Shite in Miniature II

[eddyramrod]

Thank you!  Unfortunately the size and style are not going to fit with my others in the dining room.  Dammit.  GLWTS.

[sutty2006]

28 minutes ago, eddyramrod said:

Thank you!  Unfortunately the size and style are not going to fit with my others in the dining room.  Dammit.  GLWTS.

No worries. This replaced my giant side board with display cabinet and mini bar. As you can see. The mini bar is in the bottom left lol. I’ll put it in the for sale section as and when. 

[Split_Pin]

I finally found a Seville,  £1.50 at Pundland too. The 1980 date stamp underneath confirms its the original casting.

[TheOtherStu]

So following on from this fred, on Friday I was mega busy. The tat Friday fortunately didn't really deliver.

Except it did. All bloody weekend it was in my head. It'll no doubt be gone by Friday, because this happens to me but I've decided I have far too much love for this. I explained it to the wife and she said yes too!

[500tops]

Swung by a local charity shop on the way home earlier and did quite well

[Datsuncog]

11 minutes ago, TheOtherStu said:

So following on from this fred, on Friday I was mega busy. The tat Friday fortunately didn't really deliver.

Except it did. All bloody weekend it was in my head. It'll no doubt be gone by Friday, because this happens to me but I've decided I have far too much love for this. I explained it to the wife and she said yes too!

Heh, I'll keep an eye out for it this Friday - you never know, it may well still be there!

I've been having a bit of a tidy-up over the weekend and I reckon I don't really need that Matchbox VW Type 34 from the 50p Tray:

So if you still fancy it, I'll pop it in with your Aston sure.

[Datsuncog]

1 hour ago, Split_Pin said:

I finally found a Seville,  £1.50 at Pundland too. The 1980 date stamp underneath confirms its the original casting.

I didn't know you were after one, I've two spare Sevilles here!

Would like to find an original as well, just to compare them. I think I had a silver one, but who knows where that went...

[bunglebus]

1 hour ago, 500tops said:

Cor dibs on that Golf! Lovely Corgi T1 panel and World's Ugliest Porsche too

[FakeConcern]

I really want to do a model with huge Cibies now!

 

 

 

 

[Datsuncog]

Get yourself down to Claire's Accessories, you can probably get a whole card of cheap plasticky costume jewellery earrings for a few quid!

Tube of black acrylic paint and a bottle of UHU and you're sorted.

Eyesight is, apparently, optional.

[Jon]

You did very well there, @500tops. Judging by the era of pretty much everything, you've likely bought a mid-40's adult's toy collection - with a few older relatives toys thrown in.

Nice to see that charity shops still provide the goods. I had a minor score recently (rare over here) but they'd been priced accordingly. 

[danthecapriman]

5 minutes ago, Jon said:

You did very well there, @500tops. Judging by the era of pretty much everything, you've likely bought a mid-40's adult's toy collection - with a few older relatives toys thrown in.

Nice to see that charity shops still provide the goods. I had a minor score recently (rare over here) but they'd been priced accordingly. 

They seem to be a bit hit or miss here. 
One day you can walk in and find absolute rubbish or nothing at all, yet a couple of days later walk into the same shop and you’ll find absolute gold.

[FakeConcern]

6 minutes ago, danthecapriman said:

They seem to be a bit hit or miss here. 
One day you can walk in and find absolute rubbish or nothing at all, yet a couple of days later walk into the same shop and you’ll find absolute gold.

I've never found anything (diecast) in a charity shop.

My best (or at least fave) boot fair find was this "rare" Whizzwheels Corgi Stingray

 

[Datsuncog]

I've a theory that a lot of these 'volunteers' who selflessly give up their time to 'help with the pricing' at our local charity shops walk out with anything genuinely valuable, after throwing a desultory 20p into the till - and then punt them straight onto eBay when they get home.

Whenever we were having a clearout prior to the house move, I took a Subaru-ful of assorted household goods down to one place near us, and as soon as I pulled up, all these fellas came trotting out from the back of the store like one of those 1950s newsreels of US filling stations, with their bowtie-attired staff.

"Any DVDs in there?"

"Any Star Wars?"

"Any military stuff?"

When I told them it was mainly crockery and ladies clothing, they weirdly lost interest and drifted back into the storeroom...

I'd love to find some nice diecast, but I never have!

Still keep looking, though...

[sierraman]

3 hours ago, 500tops said:

Swung by a local charity shop on the way home earlier and did quite well

Loving the blue Aral tanker. 

