Shite in Miniature II

[bunglebus]

What book is that?

[MiniMinorMk3]

25 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

What book is that?

Mike and the Modelmakers by Miroslav Sasek | Goodreads

Mike and the Modelmakers by M Sasek 1970 1st Edition Hardcover Matchbox Car Book | eBay

[Tenmil Socket]

4 hours ago, andrew e said:

Thread drift: I was at the Peugeot museum in Sochaux a few weeks ago, the Quaser still looks fantastic in the flesh 😎

https://laventure-association.com

Awesome! The wheels remind me of the Clio 16v ones.

[Tenmil Socket]

1 hour ago, ETCHY said:

That DS is lovely.

Does the suspension adjust ?

I believe it does, yes… well it should when I’ve reconnected the front suspension arms! You can see the switch thing above Norev on the base. 

[Tenmil Socket]

5 hours ago, danthecapriman said:

Had a handful of acquisitions over the last few days.

Firstly a pair of cut price Vanguards models in the form of the Atlas Editions best of British collection. 
Cortina mk3.

 
Sierra Sapphire,

 
You can just about see where the Vanguard’s branding was removed from the base on the Sierra!

 
And a Corgi motoring memories Escort mk1 van. 
These are really looking their age now. The basic shape looks good, although I’m not entirely convinced about the front end. Maybe a Vanguard’s Escort front might graft on?? There’s no other alternatives for a mk1 van in 1:43 though I don’t think. The dividing bar in the door windows looks a bit on the chunky side too so maybe that might benefit from thinning down and then some details painting in. Just looks very plain as it is.

I don’t know why but the front of that Escort van reminds me of the television from Willow The Wisp!

 

[bunglebus]

My feet went rrrrrusty!

[bunglebus]

I bought a catalogue. Despite having lots of weird and wonderful ones, I didn't actually have any for Hot Wheels. This one's a little odd though, it's in Italian for a start

 

 

 

 

 

Yep it's another one of those that's printed half up the other way, so we return to the front/back for almost 50% of the content about Big Jim, who really wants to be Action Man, and some He-Man gear

 

Big Jim's MK1 Golf cabrio is pretty sweet I have to say, but it's the Mebetoys MK1 Fiesta that's the standout for me - and the Granada, Audi 100, Volvo 343...

[danthecapriman]

2 hours ago, bunglebus said:

A rare beast it seems. Just one has landed here

 

I’ve only ever found one myself. The silver version.

Pretty sure one of you lot had it off me, but can’t remember who?

[155V6]

My 1st AliExpress buy arrived today,this HotWheels Alfa 155

I dithered about buying it when they were in the shops,so snapped it up when I saw it for £2.46 posted 😮.It arrived in about a week in perfect condition,the card's not even bent.

[Lord Sterling]

51 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

...almost 50% of the content about Big Jim...

     

The Big Jim stuff is brilliant. The guy looks like an early 1980s pre-yuppie with the long coats, briefcase, syrup hairstyle and Golf cabriolet. What a icon to look up to!

[stuboy]

Did another one,  white 3dr, only wheels and a back box, also added back box too the sapphire...

[quicksilver]

2 hours ago, flat4alfa said:

Lledo Days Gone are our friends. 

They did a Bristol Lodekka in the earlier blue livery

500 produced!  Never seen one though

Ok not a RT, but still...   

This site lists 11 Lodekka buses that were run by Lesney both at Hackney and Rochford. 

Surprising then, that there was never a Matchbox model of a Lodekka, even though they were seen outside the office windows every day

 And in the publicity material !

A missed opportunity for sure - they had no problem with making fictional Matchbox-liveried toys so why didn't they make a toy of those buses that promoted the brand and could actually be seen on the streets? Dinky seemed quite successful with their range of commercials in their own livery.

[155V6]

41 minutes ago, stuboy said:

Did another one,  white 3dr, only wheels and a back box, also added back box too the sapphire...

Are the wheels the resin ones?.I've got a 1/18 Peugeot 406 Coupe with no wheels,& in theory they'd fit on a real one 🤔

[flat4alfa]

12 hours ago, danthecapriman said:

What’s on the site now? Presumably overpriced houses or flats!?

Itd be interesting to get some ‘then & now’ photos of it.

