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Shite in Miniature II


Split_Pin

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After yesterday's boot sale shitshow,today I found myself visiting Hawick for the first time. Not sure what was going on with the traffic but the southbound A7 was diverted through the middle of the town ,which was handy as otherwise I'd not have been sitting at the lights in a position to notice a shop window full of old diecast. Even better,there was a Sprinter-sized gap by the pavement which it seemed rude not to take advantage of. Some rather nice stuff but his prices were all over the place, I had a closer look at a tatty Spot-on 105e Anglia but he wanted thirty quid and even by my low standards it wanted bumpers and a repaint. Have a crappy pic of some of the window display,the silver thing under the gold Lincoln was a Polistil Volvo 164,which is a new one on me. Typically,it was missing bits but he still regarded it as worth forty pounds..I didn't leave empty-handed (some of you know my complete lack of willpower) but that seemed much too salty to me. The Dinky A105 was rather tempting but again rather too much for me.

 

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I know it's pointless repeating endlessly the complaints about old-school antiques places and their lack of pricing awareness, but surely five minutes on the internet would pay dividends in terms of actually flogging stuff, rather than have it clog up your window for years and years. Meh. Anyway, those 164s are pretty common and £20 would buy you a mint boxed one if you were so inclined. Unboxed for a bit less, ie: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/POLISTIL-S20-VOLVO-164E-1-25-SCALE-MODEL-CAR-MADE-IN-ITALY-/234553629438

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A box of cars was waiting when I got home today.The one I was most waiting for was this Dinky Transit20220523_195844.thumb.jpg.31798ffbda42a6b13740f1d400e4619d.jpg

 

20220523_195816.thumb.jpg.f0eeb6060d4d1932ad9a6f454314f120.jpg

A bit disappointed that the front spoiler was broken,but it's not bad apart from that 😀

The rest of the cars included some Matchbox20220523_195910.thumb.jpg.c93bb2b43f1a20869ad649bcc3d37116.jpg

Some Corgi20220523_195945.thumb.jpg.cfd4584643e3d8ba9ec7c60fe8e63a4d.jpg

Some Tonka

20220523_200012.thumb.jpg.215740c919cc41ae3b137a1d225b58ba.jpg

& a few odd bits & pieces20220523_200049.thumb.jpg.6dc350f7396d42e4f86f5ea273efde80.jpg

 

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Unfashionably late to the MB Capri party, but finally found one on Saturday night - right at the back of the pegs in Tesco.

1622596312_IMG_20220524_1430322.thumb.jpg.042d7bbbe3e2b609a9fb6e0ba4607976.jpg

Not really sure what to do with it - if previous form is anything to go by, hide it in a wardrobe for a year then sell it for a quarter of what I paid - but it's nice to try my own 'then and now' comparison.

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As others have said, the Superfast Capri's not really a great model in terms of proportions - but it still oozes appeal.

It's the only original mint and boxed Matchbox I still have, and it's a definite keeper.

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On 5/23/2022 at 9:09 AM, bunglebus said:

That ambulance made it into the early Superfast era too

2022-05-23_08-05-00.thumb.jpg.bd64224d879c44b5121d9f8761f0977d.jpg

That Mercury must be up there as one of the most long lived castings from Lesney, with some changes it seemed to go on forever

I was not a lover of Superfast/wizz wheels. Even as a child I preferred the cars to be more realistic. I know that is sad.

The Mercury  is the quintessential car, as drawn by a child.

image.thumb.png.7403591f1965877ea8295bd49693965f.png

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Another good haul @155V6. I bet that lot only cost a bit more than one or 2 from those in the window of a charity shop.

A fellow shiter recently sent me a pic of some BP Corgi cars in in Charity Shop window. You known the ones, they're the most common toy cars ever made. He wanted a FIVER each.  Exactly the reason I normally only buy old diecast from here.

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That Charger is lovely, I'll be keeping an eye out for that if we get them here. For the benefit of the absolutely nobody who was wondering,this is what came home with me from Hawick yesterday afternoon. Corgi Majors Scammell and Carrimore trailer, another to go on the transporter shelf in the cabinet after it's had a wash and been loaded up.

