Shite in Miniature II

[Nibbler]

I love Siku! But this isn’t there best day at work. Found cheap at a flea market a week ago.

[Datsuncog]

11 hours ago, flat4alfa said:

Wait... what...  that's an early 1970s Aurora AFX HO slot car in there

Please grab if seen next time please thanks (but don't make trip specially, obvs) as in good condition that would be around 50 quid if it was one of the lighting circuit examples.  Tyres are available, as are pickups

It's a model of the 1970 Ferrari 512 M, typically bundled in track sets with a blue Porsche 917 ....which might also be in that box perhaps

Yes, I did pick that one up and noticed it was an old slot car - unfortunately missing quite a bit of its innards, including pickups and possibly the motor too.

Will see what I can do!

[Tenmil Socket]

On 04/04/2025 at 23:36, Datsuncog said:

Yup, a bit of a scoot round the Friday market was in order. It's been a while.

First up was Nostalgic Collectables, home of the irascible Market Blokey.

Actually some decent stuff to be found this week; not a vast amount, but some okay bits and pieces. Not very cheap at £10 a go, though.

The Superkings Volvo estate is one I've yet to own; metallic green for preference, though a red one would do nicely too.

I'm not so struck on the rally support version - it's pretty good, but not quite as appealing and while this one had relatively little chipping, the paper stickers looked like they'd got oil or something on them, so I passed.

The Superkings Leyland tipper was very very clean; most of the others were good if mildly tatty, bar the Matchbox Porsche 924 which was missing the rear hatch and had 'whitewall tyres' courtesy of a bottle of TippEx.

Late 1960s Corgi Classics Rolls Royce Silver Ghost was nice, but was it £20-nice?

I couldn't make up my mind. So, no.

The cheapo £3 table was a bit same-old, but...

... what's this?

Well, a K-9 Fire Tender of course, it's right there on the box.

Not quite mint, but jolly good overall condition.

While I was dithering over whether or not to begin a collection of 1970s fantasy vehicles, a man in an ironic cap and sporting an ironic moustache scooped it up and bought it instead. Probably ironically.

Ah well.

Over at the Charity Stall, things were also hotting up:

Mmm, Dinky Range Rover.

Hand-painted Corgi SM was... ambitious.

Large tanker by Mira:

Some nice stuff, but Larry the stallholder was perpetually engaged in earnest discussions with a punter each time I passed, so I never did find out what his prices were.

He's not usually cheap, though.

Colin on the Irish Tat Stall didn't have much fresh stock, though these JDM Majorettes were in the loose cars box:

Kinda look like they're illustrations. Weird.

Yeah, but…

 

[sierraman]

25 minutes ago, Tenmil Socket said:

Yeah, but…

 

The connoisseurs choice!

[bunglebus]

This morning's boot sale haul

[bunglebus]

1 hour ago, Nibbler said:

I love Siku! But this isn’t there best day at work. Found cheap at a flea market a week ago.

Terrible casting. I love it

 

[bunglebus]

Interesting morning at the boot sales, had the dreaded "had loads of those earlier but someone bought the lot" which usually means thin pickings. However I still found some interesting bits, mostly from one seller who I also scored a load of great stuff from a couple of weeks ago. These two were from the earlier sale, and weren't exactly cheap, but still well below market value at £9 each I'd say

They come with a little collector card too

Even the box is a little art piece, with a background and a road going off into the distance inside

Hot Rocker is in great condition 

As is this Transit 

Hi Tailer is also very good, the paper decals on these always suffer

Silver base too, not red

Two different Renault 5s

Don't you just hate it when you find a serious rarity, but it's absolutely trashed? Baja Buggy with the two seat interior from the Beach Hopper is a tough one to find. Typical!

