Shite in Miniature II

[Cookiesouwest]

Right. Had a good think today.

The hot wheels and modern matchbox don't float my boat.

But after perusing ebay, collecting the cars I had as a child really does float my boat.

So matchbox superfast from mid 70s onwards and matchbox convoys, plus the odd majorette is what I'm gonna go for

 

[Split_Pin]

29 minutes ago, Cookiesouwest said:

Right. Had a good think today.

The hot wheels and modern matchbox don't float my boat.

But after perusing ebay, collecting the cars I had as a child really does float my boat.

So matchbox superfast from mid 70s onwards and matchbox convoys, plus the odd majorette is what I'm gonna go for

 

Pretty much my sentiments, except its the ones I couldn't have at the time I was a lad, such as Bburagos 1/24s (too expensive), Guisvals (I only got a few on holidays to Spain) which I'm mad on. Majorettes nearly all got smashed or swapped so I love those too.

[sutty2006]

I was in a different BnM this afternoon and picked up another red merc. 
 

I already have this one. Open to swaps if anyones got something I need 🤣🤣🤣🤣

[Bren]

5 hours ago, Cookiesouwest said:

Right. Had a good think today.

The hot wheels and modern matchbox don't float my boat.

But after perusing ebay, collecting the cars I had as a child really does float my boat.

So matchbox superfast from mid 70s onwards and matchbox convoys, plus the odd majorette is what I'm gonna go for

 

I collect the stuff from childhood. Sadly boxed they are expensive - its christmas and birthdays only now.

[bunglebus]

New premium set in Smyths

[sierraman]

Raided Tesco yesterday. No Kadetts but the push me pull you car which the kids liked. 

[bicycle repairman]

did a land rover and mercury cougar couldent got transfer on roof just fell to bits put canpie and for areil rivet lol,mercury got in job lot better then my red one as got good pillars and asent snap on body red one had to  usesplit pins do a pillars glue the sill,love the early matchbox just befor they went with the superfast wheels go with my others,got few early corgis were the landrover goes with

[Cookiesouwest]

13 hours ago, Bren said:

I collect the stuff from childhood. Sadly boxed they are expensive - its christmas and birthdays only now.

A little shocked at how much boxed versions go for.

[Split_Pin]

22 hours ago, sierraman said:

I was always a Matchbox fan boi. Had loads of them as a kid, it sort of is a throw back to the Saturdays as a kid going shopping with my mum and getting one from the newsagents. The larger stuff like the Superkings were birthday money or as a treat, recall being in hospital as a kid and as a reward for being brave getting the big ERF fire engine. Hot wheels I can’t ever recall actually choosing but had bought for me perhaps by a relative. I quite like the late 70’s early 80’s ones, the Cadillac Seville was a highlight. 

Back then obviously Majorette was easily available, if I’m correct they were stocked by Morrisons in those hangers on the aisles presumably attempted to placate bored kids. Liked these as they were regular cars you saw in the street, Sierras, Alfa 75’s, 405s etc. As a kid I was fixated by scrapyards, this was in the days when they’d let you in with your dad, complete no no now of course. I had a box of broken stuff that had been my cousins which I’d assemble into stacks like the breakers near where we lived. Can also remember the fads you went through as a kid, for about three weeks I was mesmerised with Porsche 959s. But even then my favourite was a brown Rover SD1 which I still have. 

I think you have mentioned this before about you and I leading parallel childhoods ....

[bunglebus]

Got a few bits in the post. Firstly this AC Cobra, turns out it's a white metal kit, and surprisingly heavy

Next up is this Treasure Hunt version of the Hot Wheels Mayers Manx 

Missing its windscreen, but I have a spare

Always interesting to see what changes happen over the years. Early TH has a separate engine casting and thinner roll hoop and steering column. 

Staying with VW, another Lone Star split - I'm going to order a door for it

Lastly a not as good as I'd hoped Matchbox Volvo from the set with the 240Z

[Bren]

Purchased today from curio shop in Exeter 

 

[Bren]

Porsche 910. Just £9.50.

Majorette renault van. £3.50. I used to have lots of these but they are pricey nowadays.

