Shite in Miniature II

[Volksy]

I think the Mercedes SLC is a 1:12 Otaki kit.

I remember seeing one in Beatties model shop as a kid. 

[flat4alfa]

30 minutes ago, Volksy said:

I think the Mercedes SLC is a 1:12 Otaki kit.

I remember seeing one in Beatties model shop as a kid. 

I thought the Otaki kit only had alloy wheels style, not the steels 

[flat4alfa]

2 hours ago, Jon said:

...a red SLC I can't work out the maker of!

King Star Mini Car, Korea. 1/60

[bunglebus]

Wow, good sleuthing!

 

Something very familiar about that packaging...

[bunglebus]

I was nosing around on a Facebook group last night, someone was talking about this Matchbox Mustang

What I didn't know was the casting was modified from a Kenner Fast 111!

[bunglebus]

And with that bit of knowledge, I find there are more - 

Chevy Blazer

Mighty Mule

Sand Racer

Dirt Digger

[155V6]

I've got that Matchbox Mustang too,I always though it was a bit odd as it hadn't been modified from a standard Matchbox casting.

In other news,there were a few clip strips in Morrison's & I found this 😎

[Amishtat]

I haven't had very much to add to this thread since November as a result of house hunting and the general Chinasniffles fallout but it was a pleasure to unwrap this after it arrived yesterday. Rear suspension is a bit saggy and the roof lights are missing but it's still Escort-shaped and doesn't look like an eleven year old twat brayed it with a hammer, so it's streets ahead of the one it's going to replace. Thanks again to Jon.k. In other news, we should be moving into our new place in about three weeks and I can hardly wait to be reunited with my diecast tat, although it's unlikely to be unpacked very soon . It's been a long three months.. 

[flat4alfa]

18 hours ago, bunglebus said:

Don't think its stablemate the Milligan's Mill came in anything but Kermit green

It seems there was a later, slightly darker green.  Probably not enough to slip on the slope though.  

I seem to have a bright Kermit green one with red interior and flatter scoop.  Was sure there was yellow interior one too, but don't know where it has gone - must have swapped it out.

Gus has a yellow interior, clear glass and taller scoop.  Good old Gus.  Bit envious of the white one now though.  GR9 effort

[RoadworkUK]

5 hours ago, Jon said:

....That said, he had one of those GIANT Miasto XJ220s (1/12?) and looked after it very carefully, so maybe he did the same with this and just looked at it from afar?

Back in 1993, my family visited the Florida Mall. In there was a shop called Smoke and Snuff, which sold old fashioned pipe 'n shag smoking materials. They also sold "Adult Collectables", and in their shop window was a selection of very nice 1/18 models. I took an immediate liking to one, a silver XJ220, which was for sale for like $59 or something, and consequently well out of my pocket money range. Nevertheless, gentle nagging and very good behaviour saw that, towards the end of the holiday, Smoke and Snuff was revisited and I got my XJ220. 

I loved that model, and had it in my carry on luggage to enable me to play with it and fondle it on the Delta Tristar when we flew home. When we got to Gatwick, my grandfather was there to collect us; we boarded his Rover 820e Fastback (which would become mine six years later) and I put the Jag on the rear parcel shelf. 

En route between Gatwick and Frinton-on-sea. we stopped off at Highwoods Tesco, Colchester, because our cupboards would be bare at home. That particular Tesco always had an impressive toy aisle, and one that had served me well with Matchbox and more over the years. And lo, what should I find on the shelf there, but the self same 1:18 XJ220, and for a fraction of what I paid in Florida, because here it was being sold as a toy, and there it was an "Adult Collectable". 

An hour later, on unloading the Rover of holiday luggage, I dropped the XJ220 on the drive, putting big scratches on the clear plastic roof glazing and the paint either side of it, and snapping off a mirror and the rear spoiler. I was utterly heartbroken, but still displayed the car in pride of place in my collection, later becoming happy that it had a story to tell.

*********

Anyway, that was all just preamble. Sorry about that.

It turns out that the Maisto XJ220 hadn't actually been available in the UK for very long at that point; it was very probably Tesco that flogged it here first.

The 1/12 version was an oddity. I don't recall ever seeing it in a shop, but it was sold for years and years in various colour supplements, often for hilariously inflated prices. There were two versions, the road car and the Le Mans version, the latter of which was exclusive to that scale, Maisto having never dressed up the 1/18 road car in racing regalia.

Peering at the pics in said colour supplements, the only details I could spot that my 1/18 didn't have were side indicator repeaters, a fire extinguisher and gas struts for the glass engine cover. All I could do was gaze misty-eyed at the pics and imagine what a much bigger version of my scratched XJ220 would be like.

