Shite in Miniature II

42,204 · January 30

That’s just four pints of bitter in my local.

At least you have something to show for it next day…

The Mini set will always have a sell-on market. Because Mini.

25,074 · January 30

3 minutes ago, flat4alfa said:

That’s just four pints of bitter in my local.

At least you have something to show for it next day…

The Mini set will always have a sell-on market. Because Mini.

That’s exactly how I see it!

People spend £shitloads every weekend at the pub or smoking and afterwards there’s nothing to show for it. At least spending my money on models gives me something for it which will always be worth something.

42,204 · January 30

Page 1873 (crikey!)

The first independent suspension, by Amédée Bollée in 1873. The steam vehicle was named L’Obeissante (The Obedient) and made the first road trip between Paris and Le Mans in 18 hours

Looks comfy.

39,149 · January 30

47 minutes ago, flat4alfa said:

The Mini set will always have a sell-on market. Because Mini.

It will have a sell on market, but not at £18. The sell on value is probably £1.80, so you might as well have had three pints on the way to buying the milk and bread that you should have got on the way home from work.

39,149 · January 30

Anyone else getting this message when trying to react to a post? I have already posted this in the technical thread, but thought I'd post it here in case anyone wondered why I was not reacting to stuff.

39,627 · January 30

^^ Nothing like that yet, but while doing a search the other day I got a message saying I was doing too many searches, and to wait 3 seconds.

Which was odd.

One for the website issues thread, maybe?

42,204 · January 30

14 minutes ago, MiniMinorMk3 said:

It will have a sell on market, but not at £18. The sell on value is probably £1.80

They are selling well

These are sold listings

13,408 · January 30

21 minutes ago, MiniMinorMk3 said:

Anyone else getting this message when trying to react to a post? I have already posted this in the technical thread, but thought I'd post it here in case anyone wondered why I was not reacting to stuff.

I’ve had that before, still happens every now and then. I refresh the page and it works as normal.

39,627 · January 30

On 28/01/2025 at 13:30, sierraman said:

What will be the valuable stuff in the future? My youngest likes these miniature items that go on shop shelves, I don’t know the specifics - I’m too busy breaking my neck working paying for them 😂. Mini brands I think they’re called, easily lost and popular. Can see people in years to come spaffing a good figure trying to collect them all again in years to come. It’s all a big cycle eh?

In light of this question, there's some interesting reading here on the 2025 Olympia Toy Fair in London:

Evil toilets, terror food and billionaire Squishmallows: my eye-popping day at the UK’s giant toy fair | Culture | The Guardian

I've pulled some relevant quotes below, if you just want the highlights:

Quote

So where is the toy world heading in 2025?

“We’re seeing a real boom in micro collectibles,” says Kerri Atherton, head of public affairs at the British Toy & Hobby Association, which organises the fair, now in its 71st year. “They have all of the cuteness without the big price tag, and they’re also popular with adults, who like to display them rather than play with them.”

The toys themselves, which are seductively arranged on the stands like jars in a sweetshop window, are getting smaller and smaller, as manufacturers capitalise on the current trend for teeny collectibles. It’s a symptom of both customers’ reduced spending power and their lack of storage space, along with the ever-growing lust for all things kawaii.

“People just love the fact they’re so bitty,” says Jeff van Rens from Funko, a US brand that makes phenomenally popular vinyl figurines called Pops, with cartoonishly square, oversized heads. He ushers me into their booth where, along with shelves groaning with their staple cast of 10cm-tall plastic characters, themed around everything from Star Wars to Stranger Things, there are racks of Bitty Pops – miniature versions of the same characters, standing just over 2cm high. Barely big enough to have facial features beyond two giant doe eyes, they look very easy to lose down the back of the sofa.

“In today’s world, space can often be a consideration with collecting,” says Van Rens. “You could have two Funko Pops, or the entire collection of DC Bitty Pops, taking up about the same amount of space.” He gestures to a shelf where an itty-bitty Batman stands next to an equally diminutive Joker, each sealed in a tiny acrylic box. They are sold in packs of four for £10 (compared with a single Pop for around £13), and there’s a clever marketing ruse: one of the four is a mystery character, opening up a lucrative realm of duplicates. Graduated levels of rarity mean that devoted “Funko completists” are spurred on to buy evermore packs in the hope of completing the set.

The blind box trend, as buying surprise toys in opaque packaging is known, has exploded in recent years, with a global market value of around £11bn. Stores such as Pop Mart and Miniso have boomed in popularity, particularly with the “kidult” market – the over 12s, who now account for almost £1 in every £3 spent on toys.