Hackney

Will look at the other premises later

 

Quote

I think they did have a few of them, yes. All the same AEC Regents/RT’s.

Apart from the Bristol Lodekkas, there was also at least one Leyland Titan PD2 bodied by Alexander

Likewise a Leyland Titan PD3 with Metro-Cammell(?) body

Three Dodge DRG08 with Rootes own bodies

Two AEC RF

and you're going to like these, even though not buses, but liveried-up:  an AEC Mantador Ergo cab

and a Leyland Beaver Ergo too

along with Commer Spacevans

[sierraman]

From what I can piece together the Hackney Wick factory was completed in 1963, so anything prior to that would have been built at Eastway. So really it was only operational for 20 years tops before they went bust which isn’t a very long time. The Rochford one I understand made the Superkings and some of the post ‘83 1-75 that were built in the U.K. - most I think but not all had moved to Macau. Then the Yesteryears were built in yet another facility some place in the south. 

[danthecapriman]

18 minutes ago, flat4alfa said:

Hackney

Will look at the other premises later

 

Apart from the Bristol Lodekkas, there was also at least one Leyland Titan PD2 bodied by Alexander

Three Dodge DRG08 with Rootes own bodies

Two AEC RF

and you're going to like these, even though not buses, but liveried-up:  an AEC Mantador Ergo cab

and a Leyland Beaver Ergo too

along with Commer Spacevans

Christ, what a shame the old building went to make way for the modern eyesore. Whoever designs these modern buildings wants their bollocks shot off.

Love the vehicles though! Those Dodge buses are weird things. Interesting to see the two Ergomatic cabs too. What were they and the Commer vans used for?

[bunglebus]

Wouldn't say no to a Matchbox liveried Dodge "Dougal"

[flat4alfa]

53 minutes ago, sierraman said:

Then the Yesteryears were built in yet another facility some place in the south. 

Model of Yesteryears were here at Chingford

We owe this premises special honour of where Jack O'Dell realised his future in what we have come to love: Lledo Days Gone 

[eddyramrod]

31 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

Wouldn't say no to a Matchbox liveried Dodge "Dougal"

Wouldn't be hard to do, there are plenty of cheap-enough Corgi Commers.  Or on a smaller scale, one could fill-in MB's own Commer milk float!

[flat4alfa]

Research & Development was here at Waterden Road, the other side of the River Lea on the former marshes at Hackney Wick

All  flattened and rebuilt for the Olympic park, though retaining a Lesney road name

[danthecapriman]

9 minutes ago, eddyramrod said:

Wouldn't be hard to do, there are plenty of cheap-enough Corgi Commers.  Or on a smaller scale, one could fill-in MB's own Commer milk float!

Good god man! Are you suggesting painting a Matchbox livery and branding onto a Corgi model!!😄

It doesn’t look too bad a livery to spray tbh, provided the masking does its job properly. It’s the Matchbox decals that might have to be custom made. 
Quite an attractive livery actually.

[MiniMinorMk3]

One for the HotWheels fans

 

[flat4alfa]

10 hours ago, Tenmil Socket said:

Didn’t Matchbox produce something else that was very similar looking or am I imagining it?

Code 3 by a fella named Marcel. 

He repainted and detailed a Solido

[Datsuncog]

A few bits and pieces scooped up locally this week...

I had a £10 voucher for Poundland wrangled through their Perks app, so naturally I chose to make best use of it on a load of Mattel diecast.

They had a stonking big basket of Hot Wheels, which was quite hard to sift through, but I found some decent enough late 2024 releases in there:

Left a couple of black Audi Quattros in there, as I already have that one.

The Cityside branch is the third Poundland location I've found stocking the Matchbox 2025 A-case - but annoyingly their pegs had already been picked clean of nearly everything interesting.

These three were nabbed; I nearly wasn't going to, but the number of mainline retailers seems to be shrinking and the FOMO got to me...

Infiniti QX80 isn't familiar to me, nor is the Toyota Prius Prime - but they look quite nice anyway.

Reason for the bulldozer will become clear shortly.

I also just realised from the package numbering that the 2025 range will consist of 125 vehicles - last year it was 100, so that's something to look forward to (I guess - if we get them all here?)

I also buckled at the Nissan Team Transport, as it was down to £15 in The Entertainer, and kinda gives me Matchbox King Size vibes.