Ah well. Ruff Rabbit is one I've wanted to customise for a while, so now I have this to work on

Speed Kings Capri was too good to leave behind 

This Mercedes ambulance similarly so, those gunsights always get snapped off

And another one I wasn't walking past

This poor thing was in a 3 for £1 tub, not my area of interest but I rescued it anyway 

Don't think my new favourite seller quite knew what he had here as it was cheap

Shame I didn't keep any spare of the dozen identical promotional Darda jeep/buggy things I had, as this one needs a headlight

Tomica just too late for the yellow 2CV lineup

Came with a Morgan too (+2)

Corgis now, with the ubiquitous Carrera 

Not seen this version of the Formula 1 Racer before

Bought this Bat Car as the screens are intact

Very tidy Landie

Came with an equally good Commando 

Majorette represented by a Super Cinq

No junk in this trunk though

XR3 is rather excellent 

And has a boot full of stuff, yay

Lastly one of those odd splatter painted Unimogs. Actually don't think I've seen this treatment on the 'mog before, just the pickup and Beetle 

[Tenmil Socket]

54 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

Interesting morning at the boot sales, had the dreaded "had loads of those earlier but someone bought the lot" which usually means thin pickings. However I still found some interesting bits, mostly from one seller who I also scored a load of great stuff from a couple of weeks ago. These two were from the earlier sale, and weren't exactly cheap, but still well below market value at £9 each I'd say

They come with a little collector card too

Even the box is a little art piece, with a background and a road going off into the distance inside

Hot Rocker is in great condition 

As is this Transit 

Hi Tailer is also very good, the paper decals on these always suffer

Silver base too, not red

Two different Renault 5s

Don't you just hate it when you find a serious rarity, but it's absolutely trashed? Baja Buggy with the two seat interior from the Beach Hopper is a tough one to find. Typical!

Ah well. Ruff Rabbit is one I've wanted to customise for a while, so now I have this to work on

Speed Kings Capri was too good to leave behind 

This Mercedes ambulance similarly so, those gunsights always get snapped off

And another one I wasn't walking past

This poor thing was in a 3 for £1 tub, not my area of interest but I rescued it anyway 

Don't think my new favourite seller quite knew what he had here as it was cheap

Shame I didn't keep any spare of the dozen identical promotional Darda jeep/buggy things I had, as this one needs a headlight

Tomica just too late for the yellow 2CV lineup

Came with a Morgan too (+2)

Corgis now, with the ubiquitous Carrera 

Not seen this version of the Formula 1 Racer before

Bought this Bat Car as the screens are intact

Very tidy Landie

Came with an equally good Commando 

Majorette represented by a Super Cinq

No junk in this trunk though

XR3 is rather excellent 

And has a boot full of stuff, yay

Lastly one of those odd splatter painted Unimogs. Actually don't think I've seen this treatment on the 'mog before, just the pickup and Beetle 

That Tamiya Capri is great and if you ever want to offload that XR3 you know where I am 😉

[Blue 850]

Just picked up 2 today from  a big fair locally, poor Siku Capri has had a hard life 

[bunglebus]

11 minutes ago, Tenmil Socket said:

That Tamiya Capri is great and if you ever want to offload that XR3 you know where I am 😉

The Capri is for @Spottedlaurel

I've tucked your Corgi Saab away in the loft too for now

[bunglebus]

On 04/04/2025 at 15:28, sierraman said:

I’m not a a Hot Wheels man myself despite having a fair few mint ones from the early 90’s. But I liked it when they brought back the Hare Splitter about 10 years back. 

Cheap enough at the moment 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/256883470331?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=H6eKlefARym&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=X5RtjeAxSP-&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

[sierraman]

I think I’m going to have to go to Essex to the car boots. I stopped going to the ones near us as it was like witnessing the scene on Threads where they were murdering each other for a loaf of bread. My wife put it succinctly ‘Cast offs of people that have nothing left’ 😂

[AndyW201]

Jealous of all the new release Hot Wheels and MBX coming out everywhere. Same shite story around here unfortunately. Only thing of note is an absolute glut of green Mk2 Fiestas in the local Morrisons, the last place I ever expected to find those.

This is bad because usually I end up getting pissed on a weekend and buying 1/43 stuff online instead. Latest AliExpress delivery is this,

Another of the back-door Corgi rejects from the same seller I got the yellow Mk3 Cortina from recently. I had a money off voucher to cash in so this came to just over a tenner posted, not bad for a brand new Vanguards, even with a couple of issues. I've got a mint boxed version that I bought when this release came out, so with this being a damaged cheapie, (missing the clear acrylic case, and collectors card, so its never going to be worth much) I'm going to have a bit of a play with it.

