Shite in Miniature II

[Datsuncog]

Fret not folks, you haven't been missing anything much.

The Great Belfast Diecast Drought seems to be entering its sixth or seventh month, with not much change forecast.

The main Tat Stall seemed to be free of diecast altogether this morning, though I eventually spotted a small tray of appetizers - but nothing really all that wonderful.

Some interesting items, but £5 for the Matchbox, Majorette, Corgi Junior, Hot Wheels and Far Eastern items seemed a bit much; £10 on the older Corgis was also rather steep, I thought.

No fanx.

Still, these were total bargains compared to Paddy and his Antiques Shitshow round the corner, still looking £6 for a wonky-axle Matchbox Tanzara with the engine cover missing.

The Charity Stall had nowt of interest either today.

Colin's Irish Tat stall continues to stock Oxfords, Vanguards and Mattel stuff, but there wasn't all that much to tempt and tantalise when I stopped by. I already have all the Moving Parts and Working Rigs items on offer.

He'd hoped to have some new items today, but apparently they won't land until Monday.

Some alright Hot Wheels, though.

Which left only Alan and his Eponymous Emporium to make my dreams come true...

Eh.

Oh well.

[Datsuncog]

A bit of hoking revealed a few interesting items on Alan's celebrated Tray Of Tat - this topless Lesney Mk2 Zodiac wasn't in the best of nick though, and the sticky biohazard grot inside was a bit squicky.

This Hong Kong-made ERF fire appliance was an oddity - and pretty big. Way bigger than the common Corgi Juniors offering of a similar nature.

By 'SM', apparently, with a catalogue reference of No. S8113

'E.R.F. Fire Tended'. Heh.

Not one I remember encountering before; annoyingly missing its boom or ladder or something.

Lots of rubbishy cheapo tat like these cars - not even diecast, these had coloured plastic tops clipped to what looked like the same generic black plastic base.

Although, I'll give them a half-mark for attempting, however poorly, to model actual vehicles - the dark blue coupe seems to be a half-assed stab at a Fox body Mustang; the turquoise one is trying very hard to be a Jaguar XJS, while I think the yellow thing starts as a Porsche 928 at the front, then runs out of ideas as it moves towards the back.

The orange thing has me stumped, however - it had very few distinguishable features.

Much as I dislike these, the absolute worst stuff around right now seems to be these actual tinplate efforts that I've seen in discounters like B&M - boy, are they nasty.

Not even the slightest effort to emulate a prototypical vehicle, these are just a single lightly pressed piece of thin steel with everything printed onto it, clipped on to a crappy plastic base.

I'd have been devastated if someone had bought me these as a kid. Ungrateful as it sounds, I'd sooner have had nothing.

I'd complain that it's all just modern rubbish, but to be fair very similar cheap toys were being churned out some seventy years ago - it's just they don't appeal much to me either.

So! Another day that leaves me wondering why I even do half the silly stuff that I do, though at least the coffee was worth braving the wind and rain for.

And a couple of back-issue Hot Wheels longcards from Colin, of course.

Happy Friday, kids.

[bunglebus]

1 hour ago, sierraman said:

I have a paint question actually, how can I get this off? I think it’s enamel? I’m respraying it bronze so I need to get all the blue stuff off the wheels?

Taking it apart? Paint stripper attacks pretty much all of it. Oven cleaner (or a mix of caustic soda and water, not hot!) will clean the paint off the wheels and glass, but it will take the chrome too. Nothing a Molotow pen won't fix though 

[MiniMinorMk3]

2 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

What's good for getting Graffic Traffic pen off a car?

This is actually quite nice under the red:

 

Lighter fluid is my go to as a starting point for removing pen.

2 hours ago, sierraman said:

I have a paint question actually, how can I get this off? I think it’s enamel? I’m respraying it bronze so I need to get all the blue stuff off the wheels?

I'd try some enamel thinners on the wheels, or just paint over with some satin black.

[bunglebus]

Check this oddball out

Looks kinda familiar?

What a mad bit of kit, and feels like I could snap the roof off by giving it a disapproving look. "Rolamatic" engine and exhaust piece moves, but there are no pegs on the wheels to make it do so automatically.

Love it

[sierraman]

55 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

Taking it apart? Paint stripper attacks pretty much all of it. Oven cleaner (or a mix of caustic soda and water, not hot!) will clean the paint off the wheels and glass, but it will take the chrome too. Nothing a Molotow pen won't fix though 

Yeah will need to strip it to spray it properly.  Maybe oven cleaner on a cotton bud will get the isolated bits on the wheels off? 

[sierraman]

2 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

Half a job Tom, I expected more from our Super GT Lead.

I’ve let everyone down there, I’ll get in the loft when I finish work. 🤣

[quicksilver]

2 hours ago, Datsuncog said:

This ERF fire appliance was interesting though - and pretty big. Way bigger than the common Corgi Juniors offering of a similar nature.

By 'SM', apparently, with a catalogue reference of No. S8113

'E.R.F. Fire Tended'. Heh.

Not one I remember encountering before; annoyingly missing its boom or ladder or something.

 

I have a couple of those Fire Tendeds with a bit of added detail and new wheels and they look pretty decent. The brand name I have recorded for them is 'Tuf Toys' but that doesn't seem to be the actual manufacturer. Wouldn't say no to giving that one a home if it's still there next time you find yourself market-bound.

 

[MVX11V]

Can't wait to free this sucker out from it's plastic tomb...

 

Of course I'm going to sniff in that ancient Chinese Japanese or English air!

