Shite in Miniature II

[flat4alfa]

A DRIVE-THROUGH VOLCANO

[flat4alfa]

An Airport, with flashing ATC and ridiculous parking charges

[flat4alfa]

9 minutes ago, sierraman said:

They do a bus station

[flat4alfa]

A rescue centre with a  HEAVY LIFT HELICOPTER

[sierraman]

Nowhere near as good as the Container Port from the 80’s though! 

[andy18s]

They have caught the eye of the resellers now though..

[flat4alfa]

@Datsuncog's patio, next Tuesday

[flat4alfa]

Ooo.  A FED EX distribution centre.  The plot thickens.

[MiniMinorMk3]

For those on a budget, how about an instant Amazon Distribution Centre

 

It's what the kids would end up playing with any way.

 

[MiniMinorMk3]

I had one of these for my parking and garage games. As its made out of cardboard and flimsy plastic, very few survive. Mine doesn't.

[flat4alfa]

All we had was coal.

But I would have liked this

[Datsuncog]

1 hour ago, MiniMinorMk3 said:

I had one of these for my parking and garage games. As its made out of cardboard and flimsy plastic, very few survive. Mine doesn't.

I had one just like that when I was about four or so - which was all well and good, until one day I thought I'd use it as a step to help me reach something on a high shelf in my room.

You can probably guess the rest...

,

I guess that's why they're rare.

 

I think I started off with one of these Fisher Price garages (I imagine most of us did!)

And then came the oh-so-fragile card and plastic one mentioned, which - after extensive testing - turned out could not support the weight of a four-yr-old.

Possibly with one eye on durability, this cracking Hot Wheels Sto-and-Go construction site set turned up one Christmas (1984, maybe?)

It was great. I still have a couple of the plastic girders and cement sacks from this set.

Then I had one of these, around 1987 or so:

Universal Toys' updating of the old Lesney-era Matchbox City Garage.

What I especially liked about it was that it came with tiny little cardboard signs to put on the roof of the cars in the dealership, saying things such as 'LIKE NEW' and 'LOW MILES'.

Because there were a lot of garages in our area selling new and used cars, I really appreciated these little details 'just like the real thing'.

However, much of the set was made of cardboard and it didn't fit together terribly well. It even looks a bit wonky on the box picture.

Around 1989 I was gifted this awesome set:

Rather like Lego, the Motor City 500 set could be used to build any number of different configurations of car park using the plates, supports and interconnecting playtrack elements. It even came with road signs, streetlights, petrol pumps and a barrier that went up and down.

I also had a few different Micro Machines playsets:

Not so much diecast related, but in the spirit of completeness, I had this Playmobil set too:

I think mine was Esso rather than Shell, though.

I also had another, smaller Matchbox-sized garage that came with loads of small detailed parts - separate tyres, working trolley jacks, lubrication trolley - but I can't remember very much about it, other than it came in a sturdy, mid-blue cardboard box and I thought that it might be by Chad Valley, Casdon or possibly the Early Learning Centre - it wasn't made as part of a diecast toymaker's range, I'm sure of that - but Google searching hasn't yet thrown up anything that gives me that sense of instant recall.

Cheers for all @flat4alfa's Action Driver sleuthing over the course of the day, too - I'm not sure what I'll do with that information, but you can be sure it's nothing good... 

[sierraman]

I had the Fisher Price garage and the kids have what’s left of the Motorcity 500 garage. I had this thing as a kid that was like a sort of roadway about A3 size that when you went over bumps it went ‘fetch the fire truck’ which became quite annoying to my parents. 

[MiniMinorMk3]

48 minutes ago, Datsuncog said:

I had one just like that when I was about four or so - which was all well and good, until one day I thought I'd use it as a step to help me reach something on a high shelf in my room.

You can probably guess the rest...

,

I guess that's why they're rare.

 

I think I started off with one of these Fisher Price garages (I imagine most of us did!)

And then came the oh-so-fragile card and plastic one mentioned, which - after extensive testing - turned out could not support the weight of a four-yr-old.

Possibly with one eye on durability, this cracking Hot Wheels Sto-and-Go construction site set turned up one Christmas (1984, maybe?)

It was great. I still have a couple of the plastic girders and cement sacks from this set.

Then I had one of these, around 1987 or so:

Universal Toys' updating of the old Lesney-era Matchbox City Garage.

What I especially liked about it was that it came with tiny little cardboard signs to put on the roof of the cars in the dealership, saying things such as 'LIKE NEW' and 'LOW MILES'.

Because there were a lot of garages in our area selling new and used cars, I really appreciated these little details 'just like the real thing'.

However, much of the set was made of cardboard and it didn't fit together terribly well. It even looks a bit wonky on the box picture.

Around 1989 I was gifted this awesome set:

Rather like Lego, the Motor City 500 set could be used to build any number of different configurations of car park using the plates, supports and interconnecting playtrack elements. It even came with road signs, streetlights, petrol pumps and a barrier that went up and down.

I also had a few different Micro Machines playsets:

Not so much diecast related, but in the spirit of completeness, I had this Playmobil set too:

I think mine was Esso rather than Shell, though.

I also had another, smaller Matchbox-sized garage that came with loads of small detailed parts - separate tyres, working trolley jacks, lubrication trolley - but I can't remember very much about it, other than it came in a sturdy, mid-blue cardboard box and I thought that it might be by Chad Valley, Casdon or possibly the Early Learning Centre - it wasn't made as part of a diecast toymaker's range, I'm sure of that - but Google searching hasn't yet thrown up anything that gives me that sense of instant recall.

