Shite in Miniature II

[Junkman]

Could you work out why?

Because they would leadballoon on the market.

 

 

 

In my case, these cars were quite successful almost all over the world. Ok, not very collectible or sought after by car-guys,

but I don´t think the old Escort Mk 5 Estate is such a big number with car-freaks.

The most "successful" cars on the market find surprisingly narrowspread interest in the model market.

In many cases, current or late model mass market cars only exist in model form because of a

real car manufacturer/model car manufacturer contract.

 

The tooling cost for a model is immense, hence the model makers don't take any risks.

If there isn't a pre order of umpteen thousand pieces from either the real car industry or the

model trade, it won't get tooled.

 

 

Neo makes a lot of unusual cars in 1:43, but I just can´t figure out why some cars are completely ignored. I wrote them

an email, but they never responded.

Neo is making extremely low volume runs for a total niche market.

No model maker will ever respond to a private person.

[danthecapriman]

I think the Corgi model is fantastic for what it is. I got mine in 1988 and still have it. It is indeed 1/36. Mine is a slate grey colour. They got the proportions spot on imo, especially the lights which other makers struggled with.

Against the chunky Superkings that were my best models up until then, it looked great.

Here is my Polistil 1/25 version which I got for my Birthday the following year. It has a toy plastic border collie lying down in the boot that I kept from my farm as a kid to remind me of our old dog. Which reminds me that it's 30 years this November that she died.

That 740 looks superb! I must get myself one, I've got a tin of Volvo green blue paint in the shed, I could make a replica of my 1/1 scale ovlov. I think I've got a tin of metallic gold from my old saloon too.

[Felly Magic]

Corgi around that time did some rather nice 1/36 motors, I remember having an 825 Sterling that had opening doors, bonnet, boot, and sliding sunroof! It was 2 fingers to Matchbox Superkings for play value

[mercrocker]

No model maker will ever respond to a private person.

 

You were not a member of the Corgi Model Club, c.1966, then?! 

 

I used to get a birthday card and on one occasion a letter hoping that I had a good holiday.

 

This was after writing to them to say I had seen the new Hillman Hunter whilst in Swanage and would they be considering a model of it?

 

Had to wait until the bloody thing won London-Sydney, though!  

 

I still have my Club certificate and the little enamel badge....

[Junkman]

You were not a member of the Corgi Model Club, c.1966, then?!

No, c. 1966 I was still a member of the making snowscapes with washing powder on the living room carpet club.

I probably didn't even know yet what a car is, let alone a Corgi toy.

[Split_Pin]

Corgi around that time did some rather nice 1/36 motors, I remember having an 825 Sterling that had opening doors, bonnet, boot, and sliding sunroof! It was 2 fingers to Matchbox Superkings for play value

I remember being desperate to get that for the very reason you mention. I liked it because the whole door opened not just the lower panel and I also liked how the rear lights divided and opened with the boot. The pillars looked silly in white though, mine are now painted black.

 

The updated 1/36 Mini casting was a massive improvement too, the lights were the nicest I have seen on a medium scale Mini model.

[Felly Magic]

I had the 2 tone silver/grey one, loved it, it was brilliant, I also had a pale blue Ovlov brick from them in 1/36, got that from Woolies in Cleethorpes, and the Sterling from a toy & gift shop on Scarbro sea front, those were the days

[hennabm]

As a lad I wrote to Corgi suggesting a Hillman Imp as a Corgi Rocket model.

 

I sent a scale drawing and suggested the chassis to use as well.

 

Although they never made it, I did get a response from Corgi in Swansea telling me the Corgi Rocket range had recently been discontinued but thanking me for my suggestion. So this must have been around 1970 ish.

[sierraman]

A few 740s I have

[sierraman]

I've a majorette one somewhere... I'll find it out.

[eddyramrod]

Pretty sure I have at least one Majorette and one or more Corgi Juniors.  Don't think I ever had any bigger, but that estate on the previous page.... I never even knew that model existed!  Think I have to have one....

[Mr Lobster]

Because they would leadballoon on the market.The most "successful" cars on the market find surprisingly narrowspread interest in the model market.In many cases,

Yup but with some exceptions. A couple of years or so back we had 1/43 Ford Orions from a partwork series. We bought all of them that came into the uk and they were very, very popular. Sold a lot of them in a short space of time. See also 1:43 Vauxhall Chevettes last year.

 

Neo is making extremely low volume runs for a total niche market.No model maker will ever respond to a private person.

The manufacturers making stuff in resin can do relatively niche models where the production run is maybe as little as 100 pcs. It's just not possible in diecast as the costs are so much higher. Was talking to a manufacturer of 1:18 models a few years back and they reckoned that they needed 15,000 pieces to make a casting viable. So if you are waiting for a diecast Maxi, Montego or similar then you'll have a very long wait.

[Split_Pin]

Looking back at technology, surely we will all have a 3 d printer in our homes in 10 years time, where we can just download any model and print it off.

[RoadworkUK]

I remember having an 825 Sterling that had opening doors, bonnet, boot, and sliding sunroof! It was 2 fingers to Matchbox Superkings for play value

 

Ah, you mean this one.

 

 

Yes, of course I have it.

[Split_Pin]

I have the police one with no sunroof. I like the Rover style font on the box and the badge.

 

Another nice 1/36 that Corgi made was the Mercedes 190. I had 3 as a kid but they were all the 2.3-16 with the bodykit. The standard one is harder to find .

[Essex V6]

Even if I had all the money there ever was, that would still not be enough to satisfy my desire for so many of the models there.

