AndyW201

I have been looking out for one of these large Livarno Cabinets that were sold from Lidl a few years ago for a while. Ideal to house my 1:18 large scale models and it was only £10 from marketplace.
 

Just come back from the two boot sales with a bulging bag of goodies;
Bburago Celica is a bit big for me, but I liked it

Corgi Mini has had a jaunty repaint and was only a quid, if anyone wants it?

...and that's it!

Results of yesterday's visit to the toy fair and a few shops up in Norwich:

Matchbox and Majorette from Sainsbury's, HWs from Tesco. Latter still had a fair few packs of Matchbox 5-packs at £5 Clubcard price, but all older ones (and in a completely different place to the toy section).
Also visited Smyths, Range and Asda, but nothing of major interest to me there.
Toy fair assortment:

Mercedes/caravan combo as discussed here just recently. Caravan missing its door, but tidy otherwise.

Visa was just £3, goes nicely with the other 1970s/80s French 1/43s I seem to be accumulating. I don't remember the Ro80 and the Pontiac was picked up as it's doubtful I will ever get a MIB example at sensible money.

It has a little bit of front axle wobbliness and some paint chipping, but will sit nicely on the shelf with others of the same era that I haven't yet found in boxes.

NSU doesn't appear to have had a V4 transplant. The lilac paint is a little bright.

As I was spending my birthday money it was appropriate that the Pontiac was the same age as me.

I've had red 480...



and metallic grey 480 Turbo in regular Pilen boxes.



I've not had them in an AHC box...

or the Dealer type box.

More rubbishy diecast disposals coming up in three, two, one...
 
 

I saw one of these repainted and missing the windows this morning, they wanted £8 so I left it

I'm not a big Hot wheels fan, but this Mirafiori rally set

and this Cuda set are really great!

I'll quickly update some fake projects here...
Mini Pickup was wiped down with isopropyl and the new paint seems ok now so left to harden up

Made a plasticard left hand door for the Mini Countryman, it's ok, but I may use the door from the van I got this morning

This is the Saab I was going to use the Aero wheels for

Any Saab experts on here? I've painted the Aero kit dark grey as they always look like that to me while the other plastic bits look black. Am I right about that or are they all the same colour irl? Hard to tell in photos and most are the later big bumper sloped front version 900 as well.

Toy fair at Maidstone market today and not as good as I had been lead to believe with everything being a bit on the pricey side so I didn't buy anything.
 
Well not much anyway...

I started with this £4 Spot on Volvo 122 repainted in lovely bright yellow with black bonnet, rally stylee

Missing grill bumpers and sunroof, but hey, Spot On!

Next at various prices, but came to £16 for the eight

Dinky Alfa is a bit bent but may be able to straighten it out

Next Vanguards vans and a Joal CX for £9

I'm thinking Eddy will want the Vanguards.

This dealer edition Volvo 480 was pricey at £8 and will go in my C30 collection. Pressing down on the front opens the lights, I did take a pic but my hand was so grubby I deleted it!

Says AHC on the base and apparently made by Auto Pilen which is why it's so nice...

This lot ranged in price from £7 to £2 including a French cyclist model for Mrs Concern, it came to £32 but he let us have them for £28

I wasn't going to buy a couple of those but Mrs Concern egged me on...

The plastic Norev Renner 15 is a lovely one and a bit unusual I think
Lone Star Dart is a bit of a mess, but what a great shape, I'm already thinking of colours for it

I intended to pinch the wheels off this £3 Saab 9.5 for a project, but decided it's too nice to break

I think this £2 Solido Clio might be a dealer special as no makers name on the base

MIB Cinq for £1 if anyone wants it

That was everything I got in the toy fair so we had a walk around the main market
£1 each

I already have a blue and a white Mustang II, not seen a Dinky Landy with a winch before and I have a white MIB Corgi Merc from childhood so a blue one is nice too

lastly picked these out of a big box, seller wanted £7, but took £5

Would be nice but I can't think of anything suitable to fit the original wheels. Looks pretty good on black o-rings and the axles put above the suspension for a mild drop

I'm wondering if that was a support vehicle for the "33" Export 6R4.







 
 

Got this today.




Absolutely love it! 
One of the 1:43 rally support vehicle partwork ones. Right hand drive and just look at the number plates!   
Really captures the look of the old Freight Rover I think.

Look at this little beauty

Despite nearly a week in the stripper, the original green paint doesn't want to come off, particularly inside. But what a lovely casting, the Karmann Ghia can't be an easy shape to recreate but Dinky did a great job. Part of me wants to change this a bit from original, especially those white tyres. I'm not going to slam it over Fuchs but I'm tempted to go for black tyres and a nice period colour

Hot Wheels. This is pic heavy!
Two visits to Entertainer this week netted me a lot of new releases

Not entirely sold on the white wheels on this

Dodge Dart ties in nicely with the Challenger in similar colours from last year

MK1 Jag is most excellent 

E30 touring is class, shame there was only one as this needs customising

This is another fantastic release, the infamous Hirohata Mercury 

Walking into Smyths netted me a couple of premiums

And just sitting on the shelf with no proper place to be displayed, these two. I snatched them up quickly

A visit to Sainsbury's this morning netted me another anniversary Majorette 

And two Matchbox 5 packs, the Japan Cruisers we saw the other day, and Coffee Cruisers V

There were other choices, another British one with the blue Mog, an off road one with a Baja I already have, or Blue Highways which was also rather nice


Taking of Matchbox, I picked these up recently too

No worries - I've had rather a busy morning in terms of diecasts! Where to start?
Let's have a look at some loose bits. Removed the VW and Passin' Gasser from the three pack

A job lot of mostly hot rods arrived, in part as I couldn't work out what this was - it's a Johnny Lightning 

Zylmex Mazda GT is quite a difficult casting to track down

I got some more Lone Stars too, Merc has definitely been doing some off roading in the mud going by the gunk I've clean off it

Zodiac in police guise with unlikely green interior. I really admire these, it's a real shame Lone Star weren't more successful. A range the size of Lesney's with all opening bits would have been phenomenal 

Had a few new arrivals the last week.
Down here at Dans Redneck Trucking inc business has gone through the roof. So much so we’ve had to buy a new tractor unit! Seen here ready to take out our new tanker trailer.
Spanish Dodge. 
Originally built by Barrieros but the company was bought out by Chrysler Europe, who began selling these in the UK as the Dodge 300 from the mid 70’s to sometime in the mid 80’s. Never around in big numbers really but here they certainly were. And from the sounds of it, they were pretty rapid!

 
This model is actually of a much later one after they raised the cab height and gave it a tilt mechanism. Eventually I’ll modify this one to become the older lower version.

 
Did a bit of painting and other bits & bobs too. 
Got the ex 007 partwork Dodge RAM pickup finished. 
Can’t decide whether or not to paint the wiper arms & mirrors silver? I’m pretty pleased with this one. 




 

Not sure about that - but have a tree, anyway...

Bonus blackbird, too.

The best looking Manta 400 was the Andrew Heat For Hire.
 

Vitesse did one in 1/43rd in the late 1980s






 

@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.

@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.

@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.

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.

@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.

@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.

It's staying as-is, it can keep my kid custom Dinky company