Jon

That looks lovely! Any update on other cars in the fleet?! Hope the move back over to Scotland is going well.

This is about the best I can do, re: Flip Tops chat!

EDIT: working on quoting the post!

Yes, that makes sense, now that I see that my crappy photo is showing shaded nubs and not holes, like I'd thought. I suppose I could've wandered across the room and looked at the actual casting!

Miniature shite has been a bit barren around my neck of the woods. Apart from 1 singular 2nd hand diecast purchase, last weekend saw the first splurge from from me for 2024, after '23 ended on a high with my AS bulk purchases arriving all at once! Partly, there's been a bit of shite apathy on my part, due to life stuff and the glut of arrivals late last year as mentioned - but most importantly, my phone broke a few months ago and I 'upgraded' it to a newer, better model, which takes terrible, terrible photos. That's proper knocked my mojo in documenting anything. But document I must, now I bought some stuff, from an annual car swapmeet. First up, a couple of Yatmings and a PlayArt quattro: Actually, it's an Audi Coupe, as shown by the script on the rear. But you'll have to take my word for it, as my brand new phone is so shockingly bad. Then I grabbed this Greyhound bus as a cheapie: Been out in the sun too long, as the glass and interior are all warped an melted. But I've never seen the removable Superfast axle cover in red before - nor a double axle cover either, for that matter. Or even a Superfast Greyhound bus! Though I'm sure none of the above is that uncommon. Also from the same seller was this sorry Siku: Missing the roof and rear door, but I have a complete one in the UK. I've defo got one or two trailers with missing hitch locks, so this'll help fix one of them at least. One seller had a few boxed Matchbox at $4 each, or 2 for $6 (roughly £3), so I nabbed these two. The grey 760 was one of the earliest new Matchbox toys I can remember owning, although I know I owned earlier versions. I can live with an unopened but stuffed box at this pricepoint. The Astra was a slightly educated gamble (of a whole £1.50), as the box made me think this was really quite a late issue for this casting. And if a cursory glance at Ebay for Hertfordshire Constabulary versions go for, this more than bankrolled my day out! Picked up this E-Type from a guy selling a load of Jag 1/43s, though this was by far the oldest, so of most interest to me. I'm a sucker for this era of Dinky, especially if it's not painted metallic red! That's a lovely shade, but this purple which I think was also used on the Capri is a lovely period hue. And the gold base just sets it off! Baby blue interior is a perfect colour match to the exterior shades, don't you think? Note the driver's seat back, which looks like it's spent all its 50+years wedged beneath the dash and steering wheel. If I'm not mistaken, this has all its parts present, although I'm not sure why there's 2 holes in the bulkhead when there's windscreen wipers cast into the 'screen. That's as far as I dared open the rear door, however: Finally, I bought this hefty lump: Perusing the model art on the back of the box reveals that I have a worrying number of these castings, or variants of... It's at this point that I must remind readers that I don't collect fire stuff. But if it's made by Siku, there seems to be an exception. Which explains why I now have an alarming amount of 70's Siku fire vehicles. Initially, the sheer weight of this thing and its modular construction led me to believe it'd be laden with features - but in actual fact, you're looking at them all. 4/10, buyer's remorse kicked in, yo. And actually, once I'd bought it, I'd remembered that I'd shunned it the year before from the same seller, though I did pick up a couple of other gems from him back then. But it's OK, as although he was firm on his price, I managed to get this wee box of nostalgia thrown in, as a veiled gift for my wife, who loves Lego: But I didn't check the contents first.... Honestly, the old guy stiffed me, wittingly or not. This is one of the sorriest excuses for a toy-shaped-object ever. The flipping wheels don't even spin on their axles. Look at the driver mocking me.

You can just see a black Corgi 944, issued late 80's/early 90's as a Mobil promotional, yet packaged in the black/yellow/orange box, phased out around the time Corgi hit the wall in 1983. So I think you're right to be sceptical.... Even more incongruous is the white Mobil 205 T16 in one of those boxes, from @andrew e's post! They may have been priced accordingly as interesting yet inaccurate bitsas, but I'm guessing the 911 wasn't.

