Shite in Miniature II

[AndyW201]

On 29/03/2023 at 14:10, Datsuncog said:

If you've no luck later, I'll see if I can pick you one up to add to the Tat Box?

If you're going there and dont mind Tim, but don't go out of your way. There are quite a few in that case that I'm after like the Porsche, Civic, Escort and Merc. My local Morrisons will probably get them in in about 6 months...

 

[MiniMinorMk3]

1 hour ago, barrett said:

Not sure if anyone else remembers this outfit, but it was a quite cynical attempt to commercialise the budding collectable toy hobby in the late 80s. Everything they sold was insanely expensive, and I remember chatter at the time (a friend of the family runs the Brighton Toy & Model Museum) about some dodgy business practices and the faint whiff of scandal around its proprietor, but a quick google doesn't actually throw up any evidence of this, so apologies Jeffrey if I've been carrying a weird grudge for 30 years.

 

I remember Mint & Boxed. My late father used to get me their catalogues when he was up in the City for work. 

The company was involved with a pensions scandal in the early 1990's

Final fall of disgraced pension fund chief | London Evening Standard | Evening Standard

Quote

Spink, once a director at investment bank SG Warburg and a City high-flier, was sacked by USS in October 1991 for gross misconduct. He admitted taking unauthorised consultancy fees from the firm of Jeffrey S. Levitt, which traded in antique toys.

The company became the centre of a £12 million fraud case after its collapse in June 1991. Spink invested more than £4.5 million of USS money in the company after becoming friendly with its owner, Jeffrey Levitt. Levitt was later described as a Walter Mitty character who admitted using fake invoices to raise money from banks.

...

Royal refused to pay, claiming that USS's losses were due to the collapse of Jeffrey S. Levitt Ltd and its subsidiary, Mint & Boxed.

It looks like there has been a slight name change somewhere as Jeffery Levy is still active in the collectable toy world.

Mint & Boxed: Perfecting the Package - Jeffrey Levy toys - The Antique Toy Archive

 

And finally, he had a number plate on his Mercedes at the time.

This plate has also belonged to one of the management at Vectis auctions, I have seen it on a few cars over the years, but have not seen it lately.

[MiniMinorMk3]

17 minutes ago, flat4alfa said:

I like to think Track Blaster is intended to be the McLaren M6, which dates about right, but not too sure

 

Lola T70

[bunglebus]

Smyths have restocked F+F 

And got some interesting premium sets

[flat4alfa]

3 minutes ago, Dick Longbridge said:

 an old jigsaw!

Need to get these too then

[Isopon]

Just had this arrive- 99 pence eBay purchase. Typically, the seller also had an Xj-s going for the same amount, but I was sniped by 5 pence. Anyway, I'm happy with it.

Looks good in blue and pairs well with the beige version

[barrett]

10 minutes ago, MiniMinorMk3 said:

The company was involved with a pensions scandal in the early 1990's

Final fall of disgraced pension fund chief | London Evening Standard | Evening Standard

It looks like there has been a slight name change somewhere as Jeffery Levy is still active in the collectable toy world.

Glad I wasn't completely making it up (and equally scared by the sort of information I've retained for so long). Seems Jeff is now based in Tel Aviv, which seems as good a place as any for somebody with questionable ethics to run their dodgy business. I'm going to see if I still have that catalogue somewhere, reckon it might make interesting reading these days

[flat4alfa]

12 minutes ago, MiniMinorMk3 said:

Lola T70

Yes, that rear fits better.  It was the raised air intakes that threw me.   Or blinded by orange.

[MiniMinorMk3]

1 hour ago, barrett said:

I do appreciate the company for building cars nobody else was modelling, and for the accurate scaling. The Sunbeam Alpine is another good example, I reckon

Anyway, that's it, just some rambling to try to internally justify this stupid purchase. Don't expect a sudden slew of Spot-On updates here though, I'm not quite manic enoughy for that to happen just yet. And I'm saving up for a Bristol 406.

