Shite in Miniature II

[sheffcortinacentre]

  On 23/11/2022 at 22:19, bunglebus said:

I wonder how far the engine detailing extends under the bonnet?

Discovered the Matchbox Merc estate has junk in the trunk - but what's it all supposed to be?

 

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Top two a satchel and a cycle helmet?

[bunglebus]

Maybe, I agree one looks like a bag of sorts - the crate looks a bit like beer to me...

[bunglebus]

Just watching a 2023 D case unboxing video. BMW is a nice new casting

Autoshite tour bus will be appearing

And I'm sure someone at Mattel is watching me - first they copied my red Matchbox MR2, now the Honda Cub!

 

[w00dy]

Looked a nice model in the packaging.

 

Oh dear.

[Datsuncog]

Nice morning.

Kinda wintry.

Had a meeting in town today, so headed in a bit early.

You know why.

Can't say it was entirely worthwhile, from a tat perspective...

As I'm not really the target audience for a dog on wheels, or even a retro coffee set.

Not these days, anyway.

There were the last of the 1/76 buses and trams from a few weeks back, but that was pretty much the height of it.

Oh, hang on...

Well, hot damn.

An unusual collection of (mostly) early 2000s Matchbox and 2010s Hot Wheels, mainly road-standard versions of production cars - almost all of which had been opened and then taped up again.

Which maybe isn't unusual in itself, only there were loads of duplicates - like maybe three or four of each, all of which had been opened.

Hmm.

Some of them had also been put back in the wrong boxes, and most of them were upside down/ sideways on.

For instance, this Cadillac Allante ain't a Shelby Cobra.

Nor is this Ford Probe a Thunderbird by any stretch.

Most peculiar.

Some interesting castings though, a few of which were unfamiliar to me - like this Toyota Scion.

Guess I was living overseas at the point these were released (c.2005/6).

The bag of Hot Wheels were similar: many duplicates, with multiple models in the same colour - and nearly all of them previously opened.

This selection was a little bit newer than the Matchbox, I think - dating from around 2015 or so - and a mix of short cards and long cards.

My knowledge of the newer stuff is highly limited, so it's possible these are sooper rare - but I kinda doubt it.

At a quid a throw, I imagine these will be popular with the kiddywinks, but dunno how many collectors would be all that keen.

I shuffled around the rest of the stalls, but there wasn't very much to grab my attention.

The General Tat stall had some more Hot Wheels from a few years back nestling in among the Sudoku puzzle books, at a slightly inflated rate:

And also some Matchbox, in boxes - looks to be the same Chinese-packaged 2019 releases that Poundstretcher had out on their shelves over the summer.

And, perhaps more interestingly, another smattering of Greenlight models:

Nice, but not really my thing these days.

I took a spin past Alan's Emporium, but he didn't have very much beyond the unboxed Days Gone stuff, still being given the premium treatment at a fiver a throw:

God loves a tryer, as they say.

I swooped briefly past the Charity Stall, which in times past had served me well with some vintage diecast delights, but there was nothing of interest - a couple of chipped Disney Pixar 'Cars' toys was all he had with wheels, amid the discount dog food and bundles of secondhand pens.

Ah well!

[bunglebus]

I'd have had a good rummage through that lot!

This method of customising is far too easy - another Matchbox has succumbed to the route of wheel swapping and a bit of detail. This is the Moving Parts '32 Ford pickup.

Sun is annoyingly low in the sky (I suppose I should just be happy it's out) so I tried taking pictures indoors and out.

Wheels are from a guy who 3D prints them, with a coat of sparkly silver. Did the wings in matt black and a coat of red primer for the seat. That's about it, simple but effective. 

Interesting how much smaller modern Matchbox are too

[Datsuncog]

  On 25/11/2022 at 12:14, bunglebus said:

I'd have had a good rummage through that lot!

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Well... I can't say that I didn't...

[sutty2006]

  On 25/11/2022 at 09:06, w00dy said:

Looked a nice model in the packaging.

 

Oh dear.

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Has the automated painting machine fucked the roof? 

[junkyarddog]

  On 25/11/2022 at 12:14, bunglebus said:

I'd have had a good rummage through that lot

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You and me both 🤣

[bunglebus]

Right I've got to get back to some proper projects, it's getting addictive doing wheels and details! Couldn't resist making the Ain't No Saint gasser a bit nicer though

I love that Mattel put things like the footrest and pedals in although you'll never see them.

