Spottedlaurel

These look fun! Those sets top left look fun! Some sort of garage/town set-up, like Tomica Hypercity or the old Majo-Kit stuff? Of the modern Siku vehicles, for some reason I find the 1/32 agricultural tractors and machinery to be more appealing than the cars and commercials (whether small or large scale).

I think that's one I still 'need' MIB-ish, will have to check when I get home. Had the regular wheels version in the toybox when I was young (should still be around, somewhere, painted olive drab as I redid a few commercials back in the day).

Managed to find both those Celicas in France, from memory a bit less than 7.49 Euros. And that's the Golf I managed to acquire just last week for £3 in Sainsbury's, Thetford.

Yup, that Majorette caravan will sit nicely on the 1/36 campsite alongside one of Corgi's.

Does the Transit come with a figure and accessories like the Mk2 version?

Silly me, I forgot this other beige bombshell: I'm guessing enthusiast-owned with it sitting on the 205 GTi alloys. Within a few minutes of seeing this I also caught sight of a Citroen GSA estate, but sadly I wasn't quick enough to grab a photo of that one.

Continuing onwards. At this point we had the odd experience of visiting a Christmas shop in August..... Insanely angular Sunny coupe, possibly my favourite find of the holiday. Badged GTi rather than ZX as we got, and looking immaculate. Made a change from the C15Ds. A bit of a beast. Didn't see so many pre-facelift 309s. Slightly dented, but rather less than what I did to my 309 32 years ago. Passing 205, and the 309. I don't know what was going on here. More Belgians. @Cavcraft's dream holiday. I did well on Patrols this year. Nice street scene, Ford 3055 which looked to be of 1970s vintage still at work hauling bottles for a small Alsace wine producer.

Onwards with day 4, meandering up through the Alsace area. Didn't cover so many miles this day, but still saw a lot..... Working Land Cruiser. One day I'll work out a way of remembering which is which of the Bravo/Brava duo, but I haven't managed it yet. Swiss visitors. Stopping for this SuperCinq developed rather nicely. If I hadn't have done, I wouldn't have looked up a sidestreet and seen..... This Pony (not Accent), and then.... This handsome 7-Series. In turn, that netted me.... This Honda. I believe it's a diesel Concerto, seems like they just rebadged the 200 as the 'proper' Concerto was only available as petrol. German Citroen enthusiasts had strayed across the border. We were within sight of Germany at this point in the journey, but didn't visit. Smart Belgian Karman Ghia. Representative 75. Saw a handful. Rather charmingly beige 11. The plate suggests this Logo hadn't come from that far away in Germany. Part 2 of this day to follow....

I haven't done such an extensive trawl but I've found smilar with various branches of Tesco and a B&M. Did find some odd Majorettes in a Sainsbury's however, so got a Mitsubishi ASX and yellow Mk1 Golf (after seeing a 1:1 example just a few minutes beforehand).

I suppose it's because they were what I saw in toy shops as child of that decade, but I do find the early-mid '70s box art and colouring to be very attractive. Just seeing your photos of them in a window display is pleasing.

Celeste (which is effectively a Lancer coupe). Looks like a late one which would have rectangular headlamps. Quite a wide engine choice with three different 1.6/2-litre options available, fairly straightforward underpinnings but they look great. I wonder if that one has been lowered a touch? They always seemed to sit a bit high.

Ah, sorry - yes they do all have the number, it just I imagined there would once have been a makers name alongside it. I have a D114, so it is a Lexus then. As it's less than mint could be a good basis for replicating my 1:1 (although it could be argued its current condition is actually a pretty accurate representation).

