haul (£8.00) B&M: Hot Wheels Mainline (£1.69) Hot Wheels Semi-Premium (£1.99/ £3.49/ £3.99, depending on range - Flying Customs/ Ultra Hots/ Mud Runner/ F&F) Matchbox Mainline (£1.69) Asda: Hot Wheels Mainline (£1.90) Hot Wheels Semi-Premium (£3.00) Poundstretcher: Hot Wheels Mainline (£1.99) Matchbox 2020 Mainlines in boxes (£1.99) Matchbox Working Rigs (£3.00 - half price clearance) The Range: Hot Wheels Mainline (£1.99) Lidl: Hot Wheels Mainline (£1.99 - when they have them, which only seems to be once every few months) Smyths: Hot Wheels Mainline (£2.00) Hot Wheels Semi-Premium (£3.49) Hot Wheels Premium (£8.99 - Speed Machines, Boulevard range etc, plus Racing Team Premiums for £££spendy) Tesco: Hot Wheels Mainline (£2.20) Matchbox Mainline (£2.00) Sainsburys: Hot Wheels Mainline (£2.30 lol) Obviously there are other retailers out there, like Morrisons, One Below, Aldi and Wilko - but they've no NI stores, so I can't say for sure what they have or how much they are. But it looks like we'll not be running out of places to make unwise impulse purchases anytime soon...

Continuing the Mattel bonanza currently afflicting our smol community of diecast addicts, it's my sad duty to advise that The Range now seems to be stocking Hot Wheels again. 2023 first case, it appears. Haven't seen any in there for a few years now, and they're not especially cheap at £1.99 - but possibly helpful*, should anyone be chasing any specific hard-to-find models. Fortunately I am iron-willed, so this doesn't apply to me. Oh, hello...

15% rise this year on insurance for the Corolla E110 - and that was the best price I could get after shopping around. Privilege, who I've been with for about five years, wanted to hoick it by 50%. So I didn't bother renewing with them. But yeah - I figured it was all just part of the "evryfing's costing more, innit M8?" general hike in pricing we're all experiencing right now...

Certainly do - many thanks!

And whilst we're on that topic... DanBox™ touched down while I was out of the house this morning. The parcel was in the kitchen, and eyebrows were raised, upon my return. It's good to keep the old traditions alive, yeah?

Can do! Typical that I've just dispatched your tat parcel - but I'll keep a look out for any of the others, if you're interested in them too? Daaah! I've only two Brazilian Chargers and two El Caminos left! But - will check some of the other branches, and see what's what. Sure thing! So that's one El Camino and one Charger left, folks.

Argh, etc. In the 'good' branch of B&M, over at Newtownabbey. They have some Ultra Hots. Two each of the El Camino and the Dodge Charger. One each of the Shelby GT-500, the Mercury Cougar, and the Pontiac Firebird. None of the Sylvia S14, Civic Si coupe or VW SP2. They look pretty good - spectraflame style paint and lots of extra tampo detailing. Definitely a mid-premium line. Going by the packs, these appear to be parallel imports from Indonesia - rather than Mattel UK sourced stock. No label on the pegs - a recurring issue, it seems - but I can confirm they are indeed £1.99 each. Any interest, kids? Since I have zero self-control, of course I scooped the lot in one fell swoop. Even though I've no real need of them - so all seven seen here are available. **EDIT: Shelby Mustang, Cougar and Firebird TAKEN** **One each of the Charger and El Camino TAKEN** One Brazilian Charger and one El Camino left!! Still a fair few Flying Colours left on the pegs too, but only the Mach 1, Firebird, Barracuda and Custom Otto left, in varying quantities. But aren't they just soooooo April 2023, dahlings?

Looks quite like the Solido 1/18, right enough. It was a decent shape. The Corgi Classics mid-90s offering was definitely one of the worst.

