Shite in Miniature II

[Tenmil Socket]

Check out the wooden scale model at the bottom of the page...

http://toyvan.co.uk/corgi/corgi-escort-vans/

[sierraman]

[155V6]

There's a Mira 1/64ish 5 door as well.

[sierraman]

[egg]

Here's what my French Norev book says about MK3 escy models

[egg]

The jet car colours are as follows

Edit, more info

[Split_Pin]

Ooft I forgot about the HW version, that looks much more like a sporting model.

[155V6]

[Amishtat]

Another sunny morning, another trip to the boot sale before work. Not a huge amount of interest but having read some of the posts upthread I did keep an eye out for Escorts. As it were. None to be found, very light on 80's Corgis in general really. However I couldn't leave empty-handed. 

 

[Amishtat]

And also these. The CX is identical to my childhood example which got lost over the years and the Vauxhall just because it's a new one on me. I mean, a Vauxhall for God's sake! 

[Tenmil Socket]

14 hours ago, sierraman said:

Is the boot full of bricks...

[Tenmil Socket]

Blimey! I didn't realise there was so many variants!

I think I will just pick up whatever I can, as and when they become available. When I get my ass in gear I think a thorough review of my collection is in order and I will begin to off-load the models I don't really want to free up space and funds for my Escort obtaination...

[Datsuncog]

15 hours ago, Amishtat said:

And also these. The CX is identical to my childhood example which got lost over the years and the Vauxhall just because it's a new one on me. I mean, a Vauxhall for God's sake! 

The Guildsman has quite an interesting story behind it...

By 1970, the recently-launched Hot Wheels were making serious gains in the UK diecast market with their Spectraflame-painted 'California Customs'; wild-looking concept cars such as the Beatnik Bandit and Dodge Deora.

Mattel had approved a massive advertising budget to put their far-out wares in front of young buyers in the UK, with TV and magazine spots plus sponsorship tie-ins that the 'old guard' of Corgi, Dinky and Matchbox had never wanted (or needed) to consider.

This was a game-changer. The market had suddenly shifted away from faithful realism and multiple opening features as the primary goal of a diecast toymaker. Even though Corgi had produced a replica of Dean Jeffries' Pontiac GTO- based Monkeemobile, it was part of Corgi's expansive TV tie-in range and didn't really mark the start of a dalliance with the 'kustom kar' scene.

Along with the others, Lesney were concerned at being left behind - churning out their technically accurate, but slightly humdrum, 'grey porridge' models such as the Foden Cement Mixer and Ford Zodiac MkIV.

Losing market share and with no homegrown 'name' customisers like George Barris or Ed Roth to draw on (both already famous to kids through Revell and AMT's range of licenced plastic model kits), Lesney hurriedly turned to recent car design competitions in an attempt to find something, anything, they could add to their lineup to show they were also cool and hip. Preferably in a very eyecatching colour.

As part of this search, Lesney contacted Vauxhall to ask if they could take a look through the many thousands of entries received for their annual Vauxhall Craftsman's Guild Design Competition, aimed at school-age students.

One particular design from the 1969 competition, penned by a young fella named Phil Gannon, really stood out. Lesney obtained permission from Vauxhall to make a model based on his 3rd-place design.

Phil's design was thought to be sufficiently modern and futuristic to compete with Mattel's line, and it does indeed appear a very harmonious, balanced piece of design work. I'd drive one.

The idea was it would also be one of the first all-new models to showcase the Matchbox range's new (Hot Wheels inspired) Superfast wheels, and was among many that appeared in the artwork for their Superfast Track sets. This was the future!

Even though Vauxhall owned the legal title to the design under the terms of the competition and could do with it as they pleased, Phil received a gratuity payment of £25 from Lesney.

Since a 1:1 version of his design was never built, having these on the shelves must have been the next best thing for him.

The name chosen by Lesney for the model came from the newsletter Vauxhall circulated to aspiring young designers involved in the Craftsman's Guild Design Competition. Oddly, although the base said Vauxhall, the box never did.