Spent an age painting the interior black except the roll cage, fire extinguisher and belts are red - again almost impossible to see! Black wash on the engine makes it pop, and a mix of Hot Wheels and Matchbox wheels are a close match to the real thing. Here's the before:

[w00dy]

  On 25/11/2022 at 13:40, sutty2006 said:

Has the automated painting machine fucked the roof? 

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Yep, might try to fix it when I can be arsed.

[bunglebus]

  On 25/11/2022 at 09:06, w00dy said:

Looked a nice model in the packaging.

 

Oh dear.

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Error car. Cool

[MiniMinorMk3]

A few pages back I mentioned that I had collected 1/43rd Ferrari F1, and built a few kits.

Here's a model of a John Surtees 1964 Monaco car. Made by Scale Racing Cars from white metal. It took a week of evenings to complete.

 

[MiniMinorMk3]

My last piece of model making was this 1976 Ferrari. I never finished it as I just was not happy with how the body fitted to the chassis. I spent about a month on it. The engine and rear suspension alone contains over 200 parts.

And yes this is also 1/43rd scale.

[500tops]

Good grief! Amazing detail

[bunglebus]

I'm blaming @Split_Pinfor this one,, got into a conversion about all the different versions of the Hot Wheels Escort RS1600 and mentioned I didn't have the ID chase car. Well now I do, just don't tell the Mrs how much it was! 

Only the Super to find now but that's very unlikely given how much they sell for

[NorfolkNWeigh]

  On 24/11/2022 at 19:32, Conan said:

My Minichamps CX 1/43 was a bit lonely so I got it a companion. BMW M535i by Autoart. The box's not in great shape but the model itself is in excellent nick.

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You really should get a Rover Vitesse to re-enact one of my favourite  Giant Test’s from 1985.

[Conan]

Seems like a good challenge. I wonder if I can hunt down a reasonably priced one locally (Either Minichamps or Corgi would do) considering there's probably 3 people in this country who even got a clue what an SD1 is. 🤔 

You never know though. Might get lucky.

[sutty2006]

The hotwheels short wheel base Audi is lovely. It even handles well down Arthur’s helter skelter…. The front is well detailed ..

 

but the back missed the detailing crew. 
 

[Datsuncog]

  On 25/11/2022 at 13:38, Datsuncog said:

Well... I can't say that I didn't...

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So, maybe not all that exciting a haul compared to previous Friday finds - but still kinda interesting.

The Volvo C30 and Audi RS8 are dated 2007 on the packaging, so are probably 2008 releases.

There were red and (I think) black versions of the RS8 in the trunk too, but I grabbed one of the blue ones - whenever these came out, this was the colour I tended to notice on these lairy Audis.

And oh, how they made themselves noticed.

Still, I'm a sucker for a longroof in miniature. The grille on this is great.

I did have an identical C30 acquired around 2008 - probably picked up from Tesco - but I think I passed it on a couple of years ago.

Unless I'm wrong, in which case I now have two of 'em.

There were a few gold versions in the big ol' case on the market stall, and also some black ones - but the black seemed to mask a lot of the details, so I went for gold again.

I liked the C30, but MrsDC has an irrational hatred of them so this is likely the closet I'll ever get to one.

The Prius says 2008 on the packaging, so it's probably an '09 release. 

Same chunky wheels as the other two, which are maybe a wee bit hefty - but the shell detailing's really very nice.

I think there were a few different colour versions of this one in the case, but I went for this pale green as it's the same as the first one I saw - a family two doors down bought one new in 2009. Now they seem fairly unremarkable, but it was quite the statement back then.

But I was really taken with this bad boy - the Mitsubishi L200 KA crew cab. Another with the base marked 2008, so presumably the same catalogue year as the Prius.

I don't remember seeing these models on the pegs at the time, so I can only assume they were out around the time that I'd sworn off diecast and was keeping myself away from the toy aisles.

The proportions and detailing are truly excellent all over - this really is a little gem.

And being Matchbox, there's plenty of junk in the trunk.

This one has a certain resonance for me - as my time as the qualified childseat fitter at Halfords coincided with the point when certain tax breaks meant that these crew cab pickups were really popular with company car users, at least locally.

