Shite in Miniature II

[bunglebus]

Capri has indeed reactivated my interest in making some project progress, new Dremel arriving recently has helped too. 

Thinking about polishing the base reminded me there was another car that needed shining up, this Hot Wheels Nitty Gritty Kitty I got off Barratt a while back

Removing the remains of the 48 year old paint revealed some heavy scratches and a fair old dent in the roof

A fair few hours straightening sanding and polishing have resulted in black hands but a very shiny Cougar

No excuse now not to paint it with a green stained glass aerosol, then the dreaded masking up of those stripes.

Had a 'mare finding new wheels as the only UK supplier I know of had closed his website, eventually tracked him down via WhatsApp using the phone number off a previous invoice, fortunately he still had some Brightvision parts left 

[Lord Sterling]

More purchase has taken place. 

Not long after I got the Golden Jacks Rover, I saw that there was another version (I think there are 3 in total; standard Corgi, Golden Jacks and Whizzwheels?) which looked like a standard P6 prior to Golden Jacks and Whizzwheels. 

I have attacked it slightly with the red and Molotow pens to fill in some faded parts but apart from that, it is as original as it ever has been. Complete with both front and rear number plates, GB sticker and an (illegible) tax disc in window. Plus it has a "running in" sticker on the back window.

What intrigues me is the underneath that is a section of window in the rear that looks like it goes far down into the vehicle itself,  not entirely sure what all that is about.

All 4 "tyres" have flat spots so wheels don't roll. Is it possible to change the "tyres" as they feel very plasticky and hard, maybe all that time since the 60s/70s has hardened the tyre rubber?

Anyway, it's nice to have another P6 in the collection. 

[Split_Pin]

The section in the back window operates the 'Trans-O-Lite' headlamps in the first issue P6. Hold it under a light source and then cover and uncover the square with your finger and watch the lights go on and off.

The Buick Riviera and Commer PB open back also have this. I loved playing with it as a kid.

Tyres are freely available on ebay. Its very common for the tyres to both go hard and flatten. This has happened to a lot of mine from extended periods of shelf display in the 80s and 90s.

[Lord Sterling]

16 minutes ago, Split_Pin said:

The section in the back window operates the 'Trans-O-Lite' headlamps in the first issue P6. Hold it under a light source and then covet and uncover the square with your finger and watch the lights go on and off.

Ah yes! So it does;

[ETCHY]

17 hours ago, Datsuncog said:

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

I know as an old fart it's easy to look at stuff & go it was all so much better made etc etc years ago but just looking at those & the detailing on them, it is true. I mean they were just toys they weren't fancy expensive stuff for collectors they were just stuff that random kids with big grins on their faces launched into skirting boards across the world & played with in the garden etc etc.

It really was a golden period for toy vehicle ( & toys in general IMO).

[NorfolkNWeigh]

On 7/20/2022 at 12:28 PM, Datsuncog said:

 

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

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.

To me it’s the Cortina that’s the ‘wrong’ size, it’s massive compared to the Zodiac . I know today it’s probably only Qashqai size but in the 60’s the Mk4 was seen as almost too big  and admired / ridiculed by people depending on their opinion, much like Range Rovers etc today.

I’ve owned full size examples of all 3 ( Corsairs, just to rip the gearboxes and diffs out😕) and although I know the Corsair is a Cortina underneath , they felt bigger. Could be the ones I drove being 2000Es, of course.

[Metal Guru]

9 minutes ago, NorfolkNWeigh said:

To me it’s the Cortina that’s the ‘wrong’ size, it’s massive compared to the Zodiac . I know today it’s probably only Qashqai size but in the 60’s the Mk4 was seen as almost too big  and admired / ridiculed by people depending on their opinion, much like Range Rovers etc today.

I’ve owned full size examples of all 3 ( Corsairs, just to rip the gearboxes and diffs out😕) and although I know the Corsair is a Cortina underneath , they felt bigger. Could be the ones I drove being 2000Es, of course.

IRL the Corsair was 8in longer than the Cortina Mk II but virtually the same width and height.

The Zodiac was altogether much bigger , 9 in longer than the Corsair , 6 in wider and 3in higher.

 

[Datsuncog]

Heh, 'box scale' was always an issue - and continues to be - with toy vehicles; it was a bit of a bugbear of mine while I was a kid. How can you create believable play scenarios when your Corgi Juniors Reliant Scimitar GTE is the same size as your Corgi Juniors Bedford TK skip truck? Why does the Matchbox Bedford TM Transporter have even smaller cars on the back?

But in the interests of production line uniformity and standardised shipping cases, manufacturers presumably just shrugged and assumed most kids wouldn't really notice, or care. The key thing was catching the young buyer's eye in the shop, and they were good at doing that.

Originally starting out as roughly OO railway scale - and, in the case of Dinky's unsuccessful Dublo range, overtly marketed for such purposes - Matchbox and Corgi's smaller Husky range both made matters more awkward by gradually increasing the scale of their models throughout 1960s. Older castings in the range could look ludicrously tiny against newer offerings on the same shelf. The Corsair, Mk2 Cortina and MkIV Zodiac mentioned were all sold alongside each other for a few years in the late 1960s. The nascent field of consumer research showed that bigger toys tended to be perceived as better value, while costing the manufacturer very little more to produce - and so sizing crept inexorably upwards.

Although not constrained by standardised packaging like Matchbox and Husky, larger models by Corgi, Dinky, Budgie and the like continued to be scaled quite erratically. Although generally around the 1/43 mark, commercials and buses tended to be scaled smaller while small vehicles like Minis were often scaled up. Comparing two of the Corgi Model Club's recent releases shows the #485 Mini Countryman with a higher roofline than the land yacht #237 Oldsmobile Super 88...

