Shite in Miniature II

[ambassador84]

1 hour ago, bunglebus said:

Blimey, I'd have snapped up a load of those older castings if I'd seen them, Spain didn't seem to offer much in the way of toy cars when I was there briefly last year. That buggies especially are excellent 

Tedi are good for new batches of Hot Wheels and sometimes Matchbox but I often trawl the Chinese bazaars looking for obscure off brand cheapos 😅

[bunglebus]

@Datsuncog

[MiniMinorMk3]

14 hours ago, FakeConcern said:

I bought my first Yonezawa last year, this silver Galant Sopporo. I was also the first model of a Japanese car I bought

After that I was hooked and have picked up a load more here and there

 

 

 

14 hours ago, Dick Cheeseburger said:

Wow. Yonezawa is a new one to me. Just looked them up as they're stunners and realised the reality of their values!

I always think of Yonezawa models as Diapet models.

Here's a few of the ones I have had over the years. As you will see they do not keep to a regular scale with smaller cars being produced in larger scales, whilst most are in a stated 1/40th.

Their Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow is great.

 

 

 

[Datsuncog]

On 22/02/2025 at 16:54, andy18s said:

If you spot another Forester can you grab 1 please?

Pretty much non-existant over here...

Ta

Will see what I can do!

[MiniMinorMk3]

22 hours ago, ambassador84 said:

New Guisval

 

 

I have a Guisval display tower.

It's from the 9th Japan Mini Day.

The models are made from the old Pilen casting.

They have been released from their bubbles

Cloer up you can see that these have suffered from zinc pest.

The bases how bowed badly and have surface corrosion.

The paint has suffered due to the pest and the door and boot fit is now crap.

The red one has also lost a small chunk out of the roof.

The worst case is this blue one.

At least it help to see the original Pilen interior, which is a left drive version of teh interior seen in the Corgi Mini Magnifique.

It's a pity they have suffered so badly. When I purchased them at auction over 10 years ago they were fine, but I have slowly watched their decline into oblivion.

[danthecapriman]

8 minutes ago, MiniMinorMk3 said:

I have a Guisval display tower.

It's from the 9th Japan Mini Day.

The models are made from the old Pilen casting.

They have been released from their bubbles

Cloer up you can see that these have suffered from zinc pest.

The bases how bowed badly and have surface corrosion.

The paint has suffered due to the pest and the door and boot fit is now crap.

The red one has also lost a small chunk out of the roof.

The worst case is this blue one.

At least it help to see the original Pilen interior, which is a left drive version of teh interior seen in the Corgi Mini Magnifique.

It's a pity they have suffered so badly. When I purchased them at auction over 10 years ago they were fine, but I have slowly watched their decline into oblivion.

Mazak rot/Zinc pest? Looks like it. That’s how the chassis on my old Hornby class 31 locomotive looked to begin with (the red Mini roof). Not long after it crumbled like the blue Mini.

[flat4alfa]

Page 1902

In 1902 Studebaker entered the automobile business and their first car was an electric vehicle.

Studebaker EVs were produced from 1902 to 1912

[sierraman]

I’m in Spain in a few weeks, I’ll check out the tobacconists! 

[flat4alfa]

[junkyarddog]

1 hour ago, MiniMinorMk3 said:

I have a Guisval display tower.

It's from the 9th Japan Mini Day.

The models are made from the old Pilen casting.

They have been released from their bubbles

Cloer up you can see that these have suffered from zinc pest.

The bases how bowed badly and have surface corrosion.

The paint has suffered due to the pest and the door and boot fit is now crap.

The red one has also lost a small chunk out of the roof.

The worst case is this blue one.

At least it help to see the original Pilen interior, which is a left drive version of teh interior seen in the Corgi Mini Magnifique.

It's a pity they have suffered so badly. When I purchased them at auction over 10 years ago they were fine, but I have slowly watched their decline into oblivion.

Blue one looks like a Motorshow cutaway car😁

[ambassador84]

2 hours ago, MiniMinorMk3 said:

I have a Guisval display tower.

It's from the 9th Japan Mini Day.

The models are made from the old Pilen casting.

They have been released from their bubbles

Cloer up you can see that these have suffered from zinc pest.

The bases how bowed badly and have surface corrosion.

The paint has suffered due to the pest and the door and boot fit is now crap.

The red one has also lost a small chunk out of the roof.

The worst case is this blue one.

At least it help to see the original Pilen interior, which is a left drive version of teh interior seen in the Corgi Mini Magnifique.

It's a pity they have suffered so badly. When I purchased them at auction over 10 years ago they were fine, but I have slowly watched their decline into oblivion.