A fair chunk of my working day was spent informing men (always men), who showed up in their brand new blinged-out L200s with Animal and Warrior graphics, that it wasn't possible to fit a child seat in the back. There were no Isofix mountings, and the thin rear bench was simply the wrong profile to allow child seats to fit in - it was only designed to be used as an occasional perch.

Watching these guys realise that they were going to have to go home and sheepishly explain that their great tax wheeze was not actually going to be any use as a family car gave my black misanthropic heart something of a glow. 

I'm horrible like that.

But yeah - four really quite nice Matchbox models of then-contemporary cars which are now hovering on the edge of shitedom...

(Well, not really in the case of the RS8 - but imagine it's a boggo A4 wagon with sporty bits glued on)

And then there's this!

It's interesting to compare an early-90s Matchbox to its late 2000s equivalents. Because it's startling to realise just how low Matchbox had fallen at the time the brand was owned by Tyco.

Rear detailing is... cursory.

Other than the side-swept rear windows, I think you'd be hard pushed to immediately recognise this car as a Ford Probe.

1993 on the base indicates a 1994 release.

But - urgh! - those wheels! Those graphics! A bright-blue interior!

This model kinda encapsulates why I drifted away from finding Matchbox cars appealing by the time I was in my early teens.

They weren't even trying.

This one's also really dusty, like it's been on a shelf for many a long year.

But that's okay. I'll probably clean it up a bit, and then...

Aw damn, I dunno.

Ah well.

[bunglebus]

The Tyco era stuff is pretty awful, it surely can't cost any more to make a wheel that looks realistic? Mind you the 90s was a time of some terrible styling choices both by car manufacturers and the aftermarket. 

I suppose Tyco's wheel and colour choices weren't a million miles from reality

Mind you those wheels would work on one 90s car...

[bunglebus]

Ebay seller had quite a few of these, got outbid on most but scored these two. Another I don't remember seeing but by this point in my life it was BMXs, pirate radio and teenage girls over toy cars

Shame about that chip as they're otherwise mint

[MiniMinorMk3]

Some random stuff from me today.

Corgi Minor Fuzz

A pair of identacle Minis, but one is Revell and the other is Universal Hobbies.

 

AHC Micra

Trofeu Galant VR4 Portuguese Taxi

Matchbox Dinky KG Cabrio

Vitesse Herbie

RIO Daytona

RIO ID 19 Safari Fire Chief

Eligor Fire Vehicles

Eligor 911 Targa

 

[Split_Pin]

After months of being unable to find a HW MK2 Escort I went into the Entertainer and there were THREE. There was also a red Sierra. After having to resort to getting one posted out I feel that HW are taunting me!

I missed the white Nissan Maxima earlier in the year and they had 2 burgundy examples so I bagged one of those.

Typical!

[bunglebus]

It's all that dastardly @Datsuncog's fault. There I was minding my own business in the charity shop...

Poor detailing on the outside, but it looks like they had a good stab at the interior. Hard to see in black though 

[500tops]

Local charity shop find...

[bunglebus]

Mint! Base says Welly even though the box is unbranded 

[quicksilver]

Here's some proper shite in miniature, 3D printed in 1/76 scale by CMAC/m0rris 122 on eBay. Excuse the background as the layout is mothballed due to home renovations. They look better in person as the photos are much larger than actual size.

Who wouldn't want to make their final journey in a wedge hearse?

Jag is based on the one in the Jaguar Heritage collection driven by HubNut. It's actually the colour of my sister's old Hyundai Getz.

Maroon Volvo reminds me of a big plastic Stahlberg one I had as a kid

Tuscan Beige is an authentic colour for a Mk5 Cortina

But did Mk2 Granadas ever come in Aztec Bronze?

And the ultimate shite - a beige Morris Ital with a brown vinyl roof and brown interior.

[bunglebus]

Oh I forgot - these were in the same charity shop as the 50p Probe I found today 

£10 each tho

[eddyramrod]

  On 05/11/2022 at 15:58, eddyramrod said:

I smashed it up the backside of a Fiat (Tempra, IIRC) on my way home one day.  

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This has been nagging at me, as I had a feeling the Tempra was too new to be part of this story (October 1986).  I finally got round to a spot of googling, and now I'm sure that what I hit was actually a Regata.  All in the name of completion, you understand.