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Shite in Miniature II


Split_Pin

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Lovely stuff @Datsuncog. I had the Nova with the funny half stripes and glazed boot lid and remember living in Catterick at the time, which dates it to 1984/5. For some reason, I cut out the tiny corgi dog logo from the packet and blu-tacked it to my bedroom wall, as I didn't like the idea of the poor doggie being thrown away; I would've been 3 or 4 at the time!

I'm alsmost certain that the Tesco Corgi issue you have there isn't of the same vintage as your OG example. Rather than fading base, I wonder if your was just originally beige? Certainly, my much loved yellow Corgi 1/64 Sierra was yellow with brown bumpers.

Back to the Tesco rendition - those box graphics scream early 1990's to me. Certainly, I remember picking up a Porsche 924 in a Tesco, circa 1991/2 and then immediately finding one of these, e few spaces down the aisle:

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However, I must've been acting up that day, as my Mum wouldn't advance me the 99p (!) price to buy it, nor exchange the 924 I'd already picked. Only ever saw them once, so either that Tesco had a timewarp long lost delivery of 1980's castings left ina Tesco depot somewhere, or for a very brief period Corgi touted their obsolete wares to Tesco, which perhaps they found lurking in their storage depot, somewhere?!

 

On the Metro front, I did wonder whether it may be a Kays catalogue issue? Please see attached tiny, tiny Ebay listing images, for reference:

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However, I don't see any Juniors versions, so it's probably a no.

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2 hours ago, Justwatching said:

Various Ford Model A vans with period product advertisements on the sides. CBA taking individual shots. Matchbox, 1979. 

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Definite contender for most produced/most variations I reckon. Is there anything that hasn't been advertised on the side of one? Majorette didn't really get in on the act with their version very much

 

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12 hours ago, Jon said:

Actually, could it be one of these?

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I had that and as was common back then, the tampos could easily be scratched off with your fingernail.

I still have mine but its now a van.

Thanks for the memories there too Tim, I had various Sierras as a kid, together with a plethora of Novas/Corsas and several Metros in both scales. 

The 1/36 Corgis are robust but all the ones I had when I was very young, under 4 years  old, fared terribly at my hands, especially the Sierra.  Thankfully they've all been replaced now. Weirdly, the smaller scale Corgis, despite having ostensibly similar levels of play wear, survived intact. The paint was really thin and chipped easily, the finish on Matchbox cars of the same era was much tougher. I remember taking my blue Juniors Metro to Tommy's barber shop in Clarkston in about 1983 and he said "I'll just pit your wee motor over there" as he placed it on the shelf under the mirror so as not to get it covered in hair. The things you remember.

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2 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

I had that and as was common back then, the tampos could easily be scratched off with your fingernail.

I still have mine but its now a van.

Thanks for the memories there too Tim, I had various Sierras as a kid, together with a plethora of Novas/Corsas and several Metros in both scales. 

The 1/36 Corgis are robust but all the ones I had when I was very young, under 4 years  old, fared terribly at my hands, especially the Sierra.  Thankfully they've all been replaced now. Weirdly, the smaller scale Corgis, despite having ostensibly similar levels of play wear, survived intact. The paint was really thin and chipped easily, the finish on Matchbox cars of the same era was much tougher. I remember taking my blue Juniors Metro to Tommy's barber shop in Clarkston in about 1983 and he said "I'll just pit your wee motor over there" as he placed it on the shelf under the mirror so as not to get it covered in hair. The things you remember.

I really get that. I remember a holiday to filey as a kid, this would have been when I’d be five perhaps. Recall playing on the floor in the flat we stopped in with an MC Toys Escort then my late grandfather buying me a Bburago Fiat Regatta which I still have, isn’t it weird how you remember odd things like this. 

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Surprisingly, apart from me losing the wheels which clicked off, 1/43 Bburagos also survived quite well in my young hands. I always peeled the stickers off though.

1/24 Bburagos always survived extremely poorly with me though. I still have the 2 I had when I was really young, a Metro and a Fiat 1/24, both bought for me by my Granny and Grandpa but they've largely fallen to bits.

I wish I could go back and just have played hard with them rather than throw or jump them off things repeatedly. 

Having said that, I did play a game with my friend Ross, who always liked to encourage destruction,  of jumping cars off our high front doorstep. My car of choice for this was originally a Corgi Morris Mini Minor, on which I had already caused the offside suspension to collapse but somewhat thankfully, this was replaced with the 1/36 Sierra.

I restored the Mini some time in the 1990s.