It's funny you should show me these pics as I have a red one which has done exactly the same. I bought the red Mini and a green Seat 600, also ex Pilen I believe, brand new in the early 2000s and kept both in mint and boxed condition. Roll forward to 2012 when I join Flickr and start taking pics of my collection and when it came to these two I was shocked. The red one still somehow survives to this day despite it crumbling but the poor Seat 600 literally crumpled in on itself. I now have a collection of nearly 24k diecasts and that was the ONLY ONE I've ever had to throw in the bin.

Thankfully I believe it only affected a brief period of construction and most Guisvals don't suffer. Touch wood 😉

[ambassador84]

36 minutes ago, sierraman said:

I’m in Spain in a few weeks, I’ll check out the tobacconists! 

Sometimes you might get lucky in newsagent type shops/stands plus of course if possible it's worth checking out Norautos and Repsol too. Happy hunting.

[Tenmil Socket]

3 minutes ago, ambassador84 said:

It's funny you should show me these pics as I have a red one which has done exactly the same. I bought the red Mini and a green Seat 600, also ex Pilen I believe, brand new in the early 2000s and kept both in mint and boxed condition. Roll forward to 2012 when I join Flickr and start taking pics of my collection and when it came to these two I was shocked. The red one still somehow survives to this day despite it crumbling but the poor Seat 600 literally crumpled in on itself. I now have a collection of nearly 24k diecasts and that was the ONLY ONE I've ever had to throw in the bin.

Thankfully I believe it only affected a brief period of construction and most Guisvals don't suffer. Touch wood 😉

24k 😳

Pics please…

[Tenmil Socket]

I like this one…

 

[ambassador84]

24 minutes ago, Tenmil Socket said:

24k 😳

Pics please…

Haha there's no camera lense big enough. All of em are on my Flickr account 😉

[bunglebus]

58 minutes ago, Tenmil Socket said:

24k 😳

I daren't count mine, don't think I'm quite there but I wouldn't be surprised at half that number. I've been quite good lately selling stuff I'm not especially interested in anymore, despite being quite unusual

225 have left via eBay in Feb with more live on the site, plus the tat boxes I sent you lot

[eddyramrod]

I feel like an amateur now!  My ever-growing collection comes to an estimated two thousand, approx.  And I've been at this for six decades.  Clearly I'm doing something wrong.

[bunglebus]

A quick count says 226 on display in the dining room alone 🤣

[ambassador84]

18 minutes ago, eddyramrod said:

I feel like an amateur now!  My ever-growing collection comes to an estimated two thousand, approx.  And I've been at this for six decades.  Clearly I'm doing something wrong.

Oh don't worry you've definitely struck the right balance. I unfortunately have become hopelessly addicted to collecting 1:64 diecasts which isn't good 😉

[ambassador84]

10 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

A quick count says 226 on display in the dining room alone 🤣

You buy one and then suddenly a few years have passed and we are swamped by our own addiction!

[bunglebus]

Right on cue, a few more arrive

Roving reporter @Spottedlaurel found me this set with the Jetta

We must have missed this mix, as I got that gulf set via my boss's son in Philadelphia.

The other is also a VW, I believe this was the last version of the Matchbox MK2 Golf

[Tenmil Socket]

3 minutes ago, ambassador84 said:

You buy one and then suddenly a few years have passed and we are swamped by our own addiction!

The problem for me is that I forget what I've already got and buy it again.

[bunglebus]

That's how you then find variations and end up keeping them all...

[eddyramrod]

1 minute ago, Tenmil Socket said:

The problem for me is that I forget what I've already got and buy it again.

The beauty of buying them the way I do: battered, played-with, missing paint and even parts - means that I can have several of the same model, restored in different ways!

As illustrated!

Time after time!

[ambassador84]

22 minutes ago, Tenmil Socket said:

The problem for me is that I forget what I've already got and buy it again.

😅😅😅😅😅😅😅

That's why I use Flickr as an electronic database. I can easily search my collection on there and instantly know whether I've got something already. I used to be really bad at duplicate buying but thankfully sanity has prevailed and I only do it if it's a casting I really like and is really cheap.

[MVX11V]

Looking at those deteriorating castings made me remember a couple of MB from the mid 80's in my collection, one which I owned from new, removing it from the box and the chrome plastic just crumbled like soft biscuit. I've read about Gold plastic syndrome in the transformer community, where metallic coated plastics break down, leaving it as a honeycomb type structure. They are right in describing the plastic finish as having a swirly appearance, and in the case of the chrome, a strange satin look. 

I know that my original collection, one which I started in the early 80's, had been subjected to extreme heat from being stored in the loft on a few occasions. Now I keep anything I value in a more stable environment and out of direct light. 

I know it's a different game for the metal deterioration, fatigue aside, but it might help someone reading to understand that the loft is likely a bad place for storing things they want to keep.