Shite in Miniature II

[Split_Pin]

That's excellent, I'm liking your choice of subject matter. I have had the large Anker version since I was very young in the early 1980s, bought from a Newsagent no doubt as a shutter-upper by my mum.

[bunglebus]

Went in five different Tescos today during a work journey to Manchester  - only found new Matchbox in two but came up trumps 

The Space Kadett is obviously the star of the show, but I rather like that push n puller - spare obtained for custom painting!

 

[Remspoor]

Lorries.

Matchbox Thornycroft Tanker.

 

Merryweather fire engine

Refrigerator Truck

[Spottedlaurel]

3 hours ago, bunglebus said:

Went in five different Tescos today during a work journey to Manchester  - only found new Matchbox in two but came up trumps ..............

 

I popped into my local one. Tucked away at the back of the shelf they had a new case with a Sambar or two in it, but at least half had gone and sadly there were no Kadetts.

[bunglebus]

I have all day today kicking my heels around Manchester so I'll be hunting for die casts!

[sierraman]

1 hour ago, bunglebus said:

I have all day today kicking my heels around Manchester so I'll be hunting for die casts!

There’s a place in the centre, one of these vintage type places, they had Matchbox in there but crazy crazy prices. It’s just round corner from the Primark.

[bunglebus]

3 hours ago, sierraman said:

There’s a place in the centre, one of these vintage type places, they had Matchbox in there but crazy crazy prices. It’s just round corner from the Primark.

I'm not right in the centre, out by the airport. Found a vintage place, thankfully no cars going by his prices of £2-4 for a "vintage" badge etc

[Datsuncog]

Arrival this morning...

Nope, not Hot Wheels.

Nicely packed, anyway...

Oh yes. Remember this?

It was indeed so tempting. Too tempting, in fact.

Ooops.

Hopefully this isn't the beginning of another slippery slope...

But I absolutely loved the film Convoy when I was a kid and, as I said upthread, had a special place for the Corgi Juniors Mack R-Series tractor unit and Saro Gloster tanker trailer.

Watching it now, it's all a bit of a mess - it can't decide whether to be a smash-em-up road comedy, or a melodrama about modern-day desert cowboys wronged by corrupt authorities - but I understand the released version wasn't the film Sam Peckinpah had shot, after he was fired and EMI brought in someone else to piece a coherent and marketable narrative together from all the hours (and hours, and hours) of raw footage.

Not quite as amusing as Smokey and the Bandit, not as tense as Duel, not involving as many wrecks as the original Gone In 60 Seconds, and never quite reaching the same cod-philosophical ponderings as Vanishing Point, Convoy still has a special place in my shite-themed DVD collection.

I'll enjoy this. Certainly brightened up a wet Tuesday morning, anyway.

[bunglebus]

Well after hours hunting retail establishments, I found very little. Got all exited finding a One Below as they don't exist down south

Uh.

New 9 pack in Tezco

And of course WH Smith can always be relied on for 8 year old, tatty, overpriced Hot Wheels 

So the only thing of any excitement, other than a solitary black Cosworth in B&M, was a possibly too expensive Dinky MK2 Transit in a Sue Ryder shop. Bonus Transit in a Transit shot:

[500tops]

Quick trip to Sue Ryder after work yielded these:

Anyone know anything about the Blue- Box pull backs? They are marked as Takara Penny Racers but seem a bit longer than the Tomy Takara/Choro Q penny racers I remember.

VERY powerful motors in both mind 😃

[bunglebus]

5 hours ago, 500tops said:

Quick trip to Sue Ryder after work yielded these:

Anyone know anything about the Blue- Box pull backs? They are marked as Takara Penny Racers but seem a bit longer than the Tomy Takara/Choro Q penny racers I remember.

VERY powerful motors in both mind

No but that buggy especially is awesome. I remember having penny racers but not those two, they were shorter and more cartoon like

[Split_Pin]

The Mack R series is very impressive indeed. I'm drawn to the wheels and tyres for some reason, probably because they're not the usual chrome.

IXO and Motorart (same company maybe?) make some cracking 1/43 scale lorries.  I have a few modern European examples.

[bunglebus]

Box fresh

[bunglebus]

New old Hot Wheels in Poundstretcher 

[AndyW201]

Sadly, a bit of a drought of new desirable diecast near me. Which is good, because after all, I'm stopping buying diecast!

Tesco nearest to me had a pleasing amount of full pegs, with Matchbox on them. Old case stock though, so shedloads of mk1 Civics, and more miniature airport tugs than real ones that exist in all the airports worldwide...

Casting the net a bit wider, nipped to Ingleby Barwick Tesco on my way to work. New case stuff, but no Kadetts or 3 series wagons (the only two I want out of that case. Grr!).

Ambling along South Shields in the van, and with a break due, just nipped into Tesco there. Their toy department amounts to half a bay. No MB at all, but fortunately, I did pick up a couple of HW I've been hunting for,

Nice colour scheme on this Porker. Very '70s,

I was very happy to find this, normally fast Fords are hard to get hold of.