Indeed, I thought just the same! Google seems to confirm: Going by the wheel style (quite the snazzy peened axle effort), I didn't imagine that T2 van to be quite as old as it is! Looks like a great find, @bunglebus.

This one? Currently for sale here (but not cheap!): https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/354917947701 Came as part of the Corgitronics Leyland truck set, which IIRC had a couple of interchangeable covers for the rear trailer and a clicker thing, to make it turn, or something. Certainly, I remember playing with the mat and truck (both my older brother's), with Yorkie liveried box on the back and although the clicker still existed, it was long defunct.

Oh my, was that really 6 years ago?! I'm currently spending my Birthday (rather unexpectedly) in Burnley!

Hmm. Cooper-Jarrett trailer with intact doors! If that's a couple of quid, colour me interested. Am still very much after a bogie for the double trailer rig, too... Looking forward to further surprise duo updates! Were you aware of a guest appearance prior, Tim?

The Chipperfields ticket office van is nice but @bunglebus found this little gem for me, which is my top pick: The March 1965 adaptation into the Joe's Diner mobile canteen. Can't get enough of these 6 decade old fonts and designs. Significant modifications were made to the roof and the offside, to add much more play value. Despite this, it was withdrawn in 1966, though amassed sales of 147000 in less than 2 years, versus the 1962-64 circus booking office (133000), 1960-64 butcher's shop (106000) and the 1957-62 Smith's Mobile Shop (207000). A serving hatch was added, which then required an interior, rather than a cardboard backing to the windows, as previously seen. Here's Joe, ready to serve some uninspiring yet no doubt hearty fare. My Grandad was called Joe, so I imagine this one to also be a jolly Scot with a penchant for short bouts of shrill whistling. Here's Joe showing off his party trick, which is the ability to be spun round to the prep area, via a twizzly knob eminating from his head. This pleasant little casting really comes alive at 'night', though: Check out the warm glow from the amber roof panel: It gives a lovely impression of the romance of these old canteens, before they all changed to white boxy trailers with cheap vinyl sign writing, touting greasy kebabs and warm tins of pop. Joe's really in his element there, twizzling round back and forth on the spot, whistling the same two notes with great gusto, ad infinitum. But the real (glacé) cherry on the cake is the front signage, warmly back-lit via the medium of trans-o-lite: I'm a sucker for old mobile shops/canteens etc. as I love studying all the period detail and as such, this has taken a prominent place on the living room book shelf.

Fair enough. The south is a nicer holiday spot, I reckon!

IF you allow a light van to be included in this conundrum, then may I add: 1985 Bedford Midi Replaced by the Vauxhall Arena in 1997 - aka a rehashed 1980* Renault Trafic. A little bit of inaccurate licence applied here, as the Midi was a rebadged Isuzu Fargo, which I knew was launched prior to '85; turns out it was launched in 1980, also! And the Arena was based on the facelifted Trafic, launched after the Midi. But the structure of the van is still the same, really. And from what I can gather the Fargo was launched in December 1980 and the Trafic launched August 1980. So a close call but I think it'd still apply. So theoretically, someone could've bought an early Trafic, replaced it with a Midi in '85, then kept loyal to the (by now) Vauxhall brand and replaced it over a decade later, with a freshly launched version of a van they'd bought new 15 or so years prior!

What's your travel plans in NZ?

Here's a little 'shoot' I did on my old phone, before Christmas! Subject this time was a glorious Corgi Super Juniors Ford D Series removal truck, acquired I think from @155V6: I'd known of various D Series Corgi efforts but don’t think I'd seen any with the earlier wheels, which really suit it. The fonts chosen really set it off, though I'm guessing these have had a bit of a touch-up in the past, or the QC staff had the day off when this was assembled. There's some play value added too, with the access ramp allowing all sorts of small scale junk to be stowed away there. That said, the cast-in barn doors up top hinder the stowage somewhat and are an incongruous oversight... Until I read that the chassis of the removal van was shared with the low loader. Which was also sold as a Husky Major! I imagined the name change would've coincided with the change from spun wheels and tyres to Whizzwheels but it seems there was a transition period. For completions sake, there was also a transoprter sold, which along with the low loader, was deemed worthy of selling into the Whizzwheels era, unlike the removals truck; understandable, when you consider play value (and selling more castings to load them with). You can load cars into the removals trailer but you have to choose your subject carefully: Got this Husky Jeep from @bunglebus, as I had one years back, bought from a jumble sale or car boot sale, in the early 90's. On its arrival, I discovered that there are 2 wheel variations on these Husky Jeeps, as the one I originally had featured those seen on the Ford, as such: Think my original one still had the driver clinging on to the seat, after seeing a couple of decades pass by. Anyway, the Jeep is an equally pleasant little casting and if you reverse it in to the trailer, you can test the approach angle (if you're a middle aged bloke who doesn't mind taking photos of half-century old toys on his kitchen floor...)