The influencers tend to flock to toys linked to popular TV programmes and films – this year Lilo & Stitch, Bluey, Sonic and Wicked are particular favourites – with licensed products bigger than ever, making up 35% of the total toy market. Sylvanian Families hopes to capitalise on its 40th anniversary year, with a movie coming out in April, while an unexpected hit has come from one of the stranger corners of the internet, in the form of Skibidi Toilet – a surreal animated YouTube series about possessed toilets going to war with besuited humanoid characters with TVs for heads. A Toilet Mystery Surprise can be yours for £49.99. As Atherton says: “You just can’t predict what kids are going to like.”

For all the novelty on show, the biggest overall takeaway of the fair is actually how simple the most popular toys continue to be. You might have expected the tech industry to have extended its tentacles deeper into the realm of play by now, with AI-powered chat bears spouting GPT-generated gobbledegook, but the overriding trend is back to basics. For the second year running, the bestselling toy in the UK was an £8 cushion with a face. The 20cm-high Squishmallow defies all expectations of innovation, being an egg-shaped stuffed toy with no discernible USP. But timing, in the toy world, is everything.

No mention of diecast toy vehicles anywhere in the article, notably, though I'd be surprised if Mattel didn't have any Hot Wheels or Matchbox at the show - nor other favourites such as model railways or Scalextric, but perhaps Hornby Hobbies opted not to attend?

53,108 · January 30

1 hour ago, flat4alfa said:

That’s just four pints of bitter in my local.

I got rinsed for £11.20 for two pints in the local recreational centre the other night!

At least I get to keep the cars, like the job lot I paid two quid for and collected on my way to work yesterday.

Didn't have this colour Alpine

My other yellow Studebaker is battered - camera man AWOL of course

917 notable just because the wheels don't match

This was main target though

Different colour glass to the Graffic despite Made In China origins

Tidy Roller

One of the weirder Tyco (?) era castings, Mustang Mach III

Late release Ikarus bus but still wearing an old wheel design

Last of the Matchbox is this unusual Smash N Crash

And a random Eastern Mercedes ambulance

53,108 · January 30

This just arrived, what a little cutie! Doesn't appear to have any broken or missing bits either, so Mr. Flowers isn't getting my money today

3,122 · January 30

37 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

This just arrived, what a little cutie! Doesn't appear to have any broken or missing bits either, so Mr. Flowers isn't getting my money today

That's very nice.

Bloody obscure thing to model I'd have thought. I bet there weren't that many of the real thing about at the time ?

53,108 · January 30

Not clear from my research, but not many by the sound of it. This part has blown my head up

The FriskySports front suspension was a Dubonnet type independent suspension incorporating a Metalastik rubber in torsion member in an aluminium housing to which the steering was directly attached. Thus when steering, the whole suspension unit was moved.

The advantage is that the suspension castings are not affected by vertical wheel movements and so no complications arose with steering geometry when the wheels were deflected by road irregularities. An incidental point of interest about this arrangement is that braking torque causes the nose of the car to rise.

I suppose it's no different to VW T1 reduction gears that make the rear suspension rise under acceleration

39,149 · January 30

2 hours ago, MorrisItalSLX said:

I’ve had that before, still happens every now and then. I refresh the page and it works as normal.

It's started last night and then did it again this morning. I tried page refresh, logging off and logging on, shutting down my machine and restarting and emptying the cookie folder, but none of that worked. I have been out and come back in and it is now working OK. Maybe there is a 24 hour limit on how many reactions you can click, but I have never had that message before.

39,149 · January 30

2 hours ago, Datsuncog said:

^^ Nothing like that yet, but while doing a search the other day I got a message saying I was doing too many searches, and to wait 3 seconds.

Which was odd.

One for the website issues thread, maybe?

I've had that one aswell this week.

39,149 · January 30

2 hours ago, flat4alfa said:

They are selling well

These are sold listings

Only selling because it is new, give it 6 months and they won't be selling at those prices.

53,108 · January 30

New 5 packs in Tescotainer

39,149 · January 30

On 28/01/2025 at 13:30, sierraman said:

What will be the valuable stuff in the future? My youngest likes these miniature items that go on shop shelves, I don’t know the specifics - I’m too busy breaking my neck working paying for them 😂. Mini brands I think they’re called, easily lost and popular. Can see people in years to come spaffing a good figure trying to collect them all again in years to come. It’s all a big cycle eh?

TV and Movie stuff. Anything that is related to a popular franchise will always have collectors, especially if there are some of those released that are not popular at time of release.

However things can be highly collectable when newish and soon drop like a stone when people have moved on.

Will these make a come back soon? There used to be a few stalls dedicated to these things at toy fairs always.

There is a price guide for them and they are collected all over the world. Those who collected them back in the 1990s are probably coming up to the age when they might get nostalgic and want them back.

