Jump to content

Shite in Miniature II


Split_Pin

Recommended Posts

The two sole Spot-On models in my collectionette these days - both ex-@eddyramrod examples.

1749660998_IMG_20210621_1427182.thumb.jpg.b159d916efb23d37b10a888e4dae9815.jpg

On restored, one not, and both awaiting reproduction windscreens and steering wheels.

It's maybe harder to grasp the significance of Tri-ang's Spot-On range looking back now, but when they hit the market in 1959 they were noticeably superior in detail and features to their Corgi and Dinky rivals.

With authentic colours, glazed windows and highly detailed interiors across the range, plus innovative features like battery-operated working headlights, they were more models than toys. However,  their detail and all-diecast construction (at a time when Dinky and Corgi still used tinplate bases across much of their ranges) led to a comparatively high price. Sales tended toward kids from wealthier families or adult collectors (only just becoming a thing), and so demand was never as brisk as for Meccano, Mettoy or Lesney's products.

It wasn't so much that Spot-On were totally unaffordable, but upon entering a toyshop with some birthday or Christmas money and given the option to either leave with one toy car or two toy cars, it's not hard to imagine what an average nine-year-old might choose...

Tri-ang also developed a full 'Spot-On Roadway' range of realistically scaled plastic sections of two-lane road,  along with a range of garages, filling stations and rubberised moulded buildings and bridges,  plus accurate road signs and scaled figures of pedestrians, road workers  and even trees - sufficient to build an entire 1/42 model village. Again, deep pockets were required - the larger of the two garages weighed in at £3/7s/6d, or over £70 in today's prices.

The constant scale of 1/42 meant that their buses, coaches and articulated trucks were huge and wonderful things, with heavy construction, detailed loads and accurate couplings. However sales were slow and all their large commercials were culled in 1963, along with the Roadways and 'Cotswold Village' ranges.

Spot-On's competitors also raced to develop their own versions of their features, like chrome-plated plastic bumpers and grilles, detailed plastic interiors, number plates and tax discs, sprung suspension (Spot-On's was branded as 'Flex-o-matic'), opening doors, bonnets and sunroofs, roofracks with loads, and steerable wheels. So before long, Corgi and Dinky Toys started to close the innovation gap between themselves and Tri-ang's offerings.

As the 1965 catalogue above shows, Spot-On were starting to market their models in attractive cellophane-fronted boxes, to allow prospective purchasers to actually see what they were getting, rather than the all-cardboard boxes which Corgi and Dinky would continue to use through to the end of the decade (and Matchbox into the 1980s).

This is possibly why, when looking a table full of general 1960s models at a swapmeet today, it can be harder to appreciate that Spot-On were the first to come to market with many of these innovative features, and so acted as the catalyst for some great strides forward in 1960s toymaking.

Hindsight is not always 20:20, contrary to the old saying - only a kid with their eyes glued to toyshop windows would have been able to notice just how these rival ranges were developing month on month, year on year, and that Spot-On tended to be slightly ahead of the game.

Lines Brothers, Tri-ang's parent company, bought out the troubled Meccano group in 1965, acquiring former rivals Dinky in the process. Perhaps unsurprisingly, as Tri-ang worked through how to market two competing diecast ranges - one successful and one not-quite so successful - a number of new Spot-On casting releases planned for 1966 never saw the light of day.

Other than the new 'Magicar' range consisting of five plastic bodies which could be mounted on a steerable, battery-driven chassis, most new Spot-On releases for 1966 and 1967 largely consisted of colour variations and reworkings of existing castings.

One curiosity was the rare range of what are known as 'Hong Kong Dinkys' - a range of six contemporary US sedans and station wagons briefly made under the Dinky name by a contractor in Hong Kong specifically for the US market, and which had no equivalents in the UK or European Dinky ranges. 

Rumour has it that these were originally designed by Spot-On in an attempt by Tri-ang to crack the North American market - but in the end they hit shops in the US in late 1965 wearing the better-known Dinky branding. The range was not a conspicuous success, and production had stopped by 1967.

In 1967, a serious fire at the main Spot-On factory in Belfast wiped out much of the tooling, production facilities and all of the company records, and the line was allowed to quietly die out by Lines Bros - though production continued for a little longer at a subsidiary factory in New Zealand.

The last Spot-On branded model released was the 'Tric Trac Car' - a plastic battery-operated generic racing car aimed at very young children, which was available for a few short months in 1968. It was not a fitting end for this influential range.

