AndyW201

ABS sensor has been out for a few weeks on the Merc, with ABS and TC lights on. Just been driving around it as ABS and TC seem to work once the car goes over 12mph. Coolant tank has a hairline crack in the top return pipe. Has had a load of Gorilla glue gel slapped over the crack which for the last few weeks has worked. Been watching the temp gauge and coolant level like a hawk but no coolant loss. Been waiting till the next service is due, so it's going in this week with a new ABS sensor and new Febi Bilstein coolant tank ready to go on. Since I got the car, it's had a squeak from the back going over speed bumps. At the MOTs, my tame garage guy has noticed the bottom of the coil springs seem to have lost the powder coating and the consensus seems to be that when the springs were last replaced, the rubber cups were left off, leaving the springs rubbing on the bottom arms. On the W203 forums, a squeaky back end seems to be a TADTS problem which people have thrown £000s at to no avail. Luckily it has a very good stereo system which plays pretty loud... The parking brake has always been a bit marginal, enough to get by on the MOT, but I reckon it's going to need looking at sooner or later. However after two MOTs with the usual "corroded, covered in grease or other materials" advisories for the brake pipes, I reckon they are also going to have to be done before the next test. Which leaves me at that crossroads alluded to in RoverFolkUs' post, of where to draw the line with this car. I've ran it for two years now, and it's been pretty good with only routine stuff like a couple of suspension arms, a wheel bearing, rear exhaust and pads & discs needed. Brake pipes are going to be about £300 at my tame mechanic's, plus however much it costs to sort the handbrake and have a look at the squeaky back end. But this still leaves the problem of it having the M271 engine and with the current mileage (118,000), I'm probably playing timing chain roulette. The cost of having the brake pipes etc done I can bear, but the cost of a new chain etc would probably outweigh the value of the car.

Bloody hell! Tat Friday - Premium Edition this week, and no mistake! I'll be honest, I had that Vanguards Lotus eyed up as a slotmag-donor for my Marina TC if it proved to be a bit tatty, but after seeing that trick with the headlights, it'll go straight into the collection, what a corker! No problems with the Cararama Beemer either, if it's an'80s/'90s/'00s German barge, it's of interest to me. My brother had an Oxford green E39 528i so it can loosely be grouped in with the "cars I've had experience of" models. Cheers as always Tim, great stuff!

Yeah, alright bastards! You try posting in a panic in the arse end of rural Aberdeenshire,,,🤣

Yo Tim, can I cancel the yellow capri please? I've twigged that it's a 1/32 Burago job and I need a cheap 1/43 Capri as a glass donor. Interested in the green E46 Beemer, Vanguards esprit or that Atlas George Bevan Imp though!

Oo, need a cheap Cararama Capri Mk1. Mild interest in black Mk1 Golf too... And is that a launch edition gold Corgi Sierra? Hmnng!

It is pretty, isn't it? Looks well ahead of its time for something launched in 1954. Oxford diecast do a nice 1/76 model version too,

Coach is a Weymann Fanfare, research shows Sheffield ones used Leopard chassis.

Yep, I thought instantly of Jim Rockford too when I saw it!

Ah, but that selection with the Merc was a whole £4! To be honest, with the contents of the tub this lot was hiding in (under a load of generic plastic pre-schooler toys), I could have come away with three or four times the amount, but I started to get "the look" from the Mrs... Anyway, that Merc, Yeah, it's not the best, and there's a tyre missing. But, the pull-back mechanism works, and apart from our local toyshop selling them in period, I've never seen one in the wild, so I grabbed it. Modern Maisto Mustang was a bit of an oddball, but it's not a badly made thing and it's absolutely mint. Love the Porker GT3, both from Hot Wheels and Matchbox, but this one (and everything else bought today) dates from before I fell back down the smaller scale slippery slope. Colour coded stripes and wheels FTW. Another newish Matchbox, a lovely caramel coloured early Firebird. Nice detail on this, that rear plate is tiny! Hot Wheels now, apart from a bit of foil loss on one wheel, this Meyers Manx is like new, Nice Gran Torino S, just missing a bit of chrome on the bumpers, Late Camaro ZL1, More AS colours on this 'Stang 390GT. As they've hammered the fastback casting lately, it's nice to have an early coupé. I'm a sucker for a Fox body too. Guess this and the Pontiac GTO below were part of one of the 5-packs, Another GTO, sadly a little tattier than the rest of the Hot Wheels haul, but I had to have it because it's a Judge version, one of my favourite muscle cars And I was a little excited to find this Realtoy Merc. I've got a few Realtoy Mercs, but this is the only small Merc I've found that is a close colour match to the Granite Grey on my real car. (The colour on the real car looks a lot lighter when the sun's on it, so even more like the toy...) Okay, so it's an E Class but the body shapes are so similar, at this scale the difference is barely noticeable, especially from the rear! Also passed a stall selling tin "Man Cave" type signs etc, the Mrs bought me this, She's not a bad sort....