[155V6]

Today's delivery from eBay was this Dinky Custom Range Rover

I've fancied one for a while to go with the Vampire Transit,but most of  the ones I've seen were boxed & A bit pricey.

I was happy to get this one for a good price,the Range Rover is a great model & I love Seventies customs 😎

They didn't make a different base for this version,they just screwed the extra plastic parts to the standard base

Now I just need the Custom Land Rover they did 🤔

[bunglebus]

I've got one of those but the bull bars are broken.

Did win a better one on eBay but the seller mysteriously lost it...

[Split_Pin]

That's a really ace toy, I'd have loved that one as a kid, and even now!

[Cookiesouwest]

This mornings find in the £1 bucket at collectibles shop, Watchet Quay.

A Sterling.

 

[Split_Pin]

I was looking at one of mine the other day. I remember how excited I was when these came out as the real car had only been out for a year or so. A contemporary British car in miniature. My parents neighbour had an identical one which made it even more exciting. I loved how they replicated the flush windows on the real car.

They simply called it a 'Sterling' to align with the US market whichever what these cars were marketed as with no mention of Rover.

[RoadworkUK]

I had a Matchbox Sterling. Inevitably, I ran it through a vice when I went through my destructive preteen phase. Next time I've had a few pints I'll probably buy a BNIB example on eBay for far too much money. 

[Datsuncog]

I had the Rover Sterling in that wonderful deep metallic red over gunmetal finish too.

Really impressive model, think I received it at Christmas 1988 along with a Matchbox Motorcity 500 playset.

Man, that was a great gift.

Unfortunately the paint on a lot of the Macau-made models of this era didn't seem anywhere near as robust as on the older Enfield-made toys; after a few years in the toybox mine had quite a bit of paint loss (another favourite at the same time, the Mercury Sable wagon, also suffered with this problem).

I'm not sure if I kept my original or let it go, but I'll probably also end up spending a daft amount on a mint example someday soon...

[Datsuncog]

Bit of a late Throwback Thursday here - but here's one of my longer-term models that was gracing the laptop yesterday.

(Dark blue doesn't photograph all that well against the black laptop surround, mind.)

It's my Corgi Classics Jaguar Mk II, which I think I bought around 1990 or thereabouts using Christmas money, from a shop in Newtownards called Regency Gift House.

Jaguar MkIIs seemed to be the cars to have, according to the classic car mags of the time. For me, it still kinda is the iconic classic - style, pedigree, sports prowess. But I don't think I'd ever crave owning one in real life, somehow. Not very 'me', somehow.

It's funny in a way, it was one of those models that I felt was super-detailed when I brought it home because it had number plates and a separate Jaguar mascot on the bonnet - but now, well, I can see that the casting's really no more detailed than the toys Corgi was producing 30 years earlier.

It just looks a little bit crisper due to the separate plated plastic brightwork, rather than mask-painted silver detailing.

I can't now remember if the headlights had a slight yellow tint when I bought it, or if it's just gone that way over the years.

With handling, the chrome-plating on the plastic parts wore off quite quickly, and so I went at it with a very thick Tamiya silver paint pen sometime in the mid-1990s. Results were... mixed.

I probably ought to give it a minor refresh with a much finer Molotow chrome pen...

Base detailing is fairly cursory, but in line with the standards of the time.

These earlier Corgi Classics were secured to their cardboard base packaging with a heavy round diecast 'key' and packed out with more card, which could be rotated by 90° to release the model.

It wasn't all that effective, with models coming loose in their packaging and bumping around inside the box. A few years later Corgi would change to use cross-head fixing screws instead.

I don't know where the box went for this one - presumably I was still in the habit of binning them once I'd extracted the model. Oh well - I was ten. In a year or two I'd start buying Collector's Gazette and belatedly realise the importance of retaining the packaging. Models acquired from 1991 on seem to have kept their boxes, so I'll assume that was what happened, anyway.