[sierraman]

44 minutes ago, Datsuncog said:

I've a theory that a lot of these 'volunteers' who selflessly give up their time to 'help with the pricing' at our local charity shops walk out with anything genuinely valuable, after throwing a desultory 20p into the till - and then punt them straight onto eBay when they get home.

Whenever we were having a clearout prior to the house move, I took a Subaru-ful of assorted household goods down to one place near us, and as soon as I pulled up, all these fellas came trotting out from the back of the store like one of those 1950s newsreels of US filling stations, with their bowtie-attired staff.

"Any DVDs in there?"

"Any Star Wars?"

"Any military stuff?"

When I told them it was mainly crockery and ladies clothing, they weirdly lost interest and drifted back into the storeroom...

I'd love to find some nice diecast, but I never have!

Still keep looking, though...

I found a chipperfields giraffe transporter once, I think this was purely by chance, it was one of those jumble type shops. Inevitably though the middle aged ‘manager’ arrives to change it up. Everything then has a card tag and is 3x the price on eBay. Honestly the most realistically priced stuff (apart from here 🤣) is at swapmeets. Car boots are a bit crap round us as well, full of sellers that think everything is worth six million quid. 

[flat4alfa]

12 hours ago, MiniMinorMk3 said:

My contribution to the Russian theme is this 

Made at 'Pilot Plant. Metal Haberdashery and Souvenirs. 192236, Leningrad, st. Bela Kuna, 32'

City has been St Petersberg since 1991, address now would be Ulitsa Bely Kuna, 32 which is this building / where the building stood: https://tinyurl.com/4nnxzx9z

There are a few Belly Kuna streets, named after Béla Kun, communist leader and head of the Hungarian Soviet Republic of 1919.  Stalin had him executed in late-1930s.

[danthecapriman]

Since I’ve got both to hand at the moment, here’s a comparison between what the good folks at Corgi and Matchbox were both doing to out-do each other in the small scale car transporter market!

Which is the better?

Theyve both used the same way of doing the tilt deck, but opposite ways round. Corgi put the front pivot point at the bottom, Matchbox the top. I think the Matchbox effort looks better here, although Corgi’s is probably a more simple and easy to use way of doing it.

There is a bigger overhang over the cab on the Corgi, but I think I prefer the look of the Matchbox’s shorter style.   
Both these early models have tyred wheels, plastic for the Matchbox but rubbery on Corgi. I think the Matchbox, again, looks better with a bigger more chunky truck tyre. The Corgi is nice but the whole wheel and tyre looks a bit small and narrow. But, the Corgi without doubt rolls the best! Very free and smooth to push along.

Both very nice though, and it’s good to see how each company were doing things around the same time.

 

[flat4alfa]

On 6/25/2023 at 7:39 PM, bunglebus said:

It's quite endearingly crap. There's no way the bonnet can open with the grille in place - it all comes apart easily and the components feel fragile - yet not have broken.

Shonky

If you are moving it on, could I put my hand up please

[flat4alfa]

5 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

I finally found a Seville,  £1.50 at Pundland too. The 1980 date stamp underneath confirms its the original casting.

Unfortunately it isn't though.  Put the original next to it and you can see the retool for 2011 is a different casting, when you compare the flared arches, the deeper and wider door panel gaps

[Jon]

2 hours ago, danthecapriman said:

 

Aesthetically, I love the Thunderbirds styling of the Matchbox effort but pragmatically as a kid, I'd have opted for the Corgi D Series. It looks so much more modern than the Guy(?), even with spun wheels and the fact that the D Series had likely been out a few years by the time of this release. And the transition of something that's arguably more accurate to something that actually moves effectively would be a game changer.

New stuff is exciting for kids. As grown adults who should likely be spending their time and money on other pursuits, thankfully they both exist so that we have more things to hoard.

[bunglebus]

On 04/06/2023 at 18:33, bunglebus said:

 

On 25/06/2023 at 14:05, bunglebus said:

The wrong trailer for the blue cab I bought recently 

The Convoy trailer is definitely incorrect for the blue cab from a few weeks ago. Not only are the wheels different but the hutch does not lock into place. It looks like the same thing so I'd be interested to see what's different, and why they changed the hitch for the Convoy series. They all seem to mix and match without a problem 

[sierraman]

19 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

 

The Convoy trailer is definitely incorrect for the blue cab from a few weeks ago. Not only are the wheels different but the hutch does not lock into place. It looks like the same thing so I'd be interested to see what's different, and why they changed the hitch for the Convoy series. They all seem to mix and match without a problem 

I think* that’s from the construction set which had the digger on the back and a Pete pulling it. I had one years ago. 

