AndyW201

Aye, I managed to slide a thin steel rule down it, it'll look alright when it's glued back down. I suppose glued flaps (ouch!) are easier to deal with than plastic blister packs...

Got home to a parcel from Ana's Hot Wheels site, who I use occasionally to get the stuff I can't find in the shit shops round here. First off, a couple of Matchbox mainlines, I must be about the only person in the country who couldn't find this one in the shops when it came out, but now I've got one. Already got the yellow and metallic blue ones, but I'm still on the hunt for the Target-exclusive Onyx green version, after narrowly missing out on it a couple of times ... The MR2 looks good in metallic blue, A very sparkly metallic blue! Bunglebus beat me to it with showing one of these, but I'm loving the Moving Parts Beemer CSL, like I did the original Superfast one I had as a kid. I like the new Moving Parts packaging, but FFS Mattel, would it kill you to have tuck-in flaps on the ends of the boxes rather than gluing the bastards down? I wanted to have this one out but it was impossible to get the glued down flap open without damaging it, Still, it's out now, and it's a lovely thing. Nice detailing for the size, Bonnet opens like on the real thing, lift the front first, and slide forward slightly, then open, To reveal some lovely under bonnet detail. In all, a little belter! And a few HW Premiums which, again, I didn't stand a cat in hells chance of getting anywhere else, Sierra Cossie looks great, apart from that bloody locating pillar, Finally got the flat-front Escort MK2, again, a nice wee thing. Very close to the livery of Björn Waldegård's 1977 British Airways-liveried car, one of my fave liveries. But getting this one was the highlight though, I really wanted it at the time, then kind of forgotten about it until it came up on the sales site, Yep, it's a bit '90s Max Power with the body mods, etc, but it's a bloody Purple Corrado, so that's good enough for me. Another little stunner!

Found nothing much locally, still dithering over that Matchbox 5 pack with the Minor in Morrisons but I don't fancy much else in it. Might as well see if they drop the price... Only real 'toy' shop I've bothered with lately is Smyths, and it did nothing to dissuade me that our local one is the dumping ground for all the shite that doesn't sell in other branches. They've also completely done away with Matchbox mainlines, with only a couple of 5 packs reduced to clear remaining. Nothing really of interest among the hot Wheels premiums other than the Porsche set with the VW T1, but didn't really want to blow £24 on it. No Team Transport whatsoever either. Only other bit of interest was that they had that new run of Neon Speeders in, and for once they had the whole range in. I got a few of them, the ones I had most interest in, and the RX-7 too, as there was only one of those left, As mentioned on here before, they're not everyone's cup of tea, but this run at least has some good castings in, and being half-premium, they do at least have some good detailing, Suppose this type of colour scheme suits the RX-7 the most, One of my favourite HW castings, but I wish they'd done it with the standard rear arches as theyre one of my favourite bits of the real car, The tail light detailing and the little GT R badges make this one for me, Another winner of a casting, I also recently found another couple of these Fast& Furious ones, the two I've been looking for after bunglebus kindly supplied me with the Jetta. For F&F cars, they're fairly nice and subtle, I had been tempted by the premium version of this casting, but I'm glad I got this one. I always think these Novas are handsome things, especially with a bit of slight modding, and as mentioned on here before, this one's almost as good as the premium one, but less than half the price,

Sadly no, I've been on the lookout for that since you put pictures up of it! 😆

@Spottedlaurel happy birthday! Had my weekly pilgrimage to Morrison's to get my unhealthy food stash for the Scotland truck run. I was pleased to find my local store has started doing diecast again, with Hot Wheels and Matchbox mainlines, along with some 1/43 Jada Star Car things, (KITT, BTTF DeLorean, F&F etc). Sadly the Hot Wheels and Matchbox were still old cases, the HW was the batch that Aldi got in months ago, and the Matchbox was that batch that has been everywhere since 2023, yep, the one with the green Ranchero and the blue Nissan Sentra... But it was encouraging all the same, that particular Morrisons has been one of my more successful hunting grounds over the years. It wasn't all bad news though, they had some Matchbox 5-packs in, and they looked like pretty new ones. I was going to get some pics, but loitering around Berwick Hills Morrisons early on a morning taking pictures of toys isn't the best of ideas... There were some nice packs, including a "British Roadways" one, with a Trafalgar blue-ish Minor saloon, The new Coffee Cruisers one isn't bad either, but this is one pack I couldn't leave behind, The Skyline GTX is still one of my fave castings, not a bad livery either, Not sure about the colour on this one, but I've been after one of these spaceship Civic Type Rs for yonks now, so it's nice to finally get one, First Matchbox Impreza too, though I've got quite a few Hot Wheels ones, The Mazda 3 looks quite sharp in white, Great colour scheme too on the 4-Runner.

