Shite in Miniature II

[bunglebus]

I got one in the disgusting filthy job lot

 

[danthecapriman]

24 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

I got one in the disgusting filthy job lot

 

Looks like the fire engine has caught fire! Imagine that😄

Came up well though.

[ETCHY]

1 hour ago, bunglebus said:

I got one in the disgusting filthy job lot

 

Brill clean up !

[bunglebus]

You should have seen the others!

[flat4alfa]

Right, off to measure up AEC Ergomatic cabs and do a scale estimate on the Dinky Merryweather

Hold my beer

[eddyramrod]

Somehow I managed to get some spraying time in today, after dropping into Halfords for a new tin of Peugeot Seville...

Some of those have gone upstairs for the finishing work now.  Some of that might even get done tomorrow.

[FakeConcern]

Exciting stuff and looking good @eddyramrod fingers crossed fo more tomorrow!

[danthecapriman]

Looking good Eddy.👍 

 

[Datsuncog]

13 hours ago, Spottedlaurel said:

I'd certainly be interested in a Land Cruiser if you see another one please.

You're in luck... 

Was passing Castle Court today, and called in to The Entertainer.

One for me, and one for thee.

No other Premiums to tempt, particularly - no more Mk2 Escorts, anyway.

I also called into the local independent toy shop I'd found the MR2 in a few weeks back - no more of those, but they did have the first Minor I've encountered in the wild.

So, I bought that too.

Obviously.

They also had a few individually packed Maisto toys too, which I wasn't used to seeing:

Didn't buy any of them, though.

But I did bring this home...

No, not as cheap as the Home Bargains £7 playsets from last year, but I've been weirdly yearning for this fuel station ever since I saw it a few weeks ago... dunno what's going on with me right now. I seem to be regressing.

Might knock it together later.

As well as this lot, I also called into the Cityside Tesco store over lunchtime, but their Hot Wheels was a motley mix of 2022 and 2023 releases. No Matchbox whatsoever, either.

The Great Proton Hunt continues, then...

[sierraman]

1 hour ago, eddyramrod said:

Somehow I managed to get some spraying time in today, after dropping into Halfords for a new tin of Peugeot Seville...

Some of those have gone upstairs for the finishing work now.  Some of that might even get done tomorrow.

I don’t know if you’ve a Bullseye Motorists Store near you but they’re flogging off some aerosols of old colours at £3 a tin. Worth a try? 

[eddyramrod]

Thank you!  That's my kind of sale; unfortunately the chain hasn't reached this far.  In fact I've never heard of it before tonight.

[Datsuncog]

6 hours ago, Tenmil Socket said:

Didn’t someone acquire an electronic MB Sierra recently?

I came across the packaging earlier. 
 

 

5 hours ago, bunglebus said:

I think it was in the window display of DC's favourite shop

Yup - and, perhaps unsurprisingly for this particular establishment, it seems to have lost its original packaging but gained another...

It'd be a nice market find, but I don't much care for his prices!

[bunglebus]

I know a while back someone was discussing the Snorkel casting

Please remind me, is is based on an earlier lorry? I found one of the awful Chinese made ones earlier and it looks for all the world like the cab is a widened Site Hut Truck...

[eddyramrod]

Yes, in a word.  The cab is a modified Leyland/AEC Ergomatic from the 60s, which is indeed what the Site Hut Truck is.

[bunglebus]

I'll post a couple of pics tomorrow. It looks like someone described a Site Hut cab over the phone with a bad connection, to someone who didn't speak the same language 

[Datsuncog]

2 hours ago, bunglebus said:

I know a while back someone was discussing the Snorkel casting

Possibly me...

 

 

[bunglebus]

Blimey, over four years ago! I spend too much time on this thread.

The poor old Snorkel has its swan song as a McDonald's toy in 2002

The one I found is the dayglo yellow Fire Eater version, it's that awful I don't appear to have taken any pictures of it when it turned up, probably in a job lot

[sierraman]

Mould probably wore out! 

[Spottedlaurel]

Popped into Aldi this morning. HWs at £1.49 each.

They had remnants of the recent case with purple Datsun and green Volvo estates, and quite a few of an older one with red RS2000, IMSA Audi and white SWB Quattro.

