Datsuncog

Took a bit of a lunchtime adventure to another town today, incidentally. Because I knew there was a newsagent which has a really old-school toy department upstairs. I haven't been in for many, many years - but, as mentioned upthread, I've developed a bit of an odd hankering for those Matchbox Action Driver sets. This is a branch of Stewart Miller - once a fairly substantial chain of eight or nine newsagent/ bookseller/ toy stores, but now there's just the two branches left. I struck lucky over at the Holywood branch last month with some very nicely priced Matchbox Moving Parts vehicles and a 2020 release Action Drivers set: And I had been quietly going doo-lally in the intervening period, wondering how I could get over to the Newtownards branch, just in case they had even more. So, today something in me snapped and I drove over. About 45 minutes driving, each way. Hopes were perhaps unfeasibly high, and... There were lots of fairly inexpensive loose vehicles of far-eastern manufacture, but those weren't what I was looking for. Matchbox... ah. Mmm... not such a spectacular selection of mainlines. Mostly just motorbike trailers. And no Moving Parts range vehicles to be seen at all. There was an Action Drivers set... But it's the same one I bought from the Holywood branch, except it's missing the generic 4x4 vehicle that should be with the packaging. So, no dice on that. Dunno why I've become so taken with these sets lately. I mean, they're pretty good and all for what they are, but they're still very toy-like. Nonetheless, I've found myself increasingly looking these up on eBay and Amazon, and watching unboxing videos on YouTube, and... generally falling down a hole. It's hard not to weep when our Transatlantic cousins casually mention that these sets are 'ten dollars at Target', cos they're generally a brave bit more on these shores. But I digress. I wasn't missing out, anyway, and that's the main thing. These caught my eye, though: A similar idea from Bburago, only bigger - 1/43 cars and buildings. Not bad value to be fair, for a fiver. But stay! What's this? Crikey. Bburago City, no less. A smaller picture on top shows the actual contents, indicating that the box may be needlessly oversize: But still, if you wanted to construct a backdrop for displaying 1/43 cars, you could probably do worse for the money. But I'm not really looking for 1/43 diorama stuff, so... a wasted journey? Not quite. I was very surprised to find this Magirus-Deutz fire tender down among the loose commercials: I mean... how old is this? Thirty. It's thirty years old. Matchbox by Tyco, 1994. And... it's just been here, all this time, unsold and unwanted? Apparently so. Blimey. There were no Matra Ranchos or BMW 7-Series from the same range lurking anywhere else, sadly. I did look. But what an oddity. Just goes to show - you never know what turns up, sometimes...

Ooh - I see they have some of the older Matchbox Action Drivers playsets on the shelves there - the 2020 Helicopter Rescue (with generic ambulance), the 2021 Park & Play Garage (with green Mustang) and the 2022 Bus Depot (with generic City Bus). Getting quite hard to track down now - I wish I'd bought more of them when Home Bargains were stocking them for between £5 and £7! Those seem to be the same sort of money as I'd expect to pay off Amazon or eBay including postage (£27/ £15), but still - good to see them in the wild. Nice Majorette trailer packs - haven't seen those before anywhere. Well done on tracking down the elusive 2023 Matchbox case with the blue Ford F150 - not seen that selection anywhere near me.

No such luck in my local Tesco branch last night, sadly. Just more Push-N-Pullers and Fire Dasher trucks from the mid-2023 mix. Sainsbury's had two tubs of Hot Wheels out on the shelves last night, which raised my pulse rate a smidge, but they both just contained last year's stuff. Still some nice models in there, but I've got all I want from this selection already! Meh. Looks like I'll be playing the long game, then...

The Reverend Bluejeans - Autoshite

So, where did it all finish? Bit like this. White Marcos GT850 and Fulvia are set aside for @FakeConcern, while the yellow Marcos 3-Litre is in the @NorfolkNWeigh box (will look up the spreadsheet later and ping you over your total, dude!) One of the RS2000s is for @andrew e, while I've already opened the other one and have been merrily running it up and down the kitchen table. Greenlight Ford bus is still available, if anyone's keen! And that's about it for this week - other than to wish you all a Happy Friday Saturday, kids.