Had a delivery today. A few years ago, there was a glut of Opel dealer models flooding onto eBay at heavily discounted prices. I had a Vauxhall at the time, (now the wife's car), and with the majority of them being made by Minichamps, and I can't resist a cheap Minichamps model, I snapped quite a few of them up. This was one I didn't manage to at the time, and has since proved quite hard to track down. This particular model appeals to me on a few levels, a love of sporty cars that you wouldn't expect to see a sporty version of, cars that answered a question that nobody asked, and cars that were everyday street furniture right up to the point when they suddenly weren't. So, a version of a car normally found in supermarket or garden centre car parks, but with a 178bhp turbo engine, low and stiff suspension, 17" wheels and batwing Recaro seats. It wasn't a bad time for Vauxhall back in the mid 2000s, with a modicum of BTCC success, and the whole VXR thing giving their image a bit of a shot in the arm, but the Meriva and Zafira VXR & OPC suggested something a bit stronger than Golden Virginia being passed around the table at Vauxhall/Opel marketing meetings... So, the Meriva could probably never be described as pretty but it looks pretty purposeful with the OPC (VXR to us) paraphernalia attached. One thing Minichamps manage to do well is capturing the lower ride height of the sporty models. Detailing is good, particularly the front and rear lights. Nice to see actual miniature Opel badges, rather than tampo printed, and the correct OPC tailpipe. The snowflake alloys are done well, with discs and nice painted calipers beneath. Even chassis and suspension detail is pretty good. Usual Minichamps detail inside, including those Recaro seats. Having owned a new Corsa C SXi many years ago, the dash is all familiar stuff. Being a reduced price dealer model, it is all a bit black and plain. I've seen the proper OPC-branded version in Arden blue and that has nice colour-coded seats and trim, but I'm not paying the price people ask for that version... Only problem with this is with paint imperfections, which seems to be a thing with Minichamps. A few of mine have gone like this, including this car's bigger brother, the OPC Vectra, which is the same colour. But they were a fraction of usual Minichamps money, so I'll live with it. This should go well with the rest of the All Voxalls R Shit collection, I've got a black Corsa C by Minichamps that I've had since I owned the real thing, which fits nicely with this, as well as a Vectra C OPC and OPC versions of the Astra H and J. I'm on the lookout now for the Minichamps dealer Zafira OPC, but seeing the prices people want for them, it'll take a while...

Possibly should be some susie coils on the back of the cab with some coloured wires representing the trailer air lines? I've got the Corgi Brian Harris ERF with crushed car load and the susies are on a small plastic block pushed into a hole in the rear of the cab. Then again, I can't see any small holes in the front of the trailer that the other end should push into. Bloody nice truck though, I love the styling of the Ergo cab.

Would anyone be interested in this? (Sold!) This Vanguards Crapi got damaged when a shelf fell on it and bust the windscreen. (A front spotlight has also been lost, never to be seen again.) I've fashioned a windscreen from a piece of clear plastic, not great but not terrible either. Only other fault is old sausage-fingers here also lost the front fixing screw when I had it apart, so another longer screw is in, but it holds the car together, and can't be seen when on display. Still a nice model that displays well, or good for a custom job. Has a nice set of Rostyles, and it's the GT XLR special version, with rear screen louvre and boot spoiler. Sold as unboxed, but would be packaged securely. I've now got a replacement cheap off eBay, which just needed the front bumper sticking back on, so this is surplus now. £9 posted anyone?

Looks like an early LX, they came with 13" wheels and those trims, with the red stripes.

I was thinking the same myself. It does look similar, ride height-wise, to my old car, that the trims came off, That had been lowered with 35mm GSF springs when I got it, I didn't even realise till the first time I had it on a ramp. Similar too to my other Nutria Brown 190. I did have this one lowered though...

