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26 minutes ago, barrett said:

I am not, by my nature, a thief, but if I had discovered a cache of mint Spot On models as a kid I would absolutely have made every effort possible to nick them from my school.

Heh... funnily enough that was exactly what happened to them in the end, though not by me, sadly.

I did borrow some of them for a weekend - with written permission from the teacher who had guardianship of them - and took them down to the local model shop to see if I could get a valuation on them. The Spot Ons still had all the collector cards and club bumf in the boxes and everything, though some were missing an end flap due to being opened and closed for thirty-odd years.

I can't remember all of them now but there was definitely a Fiat 500, Meadows Frisky, Jaguar Mk10, Austin Cambridge, and an MGA, plus a Dinky Mini Countryman and two identical Dinky Studebaker Golden Hawks in there.

The guys in the model shop were impressed; even back then they were quoting about the £60-£80 mark for some of the Spot Ons.

I brought them back in to Mrs Adgey on Monday with all my neatly tabulated findings, advising that she ought to take better care of them, and perhaps obtain some cheap Matchbox cars for class experiments relating to speed and velocity, as these were very much collector's items.

I was such a little prick. Remember this self-styled ten-year-old antique tycoon?

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Yeah, that was basically me, but with worse hair and a more insufferable demeanour. Not by intentional mimicry, I hasten to add - I wasn't aware of James Harries until quite recently, but there were definite parallels.

And this was probably what everyone's faces started doing whenever I got going about Spot Ons…

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Much of my school career was spent fantasizing about the models in Room 26, and how I might possibly acquire them via fair means or foul...

It was only years later when I was in sixth form that I happened to ask Mrs Adgey whether she still had the cars, only to be told that no, someone had jemmied the cupboard a few years back and stolen them all...

I then spent the next couple of weeks in a state of abject terror that I was the prime suspect in this Grand Theft Autoshite, and was about to be hauled in by the rozzers for some enhanced interrogation.

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But no.

Hey ho.

I did once steal a battered Lesney Chevrolet Impala taxi and a paintless Jaguar Mk10 from a box of diecast in Miss Massey's room when I was in P5, though, so it's not like I was whiter than white... though the guilt still gnaws at me today.

Still, I believe @sierraman ultimately benefited from the ill-gotten proceeds of my juvenile crime spree, so. y'know... fair warning.

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I was also similarly obsessed by this firm when I was young, but not from the book (which I've never seen) but from a copy of the 1989 Mint & Boxed catalogue (which I probably still have, somewhere). In this are hundreds of amazing Spot On models and I was fascinated because, whilst I made a point of combing every car boot sale and school fete for 1960s and '70s diecast toys, I had never, ever come across a single example of Spot On. I loved the variety of subjects and the fine details, if not the weird paint schemes.

Yeah, I think that's what took me to the fair - the sheer range of unusual models like the Humber Super Snipe estate, VW Type 3 estate and Commer Walk-Through van, and all at a consistent scale.

Sometimes the colours were a bit much, but the sheer heft of the castings and details like tax discs and number plates catapulted these toys into my Number 1 want territory. I must have borrowed that book at least ten times.

And yes, it was the startling knowledge that this amazing toy line existed, and made locally too, but I'd never ever seen any of them which made it my own personal diecast Atlantis.

 

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The Brighton Toy and Model Museum had (and still has) an enviable collection of Spot Ons, which just added to my desire. All this was execerbated by the ridiculous pre-crash 1989 prices for these Mint & Boxed models, and the idea that I'd never be able to afford even a single one. There was also a whiff of intrigue about the whole thing as, by the time this catalogue found its way to me, the company had disappeared in a morass of bad debts and accusations of serious fraud - news story here, in case you weren't aware https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/toy-fanatic-jailed-for-pounds-12m-fraud-businessman-who-won-queens-award-for-industry-created-1512446.html

Indeed they do - and I often found an excuse to mosey down to Old Stein via the Trafalgar St tunnel, just so I could peek in the museum's doors...

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I'd vaguely heard of the Mint & Boxed scandal - thanks for that link!

Yeah, seems to have been part of that daft 80s spiv bubble when everyone was going to make themselves millionaires with 'investments' - oddly enough, my aforementioned uncle managed to get badly burned when he invested in a 'concours' Cortina 1600E, bought sight unseen, in 1988 or so - and also paying a handsome monthly storage fee to the company concerned... when the bubble burst and said company went tits-up with acrimony aplenty, it turned out his 'investment' was a wobbed-up rusting heap that had been sitting outside in a field for several years. Also, about eight different people reckoned they were the owner.