But... I didn't leave empty handed, you'll no doubt be relieved to learn. These two were kinda on my 'historical regret' list, so I felt it would be imprudent to let them slip through my pastry-sticky digits once again. The Moving Parts Nissan Xterra is, as expected, a parallel import via China. Google Lens knows all. It's not a colour which photographs all that well, truth be told. I've skipped over rather nicer pale blue (2019 release) and yellow (2020) variants of this one before, and not bought them - so I guess this 2021 release is my third-place runner-up prize. It's maybe not the most exciting car ever modelled, but hey - I love a gimmick. Hot opening tailgate action - once something found on mainlines, but not for a long long time. (Now there's a conundrum for you - what was the last Matchbox mainline offered with opening features? Was it the original version of the Express Delivery, which I believe came with an opening rear loading door?) Ah well. As I said before, I'm on something of an uncharacteristic AWD fixation right now - so I guess this pleases me well enough. And I also nabbed this... The 1996 Chevrolet Impala SS. Now I've picked this one up before - 2020 maybe? '21? - and never opened it. It went, with so many others, in the 2022 Purge. And then I saw it again recently in a post on here, and felt that pang of regret. So - opportunity does knock twice, sometimes. It's here, and it's opened now. It's minimally detailed, and quite lightweight - in a way it reminds me of early 1990s Hot Wheels like the Holden Commodore. But it's quite handsome, in an understated way. And it pleased Colin, as it was his first sale of the day - he did me both of them for £5, knocking a quid off the sticker price. Perhaps unusually, he spat on the fiver before popping it into his cashbox. Apparently, it brings luck to do that with the day's first takings - even more so if there's no change to give back. I was unaware of this tradition, despite spending much of my working life in retail. It also reminded me to try to have exact change in future, for multiple reasons. So yeah - in some ways, it's a strange little place, St George's Market. But where else would I want to be on a Friday morning? "Forget it, Jake - it's Georgietown." Happy Friday, kids. Have a good 'un.

I'd also been keeping an eye on Alan's Emporium, which had been slowly opening up since 7.30. I hadn't forgotten about the cars he said he'd picked up in Manchester. Eventually, my patience was rewarded... ...with some Matchbox Models of Yesteryear from the 1980s. For £10 a throw. Ah. I mean, they were very clean and all, but... I thanked him for his time. There were no 50p vehicles on the tray this morning; instead we had this... Yes, that's £20 (ono) for some random hex keys, pipe offcuts, drawer handles and chewed-up far-eastern made screwdrivers. Bargain. But then - he's had this sort of thing on the stall before and it's apparently sold, so what do I know? As the old saying goes - nowt stranger than folk...

Mulligan's Irish Gifts, home to all your diddly-dee Irish tourist tat needs, was up and running. Colin, who runs the stall, was telling me that he's due a load of new Oxford Diecast items in - annoyingly, they only post stuff out on a Wednesday, so it only ever shows up later on a Friday; too late for the Friday Market stall. He's some Land Rover Discoveries in both 1/43 and 1/72 due in, though. Sounds like they could be interesting. Mostly, the stall's diecast stock moves slowly though. But there's often something new. The Monte Mini was quite nicely done. Not cheap, and a slightly odd scale, but nicely done. Hongwell Cararama 1/43 appear to be distributed via Oxford these days. They're quite keenly priced, and give similar vibes to the early Enfield-made Vanguards - both in appearance, price and subject matter. And I've always time for Matchbox and Hot Wheels. These seem to be more of the older case stuff, sourced through our old friend Hundred Hot Wheels Harry. Current release Convoys definitely have one eye on the 1980s originals. Although all-plastic, the trailer here has plainly been recreated from the diecast base/ plastic deck CY-1 Car Carrier Trailer. While the rocket here seems identical to that supplied on the back of the CY-2 Kenworth Rocket Transporter... ...though now with the choking-hazard removable nose capsule firmly moulded to the rest of the rocket body. These aren't really what Colin wants to be selling - he tells me he much prefers 'models in boxes' - but hey, the 'tacky toys' (his phrase) still sell. And the crossword, sudoku and wordsearch puzzle books are what really sells, and makes the stall viable overall. He was telling me he can lift £500 a day on them alone. Interesting stuff... maybe I need to get myself onto Puzzleshite.com and start a market thread there...

But there was tat. Of course there was tat. There's always tat. It just depends how much you want to pay for your tat. Yes, that's £50, £60 and £75 respectively for some playworn and incomplete Corgis - the farm trailer, Bentley FHC and Chevrolet Impala taxi. In torn boxes. Paddy, of recent screaming outburst infamy, has had these on his stall for a while. Quite a while, now. I daresay he'll have them for a while yet. Also, these broken and dusty 1/18 Hot Wheels models. £25 a throw to you, sir. The '50p each' box contains matchboxes. The ignitable variety, not the Lesney sort - more's the pity. Truth be told, I was primarily interested in seeing if the Charity Stall still had any of the 50p diecast from the other week. But the whole set-up is pure chaos. Larry, who runs the stall, seems to arrive each Friday with a large number of plastic speedflow boxes containing his stock - but even he doesn't seem to know what's in them. I asked him if he had any toy cars in and he just shrugged. I dunno, maybe he genuinely just picks up a vanload of random crap every week and it's just as much a surprise to him as it is to us what appears. My understanding is that he's selling this stuff on behalf of a charity, I think it's St Vincent de Paul - there used to be a large donation bottle on the stall, anyway - though he also seems to have his own 'collectables' sales on the side. I know he's bought stuff off Market Blokey before, only for it to appear on his stall with a sizeable mark-up. But he'll generally just open a couple of boxes, then wander off for ten minutes, then come back and open another couple, then vanish again. Today, it was mostly unbranded pet food. And past-date tortilla wraps, and contraband ROI Tayto crisps. Some assorted 50p stuff was dumped out on a table, but there wasn't a lot to get thrilled about. After a while, he set out his own stuff: But there wasn't a lot to get my juices flowing. After about half an hour of hanging around, with several boxes still maddeningly unpacked - and Larry nowhere to be seen - I wandered off, Vogueless.

