Shite in Miniature II

[flat4alfa]

11 hours ago, flat4alfa said:

Got a first release Lesney pre-Superfast 1968 somewhere.  Opening doors and boot.  Also the 1978 military green Staff Car twin-pack one, sealed doors and boot. Had since a boy.

The sun was out, I'm out of work (again), so some photos were taken.  Hurrah.

The Lesney Matchbox Mercedes 220SE (red 1964-67) met up with the first-release green (1968) and door-lift (gold 1970) Mercedes 300SE.  'Door-lift', because it kept its opening boot, but lost its opening doors.  The cheapskates.

Ok the green is not in the best condition, but it does have the full complement of opening things.  The gold one picked up recently 1) because nice and tidy 2) has one as boy and no idea where it went but it did have missing boot last I saw it 40 years ago.  So just had to, like.

But what's this?  A military green Staff Car exclusive to a (1978) Twin-Pack appeared.  Now, I did get this as a slightly bigger boy on Christmas probably 1979, bless my Mum.

Nothing opening on that.  But look, the 1970 lights are quite worn/redone and they had also picked-out the number plate as raised and reapplied the plate S-TT152 for the 1978 closed booter

First and last bases

And here is the other half of the 1978 Twin-Pack.  A Military Binz Ambulance

An earlier Superfast joined.  Look at the differences: Lights, roof dome, swage line pick-out

Rear tailgate delete, also removed - but added too!  detail.  Different bumpers.

[bunglebus]

Got a couple of nice gold Superfast Mercs. Odd to remove the opening doors rather than the boot, maybe the mould was worn?

My staff car has seen some action 

Early blue one is a thing of loveliness

Greens are pretty ruined

 

[bunglebus]

220 is represented by this decent example

Why are early Lesneys so pleasing to the eye? Perhaps I'll line this up with the other 220 from Matchbox if I remember 

[bunglebus]

Those Binz ambulances went through several stages of modification over the years, arches, tailgate, bumpers and headlights all got altered and there are a few crossover castings

Regular wheels should have the gunsight on the grille but they're always missing

Skinny Superfast got bigger arches but still had the separate headlights and opening tailgate

Phat Superfast wheels with even bigger arches, separate headlights, opening tailgate

Then lastly cast-in headlights and tailgate

Base changed when the tailgate went away

The early Superfasts can also have the writing up either way

I wonder if, like the VW1600, there are skinny Superfast wheels with the extra big arches? Probably.

[Tenmil Socket]

11 hours ago, flat4alfa said:

Well you see...

A while ago I found this sorry state at I think a car boot fair, can't remember.  Was going to throw it straight back...

..but looked underneath and saw this.  Then I remembered that I knew someone with a fixation* on these sort of bases

So I bought it and kept it back in the parts pile, because I wanted the headlamps off it for the tidier pair on the shelf that have an eye out each.  But not only that the engine piece - representing an iconic canted V4 engine no less - could* be used elsewhere.

Then forgot about it.

Found it again just the other day, and just in time to fling part of itself into a box going out the door.  So the engine and lights might live on back here, while the base went off to the Sussex seaside to be used perhaps to create another Whizzwheel-ified project.  How about a missing-link Whizzwheel 332 Yellow one with black bits to confuse the Corgi Collector market?

 

Somebody charged you for this, crikey! You'd think they'd simply give it away? One for the 'just bloody scrap it' thread 😆

[flat4alfa]

Can’t remember, but it’s more likely a deal for coins was reached for everything in my hand on the day

Perhaps the principle benefits* were attractive:

1) original headlamps to complete two examples on the shelf so not having to pay for repro parts plus postage and kill the planet some more. Environment.

2) engine part to put into something else and pick out the detail. Or just put into a parts box and sell parts box on eBay. Resourceful.

3) jagged metal part to hurl at the dog next door that just won’t shut up. Responsibility.

4) the sought-after base provided as surprise gift to a collector of those things for a project to be enjoyed on here. Collaborative.

[bunglebus]

Masked...

...and painted

Only realised this morning I've actually recreated one of the versions Dinky offered, I was just going for a period colour scheme.

I'll try and detail it better than Dinky did

[andrew e]

Is it a black or chestnut roof?

[bunglebus]

1 hour ago, andrew e said:

Is it a black or chestnut roof?

Matt black with clear lacquer. Think it needs another coat actually 

[flat4alfa]

Well I never

Dinky England 

Dinky France 

1957 brochure

1958 Brochure page

BRILLIANTROT

[bunglebus]

Shiny

Whilst admiring that, parcels arrived. First I'm not over the moon about - seller had various Tonka Beetles up for auction, I was watching them all and bid on this one as no-one else had. Then my bid got cancelled and the item relisted, I asked why and he said there was an error in the listing. Looked to me like he'd just added a BIN price. After losing out on the one with the engine sticking out the back, I was a bit hasty hitting the button, especially as it's a repaint.

The others he had sold for about half what I paid, and were in original paint. However I looked today and he's re-listed them all! I bet he's cancelled the sales as he didn't get what he wanted. One of them now has a BIN with a price that's clearly one decimal place out in my favour l, so I've bought that too! Bet he cancels for a spurious reason...

Anyway here it is

From another seller were two very very tidy Majorette Beetles, I thought the light blue might be a resto but appears to be original. These always seem to have half the paint chipped off when I find them normally 

Lastly (are you seeing the theme today?) is a carded Matchbox Commando VW T3 ambulance 

Anyone got more from this set?

