Shite in Miniature II

[bunglebus]

I've driven past this place a few times but always out of hours. Not today though!

There's a lot to take in, so I'll let the pictures do the talking

[sierraman]

Optima Mid looks like those ones Tandy Electrical used to sell. 

[andrew e]

Those Tandy ones were ripped off the real things - which an Optima mid was in the 80’s! It’s a thing of pure beauty. I’ve bought a fair bit of RC off Jadlam over the years - always wondered what it looked like! They are pretty good to deal with too.

https://rc.kyosho.com/en/optima-mid

[eddyramrod]

More Code 3-ing from the @FakeConcern batch!

Both of these were white already, being police cars, but I've mercilessly stripped them anyway and repainted them, to be civilian cars.  The Imp needed very little, just the front number plate reshaping a bit and the hole in the roof hidden with filler.  The Cortina needed holes filling too, once I'd straightened out the roof with pliers, but also, the police version has a horn speaker cast into the front of the chassis.  Fortunately I have the remains of a bronze scrapper, which included the chassis so I used that, meaning I still have a police chassis spare.

Stripping action has been happening today so there will be more to show in a while.  I need to butter up Mr Flowers now.

[FakeConcern]

Wow I can't believe that's the same Imp! It looks great.

@eddyramrod

 

Love the Cortina too

[FakeConcern]

I just happened to see this BIN for £11 on ebay and made a cheeky offer which was accepted!

I didn't even know they existed and being under the influence I'd bought something without knowing anything about it...

I thought all "new" Corgis were 1/36, but this Capri sits well on the back...

Not sure what the winch/grab thing is meant to be, but hours of fun already...

[sierraman]

I think the grab hooks round the axles. My youngest has the RAC one. 

[FakeConcern]

20 minutes ago, sierraman said:

I think the grab hooks round the axles. My youngest has the RAC one. 

Stop it.

 

 

 

Now looking on ebay for Corgi RAC spec lift transit...

[Spottedlaurel]

@bunglebus any of these of interest?

 

Any others in the range that you're after? Too much for me to speculatively purchase, but if I know you definitely want any then I can look out for them through the forthcoming week. E. LeClerc is best so far, had a couple of productive visits yesterday, including some from the Matchbox Collectors and Moving Parts range, but frustratingly/amusingly they're on the same standard case we are! Not too much in the way of HWs yet, though did see the Nissan truck and Silvia drift car pack.

[bunglebus]

1 hour ago, Spottedlaurel said:

@bunglebus any of these of interest?

Both the Golf and Beetle please - sorry just seen your post! Also after the blue Golf if it appears

Thank you 

[Jon]

On 7/28/2023 at 3:30 AM, Datsuncog said:

And I couldn't not pull a few rival equivalents in for a quick pic...

The Spot-On's 1/42 scale makes the Corgi SII look a bit puny, in comparison:

Corgi's unusual non-factory slopey roof is also very obvious here.

Dinky SIII Landie is, surprisingly, much more similar to the Spot-On in terms of scale.

In fact, I almost started to wonder if Lines Bros had reworked their old Spot-On casting to create a new Dinky version with opening doors and bonnet - but no, I don't think they did.

They're quite similar, but there's way too many small differences to make a direct reworking likely.

I just really like these pickups, which is why I keep buying 'em - though I wouldn't say no, if a Spot-On Station Wagon version turned up for cheap...

 

Behold! Look what came in the post for me, a few weeks ago:

 

Like I've said, I definitely don't collect fire service vehicles - let's make that clear. But I didn't have one of these and it was cheap for a Spot On, so I nabbed it.

 

Unlike its northern hemisphere brethren of these pages, it doesn't seem to have been made in Northern Ireland - or indeed Great Britain, for that matter. Might this be a New Zealand assembled Spot On that I've heard rumour of?

 

Anyway, it joins the company of my equally undesirable yet affordable Spot On Land Rovers.

 

Since I have 4 of them, I can line them up to demonstrate the front and rear ends of both types. The pickups (utes?) both have different wheels both to each other and to the station wagons. And both station wagons have a nub each end, presumably for 2 spare wheels. I thought the hand painted one far right had a mounting for a Capstan or some such but it's just where over sized the self-tapper's been bashed through by the previous ham-fisted owner. But I'll admit, I'm a sucker for a period repaint (this one's had 2 of them), so it'll stay as is. I could well do with disassembling it, to clean it though...

