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Shite in Miniature II


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Posted
16 hours ago, Datsuncog said:

Four months later, just before Christmas, the VW breakdown truck became available as a standalone model (#490), though seems to have originally been painted in a yellow colour without any stickers - possibly using up some unused painted shells from the previous #431 Pickup? 

Interesting idea but I don't think this was the case - as you say, the tailgate was removed from the casting to fit the winch, so they can't have used old ones. They're a different yellow too. 

I think I have all the versions of this casting other than the green military one

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Even if I did cheat slightly with that last one

There are also endless re-release versions, this one's someone else's custom that I ended up with

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Posted
1 hour ago, bunglebus said:

Interesting idea but I don't think this was the case - as you say, the tailgate was removed from the casting to fit the winch, so they can't have used old ones. They're a different yellow too. 

Ah right, I see - I thought the Great Book Of Corgi said that the yellow pick-up had a flip-down tailgate, so it would have been a matter of leaving it off and riveting on the towing winch in its place. Obviously if it's a solid casting all round, then that's a no - and either it was a mistake in the book, or I read it wrong.

Lovely selection of Corgi Type 2s, anyway!

Posted

Arrived back 'home' yesterday. Eerily familiar but totally different at the same time.

Snuck a quick peak in the storage cupboard where my childhood stash of die-casts are.

No time to rummage though and sort today but things are looking promising....

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Posted

Arrived back 'home' yesterday. Eerily familiar but totally different at the same time.

Snuck a quick peak in the storage cupboard where my childhood stash of die-casts are.

No time to rummage though and sort today but things are looking promising....

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  • Like 2
Posted
41 minutes ago, Datsuncog said:

I thought the Great Book Of Corgi said that the yellow pick-up had a flip-down tailgate, so it would have been a matter of leaving it off and riveting on the towing winch in its place. Obviously if it's a solid casting all round, then that's a no - and either it was a mistake in the book, or I read it wrong.

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No opening parts sadly - less to get broken off though

Posted

New 5 pack in Entertainer. Other than the Datsun pickup not much to excite me so it stayed there 

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Only thing worth having was this Treasure Hunt Mini out of a delivery of slightly older long cards they'd just got in

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  • Like 2
Posted

Not perfect by any means but my take on if Matchbox did a Westfalia camper version. Couldn’t accurately cover the siren void so I made up an imaginary vent/air con/aerial type thing for the roof. 

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Posted

Lunchtime fun ahoy.

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Yes, another automotive grab 'n' go - this time, a Majorette Toyota Yaris Mk1.

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It's a fairly well proportioned thing, capturing the 3-dr lines very nicely.

I bought this one new from Tesco around 2006, I believe - they were selling off their Majorettes for 49p as they must have been discontinued stock. I bought two of them - one for a friend who ran an identical pre-facelift 3-dr at the time, and was mildly bemused when I gave it to him - and one to keep for myself.

It's nicely understated - for years, Majorette annoyed me by producing really interesting cars but insisting on painting them in really lairy colours, or with daft graphics all over them. Apart from the slightly squiffy rear lights overprinted in red, this remains resolutely factory, and appears all the better for it.

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One thing I will say: I wish they hadn't bothered with the opening bonnet.

It's nice to give a toy car that extra bit of play value, but it's such a small separate casting that the shut line is very obvious, much more so because of the separate plastic headlights.

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The engine is in fact quite detailed, though hard to see.

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Underside is also well rendered in part - not sure what the big blank rectangular area's there for, but the bits between the wheels are decent.

I liked this for its ordinariness whenever I bought it, never suspecting that within a few years I'd come to know one very well indeed...

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Posted

I have the Yaris too but in red. Some really interesting castings from the early 2000 from Majorette. Not a massive fan now, they feel a bit cheap!

Posted
18 hours ago, sierraman said:

I have almost never found any diecast in a charity shop?

I managed to get back for a second look. Sadly the box has been heavily picked over, but I still managed to liberate a few stragglers which I'll upload in a bit...

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  • Like 3
Posted

Looks glorious, I’d be in there head first. All the ones I have been in have been just full of dead people’s clothes and classical music CDs

Posted
13 minutes ago, 500tops said:

I think the Tyre Fryer is my favourite out of this motley selection 

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One of the earliest cars I can remember having was a Cougar Villager. I had one of those rugs that had a Road on it. Remember playing with that and a Corgi Rover 3500 police car. 

