Shite in Miniature II

[Datsuncog]

35 minutes ago, Jon said:

Quick question: does anyone know whether there's been an Atlas style re-release of Metosul diecasts?

I've seen one that takes my fancy at a price I reckon is fair for a mint/boxed one but it just looks a little too clean. And there seem to be tonnes of mint looking Metosuls, from a quick search online, when looking for the answer to the above!

Funny you should find that too, there have indeed been a lot of tidy Metosuls showing up on the market stall in the past few months.

Never noticed these before until recently.

I'd thought they were personal repaints, going by the somewhat less than professional finish, but apparently this is broadly the type of quality control to be expected from the factory.

Haven't seen any boxed, but these ones were priced about the £3/ £5 mark - not sure if that's good or bad!

I wonder if maybe some cases of New Old Stock have been rediscovered, and those are what's hitting the 'Bay?

[bunglebus]

57 minutes ago, sierraman said:

I think I have a few of those, the big foot and a few of the others. I went through a phase in about 1993 of liking monster trucks, went to see them at Don Valley etc, seem to remember a Transit Mk3 doing the rounds.

Sky High. Was on the cover of the first Street Machine I ever bought 

[bunglebus]

I thought I had more than just these three.  I'll have to have a rummage 

[MiniMinorMk3]

1 hour ago, Jon said:

Quick question: does anyone know whether there's been an Atlas style re-release of Metosul diecasts?

I've seen one that takes my fancy at a price I reckon is fair for a mint/boxed one but it just looks a little too clean. And there seem to be tonnes of mint looking Metosuls, from a quick search online, when looking for the answer to the above!

 

1 hour ago, barrett said:

I'm not certain, but I think they were probably built significantly later than the cars they depict - I was looking at some MIB examples on ebay recently and wondering the same thing, but I think it's just that they date from the 1980s rather than the 60s or 70s of the original castings - and probably stayed in Portuguese holiday tat shops for decades after they were made unbought.

 

54 minutes ago, Datsuncog said:

Funny you should find that too, there have indeed been a lot of tidy Metosuls showing up on the market stall in the past few months.

Never noticed these before until recently.

 

I'd thought they were personal repaints, going by the somewhat less than professional finish, but apparently this is broadly the type of quality control to be expected from the factory.

 

Haven't seen any boxed, but these ones were priced about the £3/ £5 mark - not sure if that's good or bad!

 

Metosuls were made up until about 1990, as can be seen from these Minis which include one to celebrate 30 years of teh Mini in 1989.

There is not much info on how to age the models because they used the early type wheels on some of the later cars. Obviously if the model has the tele-dials then it is quite a late one.

Most common are Minis, VW Beetle, Citroen DS, Mercedes Fintail and Volvo P1800. The Buses were also made until the end of production. They are quite crude, looking like 1950's Corgis or Dinkys. The paint quality is nowhere near the standard of contemporary models from other manufacturers. In the end the factory closed down as the likes of Vitesse came along and finished them off in their domestic market. Something to do with EU funding for new companies, which saw older ones fall by the wayside.

They appear at Vectis quite often, although they seem to be getting more scarce in recent years.

SEARCH RESULTS (vectis.co.uk)

Another brand that the same factory produced were Luso Toys.

[sierraman]

Sky High... that’s the one. I do remember it crushing a Dacia Denem at the local shopping centre. 

[Datsuncog]

Crikey, I hope the occupants had time to get out first.

[bunglebus]

My friend recalls his parents selling their Austin A40, then seeing it  shortly afterwards awaiting its fate at a local stunt show under the wheels of a monster truck 

[barrett]

The one Metosul I'd like, if anyone ever spots a cheap example, is the 304 Break

I'm not an expert, but I'm pretty certain this is a unique casting. I'd say it's the old plastic Norev 204 Break with a 304-ised nose grafted on (hence why proportionally it looks more like a 204). It's a pretty crappy toy really, but I just like the idea of these (UK-centric colonialist attitude warning:) oddball foreign makers in out-of-the-way places coming up with cars none of the mainstream manufacturers bothered with. Now, clearly this isn't quite in the same league as a jewel-like Pilen Seat or whatever but it's an intereting (to me) curio

[Zie]

Well Asda was a wash-out again but B&M saved the day with a Hotwheels drop bin and they also have Strips of Matchbox too! 

[flat4alfa]

Bid on both these, but things got out of hand and they flew.

Clearly, I'm doing it wrong...

 

Quote

Corgi. Commer Van. Code 3. Monster Truck.
Winning bid: £16.00 [4 bids]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Corgi-Commer-Van-Code-3-Monster-Truck-/234905754607

 

Quote

Dinky, Code 3, Austin Mini Countryman, Monster Truck

Winning bid: £31.05 [11 bids]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/234905756171

 

[flat4alfa]

On 2/26/2023 at 2:09 PM, barrett said:

I HATE Gulf livery anything

So, down with this sort of thing then?

Leslie Smith & Rodney Smith were probably not expecting this being done, I'm sure

[bunglebus]

Love the Gulf colours. Suits some cars better than others though 

[MiniMinorMk3]

On 2/26/2023 at 2:09 PM, barrett said:

 

and I HATE Gulf livery anything

Even stuff like this. Just a few of the Gulf cars that I've had.

[RoadworkUK]

6 hours ago, Datsuncog said:

Were most of them played with to destruction?

In my experience, they were rather too fragile. When my Bigfoot fell from a high-ish shelf, the force was enough to shatter the plastichrome turret that held the rear axle. 