Beanie Babies Price Guide

One a non toy front my mother collected Royal Doulton China figures. 20 or so years ago they were worth about £50-£60 for regular ones with other earlier stuff getting towards 4 figures. My mother passed away this year and I had to dispose of her collection of over 100 figures. They barely made £5 each when sold at auction. The problem being not even people my age want to collect porcelain figures these days and every general auction up and down the country has some of these figures up for sale.

Collecting is always sensitive to supply and demand, and with most "Collectables" there is a demand when newish, but that can soon change when a new thig comes along or the collectors are grown up or dying off.

38,276 · January 30

2 hours ago, Datsuncog said:

In light of this question, there's some interesting reading here on the 2025 Olympia Toy Fair in London:

Evil toilets, terror food and billionaire Squishmallows: my eye-popping day at the UK’s giant toy fair | Culture | The Guardian

I've pulled some relevant quotes below, if you just want the highlights:

No mention of diecast toy vehicles anywhere in the article, notably, though I'd be surprised if Mattel didn't have any Hot Wheels or Matchbox at the show - nor other favourites such as model railways or Scalextric, but perhaps Hornby Hobbies opted not to attend?

They’ll have probably been invited but they couldn’t give a fuck about model cars so they’ll have ghosted them 🤣

39,149 · January 30

2 hours ago, bunglebus said:

One of the weirder Tyco (?) era castings, Mustang Mach III

Detail Cars did the Mach III in 1/43rd.

It was always a poor seller when I had them.

The Mach III was a concept car shown at the 1993 Detroit Motor Show.

39,627 · January 30

6 hours ago, bunglebus said:

New 5 packs in Tescotainer

Hard to believe a five-pack used to retail for £5 in Tesco only two years ago.

£12 is wild - and just as much per model as individual mainlines, or indeed rather more considering the revolving 'buy one get one half price/ 3 for 2' offers typically offered by The Entertainer.

Since there's rarely more than one or two models I really want in a multi pack, I think I'll be giving them a swerve. Two packs for £15 in Sainsbury's wasn't too awful, but they've only had one pack left on the shelf now for months...

Interesting to see that in the US store @andrew e visited the Matchbox 5-packs are priced at $5.62, or £4.51 in Sterling - that's quite a price differential (even with local and state taxes added on to the sticker price).

Is it the retailers, or is it Mattel? Y'know, I'm starting to have my doubts about who the villains are...

25,074 · January 30

26 minutes ago, Datsuncog said:

Hard to believe a five-pack used to retail for £5 in Tesco only two years ago. £12 is wild - and just as much per model as individual mainlines, or indeed rather more considering the revolving 'buy one get one half price/ 3 for 2' offers typically offered by The Entertainer.

Since there's rarely more than one or two models I really want in a multi pack, I think I'll be giving them a swerve. Two packs for £15 in Sainsbury's wasn't too awful, but they've only had one pack left on the shelf now for months...

Interesting to see that in the US store @andrew e visited the Matchbox 5-packs are priced at $5.62, or £4.51 in Sterling - that's quite a price differential (even with local and state taxes added on to the sticker price).

Is it the retailers, or is it Mattel? Y'know, I'm starting to have my doubts about who the villains are...

Rip off Britain!

The other day I was looking for something, can’t remember what now, but even factoring in shipping/postage, the I exact same item came in at about £20 cheaper if I bought it from a European seller!

Why!? Something special about the ones in the UK already!? No. What is that extra £20 odd getting me over and above the European one!? Nothing.
It’s just some piss ant over here money grabbing.

39,627 · January 30

Although, in an interesting development...

I was down at the market in the town this morning, where Colin from St George's sometimes pitches up on a Thursday - not only did he have some cheapie loose Hot Wheels for 50p (although admittedly they'd already been well picked through), but also some Matchbox ten-packs he's given up trying to sell complete, and now has out for £1.50 each.

I already have most of these, in one form or another, but was happy to pick up a couple that have eluded me so far:

The Swift Shuttle is one that's made me pause in front of the 5-packs before - one of those odd little flat buses with no seats that ferry folks between the airport terminal and planes parked out on the tarmac.

It's slightly plasticky - only the orange base has any metal in it - but I reckon it might look alright on my Action Drivers airport set.

I've been after one of these Dodge Ram flatbeds for a while too - I don't normally go for daft graphics, but there's something about this one which makes the 'Jolly Roger' flag rather appealing.

This Chrysler 300C isn't one I've even seen before - it's a lovely big thing.

The 'Frozen Treats' delivery van (with no actual model name on the base, so I'll have to look that one up) is also a bit daft, but I just liked it anyway. A few bits of paint missing from the edges, but hey.

Also one from the recent Working Rigs release that I'd been wavering over:

And, courtesy of Poundstretcher, some Hot Wheels I haven't had before:

Plus some that I do have, but can probably trade for something else:

Not a bad haul, for a Thursday.