It's really heavy.

The Hot Wheels Celica in silver is absolute cracker; I like it rather more than the yellow Premium version I picked up a few months ago.

And then there's the other recent Team Transport - the Land Rover Defender and Jaguar Mk1.

This is such a good combo.

The new-style Defender looks very purposeful.

While the racing Jag, which looked pretty excellent in the grey mainline release earlier this year, is even better with the extra Premium detailing.

Simply marvellous.

And then, this arrived in the post...

It's not an Action Drivers set, it's a little older than that range, but is very much in the spirit of Action Drivers.

More to come on this one!

[Split_Pin]

12 hours ago, bunglebus said:

I bought a catalogue. Despite having lots of weird and wonderful ones, I didn't actually have any for Hot Wheels. This one's a little odd though, it's in Italian for a start

 

 

 

 

 

Yep it's another one of those that's printed half up the other way, so we return to the front/back for almost 50% of the content about Big Jim, who really wants to be Action Man, and some He-Man gear

 

Big Jim's MK1 Golf cabrio is pretty sweet I have to say, but it's the Mebetoys MK1 Fiesta that's the standout for me - and the Granada, Audi 100, Volvo 343...

I'm currently having a meltdown over those ex-Mebetoys 1/25 scale cars. Talbot Horizon, Monza, Fiesta, Peugeot 305, all new ones on me.

[bunglebus]

Day 21 already 

Hmm...

A money clip for about 2 grand?

Aha!

With a bit of finagling, several accessories can be persuaded to fit at once

Off to hang that on the tree. Fitted the extra part to this one as per the picture too

[Tenmil Socket]

15 hours ago, bunglebus said:

I bought a catalogue. Despite having lots of weird and wonderful ones, I didn't actually have any for Hot Wheels. This one's a little odd though, it's in Italian for a start

 

 

 

 

 

Yep it's another one of those that's printed half up the other way, so we return to the front/back for almost 50% of the content about Big Jim, who really wants to be Action Man, and some He-Man gear

 

Big Jim's MK1 Golf cabrio is pretty sweet I have to say, but it's the Mebetoys MK1 Fiesta that's the standout for me - and the Granada, Audi 100, Volvo 343...

Talbot Horizon, Opel Kadett and Fiesta for me.

I had a Jeep Renegade as a kid but I’m sure it was Majorette? 

[bunglebus]

Postal arrival

Definitely one of the harder Polistils to find, of this series anyway. And through the magic of buying two of them...

...well there just happened to be two, so I'll sell one on

[MiniMinorMk3]

Well what this picture heavy page needs is another picture heavy post, so here goes. Continuing with the cleaning of my auction lot here are the Dinky Toys that were in it.

First up we have a 561 Blaw Knox Bulldozer. This one has seen some action and has lost the driver and tracks.

But it is impressive in size, especially when compared to an early Matchbox ERF Tanker.

This 942 Regent Foden Tanker is very battered.

A bright looking 279 Aveling Barford Diesel Roller.

955 Supertoys Fire Engine. The ladder has lost a couple of rungs but it does have it's tyres.

Next is a 921 Bedford Truck, only a couple of tyres remain, but it's not in bad condition.

This 404 Conveyancer has the usual missing safety frame, driver, exhaust and pallet.

A 255 Mersey Tunnel Police Land Rover looked like it had collapsed suspension...

But there is no suspension. A quick tweak of the tin floor soon levelled it out.

29H (no number on base) Duple Roadmaster. This could do with a repaint.

A 254 Austin Taxi in the standard yellow over green colour way. It looks like the yellow went on first followed by the green.

Dinky 344 Plymouth Estate Car

Postman Pat has been busy in this 260 Royal Mail Van

And Busby has ragged this 261 Telephone Service Van to death.

Finally we have a 422 Fordson Truck

 It looks like I need a lot of tyres and most of these are really restoration projects as they are far to gone for display as they are.

I'll be cleaning up the Matchbox stuff today and will report back later.

[andrew e]

18 hours ago, Lord Sterling said:

The Big Jim stuff is brilliant. The guy looks like an early 1980s pre-yuppie with the long coats, briefcase, syrup hairstyle and Golf cabriolet. What a icon to look up to!

BIG JIM STERLING sounds brilliant too!l 😆