 

Nice Bristol

The only modern issue I know of is teh one by Lansdowne in white metal. It's been issued in metallic blue and maroon. Current value is around £50-£80.

[flat4alfa]

20 minutes ago, MiniMinorMk3 said:

And finally, he had a number plate on his Mercedes at the time.

This plate has also belonged to one of the management at Vectis auctions, I have seen it on a few cars over the years, but have not seen it lately.

That SL was seen wearing that plate in 1991, so it was likely Levitt/Levy who purchased D1 NKY for £15k in 1989

He has got a face you want to punch as well.

[Dick Longbridge]

21 minutes ago, flat4alfa said:

Need to get these too then

Someone GIB

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/374580828531?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=zVR1uGuDRPO&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=FV05_6LQQo2&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

 

[MiniMinorMk3]

10 minutes ago, barrett said:

Glad I wasn't completely making it up (and equally scared by the sort of information I've retained for so long). Seems Jeff is now based in Tel Aviv, which seems as good a place as any for somebody with questionable ethics to run their dodgy business. I'm going to see if I still have that catalogue somewhere, reckon it might make interesting reading these days

I think it made the TV news or it was on The Money Program (one of my favourite theme tunes)

 

[sierraman]

13 minutes ago, flat4alfa said:

That SL was seen wearing that plate in 1991, so it was likely Levitt/Levy who purchased D1 NKY for £15k in 1989

He has got a face you want to punch as well.

Who was worse Jeff Levy or John Noakes when he scammed hundreds of kids out of old Dinkys and Corgis? Legend has it on the Blue Peter appeal he took all the good shit home with him and it resides in his loft, all the less desirable stuff or ones he had duplicates of he just stamped on repeatedly whilst Valerie Singleton turned a blind eye. 

[bunglebus]

I had a better look at the F+F set today. Initially it was just the Escort I wanted, but having seen how nicely they were detailed;

I also found another F+F item - brand new out and bound to be in demand 

And a mainline - I just liked the colour really

[bunglebus]

On the mat when I got home, I've been after one of these for ages

Comparison time - I deliberately found the grey, rather than green version 

Makes the Turbo II...

...and VOIKOWAGENG seem a bit of an anticlimax! 

[FakeConcern]

I admit it...

I am weak...

I did manage to use an ebay discount code for the first time though...

 

[FakeConcern]

Some may know that Mrs Concern has a Dinky Prisoner Mini Moke in the summer house, well sometime last year she bought a cheap Moke at a boot fair and an idea was hatched! We got a further two Dinky Mokes for next to nothing and ended up with these...

All pretty tidy, an original Fern green, a Tiny the Giraffe (who is Tiny? Never heard of him) one in orange and a much later Paramoke with Whizzwheels (or whatever Dinky call them).

The plan was to paint them all white and apply repro stickers to make a small fleet of Prisoner Mokes! I started off (being a cheapskate) by painting the orange one by hand with Humbrol white enamel. No good it was streaky AF. So stripped that one completely and then sprayed all of them white primer, then white gloss. All good so far.

Next the brown panels and I tried painting by hand with Humbrol and again far too streaky! This was meant to be a budget project, but never mind, Nut Brown spray enamel purchased and after what seemed like days of applying masking tape we have three replica Prisoner Mokes. The original Prisoner Moke we have has only the tops painted brown. Having looked on t’internet I decided that there is no rhyme or reason as to which had the side “pannier” panels painted brown so I did the old “spun” wheel one and the Paramoke with that effect and the Tiny one like our original.

With set or three of repro stickers and some Steve Flowers parts I finished this afternoon.

Be seeing you!

 

[flat4alfa]

I can hear the DA DA DUH DA horn from here!

[flat4alfa]

2 hours ago, FakeConcern said:

Tiny the Giraffe (who is Tiny? Never heard of him) one in orange

Jump to 1:13

He had his head poking through the roof of the house.  So Dinky played on that

Produced 1970-72

[flat4alfa]

Got this?

To go with this?

You can also have hours of fun doing this too

More landscaped CogGarden™ though I think, not for Mrs Concern's summer house!