Also found this double-carded Toyota minivan in Poundstretcher - does this count as an error car?

39,149 · January 30

Only one diecast entry on the "40 Most Valuable Vintage Toys" list, and that's the custom VW van that was never a full production model.

The Most Valuable Vintage Toys Of All Time

Plenty of land fill in the list though.

39,149 · January 30

As I have kind of run out of stuff to clean up I thought it was time to have a go at an easy restoration. My choice was the Dinky TR7 that had been over painted in a sort of camo effect.

The paint on this was ladled on as it has two colour changes.

The base still had some mud from its manoeuvres on Salisbury Plain.

With the base held by two screws dismantling was easy peasy

Cracked screen.

How ever did the first colour change must have pulled the TR7 apart.

First job was to slaver the body in Nitromors...

and wrap it up in foil. I will leave it over night for the stripper to have a good go at the multiple layers.

Interior is clean.

Base no clean. It just requires a slight polish to get rid of the scratches on the surface.

The bumpers will need some sanding to get them smooth again.

Rear window is OK. I will sand off the paint from that and make a new windscreen to replace the cracked part.

The wheels are clean. They just need a quick sanding and a coat of satin varnish to revive them. I will get rid of the slight bends in the axles.

In a week or so I hope to have something that looks like this

53,108 · January 30

1 hour ago, Datsuncog said:

Also found this double-carded Toyota minivan in Poundstretcher - does this count as an error car?

Hell yes, did you buy it?

53,108 · January 30

I decided that I'd pick up one of the new 5 packs in case I never see it again - thankfully I get a bit of staff discount in Tesco!

Interesting that Matchbox don't do their 5 packs as 100% exclusives like Hot Wheels do, I would prefer that over repeats of the Kurtis and Caprice (and also the Mustang I think). Actually it's quite odd that they often feature older releases, do they make a new batch of an old model, or are there vast warehouses full of unsold ones somewhere? Perhaps that's where all the tatty carded pegwarmers go? The Mudstang in one of the packs I posted earlier is quite a few years old now.

The 10 packs are worse, one exclusive colour just isn't worth the money, at least the Hot Wheels have about 30% exclusives in them, even if only one is actually advertised as being special

Still, that '79 Nova is very cool, and the El Camino's a bit of a looker too - however Wiki says they're also re-releases, 2022 Retro Series for the Nova and a 2008 Heritage Classics version for the El Camino we wouldn't have seen here

Edit

Sheesh the Mustang is also a re-release, from a 2010 5 pack!

10,772 · January 30

5 hours ago, bunglebus said:

This just arrived, what a little cutie! Doesn't appear to have any broken or missing bits either, so Mr. Flowers isn't getting my money today

Nice buy! I've looked at these at toy fairs, but resisted temptation so far.

I did buy this book, actually from the author on British Sporting cars in Miniature

and it has a page on the Frisky

It seemed strange to me that this would be included when he doesn't include the Mini Cooper, Cooper S or 1275GT which were all very successful in sporting events. I did ask him about it and I concluded he just doesn't like Minis.

He did include various Bond three wheelers including the Bug.

53,108 · January 30

Talking of Bonds - there was a Minicar posted on here recently but I never found out who made the model - anyone?

39,149 · January 30

18 minutes ago, FakeConcern said:

Nice buy! I've looked at these at toy fairs, but resisted temptation so far.

I did buy this book, actually from the author on British Sporting cars in Miniature

and it has a page on the Frisky

It seemed strange to me that this would be included when he doesn't include the Mini Cooper, Cooper S or 1275GT which were all very successful in sporting events. I did ask him about it and I concluded he just doesn't like Minis.

He did include various Bond three wheelers including the Bug.

Does he include the Mini Marcos, Unipower, Deep Sanderson, Mini Sprint, Broadspeed Mini or any other Mini based sports/kit car?

Shite in Miniature II

Recommended Posts

flat4alfa

danthecapriman

flat4alfa

MiniMinorMk3

MiniMinorMk3

Datsuncog

flat4alfa

MorrisItalSLX

Datsuncog

bunglebus

bunglebus

ETCHY

bunglebus

MiniMinorMk3

MiniMinorMk3

MiniMinorMk3

bunglebus

MiniMinorMk3

sierraman

MiniMinorMk3

Datsuncog

danthecapriman

Datsuncog

MiniMinorMk3

MiniMinorMk3

bunglebus

bunglebus

FakeConcern

bunglebus

MiniMinorMk3

Create an account or sign in to comment

Create an account

Sign in

Similar Content

Shite in Miniature II

Shite in Miniature II Matchbox

Shite or not? 1 2

PieSpots: Shite Photos of Shite 1 2 3

Shite advertising weighing in shite

Browse Forums

Activity