Incidentally, the somewhat bulbous winner of the 1969 competition looks a smidge like a 3-dr Nissan Juke to my eyes. Prescient, maybe, but nowhere near as lithe as Phil's design, with its uniquely shaped wheelarches and glass roof.

First glimpses of this 'futurism' angle within Matchbox had initially appeared with the 1969 release of the Pininfarina BMC 1800, the larger of the two 1967 Berlina Aerodinamica styling exercises by the noted Italian design house. Unfortunately the full-size cars didn't go down overly well with BMC's top brass (though, in a case of waste not, want not , these prototypes, ahem, 'inspired' Citroen's Robert Opron to create the GS and CX not very long after). Nonetheless, this model appeared as part of the first Superfast releases, and was unusual as it wasn't a car you'd ever see on the road in real life.

The Freeman Inter-City Commuter, another Matchbox release from the same period, had a similar genesis to the Guildsman, as it derived from a 1967 Daily Telegraph 'car of the future' design competition.

The writing was on the wall, though, and 1970 did seem to mark a breakpoint in Lesney's corporate philosophy. Even standard production car models introduced after this date, such as the BMW 3.0 CSL, always seemed a bit blocky and slapdash when compared to the fine level of proportions and detailing seen in their 1960s output.

As I mentioned a few weeks back, around this time the elegant models from the new Matchbox King-Size range - conceived to compete in the same scale 1/43 as Corgi and Dinky - were quickly overhauled as the eyepopping 'Speed Kings' range, emerging with oversized engines and flared arches to accommodate huge dragster wheels. The kids, it seemed, loved them - and volume sales were what counted. You can hardly blame them.

Within a few years though, Lesney's own draughtsmen were cooking up their own lurid 'fantasy cars', drawing heavily on the increasingly bizarre glassfibre candyflake creations adorning custom mags up and down the country... some of which had definite links to actual vehicles, as Vulgalour pointed out the other week on this very thread, while discussing Matchbox's non-prototypical offerings.

Toe Joe?

Stretcha Fetcha?

Erm…

WTF

I'm done here.

 

At least no-one would be stupid enough to model that.

 

Daaaah.

[Datsuncog]

2 hours ago, Tenmil Socket said:

Blimey! I didn't realise there was so many variants!

I think I will just pick up whatever I can, as and when they become available. When I get my ass in gear I think a thorough review of my collection is in order and I will begin to off-load the models I don't really want to free up space and funds for my Escort obtaination…

I found that having a massive clear-out last year has massively helped me focus on those models I'm really interested in collecting.

It feels kinda brutal, but I'd recommend it.

[Tenmil Socket]

4 minutes ago, Datsuncog said:

I found that having a massive clear-out last year has massively helped me focus on those models I'm really interested in collecting.

It feels kinda brutal, but I'd recommend it.

Yeah that's the idea but at the same time I'm a bit of a hoarder ?

[Datsuncog]

That's ok, so am I...

Mebbe you didn't see my shedful of crap last year?

[Tenmil Socket]

Oh dear... that's fantastic!

BTW... PM me your address and I'll send you something Datsun related that's been part of my car related hoarding for years and may be the first step in my clear out...

[Datsuncog]

1 hour ago, Tenmil Socket said:

Oh dear... that's fantastic!

BTW... PM me your address and I'll send you something Datsun related that's been part of my car related hoarding for years and may be the first step in my clear out...

Heh, cheers dude...

PM incoming, I'm intrigued...

[Datsuncog]

5 hours ago, Tenmil Socket said:

Is the boot full of bricks...

Proof, if it were needed, that Corgi pre-fucked the axles on their models prior to them even leaving the factory...

Quite a lot of my Corgis of both scales came with a droopy arse.

[paulplom]

Just bought this from a large local 2nd hand shop. Bagged it for £20 the detail ia fantastic.

Sent from my SM-G975F using Tapatalk

[sierraman]

1 hour ago, Datsuncog said:

Proof, if it were needed, that Corgi pre-fucked the axles on their models prior to them even leaving the factory...

