Shite in Miniature II

[MarvinsMom]

shame that the Corgi Rover 3500 is missing its sign and traffic cones.

assuming that is that they were included with all releases?

[MarvinsMom]

and the ford station wagon is lush,

story of my life, champagne tastes,beer bottle budget.....

i can guarantee though that it will be outta my cheapo price bracket!

[eddyramrod]

22 hours ago, Christine said:

Premium x   1/ 43rd  but its not in the correct box . The model is mint ...shuffles off to ebay to check prices !

PM sent.

[Richard_FM]

25 minutes ago, MarvinsMom said:

shame that the Corgi Rover 3500 is missing its sign and traffic cones.

assuming that is that they were included with all releases?

I had one & I don't remember it coming with any cones or signs.

[Jon]

1 hour ago, MarvinsMom said:

shame that the Corgi Rover 3500 is missing its sign and traffic cones.

assuming that is that they were included with all releases?

 

From an in-depth google (up to 3 minutes worth), there look to be only 2 boxes they were issued in:

 

&

 

3 things: the back of the earlier box mentions all the opening features but doesn't mention accessories; where would they fit in the boxes?; the accessories wouldn't all fit in the boot!

 

That led me to suspect the accessories don't match the car. I think you may have bought a ringer. Call the police!

Case solved. I remember similar signs in the mint/boxed Dinky police Transits I used to own. Or they may have been from the motorway maintenance one. Either way, it gives you carte blanche to add some more essential die cast to your shopping list, to accompany your accessories!

[bunglebus]

I have the plain Jane Dinky SDI, not quite up to Corgi standards but I like that they made a bit of effort with the wheels

 

20191130_195115 by RS, on Flickr

20191130_195123 by RS, on Flickr

20191130_195147 by RS, on Flickr

 

(must take a better pic)

[MarvinsMom]

wasn't the Dinky SD1 one of the models out sourced to Hong Kong?

[bunglebus]

Yes it's a plastic base jobbie

[sierraman]

I don’t think they made much towards the end. Any idea on what the range comprised of when they went bust?

[bunglebus]

Can't find a list, but found out they were made by Lintoy - Wiki says there are three models but doesn't state which - but may include

 

 

[flat4alfa]

12 hours ago, Datsuncog said:

Wings live album?

No, you probably shouldn't...

?

Oh. Never had it or was into them when current so had no idea. Been recently listening (catching up) to Band on the Run and other Beatles member catalogue; wife likes some of it at least.  A double album for £1 seemed a good idea at the time if only to round up to a note.  There’s also early Ultravox; America best of; two 70s Eltons in the bundle too

Will assess the Dinkys later when wife is out

[flat4alfa]

12 hours ago, Christine said:

Swap for mint unboxed Bond bug ....or a bubble car or why..

An interest?

 

[Split_Pin]

It's a bit better proportioned than the Corgi example. 

[flat4alfa]

3 hours ago, sierraman said:

I don’t think they made much towards the end. Any idea on what the range comprised of when they went bust?

From Toy Car Wars (Giles Chapman)

Would the ‘third car’ be the stillborn Granada?

[Jon]

Here's a Dinky I picked up a few weeks ago, which I hadn't known existed until I saw it for sale:

In fact, I had a choice of TWO of them! I'm almost wishing I did get both, as they were only £4.50 apiece and, from a bona fide antiques shop, which is a pricing enigma in itself, I reckon. Anyway, both were playworn, though this was slightly the better of the two. Must admit, I've always been a fan of the early, Renault 16 powered Europas, with the gawky looking buttressed rear ends.

 

In fact, I have a Whizzwheels era Renault 16, so perhaps I should do an engine bay comparison. Bus-sized steering wheel is comedically massive but it's the mis-scaled efforts such as this that make older castings more endearing, IMO.

 

Only thing left to do was a line-up of my Dinkys from this era. I don't think I'll become an avid collector of these but I would like a few more, including the civilian version of the Range Rover in an excellent shade of metallic brown.

[DoctorRetro]

@DatsuncogThe Siku lorry has glazing now...

[MarvinsMom]

meccano/dublo/dinky had been a slow moving car crash for years.

Meccano originally went under in 1964, then Lines Bros failed in 1972 and finally Airfix went bust in 1979.

some of the historic mistakes they made were been slow to adopt 2 rail trains, dropping 0 gauge years later than they should have done so, and continuing with Meccano long after it had had its day,

and even when they can up with a half decent idea, such as getting some stock made out in Hong Kong, what they actually got back to distribute was crap.

all of these must have had effects. Sad all the same.

