Shite in Miniature II

[flat4alfa]

[Split_Pin]

15 minutes ago, MiniMinorMk3 said:

Those came as a boxed set with a pick-up, a boat and a caravan.

There's one on Ebay at the moment Solido Major IV Model Car Building Gift Set | eBay

Good grief, that's a tremendous thing!

[flat4alfa]

I think I've worked out that they were sold as 'Maxicar' when single or in the double set.  But as 'Major' when in the kit-form box set

First mentioned in 1969 catalogue as the fit-form box set as 'Major'. Then for 1970 onwards as 'Maxicar'  ....unless in a kit-form set!

http://cataloguepassion.free.fr/Catalogues/pagesCatalogues/Voitures/solido.html#r2

The Ford Taunus 'pickup' seems to have only ever been available in the fit-form box set

No wonder they sold poorly if they were confusing themselves, sellers and buyers!

[bunglebus]

So, mid-week toy fair. Wasn't sure if it would be very well attended being just after Chr*stm*s, but it was as busy as ever with most of the regular sellers present.

Grabbed this very nice Flying Bug, has a couple of tiny chips I'm hoping I can repair

Majorette Toyota doesn't come up very often

Also picked up this fish n chip van

Found a load of 50p Matchbox, managed to resist most of them but I can't leave the Racing Mini behind...

And this Dodge Charger is much nicer than my current one

I keep thinking I have every possible version of the Fork Lift - then I find another

This caught my eye - normally the Siva Spider has a black section going around it - hadn't seen a chrome one before

Isuzu Mysterious Utility Wizard

And a Cherokee

Rounding off with a 300ZX

10 shite points if you can tell me about this

Oddballs. Chinese Saab Sonnet is marked NC. 1014

MC Toys Merc is very obviously descended from the Rainbow Toys version

Zylmex Thunderbird - normally these metal base cars have Zee Toys on them but this just has the code, P356

Kidco Ferrari. Or  Stiletto GTS according to the graphics

Felt sorry for this Norev Mini-Jet Maserati Boomerang. Body is really good so I'm hoping the glazing can be fixed

Now this is really weird. I mean from here it's obviously a Corgi US Van right?

But as you turn it around...

Yep, someone decided to narrow it. I have to say the proportions are actually quite good! Still weird though 

Back to normality. Commer bus for resto

This is a bit of a mystery to me too, just not familiar with the casting. It's obviously a resto but has it been altered? 

Boxed Mini was too nice and unusual to leave behind 

And Novacar Pug only cost £1 still in the battered blister

Picked up a couple of Polistil single seaters cheaply, just to sell on really

And then another arrived in a job lot just after I got home

I'll come back to that lot in a sec.

I was eyeing up this early Whizzwheels Studebaker, chatted to the seller and wandered off. Came back later and decided to buy it...

...because he also had the matching Husky!

Then by complete coincidence, that job lot arrived that I bought mainly for this

Along with this Lone Star "Gran Turismo"

[barrett]

14 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

This is a bit of a mystery to me too, just not familiar with the casting. It's obviously a resto but has it been altered? 

Huh, never seen this before but apparently it's a thing

Somebody will probably recognise what the pick-up bed is from...

[sierraman]

I have the Hot Wheels rat on wheels type thing. It came with a sort of sponge on a stick, works a bit like Matchbox Colorchangers. Not sure what the US van narrowing is all about but it’s worth saving out of curiosity, just seems an odd thing to do. 

[bunglebus]

36 minutes ago, sierraman said:

I have the Hot Wheels rat on wheels type thing. It came with a sort of sponge on a stick, works a bit like Matchbox Colorchangers

Yep it's from this Color FX set, along with the Sting Rod. I'm certain this was the only ever appearance of the Sting Rod, and I don't think the Off-Roadent had a particularly long career either

Edit: called Ratmobile in all other releases except the Color FX set

[AnnoyingPentium]

10 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

The local Falkirk Swapmeet, which has been held in various locations near me since the late 1940s stopped during Covid. I had attended every month since 1989 although after the mid 2000s I stopped going quite so regularly due to having ebay, a mortgage and an expanding 1:1 fleet.

It was organised by a well known Falkirk model shop, McLaren Models. However I checked recently to see if it had started again and I was saddened to find that it had been cancelled for good. Mclaren Models had closed their shop around 2017 and were online only but when I checked recently, it hadn't been updated for a long time. The family who ran it were ageing and I think they just wanted to retire. 

There is a big toy fair in Errol near Perth in May so I'm definitely going to that. Other than this, there's nothing else in my area.

Might be able to get diecasts (I used to be able to, at least) at the Irvine Model Railway Exhibition on the 28th/29th January, or Troon on the 13/14th May. There's no date for Ayr yet, so might not be running sadly.

[sierraman]

28 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

Yep it's from this Color FX set, along with the Sting Rod. I'm certain this was the only ever appearance of the Sting Rod, and I don't think the Off-Roadent had a particularly long career either

Edit: called Ratmobile in all other releases except the Color FX set

Yes I think, somewhere I have the Beetle hot rod. Guessing it’s from about 1994ish? 

[flat4alfa]

1 hour ago, bunglebus said:

This is a bit of a mystery to me too, just not familiar with the casting

Along with this Lone Star "Gran Turismo"

Funnily enough, this spares car one was delivered this morning

Perfect* opportunity for Tiny Tom to have a play with his 'ex-Copco' Ford Thames 400E

[bunglebus]

1 hour ago, sierraman said:

Yes I think, somewhere I have the Beetle hot rod. Guessing it’s from about 1994ish? 

From exactly 1994!

[flat4alfa]

On 12/25/2022 at 9:19 PM, bunglebus said:

Nice. Think they've stopped making the ID series cars now, I believe there was a final run of cars that were made in very small numbers before they cancelled the lot

I did not know this.  Did I waste my money then?

