Shite in Miniature II

[sierraman]

Any takers for this Guisval Nissan Patrol tow truck, 1/43 scale. £1 plus post which will be about £3 or thereabouts. It’s in excellent condition having been in my parents loft for about 25 years. 

[Spottedlaurel]

4 minutes ago, sierraman said:

Any takers for this Guisval Nissan Patrol tow truck, 1/43 scale. £1 plus post which will be about £3 or thereabouts. It’s in excellent condition having been in my parents loft for about 25 years.

Oh, go on then.

If you send me a PM with payment details please I'll send funds.....

[Jon]

On 5/16/2019 at 8:02 AM, TheDoctor said:

Forgot about this messy little job I did. 

 

10 hours ago, Datsuncog said:

Just remembered I had one of those (Chevrolet?) flareside pickups once, too - don't think there was a maker's name on it anywhere, but quite a neat casting all the same.

Kudos!

Here's my version I picked up a few months ago:

 

Couldn't leave it languishing in the 50p box when I saw the camper body on the back - it's likely I had a standard one of these back in the day (and definitely had  one or two Ford Econoline castingss from the same company that made these - often with a porthole window in the back) but I'd never seen one like this before.

Also can confirm that my Corgi 760 Turbo had no tow bar either but did have a box, as I bought it when collecting rather than playing with purchases, back in the early 90's, when it was an affordable, if slightly old stock item from my favourite model shop. That Senator is something to behold! I think that's my favourite Corgi casting of the period but I never managed to own one. I think the large scale Rover SD1 would be a very close second, especially the metallic brown one with black roof that I had. I could take or leave the racing ones.

 

[Jon]

10 hours ago, Datsuncog said:

Cracking haul there, Jon! Some really nice pieces... I await the mystery item with interest.

 

Await no longer!

 

A clue may have been offered that it was an item slightly larger than normally bought, as I was able to spy it in a partly opened cupboard out the back, behind the till. Sadly, it wasn't a Corgi Chipperfields set or anything like that but it was something I'd almost bought back in the day and mildly regretted not doing so, in the ensuing years.

 

Anyway, on arriving back at the shop the next time I was able to, hoping it was still there, I was spotted by the lady who'd served me, as she was sitting outside on a break. Immediately, she shot back in through a side door and greeted me on arrival at the till with my potential purchase.

 

And here it is:

 

 

Which is usually clad with this!

 

 

 

 Only a flipping original issue Tamiya Bruiser!!!!

 

Apologies if the explanation marks seem a little over the top but most old Tamiya stuff is in demand and these RC Hilux models are certainly not immune to this. Back in 1996, my mate and I visited Otley Modelsports after months of saving and bought 1/10 scale Tamiya stadium trucks, to race about together with. He opted for the F150 and I for the Toyota Prerunner, as such:

 

 

 

Both came on the TA02 4wd chassis, that underpinned much of the range at the time, so hop up options like ball race bearings to replace the nylon originals and electronic speed controls to make things more fun were easy to do. They were a great choice for items that actually got used and abused but at the time of buying, sitting in the glass display case/till was one of these:

 

A Tamiya Mountain Rider - the later version of the Bruiser, in a more preferable (to me) civilian suit. At the time, I worried it'd be too complex for me to look after (all metal chassis, 3 channel radio gear to control the switchable 2/4WD!), too slow and it was obsolete stock, so parts would be hard to come by. Plus, it had a resin shell, which is far less hardy that the polycarbonate ones we bought. Added to all that, it was also fully built up, which would've denied me the pleasure of building and painting my Prerunner, which I still fondly remember.  In retrospect, it's only really the financial value of these that made it a not so canny move, though what price happy memories?

 

That said, 23 years later, I've rectified these wrongdoings and despite it very much being a project (I fully intend to get it running and used again), I think I did VERY well to nab this one for sub £20!!

It'll cost oodles more to buy the replacement radio gear and update speed controls to suit this, plus the replacement front drive shaft will no doubt be expensive and frustrating to find but I'm happy to bide my time with this one and enjoy the restoration and building process once again.

 

 

[Noel Tidybeard]

10 hours ago, Datsuncog said:

Another addition to the Datsuncog large Corgi fleet yesterday...

Oh yes.

I've been after one of these for a while.

As with many 1980s Corgis, the casting is not quite impeccable - quite a bit of flashing and whatnot along the mould/platen joins. But the chromework and glazing is clean, and the paint is virtually unmarked - and it wasn't as pricey as many I've seen for sale online. Arse-end seems to be saggy on nearly all of these, for some reason.