The main issue of annoyance with this one is the cracking tyres; at over thirty years old it's maybe not a surprise, but it does detract a bit from the model. The 'wire wheels' weren't brilliantly rendered in the first place, and the overall effect is a bit lame. I also hadn't noticed before now just how many casting marks there are on the bodyshell - it's quite rough in a number of places.

Later, I bought a police motorway patrol version of the MkII (maybe around 1995?), with an orange painted bonnet and bootlid, plus a reflective yellow numberplate at the back, which felt very fancy. It had steel-style wheels and hubcaps, and was definitely a more nicely finished model.

I probably should have kept this boxed one instead, but I decided to go with the nostalgia element and hang on to the blue example.

Ah well. I guess it's part of my story now, so I'm glad I still have it. Because it's quite basic and also boxless, I tend to overlook it - bubble-wrapped at the bottom of a box of loose diecast. I'm pretty sure I haven't had this out on display since about 1997.

Nice one to rediscover, though.

Happy Friday, kids.

[sierraman]

As a kid we had a Rover 800 on our street driven by an absolute wanker that lived a few doors down. I think it was a case if he could just about afford one as it was an 820E on steels. Anyway back to the Matchbox one, I had the silver, my first Matchbox and the red one, plus the laser wheels one which seems to be quite scarce these days. 

[bunglebus]

The world of tiny cars continues to throw up surprises. 

Big Majorette police car

Don't think this geezer is original equipment 

I need to dig out the more common 1:64ish version for comparison 

Going much smaller, around 1:70 at a guess - Penny Ford GTJ

and similar scale Politoys Alfa Carabo

and Alfa 33. @flat4alfa would have got very excited about these...

lastly - a small mystery

Matchbox Glow Racer right?

Blank base. Somewhere in the depths of my memory there's something about these being sold under another name, so I'm guessing this was the case here. Hoping @Datsuncog has better recollection than I do!

[Cookiesouwest]

I may watch a few YT vids on restoring and have a go.

It certainly needs it.

[HMC]

3 hours ago, Cookiesouwest said:

This mornings find in the £1 bucket at collectibles shop, Watchet Quay.

A Sterling.

 

Nice! I had one with a blue lower half. I had a matchbox w124 as well and those were amongst my faves in my collection. I was confused why it didn’t say “rover” on the base but now I know it’s because in the US that was basically the make and model. You’ve got me looking on e bay now! 

[sierraman]

1 hour ago, bunglebus said:

The world of tiny cars continues to throw up surprises. 

Big Majorette police car

Don't think this geezer is original equipment 

I need to dig out the more common 1:64ish version for comparison 

Going much smaller, around 1:70 at a guess - Penny Ford GTJ

and similar scale Politoys Alfa Carabo

and Alfa 33. @flat4alfa would have got very excited about these...

lastly - a small mystery

Matchbox Glow Racer right?

Blank base. Somewhere in the depths of my memory there's something about these being sold under another name, so I'm guessing this was the case here. Hoping @Datsuncog has better recollection than I do!

Lash Tameron. 

[155V6]

2 hours ago, sierraman said:

As a kid we had a Rover 800 on our street driven by an absolute wanker that lived a few doors down. I think it was a case if he could just about afford one as it was an 820E on steels. Anyway back to the Matchbox one, I had the silver, my first Matchbox and the red one, plus the laser wheels one which seems to be quite scarce these days. 

There's a yellow one as well,from a German Christmas gift set

[Cookiesouwest]

1 hour ago, HMC said:

Nice! I had one with a blue lower half. I had a matchbox w124 as well and those were amongst my faves in my collection. I was confused why it didn’t say “rover” on the base but now I know it’s because in the US that was basically the make and model. You’ve got me looking on e bay now! 

Snap.

I may* have just bought a minter off ebay.

Obviously just to compare with the play worn one

 

[Spottedlaurel]

I managed to get a MIB Sterling at a toy fair back in 2007, for something silly like £1:

 

[bunglebus]

2 hours ago, sierraman said:

Lash Tameron. 

?

[Tenmil Socket]

1 hour ago, Spottedlaurel said:

I managed to get a MIB Sterling at a toy fair back in 2007, for something silly like £1:

 

Nice... I'll give you £2 double your money 😆