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Tat Friday - if anyone sees anything they can't live without let me know ASAP - but as this is Oxfam with the dreaded paper tags don't expect any bargains. Most are 49-79p but a couple are £4.99 including the Corgi 911 and green Matchbox single seater. Transporter trailer is £3.99

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3 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

Tat Friday - if anyone sees anything they can't live without let me know ASAP - but as this is Oxfam with the dreaded paper tags don't expect any bargains. Most are 49-79p but a couple are £4.99 including the Corgi 911 and green Matchbox single seater. Transporter trailer is £3.99

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Christ!!!! Where do they get the prices from? 

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16 hours ago, Jon said:

 @DatsuncogI'm almost certain that the Tesco Corgi issue you have there isn't of the same vintage as your OG example.

I can't say for sure, but the side of the box indicates it's not all that far off, date-wise? 

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Of course, it's quite possible that Corgi kept manufacturing them for Tesco into the 1990s and packing them into the same boxes, possibly after they'd stopped selling the same models in their own mainline range.

Annoyingly, the big Van Kleemput Corgi book gets a bit vague on products and dates after the end of Mettoy in 1984, so I'm not all that clear on how long the C351 BRSCC Pace Car Sierra lasted in the standard range. From my (incomplete) catalogues, it appears as a new model in the 1985 range, but has disappeared by the 1988 catalogue.

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But equally, the C426 Hepolite Rover SD1 debuted in 1984 and was also gone from the catalogue by '88 - yet clearly Tesco still had them on the shelves near you in the early '90s. Could have been old stock from Tesco's warehouses, or could have been a way to clear out obsolete models from Corgi's stores? We'll probably never know...

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Rather than fading base, I wonder if your was just originally beige? Certainly, my much loved yellow Corgi 1/64 Sierra was yellow with brown bumpers.

I'm pretty sure the base was originally white, not beige - there's a picture somewhere of me holding the Sierra the same day I got it, and also looking up into the wheelarches shows the original white colouration where the sun didn't get at it. Corgi plastics do discolour badly, unfortunately - the canopy on my Transit milk float went unpleasantly yellow too.

I think I still have my yellow Juniors Sierra with the brown bumpers!

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32 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

I have no idea. Either that think they're rare m9 or the donor requests a sale price. I grabbed a handful, thing is if they were all 49p I'd just take the lot and redistribute them

I hope the handful includes the R107 Merc even though I've already got a boxed one

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So, what did I buy?

A Welly 928 - 99p but opening doors!!1!

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High Speed Audi 49p

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Not bad Corgi Dyane 79p

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Equally not bad Volks-Dragon 79p - base corrosion on this and the next one is BAD though 

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Matchbox SL mainly for the intact roof

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27 minutes ago, sierraman said:

Still trying to find a reasonable replacement for the yellow Sierra I had as a kid, the prices on them are sickening on eBay, £20 isn’t uncommon unboxed. Glad in a sense I picked up the silver, blue, texaco, police and the Taxi when you could pick them up for a couple of quid. 

When it comes to that sort of money I just buy a donor and paint the blighter

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Ages ago I got a Corgi Morris Minor off @Datsuncog that was in a bad way. I stripped it down and sent my mate a pic of it mocked up on some nice wheels. He said it would look great with a V8 and blower hanging out of the bonnet. I'm still going to build a mild custom version as I found a couple more at boot sales since, but...

 

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1 hour ago, sierraman said:

The Regatta is a 1/24, for some years it had only 3 wheels but a few years back I managed to repair it. The back light got poked in but it’s still going. I can tell all the diecast I had from being about 3-4 as they have a paint spot on the bottom, my dad put that there he reckoned to avoid theft. 🤣

Those are really rare. I got one from @mk2_craig on here as part of a job lot of other tasty 1/24s and it's great. I love the cast in badges in the back. Although they fell apart the had loads of play value, not least because Bburago modeled ordinary cars as well as the usual Ferraris and Lamborghinis. 

You must have looked after your diecast latterly though as all those 1/24 Bburagos you sold me in 2016 are mint. They are beside the other 1/24s I mentioned above on the shelving unit dedicated to them and Polistils!

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1 minute ago, bunglebus said:

Ages ago I got a Corgi Morris Minor off @Datsuncog that was in a bad way. I stripped it down and sent my mate a pic of it mocked up on some nice wheels. He said it would look great with a V8 and blower hanging out of the bonnet. I'm still going to build a mild custom version as I found a couple more at boot sales since, but...

 

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I'm in love with that.

Interesting how the Cameos Minor was of the earlier version with split windscreen and tiny rear window. I think that was the version between the MM series and the 1000 of 1959.