 

IMG_20220524_194050.jpg

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4 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

Another good haul @155V6. I bet that lot only cost a bit more than one or 2 from those in the window of a charity shop.

 

They were just over £21 posted,quite happy with that.The Foden I posted at the weekend was £10 from an antiques place,it even had one of those price  tags with the string 😁.There's still some reasonably priced stuff around.

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On 5/23/2022 at 9:08 PM, 155V6 said:

A box of cars was waiting when I got home today.The one I was most waiting for was this Dinky Transit20220523_195844.thumb.jpg.31798ffbda42a6b13740f1d400e4619d.jpg

 

20220523_195816.thumb.jpg.f0eeb6060d4d1932ad9a6f454314f120.jpg

A bit disappointed that the front spoiler was broken,but it's not bad apart from that 😀

The rest of the cars included some Matchbox20220523_195910.thumb.jpg.c93bb2b43f1a20869ad649bcc3d37116.jpg

Some Corgi20220523_195945.thumb.jpg.cfd4584643e3d8ba9ec7c60fe8e63a4d.jpg

Some Tonka

20220523_200012.thumb.jpg.215740c919cc41ae3b137a1d225b58ba.jpg

& a few odd bits & pieces20220523_200049.thumb.jpg.6dc350f7396d42e4f86f5ea273efde80.jpg

 

Liking the Golf!

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On 5/23/2022 at 9:08 PM, 155V6 said:

A box of cars was waiting when I got home today.The one I was most waiting for was this Dinky Transit20220523_195844.thumb.jpg.31798ffbda42a6b13740f1d400e4619d.jpg

 

20220523_195816.thumb.jpg.f0eeb6060d4d1932ad9a6f454314f120.jpg

A bit disappointed that the front spoiler was broken,but it's not bad apart from that 😀

The rest of the cars included some Matchbox20220523_195910.thumb.jpg.c93bb2b43f1a20869ad649bcc3d37116.jpg

Some Corgi20220523_195945.thumb.jpg.cfd4584643e3d8ba9ec7c60fe8e63a4d.jpg

Some Tonka

20220523_200012.thumb.jpg.215740c919cc41ae3b137a1d225b58ba.jpg

& a few odd bits & pieces20220523_200049.thumb.jpg.6dc350f7396d42e4f86f5ea273efde80.jpg

 

What's the silver car in the Tonka pic?  It looks like the 1980 Buick I used to have!

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39 minutes ago, w00dy said:

I'm fully addicted at this point, I just can't get over how great they are for so little money.

IMG_20220525_094945.thumb.jpg.e515301247fd40ffb906281094230a57.jpg

Now I want another MGB for the l wheels to replace the shite ones this comes with.

For me it’s recreating those days as a kid going down to the shops with my Grandad or my Mum and the excitement of getting to the Newsagents, and seeing what Matchbox was available, bear in mind all we had to go on was the catalogue that ceased in 1992, no internet obviously. Then opening the box while I was having a Happy Meal and studying what I’d bought, then going back home and playing in the front room with a Lion Bar while the A-Team or Hollywood’s Greatest Stunts were on the television. It’s that sort of magic I like my kids to have. 

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44 minutes ago, sierraman said:

For me it’s recreating those days as a kid going down to the shops with my Grandad or my Mum and the excitement of getting to the Newsagents, and seeing what Matchbox was available, bear in mind all we had to go on was the catalogue that ceased in 1992, no internet obviously. Then opening the box while I was having a Happy Meal and studying what I’d bought, then going back home and playing in the front room with a Lion Bar while the A-Team or Hollywood’s Greatest Stunts were on the television. It’s that sort of magic I like my kids to have. 

There's definitely an element of memories of youth, although i was more into my 1:18s then and would happily save every scrap of money I could get my hands on to fund another. In a world where it seems like any of the interesting cars I want to own are now stupidly expensive it's nice to have a little collection on my desk. The engineer in me also loves inspecting all the little manufacturing and design details and wondering how it is possible to design, manufacture, ship and sell them at a profit for the same price as a bag of chocolate buttons.

