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Shite in Miniature II


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Early lunch today, as I've to drop the Yaris down to get its badly-blowing exhaust looked at before its MOT in August.

Little bit of Lesney loveliness for you:

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Yup, the #45 Ford Corsair.

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This was one of two I obtained from the market stall last year, and despite being a bit playworn - and missing the clip-on plastic boat from the roof - I really like it.

It's also overdue a bit of a scrub, as although the decades of toybox grime give it a certain patina, I'm slightly disinclined to spend much time touching it. Which is a pity, as it fits into the hand so pleasantly.

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Lesney did a good job with the proportions here - the larger contemporary Dinky version looked a bit stubby, IMHO, while the Lone Star Impy rendering looked good but tended to lose its opening bits quite quickly. Cararama's stab at a 2dr Corsair from the early 2000s didn't look quite right either (though that might have been because of the too-wide axles).

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Number plate is a bit odd - generally Lesney put GB-style plates on their toys of this era, but 7151 VI doesn't really correspond with anything.

I'd thought it might be a Republic of Ireland plate, but apparently VI wasn't a series ever issued (British Virgin Islands did use it, but only in the mid-90s).

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Simple, elegant, expertly modelled and so very charming. Peak Lesney. I like it.

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Is the reg not 715 TVT, which is a 'normal' pre-63 British plate. Maybe Matchbox just hadn't caught up to the suffix plates yet when the car was being modelled? I have no idea when it came out but if it was late '63 like the real thing it might explain it.

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1 hour ago, barrett said:

Is the reg not 715 TVT, which is a 'normal' pre-63 British plate. Maybe Matchbox just hadn't caught up to the suffix plates yet when the car was being modelled? I have no idea when it came out but if it was late '63 like the real thing it might explain it.

Y'know what, I think you're right - it's kinda hard to tell with both the towhitch in the way and the boot lip overhanging, but the plate does seem to read 715 TVT - which would indicate a Stoke-on-Trent area code.

The Charlie Mack big book o' Matchbox reckons the #45 Corsair appeared in 1965, and carried on through to the 1969 catalogue year, so while maybe it's not quite period-correct (its real-life counterpart would have been on a C-suffix at the point of launch) - it's not jarringly out of place.

My phone camera resolutely won't focus on the relevant area, but happy to call that mystery solved!

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7 hours ago, Datsuncog said:

Just a plug for @Roverageous new diecast endeavour:

May be of some interest to the folks on this fair thread?

OneFortythree: Shop our selection of diecast model cars in the UK – OneFortyThree

Thank you - most kind!

If anyone on this thread (or AS as a whole!) wishes to purchase anything, message me first, and I'll make sure I do my very best for you :)

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9 hours ago, Datsuncog said:

The Charlie Mack big book o' Matchbox reckons the #45 Corsair appeared in 1965, and carried on through to the 1969 catalogue year.................

Just missed out on making it to the Superfast range. Wonder what it would look like on a set of the smallest Superfast wheels?

Would make for a nice set with the Cortina Mk2 and Zodiac Mk4, but without going and hunting mine down its seems a little smaller in scale?

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I think that would work quite well.  Get a Corsair next to a mk2 Cortina for comparison, I think they should be pretty close for scale.  Corsair should be the bigger car, by a small margin.  Note that the mk3 Zephyr and 400E minibus were significantly smaller, so must be to a smaller scale.  Capri and Anglia were both bigger, for some reason; meanwhile the 300E van should be close enough to the Corsair.  Cortina mk4 and Escort are bigger too.

Just thinking aloud here...

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I have a feeling the Corsair is a bit smaller than the Cortina MK2, it's scaled the same as the Anglia and a few of the other early 60s releases. Think I have a spare Coarse Hair and Angular in the "I'll get round to restoring that eventually" box. Not sure I feel like cooking in the loft looking for my nicer examples

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14 hours ago, Spottedlaurel said:

Would make for a nice set with the Cortina Mk2 and Zodiac Mk4, but without going and hunting mine down its seems a little smaller in scale?

 

5 hours ago, bunglebus said:

I have a feeling the Corsair is a bit smaller than the Cortina MK2

Exhaustive* scientific results are in... and yup, seems the Corsair's scaled just a bit tinier.

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Mind you, my Mk2 'Tina and Mk4 Zod' are both wearing Superfast wheels, which hoicks them up in the air a little - sadly I've no regular wheels versions for comparison here.

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I picked those two up at a car boot sale in Brighton c.2001, along with some other early-era Superfasts.

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They cost me a pound each and I very nearly had second thoughts!

Some are better than others; they're not mint but I reckon they display well enough.

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The Zodiac spent several years blu-tac'd to the dashboard of my Mk2 Fiesta, without any ill-effects to the paint.

Funny, I've had a vast amount of Matchbox go through my hands in the past three years - but I still have a lot of affection for this little collection.