Unusual choice of model, this - in a way, it's surprising that Corgi chose to model this as an Opel Senator, rather than the comparable Vauxhall Royale - or even offer it out with a different grille moulding for the UK market. Possibly it reflects Corgi's efforts to secure more overseas orders?

i've got one of those lurking somewhere only its blue

[Amishtat]

Nice score!  Someone a year above me at school had a Tamiya Porsche 959 (Paris-Dakar I think) which I recall him thrashing round the playground and being enthralled by. I lusted after one of their range of monster trucks, one with a fifties Ford pickup body but never had one, they were just too expensive for my pocket at the time. 

[Jon]

14 minutes ago, Amishtat said:

Nice score!  Someone a year above me at school had a Tamiya Porsche 959 (Paris-Dakar I think) which I recall him thrashing round the playground and being enthralled by. I lusted after one of their range of monster trucks, one with a fifties Ford pickup body but never had one, they were just too expensive for my pocket at the time. 

 

That'll be Midnight Pumpkin:

 

My mate with the F150 also had a Blitzer Beetle:

 

Which was repainted in some other shade by the time I saw it. That prompted me to buy a polycarbonate replica shell to put on my Prerunner chassis - it looked excellent in Tamiya orange, very much like the VW orange of the time.

I also bought some smaller wheels and slick tyres, so I could run a Volvo 850 estate shell on it, too! That was painted solid red and looked really smart when finished. Sadly, the gearing was unaltered so it was actually slower than the stadium truck but a little quicker off the line. The squishy suspension also did the rear end of the shell no favours, as it graunched along the ground on accelerating from standstill.

Anyway, all the above is in my UK stash, along with my Mardave Mini (with Mini Clubman shell painted fench blue and  Peugeot 205 shell painted gunmetal grey - I now have the car to match!), so I reckon they'll make their way over to NZ in good time.

[Tenmil Socket]

 

I've just discovered Majorette did a Transit mini-bus with a sliding door...

[stuboy]

Charity shop 50p

 

Had one as a child..

[vulgalour]

Unfortunately the camera and/or card that goes into has died so I can't show you what arrived in the post recently.  I can't remember who it was that sent it, but I've got a red Charger with a silly engine, and a weird orange (but seems to have once been flourescent pink) Lamborghini Marzal that are nice additions to the collection.  Thank you also for the copy of Practical Motorist that features a Princess on the front cover and a test drive inside, that was a happy surprise!

[Spottedlaurel]

1 hour ago, vulgalour said:

Unfortunately the camera and/or card that goes into has died so I can't show you what arrived in the post recently.  I can't remember who it was that sent it, but I've got a red Charger with a silly engine, and a weird orange (but seems to have once been flourescent pink) Lamborghini Marzal that are nice additions to the collection.  Thank you also for the copy of Practical Motorist that features a Princess on the front cover and a test drive inside, that was a happy surprise!

That was me, glad they reached you OK.

[sierraman]

17 hours ago, stuboy said:

Charity shop 50p

 

Had one as a child..

I have that one, on the look out for the BMW to complete the set. 

 

Does anyone remember Connectibles? You still see these at Car Boots from time to time, my eldest likes them, sadly I sold the ones I had as a kid. 

[Split_Pin]

I have the Porsche 928 Glo-racer with its pod intact too.

My younger brother had Connectibles, I think they are still at my parents.

[Frogchod]

Some new additions to my reverse rake rear window collection have arrived.

First up is a Toyota Will VI

Next is a Mazda Carol.

Lastly a Reliant Regal. I'd really like a proper model of one of these. Apparently there was a transkit for the Lledo Supervan made by Bijou

But I've not been able to find one. I might get a cheap Trotter van and one of my spare Amis and attack them with a hacksaw.

All together showing their arses off:

Still on the lookout for sensibly priced Lincolns.

[Amishtat]

Surely someone's done a model of a 1964 Mercury? 

[Frogchod]

55 minutes ago, Amishtat said:

Surely someone's done a model of a 1964 Mercury? 

You'd think so, all I've found hasn't been any of the breezeway design. Plenty of normal Mercurys.

Plenty of Lincolns too, but not in my price range  

[pilninggas]

How awful: https://metro.co.uk/2019/05/19/years-work-destroyed-vandals-smash-model-railway-show-9600866/

Makes my piss boil.

there is a just giving page which is over £24k already! https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/market-deeping-mrc

 

 

[morrisoxide]

On 5/17/2019 at 3:37 PM, Tenmil Socket said:

 

I've just discovered Majorette did a Transit mini-bus with a sliding door...

Here's mine it was a hand me down from my cousin, he hammered it and so did I with my miniature scrap yard in the sand pit.  I'm not sure why I still own it?  Probably because it looks like the normal progression of a real Transit.

I'm sure I still have the interior somewhere. I wonder if I should restore it, would it be possible?

[Tenmil Socket]

I'd bridge it...

[Datsuncog]

On ‎5‎/‎16‎/‎2019 at 10:02 PM, Jon said:

And here it is:

Which is usually clad with this!

