Shite in Miniature II

[RoadworkUK]

That Hallmark Neoplan did look the pick o' the bunch. Glad you snaffled it. I'll refrain from asking to take it off your hands, though; I have the same model as depicted in the colours of defunct local operator Supreme. Said coach served occasionally as a contracted bus for my secondary school, and I bought the model as part of my ongoing project to recreate the most miserable period of my life in 1:76 scale.

[danthecapriman]

Tat Friday indeed!!

[bunglebus]

Also tat Friday, although technically this arrived yesterday 

[danthecapriman]

Does anyone know who made this?

Clearly old, and is all diecast. Absolutely no branding on it anywhere though!

[Datsuncog]

Second stab of the market's metaphorical arse over lunchtime didn't yield significant gains - by the time my meeting closed and I was able to scurry over, the bus department was looking decidedly scanty from earlier on.

Daaah. That's a fairly poor strike rate of 0/3 for @Rover414's preferred items this week. Not great. Sorry, dude.

Of course, the trio of Hong Kong Olympians hadn't gone anywhere. Typical.

Not much had changed in the rummage box, as far as I could tell:

But the white metal lorries and buses are shedding parts at an alarming rate. It's actually a bit distressing to see these fragile old things coming apart as the tough-nut Lledos and Matchbox batter them to bits every time someone rakes through the box.

Some good news though - the Lone Star loco was still in there, and picked up for 50p.

The tinplate hitch is still present, so there's no reason this can't be back to hauling duties on its miniature track, post-haste...

...although one of the cast-in front bogey wheels is kinda missing, presumed snapped off.

Still - for 50p, hopefully some use to @danthecapriman!

While finishing up my purchases, I noticed another fella in the rummage box, pulling out some trams and buses and seemingly snapping them with his phone, that then seemed to link across to eBay listings... am I doing this wrong? Is everybody just using Google Lens these days to find out what's it wurf m9?

I mean, if he finds it worth his while to be buying up moderately chipped Days Gone and flogging them online as a side hustle, then good luck to him - I think maybe I'm just feeling old here.

Kinda like when my hard-won encyclopedic knowledge of Record Collector price guides while digging through second-hand record crates crumbled in the face of Discogs and ready WiFi access via smartphones...

Ah now.

I took a stroll over to Alan's Emporium to see what he had on the 50p tray (finally set out):

But other than the 70s Lesney fantasy duo of the Fire Chief Car and the Woosh-N-Push at opposite ends of the front row, there wasn't much there to tempt me this time round.

A final sweep round the stalls indicated a haul of 00 gauge railway rolling stock on one of the other tat stalls, displacing a load of cutlery from earlier:

All individually priced between £4 and £10 - not sure about the locos though, I daresay they were rather more expensive.

And that, as they say, was that... A curiously unsatisfying, mildly perplexing, partially frustrating week, it would appear.

Bit like life, really.

Still, Happy Friday to all. And a hope of better times to come.

[Datsuncog]

6 minutes ago, danthecapriman said:

Does anyone know who made this?

Clearly old, and is all diecast. Absolutely no branding on it anywhere though!

Pretty sure that's a Budgie loco.

Though that's not to say it's not a later version made by someone else using the same tooling!

[Split_Pin]

The chap cross referencing to ebay must be rather lonely and utterly desperate to make about £2 profit. Probably more to boost his ego.

It's the same as those bastard scalpers of the HW Escort MK2s. Now they're ten a penny, who has the last laugh?

So you're not doing it wrong at all.

[Datsuncog]

2 hours ago, sierraman said:

Aren’t Sainsburys supposed to be stocking Matchbox?

I happened to be in Sainsburys yesterday morning, and there were no Mattel diecast on their shelves at all - until last week they had a fairly large (and hard to access) box of Hot Wheels mainlines, plus various Car Culture premiums, Forza long cards and monster truck range items on the pegs.

Wonder if a rearrangement is imminent.

While it's good to have a choice, and handy to not have to waste fuel making special trips to stores miles away, if Matchbox are going to be priced at £2.25 a throw then I can't see myself making all that many impulse purchases in future...

[Split_Pin]

My policy is to now only buy a casting I really want and have one version only. Gone are my days of buying all the colour variations.

[Datsuncog]

2 hours ago, RoadworkUK said:

That Hallmark Neoplan did look the pick o' the bunch. Glad you snaffled it. I'll refrain from asking to take it off your hands, though; I have the same model as depicted in the colours of defunct local operator Supreme. Said coach served occasionally as a contracted bus for my secondary school, and I bought the model as part of my ongoing project to recreate the most miserable period of my life in 1:76 scale.

Heh, I took a look just there now at everyone's favourite* online selling site just in case I had a ££££ rarity on my hands - but no, there's about 15 of them listed, from around £7.