The high degree of realism, unusual choice of models and comparative rarity means that Spot-On models continue to be very desirable little things, and while prices have fallen quite a bit from what was being asked 20 years ago, I agree it's no bad thing that internet auctions have allowed wider access to  restoration projects.

I have a real soft spot for them - but more as an observer than an active collector these days.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Datsuncog said:

Other than the new 'Magicar' range consisting of five plastic bodies which could be mounted on a steerable, battery-driven chassis

The Magicar sub-brand was a bit more than that, they were sold standalone or with a slot track set.  There was a peg that could be attached, to make it follow the track guide.  Will dig out earlier posting

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 1/24/2021 at 5:09 PM, flat4alfa said:

Tri-ang Magicar example photos found on t'interweb: 

Vintage-Triang-Magicar-Aston-Martin-Db5-Police-Car.jpg.11c109659c5f38a3125dc378bb079b52.jpg

Battery-powered, proudly announcing the Wrenn motor in the advertising; which had a specific design feature of the motor cutting-out automatically, when the car was physically stopped from moving.

1154134898_s-l1600(3).thumb.jpg.96c01916431413e684c5a7f591f47810.jpg

Notice the slot track pin, moving the steering arm.

32143_0.thumb.jpg.8117aa14496019d4b3bf2d009a031f68.jpg

The horse was in this set to encourage the child to stop the car in an typical emergency.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Apart from the Aston Martin DB6, Rolls Royce Silver Cloud and the Jaguar MK10; there was a Batmobile, the Spectrum Saloon Car from Captain Scarlet, Bentley S3 with a canoe on the roof, Ferrari 500 Superfast, a boat on a trailer and a horsebox.  And a horse.

10098169_s-l1600(1).thumb.jpg.33780a00c7ce72aa60ef60c67a687c30.jpg

1000460633_capscarnew2.jpg.932e5111b59df3c7e2ba499dfc0cbf56.jpg

SO982P84.jpg.05b9958a454575f5d25d29e41228d04d.jpg

SAM_3144_1024x1024@2x.jpg.8b32bb7c0bb4cab057d132fa97494d5c.jpg

 So either as a standalone car or a sort of a 1:40 scale Minic Motorway

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Post Lady has been

All from same seller for a tenner

IMG_0688.thumb.JPG.b4352fe8a3225eb3a5c5b0f73dcb70a8.JPG

Corgi FIAT X1/9 in the seemingly less-common blue with FIAT/Bosch/Cibie stickers, which means I can convert and paint a spare white & green one

Corgi Honda Prelude in tidy enough condition so I can paint / convert / dispose of a sun-faded one with glazing problems

Dinky Corvette Stingray with flame stickers surviving for once.  Never had one of these Dinkys before, ever.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Datsuncog said:

Tric Trac

At the risk of showing my age, I do remember playing with that - it was actually called Trik Trak. The track sections had a wider mouth than exit, made of moulded plastic, with lugs on the corners so they could be secured to a board if required. I don't have clear recollections of the cars though so either they didn't last or, more likely, my interest was overtaken by a Hornby train set and then a Scalextric layout.

Vintage 1964 Transogram Trik-trak Cross Country Road Rally Set #3960 Gm986  for sale online | eBay

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, flat4alfa said:

IMG_0688.thumb.JPG.b4352fe8a3225eb3a5c5b0f73dcb70a8.JPG

Dinky Corvette Stingray with flame stickers surviving for once.  Never had one of these Dinkys before, ever.

Interesting, looks like a later version of this

20200909_151504

Mine is stickerless

20191221_103637

Both in considerably better shape than my earliest one though

20210425_111006

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 hours ago, bunglebus said:

Don't know if @High Jetteris using a phone or PC but the search function allows you to search the topic, there have been some nice Spot Ons posted previously 

I was on my phone then, but have wasted valuably spent much time today going down various rabbit-holes that your kind* suggestion lead me to. I now regret more than ever the actions of cash-strapped late-teenage me in getting rid of most of the models brought for me by parents and grandparents in the 60's, for £notverymuchatall. I do have some left...in boxes...somewhere (I hope!)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, High Jetter said:

At the risk of showing my age, I do remember playing with that - it was actually called Trik Trak. The track sections had a wider mouth than exit, made of moulded plastic, with lugs on the corners so they could be secured to a board if required. I don't have clear recollections of the cars though so either they didn't last or, more likely, my interest was overtaken by a Hornby train set and then a Scalextric layout.