Posted
48 minutes ago, sierraman said:

One of the earliest cars I can remember having was a Cougar Villager. I had one of those rugs that had a Road on it. Remember playing with that and a Corgi Rover 3500 police car. 

Yeah, the Mercury was a favourite of a very young 500tops. 😂 I didn't have a rug like most of kids my age.  My play mat was the side of am old wooden packing case that my old man painstakingly painted up in a similar vein to the rugs; Car parks, roundabouts, zebra crossings, double yellow lines et al. 

All done when he was working backshift in Devonport Dockyard during the Falkland's conflict! 

Posted

I suspect someone's mum has had a clear out and got rid of those cars, bet the owner will be gutted when they go hunting for them!

I would also have dived in and probably bought most of the contents, work be damned!

Posted
1 hour ago, bunglebus said:

I suspect someone's mum has had a clear out and got rid of those cars, bet the owner will be gutted when they go hunting for them!

I would also have dived in and probably bought most of the contents, work be damned!

‘He’s far too old for playing with these Matchbox! I’ll drop them off at the Heart Foundation when I meet Ethel for a cup of tea...’

Posted

1965 Lincoln Continental in 1:64 by Greenlight.

Unfortunately, the rear sits lower than the front on this one. Unintentional gangster lean. 

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  • Like 6
Posted

Postie has finally caught up with deliveries. Strap in lads, this is a bit long. First off we have a real curiosity, Nacoral Inter-Cars No 6, the Lamborghini Marzal 

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Nacoral was a Spanish company which made plastic 1:43s in the 1960s which were copies (official or not) of other makes. In about 1969/70 they introduced a range of diecasts which, again, were all re-casts from other makers. The Lamborghini Marzal was taken from the short-lived Belgian company Sablon, which made really lovely highly-detailed cars that suffered from a horrible chemical reaction where the rubber tyres 'melted' the plastic wheels, so even MIB examples today have metled wheels... Sadly Nacoral versions of Sablon cars also suffered from this ailment, hence the weird wheels here. This is barely bad compared to some.

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Apart from the tyres, the finish is pretty crude overall. The paint is very thin. Detail is excellent, though, and the engine cover has a great double-jointed hinge mechanism

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Not sure what engine that's supposed to be, but it doesn't look like a Lambo V12 to me

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Base claims 'made in Belgium' which suggests that Sablon simply made a batch of Nacoral-branded cars for the Spanish market, which also explains why some Nacorals suffer from melty wheels and others (Spanish-built, presumably) don't. This model was re-numbered and re-released in different colours in 1971 and I wonder if those are Spanish-made? Whilst most of Nacoral's toys were copies of other European makers (they built about half the early 70s Mercury line-up for example) they did come up with a couple of 'unique' models including a great AMC AMX which I desperately want to find to display alongside my Pilen Javelin.

Moving on to somewhat more conventional stock, how about Politoys No 525, the Ferrari 250 GT Le Mans?

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Like the Marzal, this is a car which inspired several miniature replicas from various makers, but this is by far the most impressive (if not the most accurate overall)

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I think I'm right in saying this is the most complicated Politoys model ever made. There are an astonishing SEVEN opening parts and I reckon 24 seperate parts not including wheels, axles etc

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Even the fuel fillers open! Absolutely lovely stuff. This model is ripe for things snapping off, so finding one so complete (apart from one headlamp lens - the headlamps are two parts with seperate lamp and lens!) is quite rare. I'm not particularly into competition cars or Ferraris but I had to add this to the non-collection.

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Presumably undoing those screws would be a very bad idea indeed...

How to top that? What about some boxed 1970s Mercurys...

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Yep, that's two brand-new, never before out of their boxes Fiat 128s. Well, one of them still hasn't come out of its box. I'm passing that on to somebody else and I'll let him have the 'pleasure'.

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This is a pretty basic one with just opening doors, but benefits from jewelled headlamps at least.

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It's a nice weighty thing and the shape is pretty much bob-on. I wouldn't normally seek out one of these, but I couldn't resist these new-old stock examples.

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The lurid green thing is the Pininfarina Alfa Romeo 33/2 by Mercury which I think dates from 1970.

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Lots of opening bits...