Thankfully, most of the easily broken-off bits like the front spots, quarter bumpers,

and wipers are intact.

It was advertised as 'side mirrors missing', but the driver's side was there, squished flat against the a-pillar.

A bit of gentle coaxing and it was fine. It was a good job I didnt instantly bin the plastic bag the car was wrapped in, inside the bubble wrap, as this dropped out of it,

Belter!

Bit 'o' glue later, sorted! Looks like they were originally fitted, but the car was packed a bit tightly in the bubble wrap. Never mind, that's saved a couple of quid I was expecting to have to pay.

Other issues include the rear plate printed on the piss a bit...

Main fault was a patch of paint loss on the roof. Luckily a root around in the shed found an ancient Mercedes Nutria brown metallic touch up brush from one of my old 190Es. Its not too bad, I'll see how it looks after a polish but I'm not too bothered as this one's not meant to be a minter.

Another weird bit of paint on the rear sill corner, looks like someone's thumb has smudged the paint slightly when it hadn't quite cured. To be honest, it just looks like your typical early '90's messy sill end repair and crunchy door corner that so many of these had back in the day, which again fits with what I want to do with this. I dont really want to repaint the car anyway, as it'd lose the stripes, which are the best bit of a 1600 sport for me.

So, my plans for this is to do a late '80s/early'90s style boy racer Mk2 of the kind that were all over my town back in the day. Lowered suspension, big exhaust, sports wheels, rally decals and stickers. There were quite a few 1600 sports, Harriers, RS2s and even a fair few 1300 Pops with this treatment.

But an issue with these Vanguards flat-front Mk2s is that the wheelarches were modelled a little too big, hence Corgi adding tyres with a comedy high-profile. Not exactly 'sporty', more like the 175/80 tyres on my old Mk4 Golf... It doesnt help that all the Mk2s sit at the standard ride height, which looks a bit odd on the sports versions. I did lower the Signal orange version I have of the sport,

Which does make it look better IMO but that tyre profile still annoys.

I shopped around a bit on ebay, K&R do some nice white metal wheels and tyres, I've got a few cars on their slotmags, but they didn:t really have what I was looking for. I did see a seller on ebay with a fantastic range of 3D printed wheels in all scales like Compomotive 5 spokes, deep dish RS 4 spokes, deep dish Mexico steels and banded slotted steels, but the price of a set was getting on for what I paid for the model, and some of them didnt have tyres moulded in, which defeated the object.

So I dug my small spares stash out, and found a set of wheels and tyres that I took off the Atlas polce Marina TC and replaced with slotmags.

As can just about be seen, the Marina tyre on the left, has a bit less profile than the one from the Escort, so I swapped them over.

An improvement on what went before. I've got a Mk2 rally decal sheet on its way, so once they come, and the car is suitably stickered up, I'll see what it looks like once it's lowered.

Corgi helpfully stuck a rorty looking  pipe on already , but I'm not sure whether it could do with a bit more girth...

[bunglebus]

1 hour ago, AndyW201 said:

That actual car used to live just up the road to me, think it was the only Sport painted in that colour

[FakeConcern]

I think I must be ill at the moment, I went to a toy fair this morning and didn't buy anything at all...

[AndyW201]

4 hours ago, bunglebus said:

That actual car used to live just up the road to me, think it was the only Sport painted in that colour

Yeah, it was a one owner car at the time when it was modelled. Apparently the owner was an athlete or something and drove the car all over Europe to take part in meetings. In photos it seems to be one of those nice survivor cars, not comcours, but in nice original unrestored condition, despite a fairly high mileage, and still.does a lot of shows.

I love Roman bronze. My dad had the sides of his Sahara beige Mk1 Escort estate done in Roman bronze up to the tops of the wings and along the coke bottle swage line in the early '80s, after my mum scraped the side of it not long after she passed her test. It looked quite nice with some dartboard steelies fitted.

