Shite in Miniature II

[Noel Tidybeard]

please sir can i haz the isogriffo

[Datsuncog]

54 minutes ago, auld_ALS said:

Ooft, may I take the Honda please, my most desired Majorette!

 

52 minutes ago, Noel Tidybeard said:

please sir can i haz the isogriffo

You sure can! 

[flat4alfa]

Thrushbuster  please

 

[155V6]

I can't seem to do a link on my phone,but someone on Facebook Marketplace in Hitchin is selling some diecast for £2.00,including a few old Majorettes.

[bunglebus]

I've got to detail it yet but my Merc looks rather good if you ask me - think I need to paint the base though.

I also made a fake HW Hi-Raker out of a nasty Chinese pull-back car that I may or may not have shown you weeks ago. I suspect this could actually be a copy of a HW as the length and various details are identical 

[bunglebus]

23 hours ago, RoadworkUK said:

I think what angers me about Corgis is that they often have the feature lines / door shutlines expressed proud from the surface of the casting, rather than bevelled into it. Just looks and feels messy.

I see what you mean now I look at my Merc - didn't notice until it was in paint that the front upper door shut is proud and the lower is in relief - WTF? 

[egg]

Today's rammell...

From the 50p tray

From the £1 tray (base loose on the hustler) - happy to pass on these two

From the £2 tray

[sierraman]

Found this at the car boot this morning. Norev Talbot Horizon! 20p but it’s worth it!

[Datsuncog]

On ‎7‎/‎4‎/‎2019 at 7:20 PM, bunglebus said:

I have always had a problem with Corgi over Matchbox as they feel "cheap". I think a lot of it is the thin plastic bases and nasty wheels. However the castings are often quite nice, so I've given this Merc a chance, made a base and put HW wheels on it, going for a custom/lowrider look.

I tended to view Corgi as somehow a bit second-rate, too - especially in the 1980s, when Matchbox's in-store 1-75 displays and playsets were really eyecatching, and the toys had a crispness to the finish and a 'quality' feel which Corgi lacked.

I never remember Corgi having the same retail presence: whenever I went into one of the local shops that sold toys as a kid (Woolworths, Toymaster, or any independents), I would have been straight over to the Matchbox display first, then Hot Wheels, then Majorette (though only one or two places stocked them), and Corgi would have been last on the list.

The smaller Juniors-size Corgis just seemed to have a very limited range - I can recall endless pegs of the same Mercedes R129 SL, Mercedes W201, Ferrari 348 Testarossa, Aston Martin DB6, Ford Transit Mk3, and Jaguar XJS, all in a murky palette of dark blues, maroons, greys and whites. I had all of them already, many times over - they'd been making some of them (like the Aston) for decades. The wheels were often horrible, with my least favourite being the 'fat quarters' cloverleaf style, that didn't look like any real-life wheel I'd ever seen.

I don't remember ever buying myself an individual Corgi toy from this smaller range, although I did spend my pocket money on a few playsets. I felt differently about the bigger 1/35 models; which were better and newer - but the small ones just felt flimsy and cheap, not much better than the no-name stuff from the 50p shop. The oddly-proportioned (squashed rear) Volvo 245DL, W123 series Mercedes 240D with easily broken suspension, and far-too-wide Jaguar XJS (which often didn't even have an interior fitted) are the ones which readily spring to mind here.

The castings themselves were usually quite well done, but the range was just stale and remained static for years, with the same old toys offered year in, year out. After Mattel bought Corgi out in 1989, I don't think there were any new additions to the range - the Merc SL and Ferrari 348 being the last 'new' Corgi Juniors (and were also sold with different wheels in Hot Wheels blister packs).

The fact that so many of the models were knocking around in the 1980s as promotional giveaways (Yorkie, Colgate toothpaste, Kelloggs) or through the BP fuel offer, further added to the sense of them being worth less than other toys. I hoovered them up by the dozen at jumble sales.

Matchbox, by contrast, usually always had something new and unexpected on the pegs. I don't remember the annual collector booklets being sold or given away by toyshops (though I did have a couple, so I must have found them from somewhere) so I didn't know which new models to anticipate - but I can remember my delight at finding new castings like the Mercury Sable Wagon and Dodge Ram pick-up in Woolworths.

One thing I will say, though, is that despite their flimsiness I firmly believe that 1980s and 1990s Corgi toys were significantly more wear-resistant than Matchbox toys of the era. Based on my totally unscientific anecdotal evidence, of all the cars thrown into my toy bucket it's the Corgis that have survived the best.

Now, maybe I just played with the Matchbox cars more, for the reasons outlined above, but I don't think so - the aforementioned Mercury Sable sticks in my mind as a toy that very quickly showed serious chipping to the white paint, to my distress, as did other Matchboxes of the era. Corgi and Majorette really didn't. Once I'd got past my 'toy scrapyard' phase c.1987, I tended to look after my cars painstakingly, but the Matchboxes looked rough far too soon.