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Anyway, eventually I found a Fiat Multipla for 5p at a school fete - totally devoid of paint, one smashed window and generally down at heel. I was absolutely thrilled with my find, which I lovingly 'restored' as I did most of my car-boot finds with some Humbrol and a manky old brush. In an odd bit of foreshadowing, knowing the toys rarity, I was careful to preserve the tiny fragment of original paint that was left on the front panel of the car in an attempt to preserve a little history and patina. I've still never seen another Spot On for sale outside eBay.

That's fantastic - and the Multipla was another leftfield choice brilliantly modelled by Triang.

The only two Spot On I owned were a beat-up Vauxhall Cresta PA and Morris 1100 found at a school fete for 20p each c.1993 - both reduced to little more than a shell, baseplate, axles and cracked glazing.

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I meant to restore them, but typically never did. The Cresta I sold for £1 in 2010 (that's a shot of my car-boot pruck, sold out the back of my XM estate...)

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While the 1100 went to @Noel Tidybeardof this parish last year, for the princely sum of 50p.

£1.10 profit over 25 years?

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I ARE TYCOON YO

 

The really big news that made me hyperventilate, though, were rumours that when the part-derelict Spot On factory was finally demolished in the late 1980s, large amounts of models were discovered still boxed up and sitting there in the abandoned storerooms. The story was that they'd been sold in bulk for absolute peanuts and had made their way to Dublin, where factory-fresh Spot Ons were being sold at markets for £1 a go...

Every time we were down in Dublin in the early 90s I made strenuous efforts to navigate my way to a market, just in case... but I never saw anything beyond multipacks of white sports socks and off-brand AA batteries.

Although, you'll no doubt be familiar with the 'Tommy Spot' figures which came with the various playsets - at one point I had hundreds of those, bought from Elliotts joke and novelty shop in Ann Street, who were knocking out a bag of 50 assorted figures for £1. I believe these had also been found during the factory demolition. I just happened to be looking in their window one day, and from my endless studying of the Graham Robson book, knew immediately just what they were.

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They included many multiples of the titular 'Tommy Spot', his dad, 'Mr Spot', and various policemen, burglars, firemen, mechanics, deliverymen and even the pilot who came with the BEA-liveried Vauxhall Cresta PB, plus the Coldstream Guards who came with the 'Royal Occasion' gift set.

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I bought a few bags every time we were up in Belfast and I had a sort of microbusiness arrangement with a guy called Roy who did swapmeets, to sell some of these figures though his stall, at a frankly jawdropping 2400% markup (i.e. 50p each).

Invariably, I then converted the profits into buying more diecast off Roy. That was how I was able to blow £17 on a Trofeu Mk1 Escort when I was only 13.

TYCOON YO

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Despite brisk sales at the time, my enthusiasm waned and Elliotts' stock dried up, so I quit with about a hundred or so left, and put them away as a kind of a nest egg - but I then accidentally sold them last year for, um, practically nothing.

 

I ARE NOT TYCOON.

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21 hours ago, Tenmil Socket said:

@DatsuncogGot one of these with an eye missing, a bit dusty, tatty box and in 'rally' livery... free. Just pay postage if you want it?

bburago-1954-mercedes-benz-300sl.jpg.3266e0e171ef8708d83d7eb102a9fc11.jpg

Aw cheers for that - I made a decision last year that my heart's just not in the 1/18 scale stuff any more and offloaded the last of it, so probably best that it goes to someone who really wants it.

Someone who may be lurking on these pages...

Still, thanks so much for thinking of me!

 

21 hours ago, sierraman said:

Luckily at our infant school we had a (now demolished) car track built from concrete into a banking, it had tunnels, bridges made from wood etc. Distinctly remember bringing into school a Jaguar Sovereign Superkings Police Car, a Corgi Lotus Elite and a BMW M1 to school. Don’t know at the time how it happened but the Jaguar wasn’t accounted for at the end of the day. Wankers. 

Most of my peers were into cars, remember playing with some Skybuster type aircraft in the lower playground and a really thick kid called Craig ended up with an F14 Tomcat or similar landing nose down into his head causing bloodshed. 

Cor, that track sounds amazing... the best we could manage was whizzing Superfasts off the steps in the infants playground near the boilerhouse.

Though yeah - wankers for nicking your Jag. I had that one too - really nice model, but the paint just fell off mine. I still had the box until a few months ago, mind.

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I don’t know about a lot of people but didn’t you always get some kids that habitually trashed their toys? There was one on our street, always had really good stuff but wasn’t happy until he’d stamped on it or it resembled a car wreck. You constantly had to watch him as well as he was a tealeaf. 