Quite a lot of my Corgis of both scales came with a droopy arse.

Except the Buick Regals that always had a jacked up rear end. 

[Datsuncog]

1 hour ago, paulplom said:

Just bought this from a large local 2nd hand shop. Bagged it for £20 the detail is fantastic.

Now THAT is nice. ERTL I/18 version?

Well scored, dude - even without a box, you won't find one much cheaper online...

[rml2345]

Fuck, I've got one of those! They are indeed a cracking model, the detail is superb. 

[Datsuncog]

On ‎5‎/‎16‎/‎2019 at 5:04 PM, sierraman said:

Does anyone remember Matchbox Glo Racers? They were luminous plastic models, one of them was a Triumph TR7?

 

On ‎5‎/‎16‎/‎2019 at 6:47 PM, Datsuncog said:

Aye, that rings a bell... I seem to remember a Porsche 928, Chevrolet Corvette and Datsun 280Z in that weird, sickly yellow colour, but the Triumph is a new one on me... must have a hoke through my Matchbox catalogues later on.

 

On ‎5‎/‎17‎/‎2019 at 5:32 PM, stuboy said:

Charity shop 50p

Had one as a child..

Just been doing a bit of digging on these, as nothing was coming up in my old Matchbox catalogues. Also, a Matchbox TR7 seemed... weird.

Seems that the Glo-Racers were derived from the short-lived Matchbox Powertrack range, a small-scale Scalextric/AFX/Tyco competitor, of which the TR7 was one of several cars available.

https://powertrackshak.blogspot.com/2008/02/triumph-tr7-pt-111-uk-143753-us.html

It seems at least some of the old Powertrack mouldings were shipped to Hong Kong not long before Lesney hit the buffers in 1982, and reused as the Glo-Racers range, with some minor modifications.

This appears to have been originally released as a Powertrack Racer:

Like this...

In this set...

This one wasn't - though maybe there was the intention to release it as a Powertrack car before the whole range was binned off, and losses cut?

Interesting stuff!

[quicksilver]

Oxford Diecast have added a Maxi to their range of BL chod. Naturally I had to buy one and do a review.

 

[carlo]

My first attempt at a 1/43 diecast respray.  From an Argentinian cheapish model of the IKA Carabella/Kaiser Manhattan.  Not sure I've improved it..

 

 

[eddyramrod]

3 hours ago, Datsuncog said:

Now THAT is nice. ERTL I/18 version?

Well scored, dude - even without a box, you won't find one much cheaper online...

You jammy sod, I've been chasing those on ebay for years!  It doesn't have to have the speaker on the roof; it doesn't even have to have a box!  One day... (yeah, keep telling yourself that, Edward, you might even believe it eventually)

[Sudsprint]

10 hours ago, Datsuncog said:

The Guildsman has quite an interesting story behind it...

By 1970, the recently-launched Hot Wheels were making serious gains in the UK diecast market with their Spectraflame-painted 'California Customs'; wild-looking concept cars such as the Beatnik Bandit and Dodge Deora.

Mattel had approved a massive advertising budget to put their far-out wares in front of young buyers in the UK, with TV and magazine spots plus sponsorship tie-ins that the 'old guard' of Corgi, Dinky and Matchbox had never wanted (or needed) to consider.

This was a game-changer. The market had suddenly shifted away from faithful realism and multiple opening features as the primary goal of a diecast toymaker. Even though Corgi had produced a replica of Dean Jeffries' Pontiac GTO- based Monkeemobile, it was part of Corgi's expansive TV tie-in range and didn't really mark the start of a dalliance with the 'kustom kar' scene.

Along with the others, Lesney were concerned at being left behind - churning out their technically accurate, but slightly humdrum, 'grey porridge' models such as the Foden Cement Mixer and Ford Zodiac MkIV.

Losing market share and with no homegrown 'name' customisers like George Barris or Ed Roth to draw on (both already famous to kids through Revell and AMT's range of licenced plastic model kits), Lesney hurriedly turned to recent car design competitions in an attempt to find something, anything, they could add to their lineup to show they were also cool and hip. Preferably in a very eyecatching colour.