[Datsuncog]

Definitely noticing the clock change this Friday.

[flat4alfa]

[NorfolkNWeigh]

Excited, for the first time in ages I’ve remembered it’s Friday and I’m not working. And it’s payday, the perfect storm for Tat Friday.

[Datsuncog]

Bit wet, too.

Still, (almost) April showers bring forth... tat?

Well, maybe they do... 

Okay, so - I don't think there's much here today that we haven't seen before - sorry!

The older stuff up top was last spotted in February - and it's fair to say there's some reasonable stuff still.

Some repainting in evidence on the white Corgi Pininfarina, and the sticker missing from the bonnet of the Dinky Abarth, but still nice examples of high supercar era visioneering.

Dinky rail dragsters available in different colours.

Custom 'Moon Eyes' DS estate?

Well, alright...

Dinky Merc seems to be an abandoned restoration. Maybe one day it'll get some love...

Someone's nicked this Atlas Dinky Mini's shoes!

Scandalous.

Most of the items elsewhere on the stall were newer stuff...

And more expensive boxed stuff.

Sadly the Granadas from last week were gone.

Or Nemesis'd.

After apparently being absent last week, this week he was already stuffing a bag with Vanguards at 7.45am.

£65 worth.

He's gotta be flipping that stuff.

Or else his pockets are much deeper than mine (not hard).

The only one I could positively ID from his haul was a blue Viva HB GT - and I've already got that one in my collection anyway.

In fact, I've most of these in one form or another.

Do I need another Allegro, in Tundra Green?

Probably not.

Or an unspecified magazine partwork Mk2 Jag?

Mmmm... nah.

Britbox AEC Swift was still doing the rounds.

And the French Dinkys were tempting, even at a tenner.

But nothing quite grabbed me today...

I could see another few lurking  behind the stall, but on closer inspection there wasn't much else to excite:

Hongwell P4, Oxford Diecast rally-spec Sunbeam Talbot and Austin Princess Sheerline - all bouncin' round those boxes like mad. Ouch.

This box of loose stuff was mostly scrap, to be quite honest:

I put the exploded Rambler Marlin back together, out of sympathy:

But I couldn't do much about the poorly glued A-posts...

Or the missing door.

Commer chassis was in a fairly bad way too:

While these E-Types were tired, but maybe not beyond rescue.

Not much in the 50p tin worth nabbing, as far as I could tell:

Just recent-ish Hot Wheels and Matchbox, evidently well-enjoyed by their previous owners.

Sloping off to see what else I could grub up, I noticed that Alan had only just begun setting up his Emporium, while the Charity Stall looked to be entirely absent today.

The General Tat stall had nothing much new, and no Hot Wheels ID cars were in evidence.

No further Working Rigs or Convoys to be seen, either.

So, with pics cropped and text added, I'll finish my coffee here in a second or two and go for another wander... And if there's anything you can't live without, I'll have to be heading in half an hour - so do sing up!

[flat4alfa]

The white Commer has two ribs, for your pleasure 

[flat4alfa]

Is the Oxford 1:43 Austin K8 Ambulance still at £10 or now £5

[Datsuncog]

3 hours ago, flat4alfa said:

Is the Oxford 1:43 Austin K8 Ambulance still at £10 or now £5

Still at £10.

I'm not sure how damaged it is - I've noticed that some of the loose-in-the-box models are now starting to shed bumpers and the like, which is never a good sign...

😣

EDIT - I checked - it's lost a nearside mirror, but is otherwise alright for now.

I should have brought a small screwdriver in with me - for the most part, the screws are there in the boxes too, adding to the general chaos (and damage)... for the sake of half an hour, these could all be securely reattached.

Nobody wants their diecast stonewashed...

[flat4alfa]

Let's leave it thanks

[Datsuncog]

Ok, so - gotta run now, BUT it was worth hanging around until Alan got his shit together...

More to follow once I get home!

[flat4alfa]

6 minutes ago, Datsuncog said:

Alan got his shit together...

FFS!

I'm doomed.