The maple's suddenly gone to full leaf. Amazing the difference a week or two can make. I took a turn into the market this morning. Just for a wee look. The Tat Stall was still vacant, as expected. Hopefully Market Blokey's enjoying himself on a beach somewhere - preferably the sort of place where he might be able to pick up a joblot of NOS Guisval and Pilen diecast for cheap, and ship them back... I contented myself with an apple danish and a wanky latte, and reminisced on old times...

That's not cheating, that's engineering! Kids, eh...

I was working for Halfords when the Trade Card was launched, think it might have been around 2006 or so. There were 'incentives' for stores to sign up trade customers. Bonuses for the top store in the area, that sort of thing. Instructions from Head Office in Redditch on precise eligibility criteria were... vague. So you had a bunch of teenagers on a mumbled promise of riches, running round trying to sign up anyone who came through the door. Old giffer looking for a bottle of Triplewax and a Value sponge? Certainly sir, and would you like to sign up for our trade card? There's discounts... Harrassed mother in looking for a Zafira headlight bulb? Not a problem madam, and did you know it's cheaper if you're a Trade Card holder? So the next thing we knew, we'd signed up about 800 customers through our store, many of which were employees and their scratty friends and extended family members... lovely. Until the Area 6 weekly budget target dropped, and suddenly the store manager twigged that we were now expected to lift about £14,000 a week from Trade Card holders, based on the *very high* number of sign-ups we'd achieved... Fuck me, we'd have been doing well to lift £100 a week from Trade customers. 99% of our sign-ups only ever came in to buy Jelly Belly air fresheners and South Park demister pads, none of which counted as a trade purchase. You'd get the odd punter looking filters and a brake pad set, maybe a replacement door mirror, but that was it. So we never got near store budget again. And we didn't get any rewards either. In fact, "failing to achieve Trade Card targets" was used as a reason to deny us any quarterly bonuses, going forward. So, although I didn't realise it at the time, some staff then took it upon themselves to award their own bonuses... and suddenly our stock losses jumped too. All in all, it was a total disaster. It got worse a few months after launch when we were ordered to bin a load of our older spares stock like coils and starter motors and gasket sets, so the rare time any genuine members of the motor trade did pay us a visit for an urgent part, chances were we wouldn't have it. "We can get it in for you, for next Wednesday..." "Naw, yer alright son. I'll away and try Motortune." But fuck it, I've still got mine nearly twenty years later and I still use it - even though they seem to be heavily pushing this Halfords Motoring Club as their latest wheeze...

The HW Flying Customs in my local B&M were never priced on the shelves either, for some reason. Receipt shows they were a bit dearer than the mainlines, at £1.99 each - would that tie in with your overall spend?

Ex-Halfords parts desk monkey here. The own-brand batteries made by Yuasa are about 800 times better than when Lucas made them for us... not that that's saying very much. But while the 4-yr Calcium units are maybe pricey enough compared to what ECP will flog you, very very few of them ever came back as faulty. I processed our store's returns each week and it was rare there was a calcium battery logged as FAGO - and if it was, generally it had failed right towards the end of the warranty period. In which case the customer was given a new one, no quibbling - and with a fresh 4-yr warranty. If you're like me and running old nails with a projected lifespan of weeks/months then the cheapest battery out will probably do, but if you're popping it into something half-decent then I think you could do worse than a Halfords Calcium. £70 with discount sounds alright, to be fair.

Holy moley. That's some hot Corgi action. The tragedy is that I walked past the Brighton Toy Museum nearly every day for two years, and only ever went into the shop bit at the front once... Mind you - I might have exploded, so there's that.

Lifted by bailiffs due to non-payment of ULEZ fines, maybe? I fought the law and...