[bunglebus]

57 minutes ago, sierraman said:

I think* that’s from the construction set which had the digger on the back and a Pete pulling it. I had one years ago. 

The Convoy series used those flat bed trailers for all sorts, one of mine had a NASA rocket on it.

I'm not too worried but I'll be checking those trailers more carefully in future to find a pre-Convoy version 

[TheOtherStu]

15 hours ago, Datsuncog said:

Heh, I'll keep an eye out for it this Friday - you never know, it may well still be there!

I've been having a bit of a tidy-up over the weekend and I reckon I don't really need that Matchbox VW Type 34 from the 50p Tray:

So if you still fancy it, I'll pop it in with your Aston sure.

Ooh lovely That would be amazing, thank you

[Split_Pin]

10 hours ago, flat4alfa said:

Unfortunately it isn't though.  Put the original next to it and you can see the retool for 2011 is a different casting, when you compare the flared arches, the deeper and wider door panel gaps

Ah well, Hot Wheels Atlas Edition maybe?

[danthecapriman]

9 hours ago, Jon said:

Aesthetically, I love the Thunderbirds styling of the Matchbox effort but pragmatically as a kid, I'd have opted for the Corgi D Series. It looks so much more modern than the Guy(?), even with spun wheels and the fact that the D Series had likely been out a few years by the time of this release. And the transition of something that's arguably more accurate to something that actually moves effectively would be a game changer.

New stuff is exciting for kids. As grown adults who should likely be spending their time and money on other pursuits, thankfully they both exist so that we have more things to hoard.

I forgot to mention it, but another huge deal in favour of the Corgi offering was the ability to detach the tractor unit and therefore pair up different tractor trailer combos! Matchbox used a rivet coupling so it pretty much prevents that. Something I always found as a very odd thing to do as it definitely adds play value to be able to take the tractor unit off. It certainly wouldn’t have taken Matchbox much more effort and development to do that either. Bit of a missed opportunity imho.

[Datsuncog]

I wonder if perhaps the re-tool for the Seville was required because the original 1980 die tooling was worn, damaged or otherwise deemed incompatible with 2000s casting machinery - or maybe there was a need to redesign it to meet modern toy safety standards, say to thicken pillars or reinforce rivets ?

The 1980 copyright notice would indicate that Mattel view it as the same product, even if it's not the same tooling - which should (in theory) dissuade another manufacturer from trying to copy the earlier casting.

I did have a no-name Chinesium Seville in silver with opening doors and featuring slightly incongruous racing stripes, which was otherwise quite similar to the Hot Wheels - wish I could do a side-by-side now!

It may have gone to @155V6about five years ago in a woefully uncatalogued joblot of no-names and odds and ends, now I think of it... you can just about see its rear quarter bustle beneath the Red Cross Mk2 Granada.

[Tenmil Socket]

1 hour ago, Datsuncog said:

I wonder if perhaps the re-tool for the Seville was required because the original 1980 die tooling was worn, damaged or otherwise deemed incompatible with 2000s casting machinery - or maybe there was a need to redesign it to meet modern toy safety standards, say to thicken pillars or reinforce rivets ?

The 1980 copyright notice would indicate that Mattel view it as the same product, even if it's not the same tooling - which should (in theory) dissuade another manufacturer from trying to copy the earlier casting.

I did have a no-name Chinesium Seville in silver with opening doors and featuring slightly incongruous racing stripes, which was otherwise quite similar to the Hot Wheels - wish I could do a side-by-side now!

It may have gone to @155V6about five years ago in a woefully uncatalogued joblot of no-names and odds and ends, now I think of it... you can just about see its rear quarter bustle beneath the Red Cross Mk2 Granada.

Was that Ford Motorsport van a Mitsubishi?

The Sierra looked interesting!

[Datsuncog]

They're all by Maisto, and the vans were badged as Ford Econovans underneath - don't think they were quite the same as the Mitsubishi L300 light van, but then the castings were fairly basic!

EDIT: think the Econovan was an Australian badge-engineered version of the Mazda E-Series, which looks broadly correct:

The Granada and the Red Cross Econovan came as a two pack from Poundstretcher, which I bought new in the early 1990s, while the Sierra XR4i and Ford Motorsport Econovan were possibly a similar two pack - I picked those up at a car boot sale in Australia in the early 2000s.

'Hungry Jacks' is the Aussie branding for Burger King - both the Sierra and the van came with Hungry Jacks tampo prints on the roof, so maybe they were promotional giveaways with kids' burger meals or something?

The Sierra was definitely 'inspired' by the Matchbox version!