Yeah, I think that cropped up a while back, kids who would bring in brand new stuff like 1/24 Bburagos and just smash them up... I know I went through my own little destructive scrapyard phase, but I confined it to already knackered cars (and continued to play with them, in their wrecked state - toy scrapyards innit?)

Kids who just habitually smashed new stuff up clearly had issues, in retrospect. Not fun.

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Park up your Sinclair C5, it's Matchbox 1985

 

49164357272_dc9b443a2d_3k.jpgMatchbox 1985 01 by RS, on Flickr

49164356947_12477e4456_5k.jpgMatchbox 1985 02 by RS, on Flickr

49164356027_7de291f8c2_5k.jpgMatchbox 1985 03 by RS, on Flickr

49164355097_69c93157fa_5k.jpgMatchbox 1985 04 by RS, on Flickr

49164354252_192e1c97dd_5k.jpgMatchbox 1985 05 by RS, on Flickr

49164119391_5bdb3a6ceb_5k.jpgMatchbox 1985 06 by RS, on Flickr

49164352257_401613c608_5k.jpgMatchbox 1985 07 by RS, on Flickr

49163634448_1647e49e92_5k.jpgMatchbox 1985 08 by RS, on Flickr

49163633353_6fdf727bae_5k.jpgMatchbox 1985 09 by RS, on Flickr

49164348792_0e826759ee_5k.jpgMatchbox 1985 10 by RS, on Flickr

49164347612_b9812842a6_5k.jpgMatchbox 1985 11 by RS, on Flickr

49164112741_e7eb0a7ae5_5k.jpgMatchbox 1985 12 by RS, on Flickr

49164345672_7fcc1f8682_5k.jpgMatchbox 1985 13 by RS, on Flickr

49163628238_d7c58b32c4_5k.jpgMatchbox 1985 14 by RS, on Flickr

49163627438_295386bce2_5k.jpgMatchbox 1985 15 by RS, on Flickr

49164108501_6576e64c6b_5k.jpgMatchbox 1985 16 by RS, on Flickr

49164341487_24ee0ed77d_5k.jpgMatchbox 1985 17 by RS, on Flickr

49164106431_3de9249e50_5k.jpgMatchbox 1985 18 by RS, on Flickr

49164101911_e67607b2d6_5k.jpgMatchbox 1985 19 by RS, on Flickr

49164100801_43fc3daaed_3k.jpgMatchbox 1985 20 by RS, on Flickr

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2 hours ago, Datsuncog said:

 

4 hours ago, Tenmil Socket said:

@DatsuncogGot one of these with an eye missing, a bit dusty, tatty box and in 'rally' livery... free. Just pay postage if you want it?

bburago-1954-mercedes-benz-300sl.jpg.3266e0e171ef8708d83d7eb102a9fc11.jpg

Aw cheers for that - I made a decision last year that my heart's just not in 1/18 scale stuff and offloaded the last of it, so probably best that it goes to someone who really wants it.

Someone who may be lurking on these pages...

 

4 hours ago, sierraman said:

Luckily at our infant school we had a (now demolished) car track built from concrete into a banking, it had tunnels, bridges made from wood etc. Distinctly remember bringing into school a Jaguar Sovereign Superkings Police Car, a Corgi Lotus Elite and a BMW M1 to school. Don’t know at the time how it happened but the Jaguar wasn’t accounted for at the end of the day. Wankers. 

Most of my peers were into cars, remember playing with some Skybuster type aircraft in the lower playground and a really thick kid called Craig ended up with an F14 Tomcat or similar landing nose down into his head causing bloodshed. 

Cor, that track sounds amazing... the best we could manage was whizzing Superfasts off the steps in the infants playground near the boilerhouse.

Though yeah - wankers for nicking your Jag. I had that one too - really nice

 

It’s no problem I brayed the thieving fucker round the head with a wooden brick. 

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I'm so old I can remember having Spot-Ons from new!  Not just the odd one either, but several, and indeed I still have some.  I well remember the Humber estate, that lost its windscreen early-on; Austin 1800 which I later converted into a Maxi to represent the Maxi I owned in 1986; several Zephyrs, including the Z-Cars edition. which quickly lost their opening doors; the A40 which I painted to represent my 1960 A40 from 1978; and others.  In my Pending Projects box I know there's a Fiat 500 and there may still be a Rover P5.  They were, as someone said above, delightfully chunky in the hand, although some were better-proportioned than others.  Ford Anglia, for example: just too darn fat!  Dinky's version was positively lithe in comparison.