Cheers for all @flat4alfa's Action Driver sleuthing over the course of the day, too - I'm not sure what I'll do with that information, but you can be sure it's nothing good... 

What's your name, Arnold Clark!

[FakeConcern]

I had one that was similar to this, same sort of markings and colours, but it was a bit bigger with a lift worked by a winch, made mainly from hardboard. It was similar scale to my (favourite) Corgi cars. I don't think it's in the loft of my mum's house as she threw away all the toys I hadn't taken with me when my parents moved house.

[bunglebus]

I had the Convoy Truck Stop

I remember putting it back in its box

[sierraman]

I can remember wanting Intercom City from the 1991 catalogue but it was prohibitively expensive at the time. I think it was widely acknowledged to be an absolute white elephant. Like a lot of us I used to make a garage from some old cardboard boxes. 

[FakeConcern]

18 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

I had the Convoy Truck Stop

I remember putting it back in its box

How old were you in those pictures then?

[bunglebus]

Ooh about 8 I'd say

[155V6]

I've got this,which came with my Impy Firenza

I also have the Matchbox Service Station,kindly obtained by @Datsuncog,& the Casdon Motorway Services set,but they're both packed away at the moment.

[sutty2006]

1 hour ago, bunglebus said:

I had the Convoy Truck Stop

I remember putting it back in its box

I have that convoy truck stop somewhere still. MANY an hour spent keeping me happy!!!! Loved it. 

[Dick Cheeseburger]

1 hour ago, bunglebus said:

I had the Convoy Truck Stop

I remember putting it back in its box

I had the glow in the dark streak racing as a joint present with my little bro. It didn't last particularly long from what I remember. 

[flat4alfa]

15 hours ago, bunglebus said:

Maxwell Jeep on eBay 

That reminds me

Remember this tin-plate Lima Jeep?  Apparently, according to international internets, is supposed to be an Alfa Romeo Matta

Quote

Lima Jeep, windscreen broken

It had at sometime got a bit hot, burned the driver and melted some of the tyres to the body.  After a fondle, it now is freed, straightened, friction flywheel motor oiled and is now running about the table.

Because the sun was out, it had a scrub and went for out for a run about

It met up with the @Datsuncog Fiat Campagnola 

Word got around, Laurel and Hardy drove up in their Gate Willys Jeep and the Dinky US Jeep

Then Doris popped over with the tin plate Military Police

It's an odd thing, but she seems to like it

Then they all mooned in your general direction.

[flat4alfa]

5 hours ago, sierraman said:

Nowhere near as good as the Container Port from the 80’s though! 

This?

[flat4alfa]

23 hours ago, andrew e said:

Thought you lot might appreciate this - Matchbox staff bus on Canvey Island! 

That 1966 Bristol was one of 11 Lodekka buses run by Lesney both at Hackney and Rochford.  Surprising then, that there was never a Matchbox Lodekka, when they were seen outside the office windows every day.  HPW 450D was used by them from April 1983 to Feb 1988, later exported to Slovenia in 1991 and is still out there today.

There were Leyland and AEC in the  fleet as well

And Stuntman Eddie Kidd jumped 14 of them

At least the RT had been modelled (twice), but much earlier on

There were also Commer vans in the livery

Now that's an idea, to adapt a rough one of these and paint it up to suit?

The earlier livery was in blue

And feature in Lesney's book Mike and the Model Makers

Lesney never ran a Routemaster, unsurprisingly as they were still in public service.  But that didn't stop Matchbox in recent years have as stab at both liveries for MB694 Double Decker

Talking of which, anyone got a spare one of the blue livery?

[Dick Cheeseburger]

Spotted this one the other day. New one on me!

 

[flat4alfa]

21 minutes ago, Dick Longbridge said:

Spotted this one the other day. New one on me!

Yes that's from the Stunt Set

Completely different to the Rainbow Toys die-cast effort!

[Spottedlaurel]

6 hours ago, MiniMinorMk3 said:

I had one of these for my parking and garage games. As its made out of cardboard and flimsy plastic, very few survive. Mine doesn't.

I concur about them being delicate, but I do still have mine:

 

[Spottedlaurel]

No mention yet of Majo-Kit? I don't recall it myself from when I was young, but I picked up a boxed set at a toy fair some years ago which I think is the one seen here:

And I've since added these along with a bagged bundle I bought from someone here, maybe @sierraman ?

This Corgi one was a bit late for me, another AS purchase:

Had this one since the '70s, it nicely suited 1:36 Corgi:

Sadly now missing its doors. Last time it was seen here I was advised it was made by Segic.

Master SL got a nice range of Tomica Hypercity, which included some painfully delicate buildings which have survived his childhood pretty much 100%:

The Honda showroom is lovely, with a revolving turntable. There was a big local toyshop that had a fantastic display sealed display which they still kept out even when Tomica had pretty much given up selling it here. I enquired about buying it, but was told it may have belonged to the distributor so wasn't theirs to sell.

I picked up the Convoy Truckstop set for Master SL at another toyfair, and this occasionally got brought out:

Which I've had since I was about 9.

[bunglebus]

20 minutes ago, Spottedlaurel said:

I've mentioned it before but I had that cardboard road set, came with plastic signposts and road markings like yellow lines on a sticker sheet