Ah, interesting - while taking a brief scoot through the Belfast branch of The Entertainer yesterday, I noticed Hot Wheels two-packs on the pegs for the first time: Not exactly great value at £4.60 though, when their long running three-for-two offer on mainline singles means you can get three cars for £4.80. If the new three-packs are £6, then I'm going to guess the three-for-two offer will be finishing up before long. Plenty of Hot Wheels on the shelves, though - these seem to have recently been reorganized. The Team Transports seem to have been restocked and reduced, though not as much as they were back in December. Other than the recently stocked-out models in the Moving Parts range, there's very little Matchbox stuff to be seen in the store - just the one shelf-end display containing the exact same mainlines selection that we were seeing over a year ago, plus a couple of five-packs and ten-packs. But no more Hitch & Haul diorama two-packs, no more Skybusters, and still no Action Drivers sets (which Lakeside seem to have on the shelves) - it certainly doesn't seem that it's a line they're planning on expanding for 2024, which is kinda disappointing. I also had a nosey in Cash Converters, without much to grab me: The Phase 1 Laguna estate in the crazy-big box is still here, and still quite pricey. So's the Presidential DS. And these... Yeah, £4 each? Errr... no. Just no. I schelepped around most potential diecast distributors in Belfast, without much success. Poundstretcher are still bulging with Matchbox and long-card Hot Wheels at a somewhat inflated price; I note that they started cutting their Matchbox prices to half-price in March last year, so maybe the same thing will occur again? Poundland had virtually no diecast in their big Ann St store, though quite a lot in the Castle Court outlet - just none I'm looking for. TK Maxx had no diecast of interest - no Majorette, no Matchbox etc. I nearly didn't bother with B&M, as they've been pretty rubbish of late for diecast and I'm kinda tired of having to run the Fart Ninja gauntlet every time I toddle down the toy aisle... it's just a little exasperating. But! Ok, maybe it was worth it.

Before I left, I stopped over at Alan's Emporium, which doesn't really get rockin' and rollin' til well after 9. The 50p Tray, then.. Other than a Corgi Juniors quarry truck with no tipper, and a Lesney Leyland artic that's missing the Leyland, I can't say there's much to draw the eye today. Though there was this Maisto Shell Collection Ferrari Superamerica up top, priced at a strangely reasonable £1.50. And what appeared to be a DeAgostini Maserati Grand Prix racer at a frankly bargainous 75p. Yet this Days Gone Ford van in teeth-suckingly anachronistic Shredded Wheat livery is still out at £8... Ah, Alan. Never change.

With Colin going off on holiday next week, and in solidarity with the generally deplorable state of sales at the market, I did go a bit mad and buy this Greenlight Ford Club Wagon off him. I do like these, and have been on the lookout for the 1/43 Bond part work version for a while now. Seems to be some sort of National Parks safety collection, which doesn't really grab me - but it does come with a canoe, at any rate. I'm happy enough to keep this for myself - but it was a bit of an impulse purchase, so if anyone else fancies it, do sing up before I take a Stanley knife to the packaging later!

Lastly, there's this... Yup, another early Whizzwheels placeholder, created by jazzing up an older casting - it's the Lancia Fulvia Sport Zagato. In Very Orange. Typically, this would show up after the impressive lengths taken by @FakeConcern to recreate a Whizzwheels version using an earlier rubber-wheels car and the base from the utterly trashed Whizzwheels version that showed up in a tat box last year. It's not perfect, mind... Given that the rest of the car's in very nice shape, I really don't know what's happened here. But with a little work, and a donor grille and headlight, this could look pretty well. £10 paid, and £10 takes it.

I've kind of had an eye out for one of these ever since I saw one in the @bunglebus collection: I hadn't realised the German peelermobile had made it into the Whizzwheels era, though without its directional steering functions. Jaunty little angle on the nearside door decal. Apparently there are a fair few variants of this, including one with a white body and green wings. But it's a nice little thing, so I think I might just keep this one for myself, for now anyway.

More Marcos fun, with this incarnation of the 3-litre wearing Teledial speed wheels: Apart from a few knocks, this one's very clean. The original opening doors feature had been lost by the time this example was produced, but the opening bonnet with a shiny engine's still there! It's in pretty honest condition, with the bonnet sticker in good fettle too. Also up for £10, to whoever might fancy it.

Mini Marcos GT850 in white, as profiled a fortnight ago: A fairly uncommon model in Whizzwheels form, as it wasn't a great seller and didn't stay in the lineup for long. This isn't trashed, but it's been messed with a bit: Various paint touch-ups and tampo loss are evident. The clear lenses over the headlights are missing too - and the base indicates it's been taken apart at some stage. Overall, a good guilt-free restoration candidate - either back to its original white, or in the rare pale blue that only came with the Transporter Set. I know @FakeConcern expressed some interest the other week - but if that's waned, then it's available to anyone who fancies it for the £10 paid.

Yeah, I wouldn't either!! They may well show up in the £2 selection in coming weeks - and if so, just tip me the nod.

While snapping pics and tutting earlier, The Nemesis had approached me with a proposition. (Of the diecast variety, you understand.) He'd brought in the Whizzwheels Marcos this week - and a few more besides. I'm kinda coming round to the appeal of these models, and Corgi's doomed hope to compete with Hot Wheels by 'upgrading' some of their existing castings with nylon speed wheels - though, going by the chatter on the Corgi Model Club groups, some still see them as vastly inferior to the 'golden age' castings of the mid-60s, and have no reticence in expressing this. So I jumped on them. (Not literally.)