[barrett]

Yeah sorry, I just can't see Gulf colours without thinking about awful Germans* wearing ill-fitting, cheap ugly garments like this...

...and thinking they look like 'King of Cool' Steve McQueen - most famous for being an illiterate serial abuser of women and generally toxic person. It all just smacks of a certain type of masculine desperation and total lack of self-reflexivity that makes my skin crawl. Big ugly watches, Dubai, Porsche 911s, it's all the same thing to me.

 

*other Eurotrash available. None of the Germans I know actually do this.

[Jon]

Thanks for the Metosul comments everyone, it's much appreciated. It does stack up that the castings were produced way beyond their prime, hence so many survivors in good condition.

There's also the clarity of mind of having slept on the idea, so I reckon I'll leave it for now. Here's the one in question:

I'm neither desperately into DSs or even fire themed stuff but as @barrett says, there's certainly an element of curio to them. But I've bought a prime outdated curio recently which I've not yet posted about, so it's likely best to give the wallet a rest for now.

And on the Gulf livery, my feelings are that it peaked at the 'McQueen' Porsche 917 (through design, not association to him) and then it's best left at that. But there's also plenty of other interesting racing car liveries.

For similar hot takes, especially relating to fashion, see also: any Ferrari apparel.

[andrew e]

Not a great picture but my brother in laws Gulf coloured Tamiya Scania 1/14 - it works I reckon 👍

[bunglebus]

I thought I had another Super Chargers monster truck - possibly the last appearance of the Holden/Ruff Trek?

 

[sheffcortinacentre]

12 hours ago, bunglebus said:

Sky High. Was on the cover of the first Street Machine I ever bought 

Was about to mention that.

[Jon]

I saw Sky High at a static outdoor display at a mid-90's Birmingham Motorshow. There was also a Mk3 Fiesta panel van there too, in silver with two different shades of thick green striping on the sides - actually looked quite cool, as I recall. Sure there's a photo somewhere, at my folks house.

Inevitably though, the Sky High front grille had been replaced with a smiley version and I'm sure it had a very different (i.e. not as good) paint job, so was looking rather tarted up by that stage.

Not as bad as when Ford morphed the excellent Supervan 2 into the uggers Supervan 3 but that's another old pub bore opinion which I'll just leave there...

[flat4alfa]

Saw 'Metosul' mentioned earlier

As you can see from this early box it was originally met Osul with clear spacing on the boxes.  The capitalisation of just Osul was carried thoughout

Picked up this little Volkswagen Furgão (van) for a couple of pounds in a nearby charity shop, was over the moon.  This was three years back.

Casting quality was a bit wobbly and fragile, it had an opening thing but I didn't dare open it too many times!  But hey, it likely was brought back by a tourist so it survived the miles and age well

Sold it some months later as part of a mid-pandemic quest for funds.  It made £15 or thereabouts...

Notice the base plate here is cast without the spacing seen on the box, yet retaining the capitalisation of the letter O

The original company name Luso-Celluloide rebranded to Osul (Luso backwards) in the 1950s.  Roll on into the 1970s and the use of die-cast 'metal' had added the met- previx (although a hyphen wasn't used on anything I've seen).  Shortly after the two words were joined throughout.

Not that it really matters, it's just that history and etymology interests my vacuous self...

[bunglebus]

My solitary Metosul. Bought from a toy fair, looking in eBay it's obvious there are newer ones using this old casting 

[flat4alfa]

8 hours ago, flat4alfa said:

Bid on both these, but things got out of hand and they flew.

Clearly, I'm doing it wrong...

Trying to undo the wrong, a Majorette 'Crazy Horse' Chevrolet Blazer Monster Truck (or should that be Camion Monstre) has been found and assessed for partial resurgence

Because a spare Dinky Austin Seven Countryman 'Mini' bodyshell has been also found

The challenge, if I choose to accept it, is to swap the bodyshell, add the spare Corgi Monte Carlo Mini Cooper's roof rack, detail it a bit and take photos.

Then put it on 'bay to try and help pay the gas bill.

[flat4alfa]

Aside from that, the Hampshire Diecast Supportline today supplied a rather nice Solido Siata Formichetta in 1:43 scale

Based around the FIAT 600, the Spanish-built (SEAT production line) 'Formichetta' translated to 'Little Ant'.

The Dinky FIAT 600 came by to say hello.

Followed by the Spot-On FIAT 600 Multipla 

It was sisterly love all round.

[flat4alfa]

Back to Matchbox 'Monster Trucks', found this catalogue entry scan.  So they called them Super Trucks at this stage

There is only this one here, the Rollin' Thunder Chevrolet Van variation

It seems to be quite scarce, at least in this sort of condition

I am aware of that, as I paid a fair bit of money to obtain this one.  Why, you ask?  Because of a slipped slope of Matchbox Van collecting two years ago

[andrew e]

This was the real van Tamiya chose to model the Lunchbox on until the licensing went sideways.

[bunglebus]

I'm missing one from the Majorette giveaway series 

[sierraman]

I recall having a blue ford bronco in matchbox high riders?

[bunglebus]

9 minutes ago, sierraman said:

I recall having a blue ford bronco in matchbox high riders?

High Riders were different, a separate chassis to turn a 4x4 into a drag car or a normal car into a 4x4

 

[bunglebus]

From the same 1986 catalogue, first reference I can find to the monster trucks

1987 is the one up there ^ somewhere, same pic was used for 1988 too.

Anyone know the story behind the "Awesome Kong" one becoming the Wagon Wheels version? Google isn't helping much