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48 minutes ago, Datsuncog said:

I picked those two up at a car boot sale in Brighton c.2001, along with some other early-era Superfasts.

468366906_IMG_20220720_1619562.thumb.jpg.73646e85d340657be175ce16ca7b0108.jpg

They cost me a pound each and I very nearly had second thoughts!

Some are better than others; they're not mint but I reckon they display well enough.

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The Zodiac spent several years blu-tac'd to the dashboard of my Mk2 Fiesta, without any ill-effects to the paint.

Funny, I've had a vast amount of Matchbox go through my hands in the past three years - but I still have a lot of affection for this little collection.

Staple Superfast those, I agree they are the best of their era.  I've owned several of each at one time or another and still have 2 late 1600TLs, a Cortina, 2 Diplomats and 2 Zephyrs. I was delighted to finally pick up one each of the latter 2 with bonnets attached via here over the last couple of years.

I remember how much I liked spotting old VW Type 3s when I was very small and also how excited I was to find a model of one at a Swapmeet in 1990 for 50p! Couldn't believe it! ( I was unaware of the above model at the time)

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14 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

You'd struggle to get ones like that for a quid now, that era Lesney look so good in the colours they used. Peak toy car time if you ask me

Oh I know! Still looking for the blue Cort (found out it may still be in the loft) that I bought for about 25p back in 2009/2010.

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Some bits arrived. First of all, a bunch of High Speeds. I know they're a bit crap but I find them amusing, especially the pink Golf. Rolls Royce looks suspiciously like the Summer casting 

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I also got this little Tonka with a hole in its posterior 

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Also similarly afflicted is this A-Team van. Plastic and made by Galoob, better known for Micro Machines 

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6 hours ago, Datsuncog said:

I picked those two up at a car boot sale in Brighton c.2001, along with some other early-era Superfasts.

468366906_IMG_20220720_1619562.thumb.jpg.73646e85d340657be175ce16ca7b0108.jpg

They cost me a pound each and I very nearly had second thoughts!

Some are better than others; they're not mint but I reckon they display well enough.

220705405_IMG_20220720_1620112.thumb.jpg.cc1a9afa5239c03fc5cd4acf269e72e6.jpg

992728994_IMG_20220720_1620052.thumb.jpg.045ebe0123489d092577e612cef8b1ba.jpg

The Zodiac spent several years blu-tac'd to the dashboard of my Mk2 Fiesta, without any ill-effects to the paint.

Funny, I've had a vast amount of Matchbox go through my hands in the past three years - but I still have a lot of affection for this little collection.

I’m in love with that 1100!

I’ve been restoring one of the cars I picked up for 50p at the autojumble the other day.

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Specifically this little Majorette of a Renault F4. As a little Renault service van it was pretty cool but, as you can see, not very tidy. So off went the yellow and on went a period correct beige:

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A few little details later and here we are. It’s not perfect - it’s a bit rough around the edges but I’m just gonna say that’s wear and tear from the fictitious little plumber who’s owned it since the mid 80s or something.

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The hot weather has put me off doing my project cars for some reason, so thought something simple might get my mojo back a bit.

Had these two Hot Rockers for a while, one pretty clean but with a missing engine and one tatty but all complete. Found a spare engine but the tab that holds it under the interior was broken off

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So a quick drill, tap and parts swap got me here

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Oops forgot the wheels. Might go back later and give the base a polish too

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Following on from yesterday's Matchbox shenanigans, you may have noticed this big brute hovering in the background...

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Yup, it's the King Size K-8 Guy Warrior Car Transporter, in the later all-yellow paint job for Farnborough Measham Auctions.

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Red hub Regular Wheels look pretty good on this one - the earlier version with the blue-green cab and red trailer came with grey plastic tyres, which always looked a bit odd to me.

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The cab's front detailing is very nicely done, in that crisp 1960s Lesney way.

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The lowering mechanism on the upper deck can be a bit exuberant - crashing down when you least expect it and launching the vehicles parked thereon off the edge of the dresser and onto the floor in the middle of the night (to use a totally made-up example...)

Matchbox largely solved that for the subsequent K-11 DAF Transporter by using nylon friction 'rams' to help with raising and lowering the deck in a more controlled manner.

I must dig out my Superfast-era DAF and compare the two trailers - I'd always thought that the later version was a reworking of the same one fitted to the Guy, but now I'm not so sure. I know the upper deck extends further beyond the cab in later versions and there's chequerplate on the driving surface of both, but the supports look quite different too.

Of course, I'm still looking for a decent Regular Wheels version of the DAF in either blue and gold, which was only on sale for the 1969 catalogue year, or yellow and orange (1970 only) - just looks a bit better rolling on separate tyres than the all-in-one nylon Superking slick wheels, I reckon.

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This Guy Transporter was sourced from the customary tat stall at the market just before Christmas last year, and was a fitting finale to an exhilarating - if sadly unsustainable - three-year odyssey into second-hand diecast trading.

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