Thanks for getting the Land Cruiser @Datsuncog! Will be interesting to compare it with the older, light blue version I have.

[danthecapriman]

2 hours ago, bunglebus said:

Blimey, over four years ago! I spend too much time on this thread.

The poor old Snorkel has its swan song as a McDonald's toy in 2002

The one I found is the dayglo yellow Fire Eater version, it's that awful I don't appear to have taken any pictures of it when it turned up, probably in a job lot

This is how that casting started out in 69 I think.

As Eddy said, it’s an AEC/Leyland Ergomatic cab with Merryweather fire engine body. Same (more or less) as the big Dinky SuperToy one. 
The Matchbox one started out like the one in the pic, then somewhere down the line (80’s?) they altered it for some reason to chop out half the roof and lose the ladder, instead fitting the basket & crane.

Im not too fond of the open top ones, but the original ones are a nice little model.

Heres the site hut truck. 
The same basic cab design (Ergomatic cab) but this time with a flatbed.

 

The fire engine is an AEC Ergomatic cab, it’s got the triangle AEC badge in the middle just below the windscreen. And slightly different grills. 
Site hut truck is a Leyland Ergomatic cab, Leyland badge down near bumper and slightly different grills. 
The basic cab design is the same between both brands though, they just differ slightly in certain styles depending which brand was on the front! Typical BMC/BL really! It’s a similar thing going on as the Austin Cambridge and Morris Oxford - same thing! Just on trucks.

[bunglebus]

What I didn't realise they'd done is widen the cab - looks pretty good on the 70s Merryweather with metal base and headlights etc, but add in some nasty 90s plastic and lurid colours...

Here's the first version

[bunglebus]

Hold on just one cotton pickin' minute - these aren't the same either

[danthecapriman]

How strange!? 
Maybe it’s to do with whatever back is on them? Maybe the tooling was made differently slightly for each particular model version, flatbed with cab. Tanker with cab. Fire engine with cab etc. there’s obviously subtle differences depending which. 
Age might play a part too. The tanker and flatbed are older so possibly to the older sizing. The Merryweather fire engine was later (narrow speed wheel era) so maybe as a new tooled model they made them a bit bigger?

[quicksilver]

2 hours ago, sierraman said:

Mould probably wore out! 

That hideous blue McDonalds one certainly looks very well worn. The edges are a lot softer than the original and it gives the impression of being on its last legs. I've always wondered why they chopped the roof off, turning a realistic model into an implausible work of fantasy; I had one as a kid and it annoyed me because I recognised it as an Ergo cab but knew they never existed as open-toppers. Deroofing a real one would probably cause the cab to fall apart.

[bunglebus]

5 minutes ago, quicksilver said:

That hideous blue McDonalds one certainly looks very well worn. The edges are a lot softer than the original and it gives the impression of being on its last legs. I've always wondered why they chopped the roof off, turning a realistic model into an implausible work of fantasy.

Because America.

I've no doubt the mould was well worn by that point, but that era cars have very thick paint, also seems to chip off in large chunks rather than just get worn like the 60s and 70s stuff - Hot Wheels were just the same at the time, the colour changing ones are very hard to find undamaged

[Jon]

Here's a little 'shoot' I did on my old phone, before Christmas!

Subject this time was a glorious Corgi Super Juniors Ford D Series removal truck, acquired I think from @155V6:

I'd known of various D Series Corgi efforts but don’t think I'd seen any with the earlier wheels, which really suit it.

 

The fonts chosen really set it off, though I'm guessing these have had a bit of a touch-up in the past, or the QC staff had the day off when this was assembled.

 

There's some play value added too, with the access ramp allowing all sorts of small scale junk to be stowed away there. That said, the cast-in barn doors up top hinder the stowage somewhat and are an incongruous oversight...

 

Until I read that the chassis of the removal van was shared with the low loader.

 

Which was also sold as a Husky Major! I imagined the name change would've coincided with the change from spun wheels and tyres to Whizzwheels but it seems there was a transition period.

 

For completions sake, there was also a transoprter sold, which along with the low loader, was deemed worthy of selling into the Whizzwheels era, unlike the removals truck; understandable, when you consider play value (and selling more castings to load them with).

 

You can load cars into the removals trailer but you have to choose your subject carefully:

Got this Husky Jeep from @bunglebus, as I had one years back, bought from a jumble sale or car boot sale, in the early 90's.