I would literally *heart* 1/8 Dacia 1310.

The Gold SD1 is stunning too, and the Mini Clubman estate.

Pedants corner - I think the Mini is an HL - will get my coat

[Split_Pin]

HL had the Austin-Morris ticks on the front grille.

[Junkman]

The manufacturers making stuff in resin can do relatively niche models where the production run is maybe as little as 100 pcs. It's just not possible in diecast as the costs are so much higher. Was talking to a manufacturer of 1:18 models a few years back and they reckoned that they needed 15,000 pieces to make a casting viable. So if you are waiting for a diecast Maxi, Montego or similar then you'll have a very long wait.

 

One could argue that the manufacturers are overcautious. An accusation I vociferoulsy voice on an appropriate platform especially towards the plastic kit industry for the past 40 odd years.

Sometimes one must have balls to win and the worst selling models are the ones that aren't produced.

Enter the Revell S&H Torino kit for example, which came totally out of the left field. It turned out to be one of their best selling automotive kits of all evah, which even they didn't expect.

Sales are so strong, that it now has been leased to their German branch for being rolled out in Europe.

See, what I'm trying to say is, that a bit of risk taking can pay off big time and I think it's done way too rarely.

I also do believe, that the S&H thing was secondary, in reality the success is due to the yank kit collectors being on the reissue merry go round for decades now.

They are so starved for newly tooled stuff outside the realms of total mainstream, that they happily will hoover up anything being released.

Especially the American kit manufacturers fail to understand, that we would kick each others heads in to get models of the 70s full size chod.

 

One must not forget, though, that especially with plastic kits, model cars are the smallest sector, comprising a mere 10 - 15% of the total market.

The money is in the stuff for people who think the war was really nice and unfortunately didn't go on long enough.

 

Of course 'the industry' also has to fight with issues on completely different levels, licencing their products not being the smallest of them.

This very nuisance led to Revell cancelling their already announced new tool 007 kit. Rumour has it that it wasn't even the 007 licence that grenaded.

The licencing issue doesn't reach down to such small volume producers like Neo and similar.

 

Greenlight is doing a good job releasing predominantly models with film/telly/celebrity tie ins, so they are also appealing to people outside the actual

model car collector circles. It seems to pay off, with them having recently acquired the ex Highway 61 label and tooling, and GMP/ACME.

[Mr Lobster]

Looking back at technology, surely we will all have a 3 d printer in our homes in 10 years time, where we can just download any model and print it off.

 

Whilst this is certainly possibility, I really do rather hope not.

[Split_Pin]

Me too, it would spoil the fun of searching for and finding stuff!

[rml2345]

Whilst this is certainly possibility, I really do rather hope not.

I reckon it'll be a long time before it's viable as home printers are a bit pants. Even if you can get good quality prints it's still going to be easier to buy something from a manufacturer rather than doing it yourself.

Brilliant for printing a Horsey Horseless or doing spares or conversion parts.

[Pillock]

Yeah, to print something 1:24 at the moment you're looking at a £3k printer and even then you'll get ridges and stuff... The cheap sub-£500 stuff will maybe do a 1:43 but with little detail.

 

It'd be cool to print your own upgrades for a shop bought kit though....

[Split_Pin]

Here's a few snaps of my 1/24 850 Turbo. I bought it in 1995.

[Junkman]

Was talking to a manufacturer of 1:18 models a few years back and they reckoned that they needed 15,000 pieces to make a casting viable. So if you are waiting for a diecast Maxi, Montego or similar then you'll have a very long wait.

 

About the same figure is mentioned in plastic kit circles and merely as the break even point.

Consequently if they don't get pre orders in that ballpark, they don't bother.

To put this into perspective, during the heydays of the hobby in the 1960s, they chucked them out by the millions!

The risk of one of them bombing in the market was thus much less severe back then.

 

The figure usually mentioned in regards to tooling cost is c. $150,000.00 for a kit, which is strangely about the same

it cost in the 1960s, although then of course in 1960s Dollars.

So with all that computer shiz, the relative tooling cost has significantly decreased, effectively by factor 10, however,

the produced quantities have decreased by factor 100.

 

Hence I fully understand the dilemma the industry finds itself in, but I don't fully understand how they try to make up for it.

Instead of competing against each other by tooling up the same Porsches and Lamborghinis, I'd go completely bonkers.

And I bet it would pay off.

 

The frightening bit (at least for me) is, that evidently it's not a problem to sell 15,000 kits of yet another war crime device,

whereas with cars it's a struggle.

[alcyonecorporation]

Stupid bargain find from Retromobile 2017:

 

 

The Aura's numberplate is upside down. Weirdly crude and detailed at the same time.

Fuck me, Paris is dear. Scraped together £80 and spent almost all of it on food and cab fares.

[Split_Pin]

That's very nice indeed, love the box.

[Split_Pin]

Finished my 1/25 Revell Golf GTI that my son gave me in September past. I had nowhere to spray paint it this time so I had to resort to brush paint, otherwise it would never be finished. The finish is OK.

 

Still it's a nice model and certainly better than some other Revells that au have done. The red grille surrounds are all separate decals and were a twat to apply.

[eddyramrod]

I do like the Blackburn number plate!  Your doing, or was it part of the decal sheet?

[Split_Pin]

It was part of the decal sheet but I liked that too. Funnily enough, my Matchbox Superfast Golf is JBV 149R.

[Dick Cheeseburger]

Been eyeing these up for a while. Finally bagged myself an original Vega Major Val twin steer. Took it out on a journey earlier, and had a bit of a mishap with the back end. 24cm of pure luxury.