Similarly, in the 1/35 scale models, my Corgi Volvo 740 received no more special treatment than my Matchbox Superkings Plymouth Gran Fury police car and Mercedes 190 (all bought new around the same time and kept in the same basket) but the paint on the Matchboxes were soon absolutely hanging, while the Volvo is still pretty much mint today. At a guess, I'd say that the Matchbox production move from Macau to China in early 90s led to some quality issues with paint durability. I understand London-made Lesneys had three separate coats of paint, each heat baked - not sure whether that continued under Universal Holdings' ownership. I'd think not.

But your updating of that W123 shows just what nice models Corgi could have been producing, just by using better wheels and more appealing paintwork colours. Nice one!

 

On ‎7‎/‎4‎/‎2019 at 9:56 PM, RoadworkUK said:

I think what angers me about Corgis is that they often have the feature lines / door shutlines expressed proud from the surface of the casting, rather than bevelled into it. Just looks and feels messy.

I think this was once the common practice, brought about by using very fine wire to give the impression of shut lines on the carved prototypes, which were then moulded in relief for the metal dies. While larger scale models from all manufacturers tended to have carved-in concave shutlines, pretty much all small scale toy vehicles had these relief shutlines. Lesney products up until the late 1960s used this technique (see Egg's rammel haul from yesterday), as did Huskey/Corgi Juniors and others - but yes, it is messy and naturally these were the first areas to be chipped during play, making the toy look tatty far too soon.

From my amateur armchair theorising, I think this method was employed because techniques hadn't yet been perfected to make carved-in shutlines look acceptable on smaller scale cars - it would have appeared too crude and/or too difficult to cast successfully on the original tiny 1950s models, and even as their size grew, the same technique continued to be used.

Again, Mattel proved the disruptor - by doing away with shutlines altogether on many of their early Hot Wheels toys, they accentuated the 'sleekness' and enhanced perceptions of speed. Other later cars in the HW range used concave shut lines in the style of larger models (like the bonnet and boot on Jon's 1974 Chevy Monte Carlo Redline above), and it seems that both Lesney and Corgi quickly began to change their toys' appearances too. A flick through the 1970 Matchbox catalogue shows the models with convex shut lines are updatings of older regular-wheels castings, while the new Superfast models all have concave shut lines.

The use of 'flat' body castings was also important as decorations moved away from messy waterslide transfers and paper stickers (which were often aligned against small raised lines cast into the body - as on the bonnet of the Lesney Impala taxi above) and towards machine-printed tampo decoration, pioneered by Mattel and soon copied by Lesney for their 'Streakers' range.

Corgi were weird in that some of their castings used convex shut lines, while others used concave shutlines - and indeed some used both! It may have been down to the skill of the individual modeller working on a new casting; some may have felt confident enough to chisel a shutline into the body of the prototype, while others may have preferred to use the traditional surface mounted fine-wire technique when representing shut lines.

Looking up the Corgi Juniors over the last few pages, the Jaguar XJ6 has all-convex lines sitting proud, while the Volvo P1800 Rockets that I found  in the tat box missing its roof is all-concave. The Jensen Interceptor, from the same range, has all-convex shut lines. The Ford F150 (based on an earlier Huskey casting) is all-concave in its door and bonnet shut lines, yet the Volvo 245DL from many years later is all-convex. Meanwhile, the Bertone Carabo has no visible shut lines at all. Strange.

I agree it's annoying, and also contributed to the smaller 1970s and 80s Corgis looking cheaper and cruder than the competition.

I'd never noticed that the Mercedes saloon has a mix of both on the same door, though! Although, a quick look at some of the variations reveals why this might have been:

Yup, it might have been difficult to apply the sticker to the doors on the Taxi version, if it had fully convex shut lines. But given that there's a rubbing strip cast into the side, it's possible that moulding the door shut lines concave would have looked a bit odd, too - so this seems to have been the awkward result. Good spot, though! Dunno how may of these I've owned over the years, and never noticed that...

 

On ‎7‎/‎4‎/‎2019 at 11:55 PM, Jon said:

I've just looked up the prices of a Gloria Van on Ebay - Jeepers! I thought it was getting a bit rich at the £3.50 I paid but it seems I got a bit of a bargain! Think I'll look out for any more Tomicas the seller has, at those prices!

That's a tremendous find! I was stunned when I realised how much these are fetching on the open market, really couldn't understand it. Honestly, I had to check Ebay wasn't converting them into Yen or something, so many zeros...

 

Great find on that Horizon too, Sierraman! 20p? Bargaintastic!

[sierraman]

I remember the Matchboxes being available pretty much everywhere, the newsagents at the top of my Grandmas road had them, in fact I remember them taking me in there and getting a Laser Wheels Rover 800. Toymaster definately sold them as there was one near us that sold pretty much the whole range from the Super GTs to the Superkings. They also stocked the catalogues which carried on until 1992 apart from the trade catalogue that continued for longer. Corgi strangely enough were available in the same shop but priced slightly lower IIRC, the trick point Corgi had in the early 90’s was the Autocity sets which were quite a bit better than the motor city range. 