My phone broke last week, which has resulted in me buying a new one, which for some unfathomable reason is flipping massive. Anyway, technological aversion aside, I wanted to check out its image taking abilities, especially since it has 3 separate lenses on the back... I chose this nifty French Dinky R4, bought from @dugong a few months back: Seems it does funny things to the colour temperature, when LED lighting is involved. I'll give it its dues, a lot of digital cameras seem to really struggle with orange shades, so coupled with LEDs, I expected there'd be some issues. I'd say this is more representative of its true shade: (Forgive image quality - most of these images are screenshots to rectify orientation, as I took many of them with the phone upside down) Tested some extreme back-light: And then I got all trademark art-wank, as I noticed a lovely hard shadow on the kitchen floor, from the window above ^ I should point out that this is a repaint, which has been nicely executed, with only the merest hint of wobble in some of the silver details. There's an odd chip here and there too but it doesn't bother me. Nice to have a French Dinky in the collection. Would definitely like to expand the numbers at some point. Thought this one came out nicely. Then I requisitioned a blue plastic storage tub and a grater from the washing up pile, to come up with this contrived effort. Anyway, barring the bigger size, this new phone seems to take an acceptable photo for a bunch of middle aged blokes to peruse, so I guess that's a positive. I'll just need to sew some bigger pockets to house it...

It's in lovely shape for something approaching 60 years old, and as such has taken pride of place on the book shelf in the living room: Note also the street lamp, which @Tenmil Socket grabbed for me from a junk shop in Brighton, I believe. Now to find the little Elvis man! This lustrous green FC actually replaced a red cherry picker with early domed wheels, as space is a bit low on the book shelf. Am on the lookout for a conveyor belt version but they seem quite common still, so thrill of the chase will see me nab one eventually, I'm sure. Apologies for a bit of radio silence of late - and also the scruffy photo above, as I'm using my old phone, whilst my usual one is (hopefully) drying out after getting wet a couple of days ago. My folks have now departed back to the UK and I'm trying my best to be productive in the good weather but will look to make time for some diecast updates. There's certainly plenty to mention!

Yes, I still have the Cavalier but it's been off the road a while. Just needs gentle recommissioning really but I've forgotten the various jobs required, it's been that long! It's a 1983 SRi, so a 1.6 injection engine. Not as fun to drive as a 205 but a really competent car for it being 40 years old. Here's a shot just after I'd renovated it's iconic wheels - I got the centre caps from a very generous guy on the Mk2 Cav forum, along with good used seat material, to renovate the driver's torn Recaro! On a personal note, I always seem to take a photo when the ivy creep is at it's worst... Anyway, like yourself, a Cavalier was a big part of my growing up, with us having an estate as a family car for almost 20 years. They were never sold in NZ but new cars were hard to source here, up to the mid-80's, so emigrants often brought a car with them. This one arrived in late '86. Have a festive shot, as this was us stopping at a scenic spot for breakfast on the way to my cousin's house on Christmas Day, a few years back. If you ever make it over here and it's up and running, you're more than welcome to take it for a drive! And indeed, the sun can be really damaging to lacquers over here but there doesn't seem to be a social stigma with driving a scruffy looking car, which I fully endorse!