1990s Toyota boot sale action: Avensis SR was pressed into service on the stall, I just visited later on. Carina E seemed right for that kind of trip, and I was keen to see how it drove on the new tyres and with the noises sorted. They found some play in the front ARB links, and it's much better now they've been replaced. Full set of Falkens were fitted - in hindsight I wish I'd waited for the Uniroyals but they were on a longer delivery time. They're the proper 185 width, but look a bit skinny on the rims. Was a very enjoyable drive, it goes well and is smooth and comfortable - definitely something where I want to sort that final 5% and get it running just right. Also a good test for the new radiator today, it sat perfectly at halfway all day. Still has a very slight misfire under light throttle, although it seems less noticeable when it's really, properly warmed-up. Hasn't yet had a full service,so we'll see if it's still evident after that. 288 miles since I filled up at South Mimms on the collection night. Worked it out at around 32mpg, which isn't bad for a 2-litre auto seeing as it hasn't had many decent runs since getting it home and it's spent time in and out of the garage. I don't think I ever got much better than 33-34 out of the Camry 2.2, and that was a manual. It's funny, I can think back to the mid '90s and imagine who would have bought or chosen a car like this. I then realised that I have many of the characteristics that person would have had, age and stage in their working life certainly being amongst them....

Silver one matches up, although I have some numbers where you have a blank. The other two (and the LS400/Celsior) have a blank where something was written.

Jeepers! I was paying a lot more than that at the French autojumble. Well done to the Goffmeister! I managed a rare visit to a boot sale today. Useless items* purchased: Cheapies from various stalls were 5 for £1, 3 for £1, 50p each or £1 each. One or two things were more expensive, but in total I didn't spend much more than £30. I already had one of those E-Class estates without its lightbar, the thought is they'll get converted to bangers someday. 300ZXs were odd. I was convinced I was just finding colour variations, then I realised the silver one was different (and quite a nice basic casting). Tomica Dandy Isuzu Elf has led a hard life on the construction site, but for 33.33333333333p it's OK. Don't remember the Police version(s), did they do they other forces? Shame the tampo is bit squiffy maybe the other side is straighter and will display better? Possibly a Toyota Celsior or Lexus LS400.... *"I can't figure out why I've bought so many useless items" from Persuasion by Soft Cell, not at the easy listening end of the musical spectrum.

Moving on, now day 3 of the travelling week. I think this was Ferette up to Eguisheim. This year's representative Xantia. Still a fair few of them around. Glenda, the Google Maps lady, often tends to take a rather interesting route to a destination using sideroads and small streets. Good for me, as I wouldn't have found this otherwise. Inevitably there was some interesting stuff in the Schlumpf Collection car park: Mazda Cosmo?!?! More rotary goodness to come. Inside the museum. Interesting exhibits and building, enjoyed the visit there. Retail park randoms. Interesting to compare these two, Twingo Mk1 surely had some influence on the Yaris? Plenty of both still to be seen in everyday use. Final one for day 3. Didn't see many of them on our travels.

Had something of a nightmare last night, dreaming that I attended a toy fair at Brentwood with @bunglebus and AS member from a long time ago Reallyloud (who does like his diecasts etc too), but only three stalls had been set-up and a fourth was underway but didn't look promising. No tat boxes at any of them! I'm not sure if that inspired me to have a good sort out of what I had purchased this year, but after finding homes for all the carded HW/Matchbox/Majorette stuff, I'm now left with working out where to put all this lot: Good job I hadn't started putting them away. Just found another half a dozen Majorettes in another box, returnees from the work display cabinet after I'd refreshed it with a few of my holiday purchases.

Earlier this year I saw this tidy Corolla looking somewhat out of place in the yard of a local Ford dealership: Rang up about it, the salesman said it had come in as a part-exchange and agreed that it was a decent thing but they were unable to make it available, not even as a trade sale to another garage. If it couldn't go on their forecourt with a warranty etc then it would have to go to auction. Boo. It sat there for several months, remaining in place when the dealership closed up and the yard became overgrown. I feared that it would get vandalised and scrapped. Just yesterday one of my Flickr contacts did a check and discovered that it has been MoTed and taxed, with DVLA listing a keeper change on 8th August. Great news!

I'll try.....

@wuvvum and other East Anglian shiters, it's Oaksmere Italia today, off the A140 'twixt Diss and Eye. We popped along last year, not a big event but there was some nice stuff there. Weather's good, will visit in the Laurel as I think there's an area for non-Italian stuff.