As part of this search, Lesney contacted Vauxhall to ask if they could take a look through the many thousands of entries received for their annual Vauxhall Craftsman's Guild Design Competition, aimed at school-age students.

One particular design from the 1969 competition, penned by a young fella named Phil Gannon, really stood out. Lesney obtained permission from Vauxhall to make a model based on his 3rd-place design.

Phil's design was thought to be sufficiently modern and futuristic to compete with Mattel's line, and it does indeed appear a very harmonious, balanced piece of design work. I'd drive one.

The idea was it would also be one of the first all-new models to showcase the Matchbox range's new (Hot Wheels inspired) Superfast wheels, and was among many that appeared in the artwork for their Superfast Track sets. This was the future!

Even though Vauxhall owned the legal title to the design under the terms of the competition and could do with it as they pleased, Phil received a gratuity payment of £25 from Lesney.

Since a 1:1 version of his design was never built, having these on the shelves must have been the next best thing for him.

The name chosen by Lesney for the model came from the newsletter Vauxhall circulated to aspiring young designers involved in the Craftsman's Guild Design Competition. Oddly, although the base said Vauxhall, the box never did.

Incidentally, the somewhat bulbous winner of the 1969 competition looks a smidge like a 3-dr Nissan Juke to my eyes. Prescient, maybe, but nowhere near as lithe as Phil's design, with its uniquely shaped wheelarches and glass roof.

First glimpses of this 'futurism' angle within Matchbox had initially appeared with the 1969 release of the Pininfarina BMC 1800, the larger of the two 1967 Berlina Aerodinamica styling exercises by the noted Italian design house. Unfortunately the full-size cars didn't go down overly well with BMC's top brass (though, in a case of waste not, want not , these prototypes, ahem, 'inspired' Citroen's Robert Opron to create the GS and CX not very long after). Nonetheless, this model appeared as part of the first Superfast releases, and was unusual as it wasn't a car you'd ever see on the road in real life.

The Freeman Inter-City Commuter, another Matchbox release from the same period, had a similar genesis to the Guildsman, as it derived from a 1967 Daily Telegraph 'car of the future' design competition.

The writing was on the wall, though, and 1970 did seem to mark a breakpoint in Lesney's corporate philosophy. Even standard production car models introduced after this date, such as the BMW 3.0 CSL, always seemed a bit blocky and slapdash when compared to the fine level of proportions and detailing seen in their 1960s output.

As I mentioned a few weeks back, around this time the elegant models from the new Matchbox King-Size range - conceived to compete in the same scale 1/43 as Corgi and Dinky - were quickly overhauled as the eyepopping 'Speed Kings' range, emerging with oversized engines and flared arches to accommodate huge dragster wheels. The kids, it seemed, loved them - and volume sales were what counted. You can hardly blame them.

Within a few years though, Lesney's own draughtsmen were cooking up their own lurid 'fantasy cars', drawing heavily on the increasingly bizarre glassfibre candyflake creations adorning custom mags up and down the country... some of which had definite links to actual vehicles, as Vulgalour pointed out the other week on this very thread, while discussing Matchbox's non-prototypical offerings.

Toe Joe?

Stretcha Fetcha?

Erm…

WTF

I'm done here.

 

At least no-one would be stupid enough to model that.

 

Daaaah.

Brilliant write up!

[Split_Pin]

3 hours ago, quicksilver said:

Oxford Diecast have added a Maxi to their range of BL chod. Naturally I had to buy one and do a review.

 

FINALLY a maxi model I may be able to afford! Yuss!

[Datsuncog]

13 hours ago, quicksilver said:

Oxford Diecast have added a Maxi to their range of BL chod. Naturally I had to buy one and do a review.

 

Great review... hoping to pick one of these up tomorrow!

Despite the usual Oxford limitations, it's an appealing wee thing in a nice colour - and finally, it's a diecast Maxi. Bizarre that it's taken so long for one to turn up.