Only problem being, with the tampo printing on the sides and over the top, the front and rear get missed out, and this casting has some lovely detail. I have the original release in plain blue and that looks great with the headlights picked out and the central bumper and grille blacked out with a tiny blue RS logo. Nice Ford badge on this one nevertheless.

Same at the rear. The valance is great with the exhausts moulded in but how much better would it look with that moulded in RS logo and the lights picked out?

Still nice though. I've managed to get all the Mk3 Focus mainline releases. Just going to have to forget about the MB Kadett I think. By the time I've driven around, wasted fuel and bought shite I don't need in all the Tescos I visit, I could probably afford to go on eBay and get a 1/43 Minichamps version... 🤣

 

 

[Datsuncog]

Today's laptop warmer (as the Mack's a bit big to sit there without obscuring the screen):

Vanguards Granada Ghia MK1, in Roman Bronze with the tan vinyl roof.

I was so taken with this when I got it in 2001 - the paintwork looked so good, and the detail in the alloys seemed superb.

Having collected mostly 1/43 models of 50s and 60s cars, because that was mostly all there was, Vanguards stepping into the 70s felt amazing. I was hopeful that soon they'd have a go at modelling a Viva HC, like the one I owned at the time.

The ride height was maybe a bit high, but the body proportions looked bang-on.

The tiny Ford lettering on the grille was the kind of detail that just didn't tend to get added to £10 models back then, while the separate metal wipers were exquisite (I'd only seen them on more expensive Trofeu models at that time).

Oddly though, the box pictures show a red badge on the grille, which mine lacks.

Still, this one held the exalted position of 'favourite model' for quite some time.

Assorted bumf lived under the box's moulded inner...

...and I superglued the mirrors on without creating too much mess (unlike the MK2 Cortina I destroyed with a drippy tube of glue, and still makes me feel quite cross twenty years on).

It still says Lledo underneath, but by this stage Corgi were running the show. Early Vanguards models from the 90s had Lledo on the packaging and a factory address in Enfield - but following the Corgi buyout in 2000, it seems the Lledo branding was removed from the box beyond the address on the back for 'Lledo Collectables Ltd' in Leicester, which is where Corgi's UK operations were based.

I also had this casting as a historic rally version of a Consul GT, but never really warmed to it and sold it on a fair few years ago.

But I'm glad I hung onto this one - a quick check through eBay indicates I'd be paying quite a bit more to acquire one now...

[bunglebus]

Just got in, Mrs says there's a big box in the kitchen...

Uh oh. This was the result of bidding on one seller's job lots and winning them all, it was a heavy box! Close ups of my main targets to follow

[sierraman]

You must have cornered the market in Matchbox and Hot Wheels by now! 

[bunglebus]

Pretty much, lots of it is stuff I've seen before/is tatty but there were a couple that made it worthwhile. Where can I get glass for a Corgi MK1 Escort? 

Yet another one of these destined for a repaint, the last one I bought had the stickers placed differently so of course I had to keep it

Dinky

That street sweeper is a brilliant bit of kit

Cleaner Range Rover than the one I bought on Sunday

These were bought separately, the C111s for the one with purple glazing 

they have different colour bases too

And a better Zylmex Supervan than my current one. Just working out which end is which!

 

[bunglebus]

Bought a set of Dinky number plates. No-one seems to do square ones which is annoying for the Land Rover and the Beetle I did a while back

[AndyW201]

22 hours ago, Datsuncog said:

Today's laptop warmer (as the Mack's a bit big to sit there without obscuring the screen):

Vanguards Granada Ghia MK1, in Roman Bronze with the tan vinyl roof.

I was so taken with this when I got it in 2001 - the paintwork looked so good, and the detail in the alloys seemed superb.

Having collected mostly 1/43 models of 50s and 60s cars, because that was mostly all there was, Vanguards stepping into the 70s felt amazing. I was hopeful that soon they'd have a go at modelling a Viva HC, like the one I owned at the time.

The ride height was maybe a bit high, but the body proportions looked bang-on.

The tiny Ford lettering on the grille was the kind of detail that just didn't tend to get added to £10 models back then, while the separate metal wipers were exquisite (I'd only seen them on more expensive Trofeu models at that time).

Oddly though, the box pictures show a red badge on the grille, which mine lacks.

Still, this one held the exalted position of 'favourite model' for quite some time.

Assorted bumf lived under the box's moulded inner...

...and I superglued the mirrors on without creating too much mess (unlike the MK2 Cortina I destroyed with a drippy tube of glue, and still makes me feel quite cross twenty years on).

It still says Lledo underneath, but by this stage Corgi were running the show. Early Vanguards models from the 90s had Lledo on the packaging and a factory address in Enfield - but following the Corgi buyout in 2000, it seems the Lledo branding was removed from the box beyond the address on the back for 'Lledo Collectables Ltd' in Leicester, which is where Corgi's UK operations were based.

I also had this casting as a historic rally version of a Consul GT, but never really warmed to it and sold it on a fair few years ago.

But I'm glad I hung onto this one - a quick check through eBay indicates I'd be paying quite a bit more to acquire one now...