We bought a 1.9 205 GTi, ex Japanese market in 2011, a few months after moving to NZ. In terms of the bell curve of their value, we struck lucky and bought it cheap (as in, 3 figures in £, cheap) and it was Mrs_Jon's daily driver for 3 years. Beyond that point, it owed us nothing, so stayed in the fold as a spare car and something to lend out to visitors. It spent a few years with my cousin, who although kept it in tip top condition mechanically, pranged it at low speed and 'fixed' broken French components like only a field engineer could. Here's the sorry old sod last year: The rain certainly improves the paint job. Here's what it looked like, in full Kiwi sun: Lacquer/non-lacquer mix was about 50:50. Please ignore the overgrown weeds, which we're constantly battling with. Those with shiter's eyesight will have noted that it isn't the only vehicular reprobate needing attention and the bodges fixes it'd received over the years had somewhat dampened our enthusiasm for it, so we decided to sell. Here it is exiting our ownership on the new owner's very, very nice trailer, which drops to the ground for loading low cars! It honestly couldn't have gone to a better owner, so we were over the moon that he has the inclination to make it good. He also owns some tasty motors, including an Auburn(!), so it'll be in good company. The healthy profit was also a nice bonus! We don't sell cars often but this whole experience gave us the warm fuzzies. Fortunately, we're not sans French hot hatch, as our last trio line-up photo shows: See what I mean about battling the weeds?The 172 replaced the Pug and has offered largely faultless daily service over the last 9 years. The Visa has been the polar opposite but is still here...

Have some more not-1/43 castings that appealed to my hair-trigger finger: A couple of lovely AMC Javelins. I'm a fan of almost every AMC model but, quirky later 4x4 models aside, I think the Javelin is one of their best efforts. These are of course Matchboxes and I vaguely remember there being a green one in the toy box, years ago. Not sure if it was a late entrant, or bought new. If it was the latter, then it was my older brother's, as I'm sure these standard casting Javelins had been replaced by the racing versions by my time. During the change, the opening doors were lost, along of course with the slightly incongruous tow bar. Whilst the blue one's hook is missing from the bar, the green's is complete. Though green is more familiar, I prefer the earlier wheels and fab shade of the blue. Writing this, I think I'm drawn to blue cars, as I currently own 4 of them! The accentuated front wheel arches and slightly gawky long bonnet, yet somehow 'cab forward' styling of Javelins really appeals. I'm probably getting my car design analogies all wrong there but the rears of these seem just a little too short. I think the rear wheels are perhaps a little too far back, which is in stark contrast to the AMX, which had a short wheelbase and sizeable overhangs. Here's a real actual one I spotted 6 years ago, in a dealer's lot in Illinois: Look at those uneven proportions! Gloriously down at heel seems fitting for a modified 70's muscle car in the 21st century. Absolute chef's kiss on the name. Why don't modders name their steeds any more? The last car I remember seeing with a title was a face-lift Vectra in the early 2000's, in that Vauxhall bronze colour, body kit bedecked and named: The Ginger Bitch. Halcyon Days. Finally for now is this Hot Wheels Ford Fairmont. Bought this to replace the one I had as a wee'un. For some reason, I grew up under the belief that this was my first ever toy car. If that was true, then it was a slightly left-field choice for a UK child in the early 80's. That said, we had a smattering of HWs and me and my brother both had HW fold out carry case play sets from this era, so there could be a grain of truth to it. I didn't actually know what it was a representation of, growing up (and admittedly, until I read the base on its arrival!) but it's a fair representation of an a domestic Fox body Fairmont, so am guessing it's quite accurate to the racing one. Regardless, the 3 box design was accurate enough to appeal to young me: had it been an open wheel racer, I doubt I would've played with it much. Did one of these inspire my life in a positive way, or just open a can of worms? Who knows!