 

They're nice bits to have around the place but I likely don't need 4 - I reckon I could rid myself of one station wagon, at least. If @Datsuncog could wait about 6 months, I could get one flown owner in my parents' luggage, when they return from their visit.

 

So to sum up, this fire dept. has terrible paint and sagging/broken rear suspension but it's still a lovely bit of kit. I'd also like to thank our NI correspondent for the Spot ON/Corgi/Dinky comparison, as I think it's resisted my urge to add a Corgi LR to my collection. I had no idea they were so small in comparison!

But if anyone comes across a very sorry looking Dinky SIIA, I'd like to take one on to butcher modify into a SWB one, like my driveway millstone:

[eddyramrod]

@Jon surely what you need is the Britains SWB?  Or are you fussy enough about scale to prefer the 1/42s?

[flat4alfa]

Yes I was going to say Britains too

Can also get the SIII to.  Sadly not in Fire Service livery that you are collecting* now

[MiniMinorMk3]

Some Land Rovers, some are a bit firey.

Solido

Same casting used by Verem

Verem Active Response series

Vitesse

 

[Datsuncog]

So there was a bit of unfinished business to be attended to at the model shop yesterday morning, after it somehow managed to precipitate a full-blown existential crisis a few weeks back.

Not really a good look.

I'd calmed my tits slightly, and was in a better position to take pics showing the offerings in a rather more systematic manner than before.

I mean, it's a wee bit chaotic.

There's some effort to group like with like...

But there's so many random boxes, tins and bags of models literally all over the shop that it's hard to get a handle on what's what.

Literal piles of buses are stacked up everywhere.

Everywhere.

Y'know, I get kinda twitchy because I reckon a few hours of sorting and tidying would transform this place...

There's a lot of interesting stuff just lying around - like these large A3 prints of what looks to be the Ulster TT, back when it used to roar through Bangor, Newtownards, Comber and Dundonald along public roads.

^^ This photo would have been taken by someone standing just outside this very shop. There's some more impressive seafront buildings to be seen, most of them still standing (for now, anyway).

Oops. The realities of road racing.

Sadly, it was a bad smash in Ards town centre killing eight spectators during the 1936 event that led to the RAC withdrawing their Tourist Trophy races from Northern Ireland.

Impressive pics, even so.

I noticed that the Spot-On case was looking slightly depleted.

That's the boxed Fiat Multipla away to a new home, I think.

The Politoys Carabo was still hanging around, though.

It's a thing of wonder, and no doubt a joy forever - but I can't quite justify a spend of this magnitude...

While the Carabo pricing's pretty much what you'd expect, the stickers on the buses were up and down all over the place.

Maybe they've been carefully priced individually based on completed online auctions, or maybe they're just cheerfully erratic too. Prices for the secondhand 1/76 stuff ranged from £8 to £30, with most coming in around the £10 to £18 mark.

I haven't spent ages diligently cataloguing them, as I don't really think they'd excite folks on here quite as much as the £5 bargain Tat Stall finds. But there were a lot to see.

This scratchbuilt coach, apparently a Leyland, was an interesting one, though.

No maker's name to be seen, though.

And I've already forgotten what it was priced at.

Daaah.

Ah well - just thought some of you might like to see it.

Meanwhile, there had been some developments with the railway diorama...

Not content with a horror-rail smash, now apparently there's a Spitfire strafing the scene.

Disaster into calamity.

But speaking of pricing - there was still a minor issue because I'd come seeking some of the tat spotted last time, but there were still no prices on them.

And the boss wasn't around.

Problematic.

Specifically, I wanted to purchase that Gama Mercedes 208D van seen a fortnight ago, and also the Oxford RAC Transit flatbed.

A number of potential scenarios suggested themselves, including getting a staff member to set them aside and contact me later with a price once agreed, to some sort of complex pickup and handover arrangement involving The Nemesis, to just making life simple and peeling price stickers off some other models and sticking them on... I mean, I had a rough idea of their value and I used to price stuff here... it wouldn't be wrong as such, I'd just be saving people a lot of hassle...

Luckily, there was a CM bus in my eyeline to keep me on the straight and narrow.

Well alright.

I'll not do it, then.

Ultimately, the situation resolved by simply handing them all to a staff member, who used this amazing new invention called the telephone to ring the boss, wherever he was, to ask him for prices.

Marvellous. I hadn't considered that option.

Of course, this course of action was not without its perils.