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1 hour ago, sierraman said:

For me it’s recreating those days as a kid going down to the shops with my Grandad or my Mum and the excitement of getting to the Newsagents, and seeing what Matchbox was available, bear in mind all we had to go on was the catalogue that ceased in 1992, no internet obviously. Then opening the box while I was having a Happy Meal and studying what I’d bought, then going back home and playing in the front room with a Lion Bar while the A-Team or Hollywood’s Greatest Stunts were on the television. It’s that sort of magic I like my kids to have. 

That sounds like my ideal day even now!

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One of my best-ever days was going to my local primary school's May Festival, where I managed to score a big carrier bag full of fairly playworn 1950s, 60s and 70s Dinky, Corgi, Spot-On, Budgie and Lesney toys for £2.

Then I got a hot dog from the barbeque in the playground, and went and watched Liverpool win the FA Cup (against Sunderland?) in the school's TV room.

Later, at home, my mum put a load of pizzas and garlic bread in the oven and we watched a local girl, Linda Martin, win the Eurovision Song Contest for Ireland while I cleaned up my diecast haul and tried to work out how I'd fix them up.

I think it must have been around 1992 or so.

I mean, I've had a lot of good days since - but that's probably the one that continues to stand out as a day I'd quite like to re-live.

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4 hours ago, sierraman said:

For me it’s recreating those days as a kid going down to the shops with my Grandad or my Mum and the excitement of getting to the Newsagents, and seeing what Matchbox was available, bear in mind all we had to go on was the catalogue that ceased in 1992, no internet obviously. Then opening the box while I was having a Happy Meal and studying what I’d bought, then going back home and playing in the front room with a Lion Bar while the A-Team or Hollywood’s Greatest Stunts were on the television. It’s that sort of magic I like my kids to have. 

My local matchbox seller was a shoe repair shop. I associate the smell of leather and glue with them. Plus a man with brown coat similar to the one  Arkwright wore.

More Matchbox.

Ford Zephyr.

FordZephyrSide.thumb.jpg.293600b73c1064d464d5154484bbf67a.jpg

and Zodiac.

FordZodiacFront.thumb.jpg.2ab93a51f07eb94ceed90c8428feee21.jpg

FordZodiacRear.thumb.jpg.0460caa49625fc752fc548619d49a10b.jpg

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I kinda think it's best for me not to ask myself what the appeal of die-cast is;  it kind of borders on an existential question, and if my answer is "dunno", such interest becomes tricky to justify.

HOWEVER. I think part of my interest lies in a subconcious desire to hold onto the past. Keep it alive despite the pressure of modern life and different ways of thinking. It's why I'd much rather find a surviving original MB Capri pressing in good nick than pick up the new one; somehow, the new one is just a product that you can go out, buy, and own, whereas owing a genuine original survivor is rather more against the odds, and your owning it means that its survival is assured.

Yeah, silly, really, I know.

I guess it's the same with my car brochure collection. A launch-edition Austin Metro brochure arrived through the letterbox today, having out-lived probably 98% of the cars that it describes. The Metro was everywhere when I was growing up; now it's nowhere, but I have the brochure so I can keep it real. Similarly, my Superkings XR4i, which is the original release with the same "Sierra XR4i" script as adorned the car itself, feels like an extension of the actual car, as if it were a genuine Ford production. If Matchbox was to release a new iteration today, it wouldn't have the sense of authority that the original's temporal link imbued it with.

Actually, l'm looking around the room I'm sitting in right now. The car brochure rack is behind me, a 1970s hifi stack is to my left, below a quarter-scale amphibious car I made at uni in 2004. My bookcases are to the right, and they're groaning under the weight of reference books about cars, planes, trains, boats, buildings, Lego sets and electronics from times gone by. And next to those is a shelf with my Playstation 1 and Sega Saturn linked to a fifteen year-old Panasonic Viera telly. Essentially, I've made myself a nest that protects me in  some kind of pre-millennium bubble.