Also went to a boot sale today. Not a huge amount of stuff of any interest, but got these, I'm so out of practice buying older unboxed diecasts (except on here), so have no idea whether I paid over the odds, but paid £2 for this lot, And £4 for this lot. This thread has a lot to answer for! Collecting older Corgi Juniors and Matchbox Suoerfasts etc was a rabbit hole I didn't want to go down, as I already have enough time, money and house space used up by my other diecast interests. But I couldn't help myself, 1971 Citroen SM is nice and fairly tidy. Seen the Speed King version quite a lot but never come across the smaller Suoerfast. It's newer bigger brother is in lovely condition, save for a snapped off towing hitch. Porker 928 has a bit of paint loss but not too had really. As a kid, I had a metallic blue one and a black one with a massive Porsche logo on the bonnet, but never come across a JRG version. And due to a slight case of FOMO due to never having owned any Corgi Rockets before, I had to save this rather sad Templar-issue P1800. Missing a lot of paint and a front bumper corner but at least it has a chassis!

I agree, definitely one of their best. Though you have reminded me of how much want I have for the Black Tulip XJ6! Good stuff! Make sure you show them on here so I can reassure myself that I definitely DO NOT now want a Vanguards Series 2 to go with the Series 1, and especially NOT the Coral version... (According to a few bods on the FB Vanguards group, the Series 2 casting is actually one of the best they have done so I don't think you'll be disappointed.)

Onto smaller stuff now. I really like toys and models of normal, even mundane, everyday stuff. Something Majorette have been good at doing, for decades now, They captured the little K12 Micra's curves brilliantly. Nice detail for the period too, especially the interior, The Audi RS6 has been one of my favourite recent Matchbox releases, but didn't know it went back to 2007! I think it looks fantastic in this bright red, Another from the peak-era of Matchbox, I didn't know they'd done a W140 SEL until Tim offered this up for sale. I love the W140, it's a massive slab of a car (and looks like a massive 190E to my eyes), so I was pleased to get this. It came in a card and blister packaging, but it was quite "snug" in there and a look at the card revealed it was for a Matchbox R129 500SL "Hmm, 500SL you say?" (Roots around in the DanBox delivered the other day...) (Dab or two of Gorilla glue gel...) Card is a bit dilapidated still, but it has the right car in now at least. More peak-era Matchbox in the shape of the Saab 9000, a fab version IMO. A little bit of paint loss on this but it's still great and still in decent enough condition to just leave it as it is. I'm enjoying filling in the gaps with these early '90s Matchbox. If by any chance anyone comes across a fairly nice Cavalier GSi that isn't stupid money, please hit me up as that is my '90s Matchbox holy grail Got the two Flying Customs I needed to complete the set, I love this Nova wagon, has to be the star of the set for me, And a few recent elusive Hot Wheels Tim kindly picked up for me, love this Civic. At last I have the IMSA Audi!!! Tampos seem almost perfectly done on this one too. Lastly, the Then & Now '18 Camaro which has eluded me for a long while. Now I have it to pair up with the '81 version Again, big thanks to @Datsuncog for sorting this lot out for me.