Continuing my sporadic documenting of overseas arrivals, here's a few more: Initially, this looks like a grubby little casting, akin to a cracker toy or some such. And that's likely true to a point but this is a Playart casting, so I was naturally drawn to it when @danthecapriman offered it up for literal pence - 25 of them, from memory. On arrival to the tat holding area in York, my Dad became interested in it, as it was clearly a miniaturised loose copy homage to the Lesney 200 gallon water tanker. I'd thought as much, as one was included in the basket of cast off toys of my uncle, left round my grandparent's house and as such, a source of hours of enjoyment from a younger me. I'll admit I was entirely price and brand led on picking this one but it's certainly got high curio value (to, erm, me) and budget casting elements aside, the paint has a nice lustre. I've also got some other similar castings knocking about somewhere, so I guess I collect these now, too...? This is possibly a @bunglebus buy, with a mind to use with some nice period US street scenes I've got lined up, although I'm severely lacking in mojo for the whole endeavour, tbh. I was also drawn to the comically long boot of this Husky rendition of an Oldsmobile Starfire hardtop. Admittedly, the real one isn't short but I think there's a little artistic scale contrivement going on here. Still, plenty of room to stow lumps of dirt, gravel and chewed up balls of paper, or whatever else a 60's child may have stashed away. For such a cheap casting, it certainly has some presence, though. Same mood doesn't really apply to the final one for today. Though this is my least favourite style of 20th Century F series truck, the intact camper body was of interest. And that service body out back (which I'm sure Corgi used in other applications for max value) does at least delete the over styled standard truck body, so I've only half as many horridly penned wheel arches to see beyond. Again, for such a cheap model, Corgi have done well. There is of course a high proportion of brittle silvered plastic but it actually suits the camper body well. The yellow back door which slides open is also a nice little touch. Some semblance of a camper interior is also attempted, which is often not the case. If I'd have had one of these growing up, the temptation to lift off the camper body from the retaining clips would've been too great, so I'm glad the previous owners have shown more self control, as I'm sure the body wouldn't survive such an endeavour intact. Anyway, I don't remember the prices of the Huskies but they were bought on here, so wouldn't have cost much. In fact, this little lot would probably stretch to the price of a standard new Hot Wheels. Amazing!

Absolute number plate HEAVEN within these photos. Excellent stuff! Was the roof addition a bit of a nod at modernising/styling the 127, when it became a Fiorino? Looks like it could be a roof rack but I doubt any were ever utilised. But they somehow make the van look a lot more purposeful, a la Talbot Rancho. Here's hoping the duo can make it to FOTU in 2024. If these don't make it to the winner's stage, I'll be shocked.

Have another from the recent UK sourced diecast box: Dinky 147 Cadillac. This one was in a bundle deal from @dugong, some months back. I love the raised roofline on this, with the extended glass coverage really accentuating the long, low belt line. Or something, I don't know. The colour is glorious, too. I'm no Caddy nerd and the baseplate is no help in ID-ing it but my best bet is it's a 1961 Sedan Deville. The narrow track, although likely accentuated as much as the glasshouse by miniaturising, is nevertheless quite accurate looking to me. Seems the track of many post war US cars took a while to catch up with the width of their bodies. Indeed, that's one of the many elements of modern rims on older cars I dislike, as they always seem to try and 'correct' this. Here's the view you'd have in your fading moments, as the nefarious bunch of hoods burble off into the desert night, back to the casino. Actually, this model seems a bit highbrow for such activities. Anyway, a lovely item that's now displayed on the living room book shelf. Indeed, the Hong Kong Dinky Riviera has been ousted, to make way for it!

Good info (and execution!) regarding hose stowage. A toothpick was deployed! And yes, it's a very worthy candidate for hauling across the globe. Thanks again for sourcing! Armed with your suggestion and Tim's enlightenment on how to put a rubber hose back, I did some further investigating: The sign mount is square, so no spinning to reel in. Pressing it showed a bit of play but rather than movement of a mechanism, it just felt like a slightly rattly piece of plastic. Let's look at the canopy again. This angle doesnt make it too apparent but this mostly covers up the space below the locating hole for the sign, when stowed away. So any ideas that the missing sign had a long rod that activated a reel are again dismissed. Note also the painted casting hole in the canopy, from the factory. Presumably the Siku QC staff were unaware of this very stealth feature! And then finally, whilst housing the hose using the toothpick method, I noticed the hose backing up above the pump panel, which revealed the other end to be knotted, also. Therefore, despite the needless bulk, there's no party tricks for the hoses, which is quite un-Siku like. Case closed!

Yeah, I've never seen one of those, either! Looking at the rather generic livery without sponsors, I'm guessing this is either a last gasp effort to sell remaining castings in later years, or perhaps a Tesco version (again, sold in later years). Certainly, I remember a yellow SD1 with similar racing numbers and stripes.