[sierraman]

Might not have made it as far as China, they kept making some of them in the U.K. for long after 1982. 

[MiniMinorMk3]

44 minutes ago, MVX11V said:

Can't wait to free this sucker out from it's plastic tomb...

 

Of course I'm going to sniff in that ancient Chinese air!

Made in the UK in 1983 and 1984. Also sold as a Japanese Market release, hence the Japanese Police livery.

[bunglebus]

Graffic 959 prepped 

And painted

It's another Taiwan release, but not very good quality. There are a lot of linishing marks, casting lines and flash. I have cleaned it up a bit, I approached it as if it was a day when the Big Boss was walking around the factory, so everyone was making an extra effort to get it right - but without it being too good as it's a resto. If I wanted to customise one I'd definitely start with a different body, probably one of the first releases before the mould got worn and standards slipped.

While that's drying I thought I'd take the Mira Fiesta apart and try some wheels out for size

Huh. The wheels are pushed onto pegs cast into the base, not on separate axles. I've only ever seen this before on plastic base Mebetoys, never on a cast base. I've either got to drill across the base from one side of the base from the other (almost impossible) or fix an axle above the base, which will lower the ride height - not that I mind that too much!

Post is also extremely thin like an early Redline, I'm not attempting to drill and tap that so it'll have to be glued back together 

[ETCHY]

8 hours ago, flat4alfa said:

Brings thing round to this Anglia slot car homage I knocked together a while back 

Body is same die-cast by Saico.   Just for the hell of it.

Bit heavy around the bends but the daft wide Fandago’d track helps there.  A bit.

It wasn’t intended to be an exact copy of the ‘livery’, so the decals just make do to make me smile and it belts about the track at speed, so pointless getting the bonnet decal accurate. Well that is my best excuse.

That's brill.

Has anyone seen the wooden kit type thing on Amazon of a 105e ?

[flat4alfa]

Oops just a rolled down and it’s already been established

4 hours ago, bunglebus said:

Check this oddball out

Looks kinda familiar?

What a mad bit of kit, and feels like I could snap the roof off by giving it a disapproving look. "Rolamatic" engine and exhaust piece moves, but there are no pegs on the wheels to make it do so automatically.

Love it

You got one!  I thought those things only existed in photos, not boxed museum pieces 

That’s a point- when are you doing that BungleMuseum(TM) open day? There will be cars around the block!  😁

[bunglebus]

30 minutes ago, flat4alfa said:

When are you doing that BungleMuseum(TM) open day? There will be cars around the block!  😁

I'd need to rent a sports hall to display them all

[Datsuncog]

Sounds like a plan!

https://schoolhire.co.uk/browse-facilities/sports-hall

[sierraman]

@Split_Pin You’ll have to do better than that!!! 

[sierraman]

To say I’m not a Hot Wheels man, the ones I had as a kid are in surprisingly good nick. 

[sierraman]

Precursor to Real Riders

[sierraman]

What was this supposed to be? Has some sort of trigger underneath? 

[sierraman]

Holy shit these got for £30 plus! 

[sheffcortinacentre]

8 minutes ago, sierraman said:

What was this supposed to be? Has some sort of trigger underneath? 

Ford aerostar.

Mech was presumably to make it flip it is the stunt team van.

[MVX11V]

Secret* Super GT licker here. Found this in a bush once:

Now, I have a few of these cases but the Super GT ones are not so common for me. I have this one which actually does what it says on the tin...

Which is a bit frustrating at the moment because in my head, there should only be 10 cars in this box, the ones that came with it. 

I have another box also which is in not such good condition:

But in here is some stuff which is a bit of a side quest for me...

Some (?) of them are 'Neon racers', and they are pretty expensive for budget ranges man.

Then there is turning the difficulty up to say 7 and keeping an eye out for these...

Put it this way, when I see one of these available, it's like a little win on the lottery!

The green one is my last find and is in rough shape. These are all waiting for a clean up though.

[bunglebus]

23 minutes ago, sierraman said:

What was this supposed to be? Has some sort of trigger underneath? 

Flip Out! Cool

[morrisoxide]

Look at this mod for BeamNG. 🙂

I had a play about in game.

The sand pit just like when I was a kid.

The real Majorette it was based on.

Link to the mod.

 https://www.beamng.com/resources/majorette-toy-car.33656/

If you crash it bad the only damage is that the front axle flops about. Just like when the suspension wire has popped off the front axle.

[bunglebus]

1 hour ago, sierraman said:

To say I’m not a Hot Wheels man, the ones I had as a kid are in surprisingly good nick. 

That's a decent stack of cash there for good condition Blackwalls, as you've seen. I suppose as they were always geared more towards racing and crashing, they lead a harder life than a Matchbox MG 1100 being trundled along the carpet. The rubber tyred ones especially are very hard to find here

[bunglebus]

1 hour ago, MVX11V said:

Some nice bits there, don't think I have any of the neon ones, but the glow windows surface occasionally. Think they only came with the track sets?

 

[sierraman]

There are hundreds of variations, the Charlie Mack book lists them. They were amongst the last U.K. produced 1-75 range. 

[Split_Pin]

2 hours ago, sierraman said:

@Split_Pin You’ll have to do better than that!!! 

Are there any other differences though? I merely facilitated further research 😅

[Split_Pin]

My bro had a couple of Neon racers with a track, I think I found the Datsun and sent it to live with Sierraman. The other one was I think a Growler if it was a normal Matchbox?