Finally got round to opening and examining the recently arrived CogBox. This actually arrived on Thursday when I was 430 miles away on my weekly Scotland run, the wife did inform me that "quite a large box" had arrived ... Took some explaining, that's for sure! So, big 'uns first, starting with the Vanguards Jaaag XJ12. A lovely model this, pleasingly from the era of the re released yellow boxes. Over 27 years of collecting Vanguards models, I've never had one of these XJs but when I saw that Market Blokey had this on the stall, I wanted it! Such a beautiful shape, captured well. I adore the Series 1 & 2 XJ. Also such an unusual colour scheme, and, for some reason I can't fathom, I love the whitewalls on this. With those and the colour, it gives off an air of a 1980s flat-roof pub landlord's transport or a 1980s style budget-conscious wedding car. And all the better for it. Nice detail to the front and rear, particularly the twin tailpipes which sprout out from the rear valance but are actually also part of the bumper moulding, so they can survive more than 5 seconds without snapping off. Was a pleasant surprise to see a simulated wooden dashboard in this, hardly any Vanguards of the period got detail like that. Love all the switchgear and the T-handle shifter, correct steering wheel, etc. Very happy with this one! Second Vanguards of the day, sorry. Another subject I've never had before. I do like the little A40 Farina. Vanguards did a cracking job of capturing it, but the road versions tend to be surprisingly expensive, so this version of "Zoey", Pat Moss' Monte Carlo rally car will do nicely instead. I remember as a kid reading about this car being rescued and restored in the first issues of Practical Classics back in 1980. Plenty going on at the front with the rally plate and a couple of auxiliary lights... Rear wiper is a nice touch. Liking the Sprite steelies as well. Got a few Vanguards rally cars and love it when they put hubcap-less steelies on them.

That is superb! Love that. I've got the factory-patinated barn find version by Revell, but I think I prefer the patina on yours more! (It got more patinated when one of the kids dropped it once, and the grille got lost, never to be found again...) And continuing the Solido Clio love-in, here's mine. Bought at the duty-free shop in Alicante airport in 1998. Most guys my age were shopping for fags & booze, I was picking through a shelf full of Solido diecasts.... Not bad for what is a tarted up version of the standard valver release, although the Williams logos and Speedline alloys are pretty well done.

Yesterday's delivery, Non-Ford Vanguards shocker! I've been watching these Sable brown Quattros for a while. So far the only other Quattro I have is the shot-up Gene Hunt version, as part of the Corgi 'Ashes to Ashes' twin pack with the police Granada. There have been a few colour ways released now, but the white one seems to be the only sought after one. I think this was one of the Vanguards castings that, like the Subaru Legacy, was created primarily for rally versions, with a few road versions released to get some mileage out of the casting. But by and large, your typical Vanguards customer doesn't like "foreign "cars and they generally struggle to sell. By Vanguards standards, for a fairly recent release (2020), this brown version can be had fairly cheaply. This one is brand new and unopened and my offer of £16 plus post was instantly accepted. It's a lovely model though, and they did really put some effort into it. This release may possibly not have sold well because of the colour scheme but I love it! Me and brown/beige '80s style German cars have history together... As usual, nice detail up front. The headlights are brilliant, nice number plate font and the tiny headlight washers are a nice touch. Pretty nice at the rear, get up really close and the COUPÉ lettering on the reflector panel can be seen, which is cool. Later type Wheels are done well, along with the typical Audi rings on the door, and the small Quattro graphics in the windows. Even the tiny chrome strips on the door handles, things like this make a sad bastard like me happy... This is from just before Corgi started to up the detailing on their interiors, so it was a nice surprise to see a few different shades inside this one, instead of a sea of one shade of beige like I was expecting, Can't have enough beige and brown...

Oh my! I love that, reminds me a bit of the Hot Wheels Crack Ups. Actually found one on eBay. It's not listed as a Flip Top, but it's silver with a hardtop, black windows, opening bootlid and on the picture of the underside, bits of the blue interior can be seen. No mention of whether the flip function works though, it's unboxed and he wants £7 plus post for it. Torment...