If anybody wants some battered Spot-On projects, I'm sure I could dig some out, but be warned, there is going to be work in them.

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MaxiCrab and A40 are in my "Cars I've Owned" subset, so they will be with me for life.  A quick rummage in the Pending box has unearthed a Bentley, partway through a Humbrol repaint to beome Jason King's car; the aforementioned Fiat 500, and an Austin Healey 3000, plus a delightful caravan that by some miracle still has a door, unlike my Dinky caravans!  There will be more, I've seen some, I just have to find them again.  Oh and randomly on my shelves, I have a Triumph TR3 from a kind Shiter, and a BMW Isetta.

I had an Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire, which has gone to Marvin's Mom, and I now think the P5 went out as part of a job lot.

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Just now, sierraman said:

Forgot to mention, on the market Monday there were a roofless Austin Maxi, a bonnetless Capri and a fairly complete Mk1 Cortina by Airfix. No idea what he wanted for them if anyone wants me to have a look next week if they’re there. About 1/36 scale I’d say. 

They would be 1/32.

Just now, ETCHY said:

The Spot on Anglia sounds cool. I had an Anglia many years ago a 997cc deluxe.

I had (typically!) a 1200 Super!  But really, the Dinky was the much better model.  Vanguards is pretty good too, and comes in assorted colours.

Just now, bunglebus said:

Blue bug is a Spot On, thing the police one might be too

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That Police car looks more like a Corgi to me; it clearly isn't the same casting as the blue one.  I'm not an expert, as I never had many Beetles.

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On 12/3/2019 at 8:25 PM, sierraman said:

Forgot to mention, on the market Monday there were a roofless Austin Maxi, a bonnetless Capri and a fairly complete Mk1 Cortina by Airfix. No idea what he wanted for them if anyone wants me to have a look next week if they’re there

Yes please, if sensible.... ?

I have enough Cortinas now, but yes to any Capri and as I can fabricate bonnet out of spares. 

The Maxi, well...  I do have some spare roofs for two door US cars courtesy of Eddy Rodder. Carson-Top Two-Door Maxi conversion anyone?  Missing Link, etc

PM me on the day when they are nearby? and I will scurry back to the phone with an answer. Thanks

 

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Okay, here's what I have. I'm missing Bond Equipe (doesn't exist), Herald 1200, Standard Eight (doesn't exist), Allegro SIII (really expensive white metal only), Palladium (doesn't exist), Heron (doesn't exist), Ford Model A (did anyone make a 1:43 of this?), Morris Minor four door and possibly a couple of others. Humber Sceptre is on its way to me now.

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4 hours ago, eddyramrod said:

I'm so old I can remember having Spot-Ons from new!  Not just the odd one either, but several, and indeed I still have some.  I well remember the Humber estate, that lost its windscreen early-on; Austin 1800 which I later converted into a Maxi to represent the Maxi I owned in 1986; several Zephyrs, including the Z-Cars edition. which quickly lost their opening doors; the A40 which I painted to represent my 1960 A40 from 1978; and others.  In my Pending Projects box I know there's a Fiat 500 and there may still be a Rover P5.  They were, as someone said above, delightfully chunky in the hand, although some were better-proportioned than others.  Ford Anglia, for example: just too darn fat!  Dinky's version was positively lithe in comparison.

If anybody wants some battered Spot-On projects, I'm sure I could dig some out, but be warned, there is going to be work in them.

You and I both have a similar past...

I had quite a few from new including the BMW bubble car thing, but one of my uncles stood on it on the Christmas day just after I got it so got put in the bin.

I just happened to have these pics on my laptop...

Jaag Mk2 repainted in Humbrol to match original, I expect the rest of it is in box somewhere...

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A40 again repainted. I remember the suspension being so soft on this...

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Ford Thames Trader, was light blue originally...

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Last pic I have is the infamous Landcrab. I repainted mine to go with the 1968 London to Sydney rally Hunter. It looks like it actually competed...

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I'm pretty sure I still have a TR3 (or 4?) a Rolls Royce Silver Wraith, and an Armstrong Sidley Saphire. I used to have the Ford Zodiac (or Zephyr Estate Police car, but don't seem to have it now.

When I moved out of my parents home, my mum chucked away a lot of stuff including quite a few 1:32 Airfix slot racers which comprised among others an MG 1100, Sunbeam Rapier, Lotus Cortina, Aston DB5 and some F1 cars (Lotus, Masarati, Ferrari, Cooper, Vanwall etc)  and I still haven't forgiven her haha!

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