Until I became a grownup.

I wish my 1/12 example had been silver, but beggars can't be choosers. It's nice, anyway. 

It was impressively cheap, too. eBay, natch, and presumably previously owned by a car enthusiast of advancing years, because he had treated it to a hand-made custom base that incorporates a gold-plated (or certainly gold coloured) leaper badge that has been prized off a bonnet somewhere. 

What is interesting is that, while nowhere near "correct", the overall proportions of the 1/12 model don't actually seem quite so disturbingly wrong as the 1:18 is. There is at least some of the curve and gracefulness of Randall and Helfet's masterpiece, and less of the "flying slab" that my beloved adult collectable suffers from. 

Incidentally I didn't really appreciate the 1/18's inaccuracy until much, much later. The fact that nobody has properly captured the XJ220 in a large scale is baffling. When AUTOart does it, I'll join the queue to pay £££ for one. Or at least ££.

So that's my XJ220 tale. The 1/12 is one of the few models I have that's on permanent display; it sits atop a 1920s Scandinavian walnut cabinet in our living room, still mounted to the base that somebody once spent a probably inordinate amount of time knocking up.

And retrospectively applying man-maths, I suspect the meagre sum I payed for this puts me decidedly quids-in despite being so thoroughly rinsed in Florida.

[flat4alfa]

4 hours ago, bunglebus said:

What I didn't know was the casting was modified from a Kenner Fast 111!

Chevy Blazer

Presume as part of the 1986 Matchbox deal with Kenner Parker to buy the Dinky trademark?  Odd that the Dinky line then ran with Kidco castings, from Hong Kong not Macau.

After you posted this, I went off to seek out my own 4x4 Chevy Blazer 'Sheriff' and also wondered if Flareside Pick-Up was also a Kenner.   Wondered, because I thought I got them together, same Christmas...

But no.  Blazer with black base is from 1986-9 and Flareside in blue 'Baja Bouncer' livery is 1982 only

Before you ask, the Blazer got the detail on the lights, side pipes and bumpers by me, way back then

[sierraman]

Rolling with my Rolamatics! The last 2 are 90’s reissues but with the Rolamatics name deleted over the base, made in Thailand, the casts must have been out of action over 20 years by that point!

[flat4alfa]

6 hours ago, Jon said:

Documented here for @Datsuncog's 1/32 appreciation and the widespread general appreciation of seeing one with A pillars intact.

Glad you posted this.  It reminded me to ask Ken to check out his Corgi Mercedes-Benz 240D for its annual A-pillar inspection.  It has passed!

Measured it while it was in the hands too and it calculates to be nearer 1:37 against a real life MB W114

So while the spreadsheet was fired-up, looked for the Lucky Toys 'Rally Benz' and measured that too.  It is spot on at 1:32.  

Believe it or not, the plastic Hong Kong Lucky is worth twice as much as the Corgi diecast.

Ken couldn't believe it either.

[RoadworkUK]

Incidentally, while we're (I'm) on the topic of large scale stuff...

In Poland (appropriately), DeAgostini is doing a partwork where — over a zillion months or so — you can build, a one eighth scale......FSO Polonez!

https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&u=https://www.deagostini.com/pl/kolekcja/polonez1500/

[flat4alfa]

On 1/26/2021 at 12:21 PM, flat4alfa said:

Seems there is a much older and subtly different casting by Welly.  Anyone have one of these?

More flare to the arches for starters

Was naughty and bought one.  But it was only £1.40!   Was an odd figure to find on a buy-it-now, so grabbed it.

It's die-cast but no country of origin stated, very likely China like the current Welly range.

The proportions are pretty good, but something odd going on at the front

The rear light clusters are going to get someone's eye out

The doors open to reveal a dashboard.  With an odd wheel.

The bonnet reveals an engine, of sorts!

So how does it compare to the current model Mini Cooper 1300 by Welly?  

Well, Welly, for starters you made things bigger back then

They measure to 1:28 and 1:26

Both have pull-back motors.  So who won the standing start race across the kitchen lino?  It was the red one, absolutely flying into the skirting board.  The silver one barely made it. 

Wife showed her disinterest.

[flat4alfa]

42 minutes ago, RoadworkUK said:

In Poland (appropriately), DeAgostini is doing a partwork where — over a zillion months or so — you can build, a one eighth scale......FSO Polonez!

Cor!

Works out at average of 120 złoty (£25) a month though.  Over 123 issues... 