Are they going to kill the app etc

[bunglebus]

10 minutes ago, flat4alfa said:

I did not know this.  Did I waste my money then?

Are they going to kill the app etc

Quote

"The series was canceled in 2022 due to low sales, overproduction and the license for the chips ending. NFT Garage can be seen as sort of a spiritual successor to this series."

No idea about the app - never been into games like that, it was just an interesting range. Really don't get the NFT thing, seems to be essentially buying virtual cars with some way of occasionally being able to somehow get a real one 

[flat4alfa]

I couldn't see the point of it anyway.  I just though there was more to it I was missing, and they had some sort of value

I bought a car, installed the app and was just left driving a poorly-graphically portrayed copy of the car around a terrible race game that I put down after a couple of goes.  I spend more time in the car park at the shops.

[Split_Pin]

I just like the packaging on mine. I installed the app but I'm not interested in computer games.

[flat4alfa]

4 hours ago, bunglebus said:

This is a bit of a mystery to me too, just not familiar with the casting. It's obviously a resto but has it been altered? 

It's the dropside off this

or this

after a bit of cut-and-shut shortening

[flat4alfa]

On 5/17/2021 at 7:56 PM, flat4alfa said:

I still can’t see the point of these Hot Wheels ID cars

Grabbed this because ...it’s the Aston Martin One-77, that seems to have missed many modeller lists and the colour scheme looked interesting*

But what is it I am missing?  Are these some sort of loss-leader marketing by Mattel?  The benefits* seem to be:

1) having a chip onboard that makes it uniquely identifiable...

2) ...but only my their mediocre racing game app that takes ages to load and get going past the menus

3) unless your child has a NFC-enabled device they have to also buy a caddy to allow more than one ‘virtual’ car uploaded to race.  I have two now and but can only play with one.  How many kids have £200 (or contract) NFC devices to run a sub-£8 toy car gimmick?

4) the screen is too small for the game so I thought I’d try it on an iPad.  But OS version says no.  How many kids across the globe have a £200 (or contract) ‘recent’ tablet devices to run a sub-£8 toy car too?

5) the game is rubbish.  It might have parallax-scrolling backgrounds but the gameplay is more tiresome than an 8-bit 1985 game.  Even OutRun was more involving

Not a rant, more of a bewildered observation.  It is of course possible I am showing my age and should stop being grump on a Monday, sat in the pub 😙

Something in the back of my mind thought I had done a bit of a moan about Hot Wheels ID series.

It did!  Although it seems it was more of a rant 😄

See above quote, if you must

[bunglebus]

9 minutes ago, flat4alfa said:

It's the dropside off this

or this

after a bit of cut-and-shut shortening

Yep that's the one

 

[flat4alfa]

Just now, bunglebus said:

Yep that's the one

I like it even more now and if you decided you don't like it I would buy it

[bunglebus]

Upcoming Matchbox C case cars

Jennifer's dad will be pleased with that last one

And some for release at a later date

[sierraman]

That Mercedes Service W123 looks superb. But who will be selling all this? The Tesco deal ends in January so who will be the ‘solus’ retailer? 

[Spottedlaurel]

5 hours ago, bunglebus said:

Upcoming Matchbox C case cars...........

Ranchero, AMC and Mk2 MR2 for me please! Miss SL's boyfriend will be very pleased to see the latter.

Making progress on the kit:

 

It's all rather brown, bodyshell looks richer away from the rather harsh LED light. Still haven't been brave enough to deal with the bent/snapped pillars.

[bunglebus]

43 minutes ago, sierraman said:

But who will be selling all this? The Tesco deal ends in January so who will be the ‘solus’ retailer? 

Fingers crossed it will mean the likes of Smyths and Entertainer get in on the action rather than it being an exclusive deal.

[andy18s]

Last but 1 for me this year from my contact in Portugal. 

For less than a tenner delivered I couldn't say no to a Jaaaaaaaaag. 

It's very basic with no paint apart from the white,all the details being stickers,but full rubber tyres!

[MiniMinorMk3]

I've had many of those Onyx Jags. That one is from 1989, and post the cigarette labelling on "toys" ban. The decals go a bit crispy and lift, but yours looks quite good.

1989 No.1

1989 No.3

Also 1989 was the last year of the soft box with the polystyrene insert. In 1990 the sleeved hard case box came out for the Onyx models.

1990 No.1

1990 No.2

1990 No.3

 

 

 

 

[flat4alfa]

9 hours ago, sierraman said:

 The Tesco deal ends in January so who will be the ‘solus’ retailer? 

It pretty much folded months ago around here.  This was yesterday, major store too

[flat4alfa]

17 hours ago, bunglebus said:

 

[155V6]

When I first saw that Matchbox W123,I couldn't help thinking that it looked familiar.I had a quick search through some Majorettes & found these

[Ghosty]

Went to a toy fair at Bolton Wanderers stadium today, and some shopping around between vendors landed me the below: 

Picked up a couple of French Dinky repros (the 4 is pale blue), and a load of HWs I've been struggling to find.
The 850 T5-R in yellow was only £retail from a very fairly priced stall, which is a big win as a lot of the Real Riders had quite a lot of markup. It was the only one I saw at the fair, and I'm bloody glad I found one as I never found one in the wild - my local Sainsbury's stocked the wagon range at one point but the 850 never showed. The green one is good, because it's the spit of a car I used to have. 
The Civic EGs, I've not been able to find anywhere as people have been hoovering them up. I bought those at a slight markup, but I don't mind - that teal model is lush. 
Yellow EB110 too, because GTI Club, and because they're just cool. Only found that in silver up to now.

[Ghosty]