£5 each. They appear to be by Hongwell, and have been opened - hence missing light bars etc.

Some new stuff had appeared on Colin's Irish Tat stall: The latest Vanguards Mk1 Escort release, for starters. Just not something I can get very excited about, I'm afraid. He also has the 1/72 Royal Rover P5 and 'Lady Di' Metro supposedly arriving today from Oxford, but too late for this morning's stall set-up. Some new Greenlights had arrived too, though: And some of the stuff we've had before, too. Apparently the Hot Wheels Mariokart models are good sellers for him. The Charity Stall hadn't much of interest - a box of assorted toys held some minor promise, but ultimately was mostly rubbish therein - a broken Majorette tow truck couldn't really raise my pulse. So - time for a coffee, and a think...

The Usual Suspects in Lledo Corner were back, inevitably... At £2, this 1/43 Hongwell rendering of a Bini floppytop was probably the best of a bad bunch: But I didn't much fancy it myself. Some military odds and sods also appeared... And some unwanted Rio and MoYs put in an encore performance from last week. Some interesting stuff was set up at the back of the stall, including this plastic Marx hovercraft: But these are generally big-league prices. Just as I was thinking that was it, Market Blokey began to unload another box - which initially filled me with hope, but that soon settled... Even at a fiver, it seems these Days Gone sets aren't really shifting. Matchbox Dinky Commer van wearing HMV livery was ok, despite the box taking a lot of UV flak over the years and so crumbling away to flakes. I think I like these, but I keep buying them and then getting rid of them again, so I can never remember whether I have one or not at any given time. Maybe that's telling me something... I find it hard to believe that RCMP ever used Jaguar S-Types as police cruisers, but I'd love to find out that it were true. Fiat Marea in Polizia colours kind of unusual, but perhaps an outlier for Belfast collectors. Ah well. Time to see what else the market has to offer...

On arrival, all I could see of any great interest was a small box of mostly repainted Corgi and Dinky, some of which were slightly familiar... Mmm. I think a few of these have been on the stall back in January - the repainted red Dinky Porsche 356 sticks in my mind, as does the Corgi custom Corvette in that shade of purpley-blue that seems to be the colour of every Hyundai i10 locally. Hmmm... Most of these have been monkeyed around with to a greater or lesser extent. Dinky Pontiac ambulance has been inexpertly drilled, partly painted, and is currently held together with sellotape. I'll be honest, I'm not really seeing a tenner's worth on these. Missing a-posts and Humbrol everywhere? Think I'll pass. Thanks, but no thanks. I'm sure someone's had their fun dickying up these old tinplates, and it's good to see - but I think their resale value's pretty low now. Meanwhile, m'learned friend had already been through and made his selections before I even made it through the doors: Solid blue Corgi Mk3 Escort seems to be the same main body colour as the police version, and hence took his interest... Budgie Wolseley police car is quite decent. Corgi and Dinky Minis, in Cooper and Clubman flavour, also took his fancy while an early Dinky Lagonda completed his haul for the day.

Definitely getting a little bit brighter by the time 7.30 draws near... Damp, but not overly cold. Quiet inside the market... But the stalls we come to see were up and tatting - and so were the familiar faces, of course.

About three or four years back, my local Tesco Extra began stocking the premium Hot Wheels Car Culture range (£7 then; generally £9 now). Whenever I was in looking through the mainline tubs, doing my 'rat going through a bin' routine (to quote MrsDC), oftentimes I'd find these premiums just slung in with the regular HW releases. I'm quite sure that more than a couple of these ended up going through the checkout because a kid had picked one out of the blue tub, and a distracted parent mistakenly thought it was just a little £1.50 car based on the shelf-edge label - and would they even realise the price difference at the time, amidst a trolleyful of groceries? I also encountered a number of torn-open empty boxes from these premiums stuffed in behind the other toys on the shelves - and maybe this is why Tesco don't seem to stock them anymore; too much theft. Which is all to say, one way or another there are probably a fair few of these Premiums lying chipped at the bottom of a toybox within a mile radius of where I'm sitting right now! So, although I haven't found any in a rummage box yet, I'm still hopeful...

I had that one as a kid - may have come as part of a multi pack, but was definitely available as a mainline model too.

Oooft! Now there's a winnermobile, right there! Looking forward to the troubleshooting and eventual triumphant recommissioning of this fine slab of Americana. Magnificent.

Will do - I know Corgi produced a few decent FH models in 1/50, though I think they were mostly Mk2 versions. Will keep an eye out! You're probably right that it's a Bakewell slice - nothing's labelled in the cafe, so it's just as much of a surprise as the Tat Boxes... Seemingly I thrive on chaos.

Ah, that's handy to know - I think I might have one of those Bernard tractor units lying around doing very little, as it happens...