So, DanBox, Part three. Majorette Beetle was another one I had as a kid, in the exact same colour. Even back then I really liked the open sunroof detail and the cast in badges, which, unlike cars from some manufacturers of the period, don't seem too overly big for the model. Slightly obvious casting lines apart, it captures the Beetle pretty well I think. Next, a Realtoy. I'm actually a big fan of Realtoys, they were some of the best pocket-money toy cars in this scale IMO. I've still got a few mint and carded ones in the loft that I got from Tesco a few years ago, like the W203 Merc C Class (which is cool as I now have the 1:1 scale version), W211 E Class, Audi A4, Impreza, MK3 Focus ST and Sprinter Minibus. For the price they are fantastically well made and detailed. But I never managed to get a Mk1 Focus. This is a pretty nice model of the RS version. Tampo printing of the badges and lights are great, even the correct Focus font on the number plates. This one had a slight issue in that the seperately moulded race style seats had become detached and were rattling around. Luckily the base is held in at the rear with a tab, so managed to push that in and pull the base down enough to slide the interior unit out and re glue the seats in. All without having to remove the rivet at the front. Again, great interior detail with a grey interior, separately moulded red rally-style seats and a realistic separately moulded black dashboard, The rest of the box is a bit of a Corgi-fest, Tidy TR7 is in a colour scheme I've not seen before. Nicely patinated so I just silvered the wheels. I had this Tranny wrecker in the Corgi livery but never had it with this great BP design. Again, in pretty good nick, apart from the paint loss on the bonnet. PO had done the inside of the rear bed and around the tail lights in what looked like blue permanent marker. I think it looks better re done in silver, Crane is still present and still springs up and down though sadly the hook has gone AWOL. I'm sure 201_jnr has some cheapo wreckers in his toy car stash that I might be able to pinch one from. I did have this smol scale version of the Metro as a kid, albeit in a brighter non-metallic blue with red interior. A few paint chips here and there with this one, but it's still pretty nice. I find Corgi Metros look too deep at the sides, as the sills aren't concave like on the real ones, so I find they look a bit better with the sills done in black. These small ones also came with the middle of the bumpers in black, but with the end caps in body colour, so I did those black. I also blacked the grille, silvered the headlights and added some silver to the side mouldings, to try to replicated the brightwork on the HLE and HLS versions. I loved the Corgi Nova/Corsa when it first came out. I still have the original release red &black SR which has survived very well. I've always fancied getting the BP liveried version too (along with the white German release with Opel racing graphics but that one continues to elude me.) Another one in very nice condition, although the paint was chipped on the black lower sections, so these have been touched in. Which puzzles me as this version of the Nova has a metal lower section, bumpers and base moulding, whereas the black section on the earlier red & black SR version is plastic. And some bigger-scale Corgi action, I had quite a few 1/36 Corgis back in the day, but never had the big Metro. When I saw the red one, I had to grab it. I'd always wanted a slightly playworn example so I could recreate this, (Excuse the rubbish pic of a rubbish photo from 1991). My first car, a 1982 1.0 base which had been upgraded with MG interior, back to front MG stripes, usual 1980s-issue pop up sunroof and TD wheels & tyres. But I can't really cock around with this one, it really is mint, barely a chip or mark, no paint loss on the wheels and the interior is as clean as a whistle. However, I had nabbed another big Metro, in blue, and that one was a bit more playworn, So I had a bit of fun with this one! The bigger scale Metro is a bit more successful with its shape and proportions, compared with the Junior-size one. Blacking the sills really seems to work on this scale. Bumpers and grille were also blacked. Again, some silver Sharpie brought out the bright side moulding and touched the wheels up. A lot of the paint had been lost around the rear screen, so I did a quick & dirty recreation of the horseshoe rear spoiler, which I'm 99% sure the later TD wheeled HLEs got, as well as the MGs Thanks once again to Dan for the sales, which were fun to take part in, and for topping up my "older" toy collection. (See, I'm not all about the highly detailed 1/43rds...)

DanBox, part Deux. Datsun 260Z was looking down at heel, with paint missing everywhere, so bodywork got a quick and dirty touch-in for the worst of the paint loss, with bumpers blacked, valances painted body colour, and wheels touched-in, Porker Turbo was also pretty sad, with heavy paint loss. Now tidied up, keeping what was left of the original graphics, as I had this version as a kid, and wheels touched up again. Tidy Renault 17 has had some previous attention from an enthusiastic previous owner, with some black detailing on the B post and grilles, though it doesn't look too bad really. Shame, as otherwise it's survived pretty well, even the bonnet stripe is pretty minty. The black front and rear bumpers were pretty well chipped so they've been tidied up, along with some silver on the headlights and wheels. The PO had also splodged some black on the boot badges, so I've gone over them in silver as good as my 49 year old eyes would allow! Last of the smol Matchboxes was this Volvo 480. A great casting, definitely another from that golden era of Matchbox. This one is in lovely condition. Great detailing at the rear, Final Matchbox is a big one, Never had a Speed King before. When I was a little 'un, our local big toy shop favoured Corgi for larger scale toys, though I went on to have plenty of later Super Kings when they got stocked. Had to have this one, as it's a Merc obvs, and as it's an SLC. Largely seen as the ugly duckling of the SL family, but I like them. This one again has survived pretty well, the paintwork has thankfully few chips and is still nice and shiny. Bumpers, wheels and grille had faded so they got re silvered. The nearside rear bumper side section had broken off, so I found a bit of plastic sprue that filled the gap. With a coat of silver, it's not exactly a 100% invisible repair but better than it was. Under the bonnet is a decent early '70s rendition of the V8 engine. Eep! Same age as me. (Somewhat better preserved though...)