[sierraman]

20 minutes ago, AndyW201 said:

Yeah, it was a one owner car at the time when it was modelled. Apparently the owner was an athlete or something and drove the car all over Europe to take part in meetings. In photos it seems to be one of those nice survivor cars, not comcours, but in nice original unrestored condition, despite a fairly high mileage, and still.does a lot of shows.

I love Roman bronze. My dad had the sides of his Sahara beige Mk1 Escort estate done in Roman bronze up to the tops of the wings and along the coke bottle swage line in the early '80s, after my mum scraped the side of it not long after she passed her test. It looked quite nice with some dartboard steelies fitted.

I was quite pleased a few years back when Ford brought back a light bronze colour, it looks fantastic in the sun. 

[morrisoxide]

My latest charity shop mix bag find. £4 this time.

I bought the bag for the Simca, Buick and the Disco. I didn't see the green Jeep which turns out to be a colour changer. I thought the red Jeep was a Matchbox but it has no markings, it has cool stickers that remind me of a Judas Priest album.

Brave Little Toaster vibes.

[danthecapriman]

11 minutes ago, morrisoxide said:

My latest charity shop mix bag find. £4 this time.

I bought the bag for the Simca, Buick and the Disco. I didn't see the green Jeep which turns out to be a colour changer. I thought the red Jeep was a Matchbox but it has no markings, it has cool stickers that remind me of a Judas Priest album.

Brave Little Toaster vibes.

Nice finds👍

I remember getting that Matchbox colour changer Jeep brand new. It was cool at the time (I suppose it still is really!) running it under warm water and watching it change. Always seemed a very odd colour choice to me though. Like a dark greenish greyish weird colour that goes almost pale green after. 
Were there only limited colours available of that colour changing paint at the time or something? 
I’ve got the Thunderbird in that same colour too.

[bunglebus]

I've got a few Mr. Fixers

 

[bunglebus]

Just sorting out my pictures on Flickr and stumbled across another Corgi Thames that's been subjected to the same weird yellow lower half as the one I just repainted 

It's definitely not the same one, but it is in the UK somewhere. Is there a phantom customiser daubing mustard Humbrol on unsuspecting 60s campervans whenever he finds one?

 

[sierraman]

The Colorchangers thing, I’ve not tried lately but don’t they stop working after a while? 

[Noel Tidybeard]

well it's finally arrived

[bunglebus]

37 minutes ago, sierraman said:

The Colorchangers thing, I’ve not tried lately but don’t they stop working after a while? 

Pretty much yes, the old painted ones anyway. The plastic bodied Hot Wheels don't seem to be effected yet

[FakeConcern]

9 hours ago, Noel Tidybeard said:

well it's finally arrived

I didn't have this one as a kid, but would quite like one now, any pics of it out of its box?

[quicksilver]

10 hours ago, bunglebus said:

I've got a few Mr. Fixers

 

Memory unlocked! Seeing that dug up something long-forgotten in a dusty corner of my brain. The playgroup I went to had one of those colour-changing Mr Fixer Jeeps in its tub of cars.

I had this version from the hideous Tyco era. Who thought purple and luminous orange was a good combination?

[sierraman]

See I really like the Tyco era stuff, totally unrealistic but I don’t know it just floats my boat. Same for the late 90’s ones, surprisingly hard to find as well. 

[danthecapriman]

16 minutes ago, sierraman said:

See I really like the Tyco era stuff, totally unrealistic but I don’t know it just floats my boat. Same for the late 90’s ones, surprisingly hard to find as well. 

I don’t mind the Tyco and late 90’s ones either tbh. Decoration tended to be a bit OTT and unrealistic, but some of the actual castings were pretty good. And they started doing contemporary stuff too like the Ford Pube Probe, instead of just churning out re-coloured old castings. 
You’re right about them being quite hard to find too. I very rarely find them now. Maybe it was a particularly low selling point for toy cars?

[junkyarddog]

Recently picked up this Polis Dinky Volvo.

Made in Italy!!

Wtf?

[Split_Pin]

Made by Polistil.