Bloody hell. I need to stop thinking about my condition right now before I worry myself.

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I'm not sure I can answer the question of why I still like collecting older diecast, certainly until about eighteen months ago I hadn't bought any new Matchbox since about 1990 or so but as mentioned upthread some of them are too good to ignore for the price. Also,I wouldn't buy anything else out of Tesco because their food is mostly garbage I wouldn't inflict on my dog.

My little selection of sixties Corgi, Dinky and (very few) Spot-on is slightly easier to justify though,at least to myself. My Dad used to let me play with his own collection when I was very young (certainly while my mother was alive,so before I was four) and I've never forgotten just how fascinating I found them and the anticipation I used to feel when he'd go up into the loft and bring them down. The colourful boxes with the illustrations on and the cars themselves,at a time (early '80's) when the real things were rarely seen and usually downtrodden old bangers on their last MOT. Many years later my stepmother decided she'd relieve him of them so that set me off assembling a selection of my own, albeit in mostly worse condition than his were on  account of the ££ asked for mint and boxed stuff nowadays. They'll never be quite as good as the originals in my memory,but it's the best I can do. 

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7 hours ago, w00dy said:

I'm fully addicted at this point, I just can't get over how great they are for so little money.

IMG_20220525_094945.thumb.jpg.e515301247fd40ffb906281094230a57.jpg

Now I want another MGB for the l wheels to replace the shite ones this comes with.

The black ones with hubcaps? Personally I like the 5 spokes in various colours, and the ones that look like Halibrands with the 3-eared spinner in the centre

image.png.5c1804473223663bd2cda9efee505f07.png

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I'll echo the above about collecting diecast that is contemporary with my childhood.

Whilst I do love a Superfast or Corgi Juniors, they were actually fairly robust and of the many I had, a lot of them have survived to the present day.

Majorettes, while still robust, were not as widely available where I lived, Guisvals were only obtainable on holiday in Spain and Bburago or Polistil 1/24s were for birthdays and Christmases only. They also fell to bits if the wind changed.

So it's the latter toys that I love to collect, mainly those that I couldn't attain or just weren't available. 

The new Hot Wheels and Matchbox are great but it's the thrill of the chase I'm in it for. I just find them a little sterile.

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30 minutes ago, Split_Pin said:

I'll echo the above about collecting diecast that is contemporary with my childhood.

Whilst I do love a Superfast or Corgi Juniors, they were actually fairly robust and of the many I had, a lot of them have survived to the present day.

Majorettes, while still robust, were not as widely available where I lived, Guisvals were only obtainable on holiday in Spain and Bburago or Polistil 1/24s were for birthdays and Christmases only. They also fell to bits if the wind changed.

So it's the latter toys that I love to collect, mainly those that I couldn't attain or just weren't available. 

The new Hot Wheels and Matchbox are great but it's the thrill of the chase I'm in it for. I just find them a little sterile.

Certainly agree with that, Buragos were a rare treat for me too ,which is why I still have most of my childhood examples. I had a few Majorettes and a few 1:43 Solidos as souvenirs when we began to take holidays abroad from about 1987 onwards, I don't recall them being readily available around Colchester in the eighties.

The thrill of the chase though,that just sums it up for me. Like most of us here I suspect,I've got a mental list of things my collection needs and it's a strange but pleasant feeling if/when I come across one of them. Probably never will tick them all off but I hope never to stop looking.

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I too believe that personally it's a desire to hold onto the past. A time in your life when you're care free. Wanting stuff for ages and the anticipation of finally getting it. It's not the same when you're older with disposable income. It's not only die_cast that does this for me but many other things. Retro mountain bikes for example from growing up in my teens doing a paper round. Needless to say I have those too. I have a personal cassette player for when I'm mowing the lawn. I like to collect items from the 80's.

I remember the Majorettes in the clear plastic packaging on a spinning display in the chemists. Getting the red XR3i from Weetabix. The Matchbox laser wheels...  etc. etc.

So I understand the nostalgia associated with such things.

 

 

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