 Only a flipping original issue Tamiya Bruiser!!!!

Bloody hell, that's fantastic... exclamation marks fully justified!

The Bruiser was my dream RC truck, and I spent many an hour drooling over it in the (then-current) Tamiya catalogue...

I liked it best over all the others, as it seemed the most realistic of all the 1/10 monster trucks in the line-up - the most like an actual road vehicle.

I also really fancied a Toyota Celica...

Just look how flippin' awesome they look!

Ultimately, I never had any of them - too pricey and I was far too young to be building things like that successfully. I did receive a ready-to-run Taiyo Jet Fighter one Christmas, but I could never get so enthusiastic about buggy-type RCs and I didn't use it all that much (a tiny garden and a proclivity to eat AA batteries by the dozen also restricted play somewhat).

I did, however, purchase a battery-powered Midnight Pumpkin Jr (approx. 1/43 scale) at Beaulieu in 1992, which kind of scratched that itch. My brother bought the Wild Willy Jr at the same time, and they were good fun climbing over rocks and things.

Look forward to hearing more about the Bruiser rehabilitation, that's just mega.

[Datsuncog]

On ‎5‎/‎17‎/‎2019 at 3:37 PM, Tenmil Socket said:

 

I've just discovered Majorette did a Transit mini-bus with a sliding door...

I really liked the slidey-door on this one; nice action, even if a little crude to look at.

I used to have this one in the later school bus livery!

Reckon Morrisoxide's scrapper version looks pretty good just the way it is; reminds me of the kind of thing you'd see blocking a hole in a hedge somewhere out in the wilds of Co. Tyrone...

If I still had a toy scrapyard, that would've be right at the front, beside the caravan 'site office'.

[Split_Pin]

Here is mine.

Fantastic little representation of the Transit.

<Alec Guiness> While not as accurate a casting as the Corgi version nor as robust as the Matchbox, the Majorette is the example of choice. </Alec Guiness>

[rml2345]

I had two of those Transit minibuses back on the day and it's likely both still exist somewhere. To young me the Majorette Transit was the one to have because it had a sliding door and very bouncy suspension. Accuracy is overrated anyway...

[sierraman]

I’ve got one that says ‘Wookie Hole’ on the side. Only discovered what this was when I was in the M5 last year. It’s a theme park. 

[sierraman]

Got this lot today 30p each. Particularly like the Buick Century Police Car. 

 

Ive actually e-mailed Mattel to see what’s happening with retailing Matchbox in the UK as apart from a small batch in one of those fly-by-night Poundland type stores that have dried up, you can’t seem to buy them anywhere in the UK. All I got back was a load of bullshit about how they had not arranged an actual retailer in the U.K. Halfway through the year and they’ve no means of actual selling their products. Reading between the lines they are winding the brand up, certainly in the U.K. which is a shame. A good product in the hands of idiots...

 

Apart from the shouty American stuff from Hot Wheels there’s not a lot to choose from. Don’t even get me started on those ‘Roadster’ things in Poundland. Every time I see them I’ve a burning desire to stamp on the entire stock. 

[morrisoxide]

Edit: that's a shame about Matchbox 

On the subject of Transits here's one I made earlier. 

. 

It had lost it's tailgate so I drew one out in CAD and plotted it out at work on some scrap polycarb.

I really like the casting on this, loads of detail. It also has a cooker and sink detailing inside.

 

 

[Split_Pin]

Tremendous work!

[64A60]

Impulse bought this Dinky (Meccano not Atlas) Oxford off ebay this afternoon which has been "detailed" by a previous owner. NXR 290 was a 1953 London issue plate so I reckon it 's a replica of a real MO... 

[Amishtat]

I used to do that too, one or two of my Corgis still have sticky-paper numberplates. Since I was that sort of child B37XEV very probably was a Mk. 3 Scrote

[Datsuncog]

5 hours ago, sierraman said:

Ive actually e-mailed Mattel to see what’s happening with retailing Matchbox in the UK as apart from a small batch in one of those fly-by-night Poundland type stores that have dried up, you can’t seem to buy them anywhere in the UK. All I got back was a load of bullshit about how they had not arranged an actual retailer in the U.K. Halfway through the year and they’ve no means of actual selling their products. Reading between the lines they are winding the brand up, certainly in the U.K. which is a shame. A good product in the hands of idiots...

They have previous form for this sort of shit, mind: back in my model shop days, our Matchbox rep went AWOL for basically all of 1997, leaving us with no means of ordering stock. UK Head Office didn't give a toss beyond mild disinterest.

Mind you, we ended up buying a shitload of Tomica and Siku instead to keep some pocket money stock on the spinners, so it worked out ok in the end.

But yeah... never fails to amaze me just how clueless some companies can be. You'd almost think they wanted to go bust.