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Sadly, but unsurprisingly, this has lost one of its delicate little doors which are hinged on the plastic window part. A real shame because otherwise it's barely touched, but then it's also why it was really cheap.

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Base is plain but I like the 'Alfa Romeo' and 'Pininfarina' typefaces replicated exactly. Interestingly* this one was also offered by Nacoral so there's a slim possibility of a future compare and contrast, though I suspect it'll be an exact copy based on the Marzal.

The Alfa 33 is a funny thing - it was a pure racing car with a mid-mounted V8 engine which was built in various configurations. Alfa also built a very limited number of 'Stradale' road-going versions, a handful of which went to outside coachbuilders. The Bertone Carabo was a 33, and Pininfarina also did a roadster version. Which means, if I was a perverted die-cast collecting wrong'un I'd be able to do this:

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But I'm not, so that's okay. Okay?

The

Posted

Wow, that Mercury 128 is a little Bobby Dazzler!

Seeing the Barrett collection is like seeing the scale model pages in C&SC. But with old stuff.

I've got a Solido Peugeot 104 with tyres and wheels that have reacted the same way. I wonder if there's a market for reproduction rims for Sablons and the like, or if the bubbled rimz are just accepted as the brutal reality of collecting them?

Posted

I believe Polistil did a Fiat 128, I had one a few years ago, really nice model but like early Bburago had loads of fragile bits stuck to it which probably lasted no more than an afternoon in most hands. 

Posted
10 hours ago, barrett said:

non-collection

A very nice non-collection it is too. Love these unusual die casts 

Posted

I just realised, the Dinky Mini Marcos i had as a kid was one of those few examples of a model that was better proportioned than the full size original. When years later i saw a real mini marcos, i was a bit shocked...

Mine was lost in house moves or clearances of course - I'd sort of like to still have that. It was (in my mind) in far better nick than all the ones that Google show me for sale. Istr it had the removable wheels, but i don't remember them being the minilites that seem to have been the usual. I remember them as being more like Compomotives...
/wistfulmusing

Posted
12 hours ago, barrett said:

Not sure what engine that's supposed to be, but it doesn't look like a Lambo V12 to me

If I recall, the Marzal was going to have half a V12 mounted transversely, so a straight six. Like the Chevy Epica. So the model might actually be accurate after all.

Also I am glad that you haven't developed a habit of collecting die cast models. It would be a real bore to read about them here and I'm sure I'd not look forward to every update with surprising glee.

  • Like 1
  • Haha 2
Posted
14 hours ago, Justwatching said:

1965 Lincoln Continental in 1:64 by Greenlight.

Unfortunately, the rear sits lower than the front on this one. Unintentional gangster lean. 

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Take the bodies out of the boot !!

  • Haha 2
Posted
4 hours ago, sierraman said:

I believe Polistil did a Fiat 128, I had one a few years ago, really nice model but like early Bburago had loads of fragile bits stuck to it which probably lasted no more than an afternoon in most hands. 

Ive got one of those, thankfully it's immaculate. The bodies are stronger than the earth itself but anything stuck to it is made of chocolate.

Posted
2 hours ago, chodweaver said:

I just realised, the Dinky Mini Marcos i had as a kid was one of those few examples of a model that was better proportioned than the full size original. When years later i saw a real mini marcos, i was a bit shocked...

Mine was lost in house moves or clearances of course - I'd sort of like to still have that. It was (in my mind) in far better nick than all the ones that Google show me for sale. Istr it had the removable wheels, but i don't remember them being the minilites that seem to have been the usual. I remember them as being more like Compomotives...
/wistfulmusing

I had a terrible one and passed it on. Pretty sure it had the Minilites but they're all interchangeable within reason

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Posted
2 hours ago, bunglebus said:

I had a terrible one and passed it on. Pretty sure it had the Minilites but they're all interchangeable within reason

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In theory they might be, but in reality, these are scale versions of a ten-inch Minilite; something no other Golden Jacks model had!  All the others were scale 13-15 inch.

I agree with the comment above about the proportions; I've seen maybe a handful of 1/1 Mini Marcosses (Marcae?) and they all looked dumpy and poorly-built.  The model looked positively sleek and certainly beautifully-made.

Posted

No sign of anything new Matchbox in Tesco. Annoyingly on the Lamley group page loads of articles about all the ones we cannot get in the U.K...

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