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5 minutes ago, Split_Pin said:

I'm in love with that.

Interesting how the Cameos Minor was of the earlier version with split windscreen and tiny rear window. I think that was the version between the MM series and the 1000 of 1959.

It's a really nicely detailed casting, with a nasty cheap base/interior, but you don't see that really

20210807_172237Corgi Morris Minor customCorgi Morris Minor customCorgi Morris Minor custom

...even with a big hole chopped into the bonnet!

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I did call into the market this morning, but there was nothing to set my heart a-flutter, in terms of diecast.

Market Blokey seemed to have declined to bring the same stuff as last week - either that, or he'd already sold the Lesney Superkings stuff that had piqued the interest of some on here.

I think we've seen at least some of this lot before, though.

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Plastic Hong Kong single-seat racers; Corgi Qualcast Turbine Truck and generic Whizzwheels Ambulance; Dinky APC (with chain tracks, but without much else) and hand truck; and various incomplete 1960s Matchbox King Size plant machinery alongside a shonky Speed Kings K-35 Lightning racer.

Up top, expectations were initially high...

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...but then subsided, as I realised these are mostly 1980s Matchbox Specials, with a few Corgi Turbos and a Maisto mixed through.

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Lancia and multiple Mustang IIIs maybe of more interest than the Le Mans style racers.

Also those ropey Corgi Chittys, a paint-ruined Corgi Mini and a Dinky bus towards the back - all items that have been here before.

This large but incomplete Zylmex single seater is another regular still seeking a home:

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But the big battery-powered plastic bulldozer was new.

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Not a familiar make - BPP of Hong Kong, with a catalogue number of 5001.

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Presumably this once came with rubber tracks - still, not a bad display piece.

The Nemesis was in this morning, wearing his customary zippy top. I didn't notice what he was wearing on his feet, though - most remiss of me. He appeared to have already swiped a 1/18 Jaguar XJ220 (Maisto?) and a Ferrari 550 Maranello (Bburago?) - well, he's welcome to them.

A quick scurry over to the Charity Stall revealed not much to interest either - he's managing to clear the Corgi Jag racers, slowly. Only seven left, now. And the Bburago appear to have all gone now, plus the Buddy L.

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I took a closer look at the big friction powered plastic fire engine today, too. Turns out it's a Marx item, in fairly good nick.

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It had a hole moulded in the side where it looked like a clockwork key might go, so I assume earlier examples sported a clockwork motor, while later ones went friction drive.

I also enquired after the cast signs too, on behalf of @bezzabsa :

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Two sizes available (with roughly 1/43 Jaguar included to provide scale) - £20 for the bigger signpost one, £10 for the smaller plaque.

I'll leave it with you, if you wish me to procure one or other!

Ah well. Nothing of note on any of the other stalls; at least we can all be reassured that we're not missing out on much.

Have a most excellent Friday, one and all.

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42 minutes ago, Split_Pin said:

Interesting how the Cameos Minor was of the earlier version with split windscreen and tiny rear window. I think that was the version between the MM series and the 1000 of 1959.

Yes 'Series II' that ran for the four intervening years, evolving into the IIa (horizontal slat grille, central speedo etc)

The 'Series III' revision for 1956 was marketed as the 1000 from then-on

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23 minutes ago, Split_Pin said:

Those are really rare. I got one from @mk2_craig on here as part of a job lot of other tasty 1/24s and it's great. I love the cast in badges in the back. Although they fell apart the had loads of play value, not least because Bburago modeled ordinary cars as well as the usual Ferraris and Lamborghinis. 

You must have looked after your diecast latterly though as all those 1/24 Bburagos you sold me in 2016 are mint. They are beside the other 1/24s I mentioned above on the shelving unit dedicated to them and Polistils!

Those I had when I was a few years older, think maybe when I’d be 10-12, often we’d get them when we went abroad, for some reason in Spain they were relatively cheap - probably the equivalent of £4-5. At the time and now I wasn’t even remotely interested in Ferrari’s etc so much more interesting to me were Fiats/Alfa’s etc etc.

I had them on display in my room until I’d be maybe 16, then obviously the prospect of them cock blocking me meant they ended up in the loft. About a decade on my parents decided to move house so by that point I’d got a kids of my own, house and all that stuff you end up with. I’ve got a loft but it’s already full of stuff, I couldn’t have them out due to space and hamfisted kids so it was the best thing to do was to get them to someone that could enjoy them which I’m really glad they’ve gone to. In a lot of ways as if grown up I’d ended up collecting a bit of everything, past 4-5 years I’ve refocused on Matchbox and Corgi. 

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