EVEN THOUGH it's a limited edition with certificate!

Meh. It's still very brown, they can't take that away from me.

[danthecapriman]

Next little batch going on shortly!😃

 

[Split_Pin]

17 minutes ago, danthecapriman said:

Next little batch going on shortly!😃

 

[D.E]

Obviously a Corgi, but no mention of the manufacturer on the underside...

[flat4alfa]

23 hours ago, 155V6 said:

In the background is this 59 Sedan Delivery which I thought was white metal,but is actually resin.It's just the base is really heavy.Maker's name is City Limits

Crikey

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/133904059208

Quote

Price: £169.21

 

[155V6]

6 minutes ago, flat4alfa said:

Crikey

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/133904059208

 

Wow,I don't think I paid more than about £25 for mine 😮

[FakeConcern]

I went to a boot fair/market this morning and couldn’t resist picking up some interesting (to me) toys. I got a bit carried away as I don’t know what to do with most of them haha...

The Corgi Sierra will tow a caravan in the summer house, the Corgi FC Jeep was one I always wanted as a kid, but I’ve never even seen one until now so I had to have it. No idea what the Tonka truck is or what I’ll do with it, but liked it. The low loader Matchbox King Size I kind of thought would work well to display some Corgi Minis on, but it seems it’s not really the right scale so again not sure what to do with it. The Lesney Jag MkX still has the bonnet and tow hook, but a slightly cracked screen and again not sure what I got it for!

I spent a few minutes cleaning up the Sierra, Tonka and Jeep and they all came up really well. Unfortunately the Sierra has a seat back missing which I hadn’t noticed until now, but never mind!

Lastly and nothing to do with the boot fair, the Imp I got from @danthecapriman had a quick clean up and I managed to get the rear window open-I love it!

[MiniMinorMk3]

33 minutes ago, flat4alfa said:

Crikey

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/133904059208

 

That's an RM Toys listing. I suspect it has been on there a while as they have some very optimistic pricing on their stuff. I've seen the guys at toy fairs and auctions for quite a few years so they do sell some stuff. 

[bunglebus]

1 hour ago, D.E said:

Obviously a Corgi, but no mention of the manufacturer on the underside...

Yep there are quite a lot like that. As I recall it was something to do with Corgi selling off moulds then later deciding they wanted them back, by which time the name had been removed from the tooling.

Although I prefer my theory that they were so crap by that point that they didn't want to put their name to them

[RoadworkUK]

1 hour ago, MiniMinorMk3 said:

That's an RM Toys listing.

AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE

[sheffcortinacentre]

I had astro wars in the early 80's still bugger all matchbox/ hot wheels round here.

[155V6]

@bunglebus someone on a FB group selling a lot with a large scale Lupo in it,does have someone interested in it already though.Let me know if I can help

https://m.facebook.com/groups/185072608352051/permalink/2122985451227414/

 

[Datsuncog]

13 hours ago, FakeConcern said:

couldn’t resist picking up some interesting (to me) toys. I got a bit carried away as I don’t know what to do with most of them haha...

 

[danthecapriman]

Another amateurish question!😄

How many differences colours was the Matchbox hot rod tractor available in?

I found this one the other day,

I’d previously thought they only came in the purple colour.

[AndyW201]

Help, I am a weak man...

[bunglebus]

I've got good news and bad news - Entertainer have Matchbox and I got to open two cases

Not so good news is they're £2.40 each. I have picked up some spares if anyone wants them - more anon...

[bunglebus]

1 hour ago, danthecapriman said:

Another amateurish question!😄

How many differences colours was the Matchbox hot rod tractor available in?

I found this one the other day,

I’d previously thought they only came in the purple colour.

Think that might be the colour that came as part of a set on the back of a transporter 

Nope that's the pink

The red is from a twin pack

[AndyW201]

Too late! What the hell, it's my birthday soon...

It is a belter though.

To be honest, I've only been daft enough to spend money on a HW  Premium once before, the Modern Classics Merc 190E and I very much doubt that and this P6 will ever be available as mainlines.

With the haul I got from Morrisons this week, it's probably the last I'll be spending on diecast this month anyway...

[danthecapriman]

16 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

Think that might be the colour that came as part of a set on the back of a transporter 

Nope that's the pink

The red is from a twin pack

Ah, so that’s what the yellow hay trailer I’ve got is for!

Just need to push the engine back into place now as it’s come out!

[sierraman]

Just the red and the purple I believe. There were preproductions in a sort of disinfectant green. 

[MiniMinorMk3]

37 minutes ago, sierraman said:

Just the red and the purple I believe. There were preproductions in a sort of disinfectant green. 

A couple of variations are a red seat and headlamps on the wings.

Pre-production has headlamps, so it is probably early ones that have these