 

On its arrival, I discovered that there are 2 wheel variations on these Husky Jeeps, as the one I originally had featured those seen on the Ford, as such:

Think my original one still had the driver clinging on to the seat, after seeing a couple of decades pass by.

Anyway, the Jeep is an equally pleasant little casting and if you reverse it in to the trailer, you can test the approach angle (if you're a middle aged bloke who doesn't mind taking photos of half-century old toys on his kitchen floor...)

[flat4alfa]

All three were always different, not least due to being Leyland or AEC.  So not derived from each other, completely separate tooling and the size and detail differences proves that.  

@Datsuncog's write-up linked above must be the most comprehensive, now that diecastfire.co.uk site is dead

LS 35-A MERRYWEATHER FIRE ENGINE
Mainline 1969-1974 , Twinpack 1978-1979

Was a Superfast from day one, despite initial box artwork wearing regulars which were only found on pre-production examples.  Metallic red clearcoat over gold primer.

MI 111 (MB 13) Merryweather SNORKEL Fire Engine
1983-2002, Multipack 1996-2007. 

BUT!  In 1981 for a special tie in to a US TV series called Code Red, a series was launched USA-only.  As it was based in Los Angeles, they had an LA theme to them.  Perhaps to make the Fire Appliance appear more familiar to US peoples, Lesney cut the centre out of the cab roof and the rear tank, fitted seating and the Snorkel moulding.  This was some time before this revised casting joined the 1-75 series in 1983.  All this time I thought it was post-bankruptcy Matchbox International change.

[bunglebus]

I've had a few of those Husky Jeeps, always with the smooth wheels though.

It got Whizzwheeled later in life

I've got the Super Juniors removal lorry too, it's a very nice thing so has stayed in my collection despite culling a lot of commercial stuff. 

Still got various D series cabs and trailers to rehome though

[MiniMinorMk3]

12 hours ago, sierraman said:

I don’t know if you’ve a Bullseye Motorists Store near you but they’re flogging off some aerosols of old colours at £3 a tin. Worth a try? 

 

Is that a store for people who tow their speed boat with a Nova Merit?

 

1 hour ago, danthecapriman said:

This is how that casting started out in 69 I think.

 

Here's the one to look out for

Auctioned back in 2013 with a big estimate

Vectis Auctions | Matchbox Superfast No.35 Merryweather Fire Engine

 

[danthecapriman]

Well, here’s my grand plan for that tired Dinky Merryweather fire engine I had.

As far as I’m aware there’s no 1:43ish sized model out there of an AEC/Leyland Ergomatic apart from the Dinky Merryweather. There is the (925?) tipper but I’m 99% sure that’s actually smaller, around 1/48?? But they seem much rarer and worth more. From what little I can find out the Dinky Merryweather isn’t too far off the 1/43 size.

This is how it looks next to a known 1:43 Leyland FG, which is a smaller truck in real life of course!

On the face of it, it’s good enough I think. 
Razor saw deployed and within a couple of minutes the cab is off! Once the bulk of the fire engine body is gone it looks much better.

   

    
My plan is to get an Ergo and update it slightly to look the part with similar sized truck models, but as a normal truck. Probably a tipper or something. 
So a better chassis was needed…  

This was an eBay find which I bagged at the opening price. It’s a 1:43 that originally had a Fiat/Iveco/Deutz cab that wasn’t available in the UK. Someone has already had the back off it for something so the chassis will do me! 

   
The engine will probably come off as it won’t be seen anyway and it’s not the right type either. Plus, it’s likely in the way of the new cab.

Cab is now bare metal.

It’s a very nice looking casting actually. I’ll need to build up a new cab back wall, which I’ll do from plastic card and section. It’s not necessarily straightforward but do-able I think! 
A new bumper will be needed as the big one originally on it is part of the Dinky chassis and I’m not keen on it really either. 
Id like to thin down the casting of the lower set of grills too, between the headlights as it stands too proud in my opinion. If I can or not is another matter! 
Roof needs filling level and pressed strengthening ribs making from plastic. 
Wheel arches need widening slightly and the rear half making up from plastic.
Ive trial fitted it loosely on the new chassis and it actually fits it rather well!