[Datsuncog]

55 minutes ago, flat4alfa said:

Oh. Never had it or was into them when current so had no idea. Been recently listening (catching up) to Band on the Run and other Beatles member catalogue; wife likes some of it at least.  A double album for £1 seemed a good idea at the time if only to round up to a note.  

Heh... more of a flinch response on my part, really, than intended as a criticism... at the point which I realised my vinyl collecting had got out of hand, it was the amount of McCartney/Wings and CSN&Y live stuff that really made me ponder what I was doing. 

I must have carted my copy of Wings Over America over 20,000 miles between 14 different addresses on three landmasses, despite having listened to it precisely once (in about 1997, when I found it in a charity shop) - though I did keep their Greatest Hits LP when I finally downsized the collection by about 90%.

That still doesn't account for all the Graham Nash live albums, mind... or the Spandau Ballet double-live album...

Still, more room these days for diecast!

[Datsuncog]

40 minutes ago, TheDoctor said:

@DatsuncogThe Siku lorry has glazing now...

Looking heaps better already - good going!

[DoctorRetro]

Two eBay deliveries today. 

Number one was a big disappointment. One side on picture on the advert, and just described as 'used', so I wasn't expecting perfection. But it has both headlights missing, the chassis is loose and there is what looks like chocolate / crayon shoved in the screw/rivet hole. 

 

Second one is better, very pleased with this. 

[sierraman]

I think like a lot of companies round the time, they thought they knew what the customer wanted when in actual fact they were comically wide of the mark. 

Lesney were in no better situation their operating costs meant it wasn’t viable to continue manufacturing the high volume low price models in the U.K. The Yesteryears and the Superkings continued to be made at Rochford  after ‘82, the 1-75 castings went to Macau. Bizarrely enough though the Super GT’s were made initially in the U.K. in 85/86 presumably because the castings were stored in the U.K. and probably were adapted here as well. Round this point I think the only premises they retained that weren’t defunct were the Rochford site and the Head Office in Enfield. The Hackney site was left derelict save for occasional use by the subsequently separated company of Lesney Castings. 

[Split_Pin]

My Dinky Princess was made in 1978 and whilst it's a nicely proportioned model, it doesn't compare with Corgis of the time.

Princess has plastic base, no opening features and details such as lamps are cast into the body. Overall it's Corgi Juniors quality in a bigger scale.

Comparably, the Corgi 1/36 Senator, Mercedes W114 and Renault 5 all had metal bases, chromed grilles, separate lamp lenses and a sturdy construction (well maybe not quite in the case of the Mercedes but it at least felt decent).

Also compare the Superkings Volvo 245 DL and the Dinky 265DL. The former is solid, if a bit chunky, has opening doors and boot, a detailed grille and sprung bumpers. At least the Dinky 265 had separate front lamp lenses and an opening tailgate but overall it felt very light.

I must get the Dinky SD1 to compare with my Corgi one, they seem cheap on eBay.

[warch]

Oh shit he's found another tractor! 

Today I have a Britains classic which will be familiar to many people in their 40s, the Massey Ferguson 595. The real tractor came out in 1976 as a result of legislation that required manufacturers to fit Q (for quiet) cabs to their UK tractors and lurked around until 1982 when it was replaced by the similar looking 600 series. There were five models in the main range, the dinky little 550, the mid range 565, 575 and 590 and the big but reputedly shite 595.

 

My toy one is the vanilla version, there was also a double rear wheeled version with wide front wheels. It's a really good model, but looks absolutely nothing like a real 595 (below).

It is in fact a really good model of one of the three mid range models (as seen below), which is why I've laboriously modified my example by changing the 9 in the model designation into a 6. Like many Britains tractors it has no cab glazing and a sticker for the grille detail, although the engine is nicely detailed. It is also one of the last two wheel drive models in their main range, as in real life the vast majority of tractors are 4wd these days.

I love Massey Fergusons but the sole full size example of this range I have driven, a dilapidated 575 with trip loader actuated by the classic bit of rope with a stick tied to it, was fairly grim. I also call bollocks on the whole quiet cab thing, it was punishingly noisy inside and difficult to see out of (not helped by decades of algae on the glass). I was used to driving open platform (cabless) tractors at the time though. 

[sierraman]

The Corgis and of the late 60’s to early 80’s were superb. Nice weighty things that reflected the traffic of the time. 

[Noel Tidybeard]

1 hour ago, Split_Pin said:

My Dinky Princess was made in 1978 and whilst it's a nicely proportioned model, it doesn't compare with Corgis of the time.

Princess has plastic base, no opening features and details such as lamps are cast into the body. Overall it's Corgi Juniors quality in a bigger scale.