Got my DanBox delivered this week with, erm, one or two cars in. Finally got around to sorting them out and photographing them. I have to admit to getting a bit Sharpie-happy on some of the cosmetically challenged ones, but at these prices, it doesn't matter risking ruining them! Cheers go to @danthecapriman for organising the sale and letting interesting stuff go so cheap. This haul is basically all about the nostalgia. Stuff I had as a kid and some I missed out on at the time. Some topping up on the Mercedes content too. First up, the W116 S-Class by Majorette, a nice rendering. Really nice condition too, only needing a dab of silver Sharpie on the side mouldings and the tops of the door frames. Quite cool how they used the tinted glazing to give the headlights a Euro-style yellow tint, and the orange interior moulding to form the rear lights, Also in the sale was a cute little Majorette motorbike trailer, which I thought might pair up nicely with the SEL, One bike has gone astray sadly, but hey, one still remaining after 40 or so years is still amazing. I don't imagine that these were sold together as a set originally, but I think they go well together. Somehow, I managed to get three different R129 Mercedes SLs, soooo... Who did it better/worse? Bizarre colour choice on the Corgi SL, a casting I've never come across although I assume this is one of the Corgis that ended up as a Hot Wheels. I thought it might have been a faded red, but nope, it is pink. Mind you, it is a period shade I suppose, reminds me a bit of Porsche Karmin Rot, and early W202 C Class Esprits were available in a pinky red like this too. Interior for the age and scale isn't bad at all. The steering wheel is correct, the shape of the seats and centre console are all like the real thing, even the suggestion of the seat belt butlers are there. It's a shame this one appears to have been dropped, breaking off the corner of the screen (it even had sunvisors modelled in) and chipping off some paint on the bumper, as it seems to have been pretty tidy otherwise. Next, the Matchbox version. Another Mercedes I had no idea Matchbox did, (along with the W140 S-Class), and from that period I rate as Peak-Matchbox. Somewhat smaller than the Corgi, but better proportion wise I think. Again, nicely done inside for a late-80s toy. Bit of an oddball is the Maisto/MC Toys version, which seems to have been cast with a hardtop fitted (obviously there was no FHC version of the SL or folding metal roof on this generation). Not a bad version though, the colour is similar to the period Almandine red and as the early R129s had 16" wheels with fairly baloony tyres, the big Superfast type wheels on this one look pretty good. A mystery is this Chinesium no-name R107 SL Mind you, they've captured the shape and detailing of it pretty well, the opening doors fit well too, so bonnet "graphics" aside, not as cheap and nasty as it could have been.

Ah, I can remember back when I could resolutely say that I wasn't a Hot Wheels collector. And here's me today having just spunked over the odds online for a Moving Parts Morry Thou and I can barely move around the loft hatch for boxes... 🤣

Just ordered these from Ana's Hot Wheels site on FB. The Mitsi is one Ive already got but in the small box. I've never found a carded one in the wild. The Audi E-Tron, though, is a new one I've not seen yet in the shops. Must be from the impending new case (that we may or may not get over here...)

Not forgetting the upcoming '82 Supra...

Aye, if you're already going there please Tim. Many thanks.

Flipping 'eck! I need to get to Poundland. I spy the 'Then and Now' green 2018 Camaro, I was beginning to think it didn't exist! Only ever found the '81 version, and I need the newer one to to go with it. #notacompletist

Do we still need no9? Alfa 2600 Berlina deluxe I think.