 

Harder to find were Majorette, but Morrison’s stocked them (and still do) though I used to get most of mine when we made frequent trips to France as a kid, there they were cheap and you got the wider range you couldn’t buy in the U.K. 

[sierraman]

Got this as well for £3. Apart from the canvas roof missing it’s quite tidy. 

[sierraman]

Got this as well for £3. Apart from the canvas roof missing it’s quite tidy. 

[flat4alfa]

Buying Britain's Land Rover for under a tenner is good going. I had to stump up nearer a score for a nice one in Safari paint scheme. With canvas though. And Safari is the one etched in mind since childhood. Because sucker for nostalgia

[flat4alfa]

want £5 for it...?  I could have plans for The chassis rather than ruin mine

[sierraman]

I’m going to keep it I think, it’s a lovely old thing. The seller had an earlier seventies LWB one missing the window frame, again at £3. Not in the best condition but straight enough to be restored.

[egg]

I have one or maybe two very rough Britains, I'll have a look see.

[Sudsprint]

A family friend has very kindly given me the Dinky toys from his childhood.  All but a couple a massively payworn but really charming.

 

 

[Datsuncog]

Those Dinkys look fantastic. Clearly a much-loved collection! Any plans for them yet?

 

I'll keep an eye out for any Britains S3 Land Rovers, too - if a chassis is needed for a project, it's the kind of thing that might appear in a market tat box in poor condition, for not that much...

I had two similarly-scaled Defender-era SWB Land Rovers (Police and AA) by ERTL, though I passed them on a while back.

[bramz7]

More newcomers:

Solido stuff of this era seems criminally undervalued considering how well built it feels and the proportions are second to none. 

The BX was just for the colour. 

[bunglebus]

6 hours ago, Sudsprint said:

A family friend has very kindly given me the Dinky toys from his childhood.  All but a couple a massively payworn but really charming.

 

 

 

Job lots like this fetch decent money on eBay

 

Just picked up a HW LR:

 

20190708_132154 by RS, on Flickr

[sierraman]

Too right. I picked up a similar job lot a few years ago at a summer fete for something ridiculous like £5 for the lot. Made some decent coin on eBay. Even dog rough stuff fetches a decent price, don’t know who is buying it and paying well over the odds. 

[155V6]

1 hour ago, bunglebus said:

 

Job lots like this fetch decent money on eBay

 

Just picked up a HW LR:

 

20190708_132154 by RS, on Flickr

I haven't seen a blue one yet,only red.Did you get anything else?

[sierraman]

Reminds me a bit of the old Corgi Juniors Land Rover Hi Cap. Early ones had the military canopy on the back, then a towing boom then on to just a simple pick up. The Hot Wheels one looks like it would lend itself a a good conversion perhaps to a recovery wagon.

[sierraman]

Mira Pegaso Cement Silo Lorry purchases today for a quid.

[bunglebus]

4 hours ago, 155V6 said:

I haven't seen a blue one yet,only red.Did you get anything else?

Yes but not anything Autoshite really. Two Nova wagons, one in gasser flavour, 56 Ford panel van, 32 Ford and 55 Chevy Monad. New case has arrived at Tesco

[bunglebus]

On another note, probably been mentioned before but anyone know about Zee Toys/Zylmex?

Spent hours trying to ID a "Matchbox" only to eventually realise it was one of these. The wheels are virtually identical to Matchbox Superfast/HW blackwalls, and their later wheels are also just like Matchbox. Seems they weren't too worried about copyright either going by the "Silhouette" (Hot Wheels) and Zakspeed Capri (Corgi)

 

 

[155V6]

51 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

Yes but not anything Autoshite really. Two Nova wagons, one in gasser flavour, 56 Ford panel van, 32 Ford and 55 Chevy Monad. New case has arrived at Tesco

Thanks,I'm looking out for the black Mk1 Escort.

[sierraman]

Found this as well, a 1/32 Majorette Landcruiser. Even has a swinging spare wheel carrier on the back. 

[bunglebus]

1 hour ago, 155V6 said:

Thanks,I'm looking out for the black Mk1 Escort.

Yeah me too!

[vulgalour]

Finished the T-bird tonight and it turned out to just be one of those kits.  Glue issues, paint reactions, parts misbehaving... I guess it just wasn't to be.  You can't win them all so I accepted there was a point where I just needed to stick together what would stick together and make it good enough to live at the back of the shelf.  The colour scheme is striking enough - and I am really happy with the scheme and colours, just not the execution of them - that it's amazing just how much you can overlook on this one.

There's enough good to the car as a whole that I reckon it's a great candidate for an abandoned show car sort of thing further down the line once I've robbed a few bits off it for other projects.  I'll let it evolve naturally as time goes on.  I'd certainly like to do this kit again in this colour scheme from scratch rather than from a gluebomb so I don't consider it a total loss.