Comparably, the Corgi 1/36 Senator, Mercedes W114 and Renault 5 all had metal bases, chromed grilles, separate lamp lenses and a sturdy construction (well maybe not quite in the case of the Mercedes but it at least felt decent).

Also compare the Superkings Volvo 245 DL and the Dinky 265DL. The former is solid, if a bit chunky, has opening doors and boot, a detailed grille and sprung bumpers. At least the Dinky 265 had separate front lamp lenses and an opening tailgate but overall it felt very light.

I must get the Dinky SD1 to compare with my Corgi one, they seem cheap on eBay.

are you sure? the R5 ts and later R5 turbot that i had were certainly plastic

[bunglebus]

Dinky Volvo, has a plastic base but still made in England

 

20200701_185557 by RS, on Flickr

 

Earlier Corvette is plastic

 

20191221_103644 by RS, on Flickr

 

Corgi R5 Turdo is also plastic

 

20200615_184346 by RS, on Flickr

 

As is the standard car - it forms the bumpers

 

20200706_150316 by RS, on Flickr

 

 

[MarvinsMom]

with Corgi, Dinky, Spot-On, Lesney and the rest all trying their best to out do each other (Dinky and Corgi,especially),

we never had diecast toys  so good as they were in the 1960's and into the 1970's.

shame at the same time they must have been cutting each others throats at the same time.

and we will  not have it so good again, sadly!

my favorite period for collecting diecast tat now is very much from i guess 1956,and the start of Corgi through to the end  in early 1980's.

and i buy very much what i see, if it "speaks" to me. which these old toys often do. cos i'm a idiot/sentimental old fool/both

[RayMK]

54 minutes ago, MarvinsMom said:

with Corgi, Dinky, Spot-On, Lesney and the rest all trying their best to out do each other (Dinky and Corgi,especially),

we never had diecast toys  so good as they were in the 1960's and into the 1970's.

shame at the same time they must have been cutting each others throats at the same time.

and we will  not have it so good again, sadly!

my favorite period for collecting diecast tat now is very much from i guess 1956,and the start of Corgi through to the end  in early 1980's.

and i buy very much what i see, if it "speaks" to me. which these old toys often do. cos i'm a idiot/sentimental old fool/both

Mid 50s to late 60s covers my period of interest. I do not consider myself a collector but have kept everything that survived my childhood. Matchbox toys were the only diecasts that were within my pocket money range if I saved for two weeks. Dinkys were Christmas and birthday present additions if I was lucky. My brother, 4 years younger, had mainly Corgi toys. Towards the end of our toy buying phase we sometimes splashed out on Spot-On (they were not as robust as Dinky or Corgi), or even more rarely a Norev or Solido when on one of our occasional continental holidays. My son (now 40) does not seem to have any sentimental attachment to his early toys. If they had not broken from use, he sold them.

The last Dinky I bought was a Trojan van about 3 years ago and the few purchases over the last 20 years have been fairly modern offerings of cars or aircraft that 'speak' to me  ?. 

[bunglebus]

Dinkys aren't in my good books at the moment, this one has fought me all the way - think this is paint job number three. Doesn't help that having 7 different parts to paint, I can't do it all at once, then there's trying to rechrome the front and rear grilles around the jewel head/tail lights that I daren't prise out.

It's getting there, but one door card turned to dust when I removed it.

 

20200706_173328 by RS, on Flickr

20200706_173336 by RS, on Flickr

 

I think this car has something like 38 components;

Chassis

suspension spring

axles x2

tyres x4

wheels x4

body

four different doors

boot

bonnet

front/rear grilles

headlights x4

two rear lights

two indicators

interior

four different door cards

steering wheel

glass

engine

number plate sticker x2

 

Is it any wonder Dinky had to make some cost cutting measures?

[Dick Longbridge]

6 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

Dinkys aren't in my good books at the moment, this one has fought me all the way - think this is paint job number three. Doesn't help that having 7 different parts to paint, I can't do it all at once, then there's trying to rechrome the front and rear grilles around the jewel head/tail lights that I daren't prise out.

It's getting there, but one door card turned to dust when I removed it.

 

20200706_173328 by RS, on Flickr

20200706_173336 by RS, on Flickr

 

I think this car has something like 38 components;

Chassis

suspension spring

axles x2

tyres x4

wheels x4

body

four different doors

boot

bonnet

front/rear grilles

headlights x4

two rear lights

two indicators

interior

four different door cards

steering wheel

glass

engine

number plate sticker x2

 

Is it any wonder Dinky had to make some cost cutting measures?

Finish looks cracking to be fair. What is it...Zephyr? 

How do you paint on your stand? I've always used aerosol cans, but quite like the idea of an airbrush setup.