Vintage 1964 Transogram Trik-trak Cross Country Road Rally Set #3960 Gm986  for sale online | eBay

Had one of those in the 70's

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 6/18/2021 at 4:23 PM, flat4alfa said:

If anyone is in the vicinity and gets hold of it could they also grab the Fleischmann slot car too please  😎

I asked him (politely) but he still refuses to post:

 

@flat4alfa @barrett,are you still interested in the slot car & the MGB respectively?.I've spoken to the seller,he still has them both,& I should be able to call in on my way home tomorrow.Let me know please.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, flat4alfa said:

Post Lady has been

All from same seller for a tenner

IMG_0688.thumb.JPG.b4352fe8a3225eb3a5c5b0f73dcb70a8.JPG

Corgi FIAT X1/9 in the seemingly less-common blue with FIAT/Bosch/Cibie stickers, which means I can convert and paint a spare white & green one

Corgi Honda Prelude in tidy enough condition so I can paint / convert / dispose of a sun-faded one with glazing problems

Dinky Corvette Stingray with flame stickers surviving for once.  Never had one of these Dinkys before, ever.

I owned that very X19 along with it's smaller 'Juniors' brother too. 

In my head, they were part of a 'little and large' two-car set produced by Corgi in the mid 1980s. I'm sure they produced various models in this two-car setup.

Having said that, I can find no evidence after a quick online search of this setup ever having existed....

Can anyone confirm I'm not actually going mad?!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

22 hours ago, Dick Longbridge said:

I owned that very X19 along with it's smaller 'Juniors' brother too. 

In my head, they were part of a 'little and large' two-car set produced by Corgi in the mid 1980s. I'm sure they produced various models in this two-car setup.

Having said that, I can find no evidence after a quick online search of this setup ever having existed....

Can anyone confirm I'm not actually going mad?!

Yeah, I can, I remember them.  Never had any such sets myself but I do remember seeing them.  You can stop worrying now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 minutes ago, Dick Longbridge said:

I owned that very X19 along with it's smaller 'Juniors' brother too. 

In my head, they were part of a 'little and large' two-car set produced by Corgi in the mid 1980s. I'm sure they produced various models in this two-car setup.

Having said that, I can find no evidence after a quick online search of this setup ever having existed....

Can anyone confirm I'm not actually going mad?!

Boom! I definitely don't need to add any of these to my ebay watch list...

 

468x382.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, Dick Longbridge said:

Boom! I definitely don't need to add any of these to my ebay watch list...

 

468x382.jpg

On reflection, I owned twin packs of the Fiat, the Escort and the R5 Turbot. 

I'd love to know the fate of all of them. No trace and I don't ever remember them reduced to poor/bin fodder condition.  

475ce74d8e8b0765892f41de8bdb21e6.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 9/7/2020 at 5:11 PM, flat4alfa said:

Picked up this pair from same seller on the cheap.  Corgi Bentley Continental and Spot-On Austin 1800

20200715_141253954_iOS.thumb.jpg.775a58934bc836f0ddbb78804679fded.jpg

Now look like this

20200907_160029555_iOS.thumb.jpg.8e477a99012e1167513e91e22f790c2c.jpg

All the Spot-On chat reminded me to go through those project boxes and dig out the stalled Spot-On Landcrab rebuild.  IIRC it was a fiver for the pair, so being a skin-flint, I tell myself it was a £2.50 Spot-on.   Do remember being cheered-up as all the others bid on went for around 6 times that and still had missing parts

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, flat4alfa said:

Spot-On Catalogue 5th Edition 1965

15848598977_7a50f9b51a_6k.thumb.jpg.27b1eec4de00f308041ecf23f4ca59b5.jpg

I keep coming back to this and it's getting me dangerously close to setting up an ebay account.. There's at least five things there my collection needs and as we've established, that's the only real way to get hold of them. 

(I know, why didn't I do this when I was still working..?) I suppose I should stop smoking, drinking and eating cake. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 minutes ago, Amishtat said:

I think the Sunbeam Alpine from Tat Wednesday ended up with you too? 

Found it! 

Yes, the famous 'Spot-On-for-a-pound' Alpine from Essex now sports a full set of tyres and Tiny Tom has just found out he can reach the pedals after all.  

20210621_222132795_iOS.thumb.jpg.a6aa6e8adc3a02d22189c169eba7894f.jpg

20210621_222220232_iOS.thumb.jpg.b6edfe82a9b1cd9dc15167ee64e6841e.jpg

He really ought to get that spares list together again.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...