Tri-ang was one of the very few toymakers to address the vexing issue of scale with their Spot-On range - as hinted in the name, these were modelled at a constant 1/42 scale across the board for cars and commercials, so even the tiny Meadows Friskysport would appear 'spot-on' when placed beside the AEC Mammoth Major. Despite being a cut above the Corgi and Dinky offerings in terms of features and detailing at their point of introduction in the late 1950s, they were quite expensive and soon their unique selling points of detailed interiors, authentic paint colours, number plates and sprung suspension had been eroded by similar innovations from rival manufacturers.

But size standardisation never quite caught on - and even when Corgi took the plunge to upscale their range to around 1/36 in 1974, they were still producing a handful of their older 1/43-ish castings as late as 1980.

Modern Matchbox and Hot Wheels are really not much better, but I guess that's all part of the charm, somehow - even if that means it's difficult to play with the Subaru Sambar and 1941 Cadillac alongside each other...

[Split_Pin]

7 hours ago, Lord Sterling said:

Ah yes! So it does;

Look at that! I forgot how great it looked.

By the way, the Riviera has front AND rear Trans-o-lites!

[bunglebus]

I'm told Kenner Fast 111s were sold in the UK but I don't recall seeing them. They do occasionally pop up for sale though:

Also landing on the mat today was a Corgi Rockets Mercedes C111, something a lot of manufacturers had a go at it seems. This one was missing its front axle but that's not really a major problem when you have a few* spares...

[ETCHY]

7 hours ago, NorfolkNWeigh said:

To me it’s the Cortina that’s the ‘wrong’ size, it’s massive compared to the Zodiac . I know today it’s probably only Qashqai size but in the 60’s the Mk4 was seen as almost too big  and admired / ridiculed by people depending on their opinion, much like Range Rovers etc today.

I’ve owned full size examples of all 3 ( Corsairs, just to rip the gearboxes and diffs out😕) and although I know the Corsair is a Cortina underneath , they felt bigger. Could be the ones I drove being 2000Es, of course.

The Corsair was bigger, didn't it have the same glass etc (or have I dreamt that) as a mk1 Cortina?  That's why somehow the glasshouse on the Corsair always looked a bit narrow & the waistline beneath the windows were a bit like a ledge out from it (if you get what I mean ?)

[Bren]

17 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

I'm told Kenner Fast 111s were sold in the UK but I don't recall seeing them. They do occasionally pop up for sale though:

Also landing on the mat today was a Corgi Rockets Mercedes C111, something a lot of manufacturers had a go at it seems. This one was missing its front axle but that's not really a major problem when you have a few* spares...

I have a fast 111's yellow pick up

 

[bunglebus]

Don't know if it's any help to anyone, but G Force Models are closing down and have 40% off

https://www.gforcemodels.co.uk/

[bunglebus]

1 hour ago, Bren said:

I have a fast 111's yellow pick up

These are the only others I've found

 

[bunglebus]

2 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

By the way, the Riviera has front AND rear Trans-o-lites!

Here's a really crap picture of the rear ones

 

[155V6]

2 hours ago, bunglebus said:

I'm told Kenner Fast 111s were sold in the UK but I don't recall seeing them. They do occasionally pop up for sale though:

Also landing on the mat today was a Corgi Rockets Mercedes C111, something a lot of manufacturers had a go at it seems. This one was missing its front axle but that's not really a major problem when you have a few* spares...

That Rockets Mercedes is nice,I've not got a decent one of those.I did have this arrive yesterday though 

[bunglebus]

Looks smart, green Jag seems to be one of the more common finds. I didn't have the C111 either and got outbid on another lot containing one.

Gained a battered RO80 and Beach Buggy as part of getting that Merc

[155V6]

1 hour ago, bunglebus said:

Looks smart, green Jag seems to be one of the more common finds. I didn't have the C111 either and got outbid on another lot containing one.

Gained a battered RO80 and Beach Buggy as part of getting that Merc

This one is a lot darker than the one I have already,plus it has a red interior.Not that you'd be at all interested in variations 😂

[bunglebus]

Ah OK I have metallic green with white interior

And metallic green, red interior hover mode

That second appears to be much darker too

[bunglebus]

Mysteries of the universe no.66, and returning to the Matchbox Ford Cortina. Why does the regular wheels version have a recessed line around the bootlid...

While the Superfast version has a raised line

There's also a rare crossover with raised line on an early car

 

[bunglebus]

Just picked this lot up locally, mostly to flog on at boot sales etc and for wheel donors, there's a couple of interesting bits in there such as the 1:24 Miura concept and the older Chinese no names in good condition. Cost me a whole £1!

[andrew e]

Do those ‘111’ all have the same baseplate?

[sierraman]

Productive visit to the car boot. Paid 20p on these.

[sierraman]

Gave £1 for these. Chrysler Imperial was a freebie for spending so much. 

[sierraman]

£2 scored this BMW, going to try and get the indicators working.

[sierraman]

Didn’t think this was especially cheap at £2 but then seen they go for a fair bit on fleabay. 

[andrew e]

Dick Turpin of Autoshite there 🤣

[sierraman]

£1 got me this tidy Escort Van. 

[bunglebus]

3 hours ago, andrew e said:

Do those ‘111’ all have the same baseplate?

Not the same but all have the same info on

[bunglebus]

Still got to find a twin white stripe and number roundel to really finish it off, but I have to show you how this has come out

It's come a long way...

I'm sure I'll soon forget the pain of having to paint it four times. First it dropped off the stand into the dirt, second time I laid the paint on too thick and it looked awful. #3 looked great until a single rain drop fell out of a clear sky right onto the roof!

I don't often buy new parts but those Brightvision wheels really finish it off, it does make me feel really guilty cutting the near 50-year-old originals off though, but it's the only way unfortunately