Charming little thing. Glad the Carina money/space was put to good use! Only thing with 104s for me is the memories they evoke of a primary school teacher who for some reason really didn't like me. She was a rather miserable woman, and had a couple of 104s in succession. I don't think these two things are linked, but if you find yourself acting like a grumpy, dour, unmarried 1970s teacher.....

Hey @egg, do you have K388 HAR on your list? A Mk1 Mondeo appeared on the driveway of a house near me recently, it was only yesterday that I drove past and its K-reg jumped out at me.

Thanks. Sadly past tense now, we've been back nearly four weeks. It's just taking me a long, long time to edit them. Final batch for the big journey day: Another Trophy 4? Yes, they certainly did like their '90s Japanese stuff. Thinking about it I think also caught sight of a Carina E, in that lovely pale metallic brown. A different sort of garage here, one that was of considerable appeal to Master SL: Had a wander around the new car showroom. Other dads and sons were doing the same thing. Some rather interesting older stuff in other buildings, but couldn't get in them. So you'll have to take my word that there were sundry old Lamborghinis including Miura x2, Countach, Diablo, sixties GT plus oddball Jaguar XJ6/12 convertible. Mrs SL watched storks fly past as we wandered around. No plates on the Scirocco, but I don't think I'll forget where I saw it. There were at least two other CXs mouldering away at this place. Good to see a J7, although I suspect it doesn't go anywhere nowadays. One for @Schaefft, this R129 sounded nice. Traffic lights of note, with countdown timer. Odd hardtop. Now reached Ferrette, south of Mulhouse. Next instalment to come, including a visit to the Schlumpf Collection.

Onwards.... Back in Switzerland. Don't remember seeing many 850s during the whole trip. Pontiac LeMans Sport hiding up the side of a garage. Exhaust looked a little perilous, dog appeared to be rather bored with it all. Wrong jazzy colour for Miss SL, her ideal RAV4 is apparently more of a blue. These all at the same place. '90s Japanese cars seemed to be popular in Switzerland, saw a few others. Master SL got this shot as we did a bonus lap of a roundabout - wonder what my mileage and journey times would be if it weren't for doing that sort of thing? The black Traction Avant theme continued in Switzerland. Best garage haul of the fortnight?......... Another 300ZX here, plus the Chevy and Sunny(s). Justy, cool. But hang on, what's that in the background?.... Blimey! Certainly hadn't expected to see a Datsun Violet (not sure if it was a 140 or 160J). Brings back fond memories of the SSS version I had in the '90s, I always found the grille/headlamp arrangement particularly pleasing. Seemed to be an older 100A lurking behind it as well.

Continuing with day 2 of the second week: A handful of these seen over the fortnight. Not vast numbers of these tiddly things seen in the hilly/rural areas we visited. By coincidence I saw this pair of Aixams in succession, some kms apart. These two were somewhere nearer the opposite end of the motoring spectrum. Going to make a start on day 3 now, beginning at Lac de Nantua in France and ending up a little bit south of Mulhouse, with a couple of forays into Switzerland. It was a long day of driving 99% off the autoroute, but my favourite with fantastic scenery and some rather interesting things seen on our travels. A40 autoroute on stilts above us as we headed out of town. Pajero looked to have seen a bit of action. First spot in Switzerland, but it turned out to be from the other side of the border. Saw this both ways, with the Swiss maybe taking advantage of cheaper prices in France? That's better, first proper spots in Switzerland. Felt like I'd stumbled across @Ghosty's Swiss counterpart, with those being in the same car park. Back in France for a bit. First older Land Cruiser seen - did glimpse an earlier example later in the day. Renault 12 (with Dacia lights?) painted like the local cattle. Obviously. Nice to see a Juvaquatre passenger car for a change, not a promo van. German things. I was in area where I can imagine this sees some use in winter. Seemed to be connected with a garage that had some rather interesting things like a Renault 11 Turbo, but unusually there were people around so sadly no photos. Visiting Citroens, at the same supermarket. German Ami 6 was about 200 miles from home, funky 2CV with appropriate plate more like 600 from Zagreb, Croatia. More to follow....