Great stuff! Nice to see some Vanguards love on here, as people on here may know, I have a bit of a penchant for them!

I bought a few when the original run came out circa 1996. Having got hooked again on collecting diecast with the Corgi Classics stuff of the early '90s, the Vanguards range seemed to move things right along. I couldn't believe after years of wishing, I could finally get a nice, detailed, reasonably priced 1/43 scale Anglia 105E model. A few years later I was browsing a model shop in Whitby and this new generation of Vanguards had just come out. Again, they had moved the game on with sprung suspension, realistic separate lights, realistic wheels, photo etched wipers and really fine tampo printed badging. The best part though was the subject matter. Marina! Allegro! Mk1 Granada & Consul! Stuff I had dreamt about having model versions of.

That day I came away with the Granada 3.0 Ghia and Marina 1800 Super, both in white (the Consul GT rally just missing out that day!). It was to be a slippery slope...

Since then, a few others of the Granada casting have joined the collection,

That early purchase, circa 2001. Looks like it must have come after the Roman Bronze version as it has that red central grille badge and the Ghia and 3.0 wing badges.

Onyx green is one of my favourite colours for the Granada.

The Hidden Treasures version.

Looks great in Purple Velvet. On an M plate and badged as a Granada, but the lack of brightwork and GT style wheels suggest more Consul to me,

And as Base as can be, the Daytona Yellow Consul looks fab.

A bit more flash, the GT version,

And the Swift taxis Leicester version of the base Consul. As can just about be seen, the Lledo branding actually made a brief reappearance in the acrylic box era.

Yep, one of my favourite castings of the series. The Roman Bronze version is the one that has actually eluded me though!

Speaking of Vanguards, more soon!

[bunglebus]

I like a good easter egg, sometimes Mattel hide details inside their cars that can only be found when you take it apart - this one's a little easier to find but amused me none the less...

Yep the writing on the base is printed up both ways. This pleases me greatly

[bunglebus]

Postman scared the life out of me banging on the door just as I put my hand on it to go out - what hidden delights was I after among this lot? Clue: it's not the models of yesteryear

[Datsuncog]

^^ Is that a green Guisval Mk1 Fiesta in the front row, beside the Majorette Alpine?

[bunglebus]

5 minutes ago, Datsuncog said:

^^ Is that a green Guisval Mk1 Fiesta in the front row, beside the Majorette Alpine?

No! It's a Mira MK1 Fiesta, seen these go for strong money so was pleased to spot that among the tat. I have a Guisval already

That Chrysler/Simca Alpine is tidy too

Lots of junk in the trunk

These came separately from a different seller, I've been hunting the red interior Corgi bug for a while, very nice it is too

also included was this Matchbox MK1 Golf which seems to have been incorrectly assembled

[Split_Pin]

Mine is the same, except its the other side.

[bunglebus]

@Datsuncog

The Guisval looks a bit stubby in comparison, but I reckon it's more faithful to the real car. Mira has better door cards and general detail

[Datsuncog]

Today's work companion, busted from the underbed prison...

I'd mentioned yesterday that way back in 2001, I was hopeful that Vanguards would soon release a Viva HC as part of their striking range of 1970s metal.

Well, I'm still waiting - they did produce a two-door HB Viva, but so far the closest I've come to a 1/43 model of my own car is Oxford Diecast's Vauxhall Firenza.

This was a bit of an unexpected release, as largely Oxford's 1/43 scale stuff has been rather more staid 50s and 60s models - but not unwelcome.

The overall shape is good, and while the detail's maybe not quite as finely done as recent Vanguards, it would be churlish to complain.

Ok, so I'm a churl - I wish the headlights weren't quite so googly, but it's not a bad effort.

Coloured plastic inserts for the rear lights might have looked a bit more authentic than paint, but hey - beggars/choosers and all that.

Badging isn't bad, and the interior's nicely detailed (you'll have to take my word for it, as the potatocam won't have any of it).

The underside hasn't been ignored either, with some reasonable effort at detailing - more than earlier Vanguards had, anyway.

I'd hoped this one might mark an upturn in 1/43 cars from a similar era by Oxford - maybe a Maxi? - but not much joy yet. Though I was tempted by their Jensen Interceptor...

This model was available in a few different colours, and I so wanted this in Honey Starmist - like my real-life Viva - but the only ones I could find in that shade had terrible paintwork flaws, so I ended up with the blue one instead.

As my grandmother might have said, it's better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick...

[bunglebus]

On 21/06/2022 at 21:48, Spottedlaurel said:

With a scrap 1500 road car and appropriate skills there's probably scope to make a decent custom Beetle out of it.

Well I have the first part, the skills element remains to be seen

I've also dismantled a Dragon Wheels just so I could see what had been altered, the roof narrows more at the back and the rear window is smaller, actually making that area more accurate than the original. You have to wonder how much was actually saved using the original casting, there's really not a lot of it left.

Still amazed that the 1500, Flying Bug, Dragon Wheels, Volks-Dragon and Sand Digger all share DNA

[andrew e]

Was that a Hotwheels Jack up Corvette in the pile too? Those Fiesta’s are lovely aswell.