Thanks to the hot tip on here, I've just nipped down to the local Lidl. As expected the bin was fairly well rifled through, so no Quattro or yellow Civic alas, (the two I was most after), but there were still a few worth having, Autoshite-themed surfboard on this version of the Landy, Don't normally go for the motorbikes or mopeds, (although I do quite like the Honda Cub casting), but I did like the look of this Vespa, Nice to see the Alfa in a road going colour scheme

Nipped to Tesco on the way to work. Nothing special there, M case Hot Wheels and the remainder of the last Matchbox dump with all the good stuff gone and only a few of those weird skinny tractors and 70th anniversary cop cars left. I did grab a Matchbox 5-pack while the Clubcard £5 offer is on though. As discussed on here before, multipacks can be a bit hit or miss, but I quite like the selection in this one Never had one of these Mini vans yet, it's nice, if a bit over-wheeled like all MB Minis. Mini Countryman isnt bad for a modern, but spoiled a little by the all plastic top half, Jeep Wagoneer looks nice with the faux wood panelling, And the Volvo V60 ia a nice casting still. It was the Merc S123 that I really got it for though... Quite close to the Terracotta colour that a lot of them came in, with a nice bit of tan MB-Tex inside. Quite a nice bit of detail inside too, for what is basically a pocket money toy.

Happy birthday!

Other arrival was this, Having a few sporty Escorts now, from MK1 to 5, I fancied a MK1 Focus to continue the line, and have been watching these for a while. Tickford had commissioned diecast retailer PDQ diecasts to have these made as a corporate gift to mark the Focus RS's 10th anniversary. A bit of a licensing fracas with Ford ensued, and by the time that was sorted, Tickford had been sold to Intertek, who weren't interested in the model. Leaving Dave at PDQ holding the baby, so to speak, and 2000 models to shift. Lately he has been selling some small batches at almost half price with small paint defects. They were cheaper than Vanguards/Minichamps to start with, so I finally got one as a late birthday present, after having them on eBay watch for years. This does have a couple of small spots, on the roof, I have a few Minichamps models with the same. Ah well, I'm not going to be able to retire on it as an investment, so it's going straight in the display cabinet anyway! It was cheap. It's made by Premium X so it's a well made thing, with plenty of detail. Like the real thing, it sits nice and low. Apart from the slight defects, the Imperial blue paint looks lovely too. Being a "premium" model, the badges are actual badges, not just tampo printed. Nice detailing on the rear screen too. Detail runs to brembo logos on the calipers, My shite phone camera doesn't really show it well, but interior detail is well above the norm, with realistic steering wheel trim and gauges, Decent heater controls and radio, Correct Sparco seats and seat belt buckles, Even the green starter button...

Slightly raised eyebrows from the Mrs when I got home, two packages landed today. First was a mini-haul from @danthecapriman. I'm secretly pleased with my self-restraint this time. Not being pissed this time round possibly helped as well... These Husky Commer walkthroughs are cute little things, Ive seen a few on here and wanted one for a while. I loved the real vans as a kid as well, there were a few working the streets in our area back in the day as mobile shops (ex mobile libraries), and fish & chip vans. The Corgi VW hot rod was one of my favourite toys when I was a kid, but for years I never even knew there was a standard Beetle by them too. This one is a nice clean example. As is this Datsun 260Z, same colour as the one I had. Another one I was completely unaware of until fairly recently. As a kid I had the Superkings A series U-Haul Luton van, but never came across this in the toy shops. I should be able to form a couple of tow hooks from some of the flexible wire we use to bundle up bandsaw blades at work. Replace the hooks and re-silver the wheels, and it should be reet. This Golf is almost box fresh save for a couple of small chips. My original one had barely a scrap of paint on, and no roof rack by the time I finally parted with it. I shall most likely treat this one to some repro surfboards. Always wanted one of these big Corgi Capris. This one's pretty good, it's all there, glazing is good and the tip up seat backs and steering wheel are still present. Not sure what to do with it yet, as my resto/modding skills are practically non-existent, but I do fancy this in LeMans green or Purple Velvet or something. This one is the highlight for me. Ice cream vans are a bit of a secret obsession of mine, and at the price Dan was asking for this, I had to grab it. It's far better than I was expecting. Tyres are all present and are in great condition, and it sits well on its suspension. Glazing is decent and should clean up well, I think there's a sliding window missing from this side, but it's the serving side anyway, so I'm not too fussed there. The server even still twirls away inside, This one will get a repaint soon, I'm looking forward to getting on with it. My intentions are to not restore it to shiny original Mr Softee spec, but as a 2nd or 3rd owner independently operated vehicle, like the slightly down at heel vans that were around in the '70s. Thanks again to Dan for more bargains and another cracking sale.