Postage will make it even worse!  Will see if any have come in bulk, I'll look in all the Polski skleps in town

[bunglebus]

RIGHT. I have spent all afternoon doing battle with the annoying scanner that crops the outside 2mm off everything, purely because it is big enough to handle the Matchbox 1980/81 catalogue that arrived recently. There's some interesting stuff in here, not least of all the white Gus's Gulper as part of a Drag Pack

 

There's a Sentron 9 Porsche 928 on eBay now for £36.00

Anyone seen/got a Superkings Maserati Bora in blue?

[Spottedlaurel]

5 hours ago, Volksy said:

I think the Mercedes SLC is a 1:12 Otaki kit.

I remember seeing one in Beatties model shop as a kid. 

Did Doyusha reissue that one? I think I'll have a shot of it in the leaflet that comes with the 1:24 kits, in the meantime there's one visible here complete with steels and wheel covers:

https://pocherman.tistory.com/archive/200712

[bunglebus]

1 hour ago, flat4alfa said:

Presume as part of the 1986 Matchbox deal with Kenner Parker to buy the Dinky trademark?  Odd that the Dinky line then ran with Kidco castings, from Hong Kong not Macau.

According to my man on the inside (this website I found https://www.planetdiecast.com/index2.php?&option=com_content&task=view&id=86373&pop=1&page=0&Itemid=949) it was because Universal owned Kenner, and having bought Matchbox in '82, modified some Kenner castings to be released as Matchbox.

The Mustang was apparently only released in the USA, and later Australia, yet I have had two or three, plus there's your one

[Spottedlaurel]

A lot to enjoy in that 1980/81 catalogure. I was in the last year or two of playing with Superfast etc at that time, there's plenty there that I had/recognise.

The 36-car carry case has a different design to the one I got (and still have).

I don't recall the oversized man and barrow with the Ford A-Series, he must have been an early casualty although the van is still with me.

Recently picked up one of the Matchbox/AMT branded Mustang kits.

[flat4alfa]

17 hours ago, flat4alfa said:

Was naughty and bought one.  But it was only £1.40!   Was an odd figure to find on a buy-it-now, so grabbed it.

Added this in to help make the postage cost feel better

Made in China.  It was £2.50.

I wanted it because of the comedy alloy wheels fitted to an effort of the first-generation Citroën 2CV 1949-60

The separate boot lid AZLP didn't join until 1957, so the rear light panel below it with the offset number plate mount would be too early?

Never mind.  It has a spare bidon d'essence to make up for it, attached to the side!

Fermier Tom is going to struggle getting behind that wheel!  It just adds to the comedy.  Mustn't jest too much, it's just a pull-back motor toy ....doubt many Chinese folks have ever seen a real one.  

It does measure to proportionally correct 1:33 length and 1:33 width (something Corgi and Dinky struggled to manage at times)

I might have plans for this

[flat4alfa]

45 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

RIGHT. I have spent all afternoon doing battle with the annoying scanner

DEDICATION, for the nation

😎

[flat4alfa]

46 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

There's a Sentron 9 Porsche 928 on eBay now for £36.00

Quote

'This is the very latest technology - using the microprocessor silicon chip'

'no licence is required for them'

I don't remember those Porsche 928 or Sentron9 at all.  But the wording on the page made me smile!  

In that Taito Porsche 917 R/C car I fixed up the other week, it did mention in the instructions the need to have a radio licence to operate it.  How times have changed

[bunglebus]

I'd quite like to fake one of these, in red preferably although the white is rarer

Don't whether to start with one of these

Or one of these

The bases are all different, both in design and attachment

[Mr Laurence]

1 hour ago, flat4alfa said:

The proportions are pretty good, but something odd going on at the front

They’ve recreated the dodgy accident/rust repairs perfectly! It’s just like looking at a real Mini

[flat4alfa]

 

1 hour ago, bunglebus said:

Ah ...good old Lane Changer

Don't make me go up into that chilly loft again!  

[flat4alfa]

On 7/22/2020 at 10:30 PM, Amishtat said:

It's not a Wednesday boot sale unless there's some 1:36 Corgi, is it? I think it's the law or something. Speaking of the law, Kojak got his car resprayed it seems.

Remember this?

It came out to play today.

It found a new friend.

Click the PLAY button :

 

[155V6]

A Facebook seller has the custom version of the Corgi Juniors Buick Century,I have a delivery a couple of miles from him on Tuesday so may have to call in 

[bunglebus]

42 minutes ago, 155V6 said:

A Facebook seller has the custom version of the Corgi Juniors Buick Century

I meant to look into this the other day - did you say there's a custom XJS too?

Found a pic of the Regal (not Century) in that paint but no sidepipes

 

Hobby DB lists it as a Buick Track Car

Good spot, get it bought!

Here's the Jag - never seen either of these before

[bunglebus]

The Regal also made the jump over to Hot Wheels