Seller kindly threw in an 82/83 catalogue but I have one already

Hang on $.50? It's a US version, and totally different inside to my UK one. Fell open at this page

I'm off to fire up the scanner!

[sierraman]

Here’s mine! 

[bunglebus]

21 hours ago, eddyramrod said:

@bunglebus what sort of scale is that Winross?  I could see that among my trucks...

Sorry didn't get a chance to look until now

Here it is with the Matchbox Scammell

And some measurements 

[eddyramrod]

Thank you for that!  Yes please, slip it in my next box if you would.  Much appreciated.

[bunglebus]

Right here we go, 1982-83 US catalogue, didn't really consider how different the contents would be. How many of the catalogues have alternate versions I wonder?

Some interesting stuff in there for sure, didn't @Datsuncog get his hands on the Challenger/Celica thing years ago?

[flat4alfa]

10 hours ago, bunglebus said:

the Challenger/Celica thing years ago?

It was a Mitsubishi(Colt) link, not Toyota

This Challenger generation was based on Galant - the UK market equivalent was the Sapporo coupe

Quite what they were up to with that US-market mud-plugging 4x4, I don’t know !

[Split_Pin]

I'm sure one of you gents posted up several years ago that the Galant/Challenger was based on a Tomica Casting? Anyone able to compare?

Also, I wonder if there was an alternate wierd kid like me in the US, who fawned over such UK domestic chod as a 'Cortina 1600 GL' in the same was as I did over a Majorette  Oldsmobile Omega? Neither were ever for sale in theUS/ UK respectively although at least the Cortina was successful over here.

Anyway, cheers for scanning @bunglebus

[ETCHY]

6 hours ago, flat4alfa said:

It was a Mitsubishi(Colt) link, not Toyota

This Challenger generation was based on Galant - the UK market equivalent was the Sapporo coupe

Quite whet they were up to with that US-market mud-plugging 4x4, I don’t know 

I didn't know that model existed, never seen that one !

[Datsuncog]

10 hours ago, bunglebus said:

didn't @Datsuncog get his hands on the Challenger/Celica thing years ago?

Never owned one, sadly - but there was one of the green ones with standard wheels in that overpriced model shop in Smithfield for a good long while.

I know from the big Charlie Mack book that the Matchbox model of the second-gen Dodge Challenger was sold in the US but not the UK (with the real-life car not very successfully based on a badge-engineered Mitsubishi Galant Lambda, for some reason) - and I believe that the model was designed as part of a small sub-range by Lesney's office in Japan. 

I didn't realise that others from the same mini set of Japanese Matchbox were offered as US mainlines, though - the Mazda RX7, Toyota Celica and different Datsun 280Z are in that catalogue too.

I'm not sure if there's a Tomica link there too, but I'd like to see a comparison...

Fascinating!

[flat4alfa]

Can’t remember any Tomica source chat..

The Eterna/Galant was for the Japanese catalogue, followed by versions for Australia and as Dodge Challenger for USA catalogues 

The white 4x4 SPACE RAIDER version in the US catalogue was planned for release in 1982 in the USA but was never issued

It lives on today with a collector

[sierraman]

Supposedly the Galant and the Celica were a trial of two models produced initially in Hong Kong under a licence hence their slightly tinny appearance. The quality wasn’t good so they took over making them but they were a non U.K. product thought I believe some slipped through.

[flat4alfa]

Japan in red or yellow for 1978.  Made in Japan by Lesney KK.

Australia in green metallic for 1980. Made in Hong Konk for Lesney Products Co ltd.

USA from 1980 ran the met green and also flat green with a few tampo ideas added to the end 1981. Same Hong Konk production line.

Let’s take another look at the still-born pre-production Space Raider from BungleScansTM

[sierraman]

Here in the Matchbox book. 

[Tenmil Socket]

[flat4alfa]

Tomica <> Matchbox link debunked!

Two quite different castings

Tomy Tomica Mitsubishi Galant (Lambda)

Matchbox Japan Mitsubishi Galant (Lambda) Eterna

[bunglebus]

Maybe it was @Jon who found one as our antipodean correspondent?

Today's small haul

[flat4alfa]

never seen a Matchbox Lasers MR2 Mk1

[andrew e]

I thought they were quite common? The brown majorette camargue (?) with the textured tailgate is ace!

[danthecapriman]

I know there’s not a great deal of love for the ‘models’ here, which is why I’m not posting as much lately, but between waiting on paint, glue etc etc to dry on other projects I decided to do this one in between ‘down time’ as it were!

Started life as the Spanish working vehicles partwork Transit. 

 

I wanted one as a tipper, and as luck had it, I have a spare tipper body leftover from the FG I did a while back. Needed a few notches filing out of the frame though to get it to fit and sit down lower on the Transit chassis. 
Also had to shorten the chassis slightly, grind out a chunk of the middle cross member to clear the tipper rams and reattach the rear bumper.

 

Stripped and primed the cab, then drilled a hole in the roof to take a spare beacon light.

 

Then painted it up in maize yellow to look like a council owned tipper. 
The new tipper head board is made up from scraps of brass angle and some fine mesh I found.

 

Coming along nicely! Paints still very fresh so I’ll leave it alone for a bit now, but next job will be trying to convert the interior to rhd.

[155V6]

I've got this battered Galant

Made in Hong Kong