I knew the staff member, Ann, but she had no recollection of me from twenty-odd years back. Her specialism was the china, glass and giftware side of the business. She's not all that into models.

So there followed a jolly three-way parlour game of What's My Diecast? combined with Chinese Whispers - her trying to describe an unfamiliar model, with me chipping in, and the boss (seemingly) on a hands-free kit in his car trying to work out what the hell we were taking about, for maximum confusion.

Her: "It's a blue van... it's got writing on the side, I think it's in German... it's not a Corgi..."

Me, unhelpfully quietly: "It's a Gama Mercedes 208D"

Her: "Oh right, the gentleman says it's by Comma... It's smaller than 1/43, but bigger than 1/76..."

Me: "It's 1/50 scale"

Her: "It's from the Fifties, he's telling me... There's something on the base... 'Made In Western Germany'..."

And so on and so forth, all the while the end of my 1hr parking on Queen's Parade drawing nearer, and my likelihood of getting ticketed increasing.

Eventually, we reached an understanding and a deal was concluded. After handing over some tenners, I skipped back out into the no-longer sunny morning, and was gratified to see the traffic attendant was nowhere to be seen.

Emboldened, I grabbed a takeaway coffee from a cafe on the corner, and then managed to spill most of it down myself because I neglected to fit the lid securely before taking a swig.

Well, bollocks.

As I got back to the Corolla, the rain started to fall, heavily...

And by the time I manoeuvred back towards Abbey St, the car boot denizens were in an advanced stage of hurriedly packing up, so there was no chance of haggling over rusty slotcar sets.

So! Smelling unpleasantly of milky coffee and squelching slightly, I wended my way homeward...

And what was the outcome of the morning's travails?

Well, the large format Zylmex California T was secured for @bunglebus for the (probably reasonable) sum of £15.

Not super-cheap - but then, these aren't super-common. The plastic bits are pretty fragile, and I'm sure the majority of these didn't last ten minutes in the company of an enthusiastic five year old.

Meanwhile, the Gama Merc van was obtained for @Jon at the upper target price of £10:

It's a fascinating little thing - quite an odd size, and as it turns out has an opening side door and back loading doors, though you wouldn't necessarily know to look at it - the gap tolerances are amazingly small.

There's also something of a surprise in the back - but I'll let you uncover that yourself!

I picked up the Oxford Diecast Ford Transit flatbed for myself:

I'd wanted one of these on release, but couldn't seem to find one. They did them in AA, RAC and plain red colourways, I seem to recall.

This one cost me a fiver, which seems about right for a recent-ish unboxed model.

Boom! There we go.

Worth getting up for, I reckon.

At the end of the day, it's a retail business so paying market value is a given. David's content to let the diecast stock sit until it finds a buyer. He's got the space, and the time. And I think he genuinely likes having the older models about the place, as a memento of the business his father set up sixty-two years ago.

The Friday Tat Stall introduces a wildcard element because it's mostly random auction joblots, and blokey has to shift them fast to make room for new stock. And by his own admission , he's no real interest in diecast, personally. So - there can be bargains. A bit like the car boot sales, it's a clearance game, not a retail game.

There were, however, other Matchbox Dinky still lurking in the Military Geordie's boxes - so if he's knocking then out at a fiver each, I may return...

I just like them. I've come to realise the MB Dinky range is more a nostagia trip for me than simply models I'd like to own - I've scant interest in '56 Corvettes, and wouldn't have much time for a contemporary release. But this one, somehow...

Who knows what drives us?

Diecast. It's a funny old game.

[Jon]

1 hour ago, eddyramrod said:

@Jon surely what you need is the Britains SWB?  Or are you fussy enough about scale to prefer the 1/42s?

 

1 hour ago, flat4alfa said:

Yes I was going to say Britains too

Can also get the SIII to.  Sadly not in Fire Service livery that you are collecting* now

Good call on the Britains gents but it's more an issue that the SIIA grille is not present, rather it's an SIII. I know it's a sticker and thus fully replaceable but I'm not sure what my fabrication skills would allow on that front. Food for thought perhaps but in my defence, I had a zebra striped one growing up as a kid, so have ticked that box. But I haven't had a Dinky version, so it'd be a fun little project. And I'd look to replace the wheels with something, so if I got a late one with the awful 1 piece plastic wheels, it'd rid the world of one more pair, at least.

And @Datsuncog - that's great news! I'll be in touch to make payment!

[quicksilver]

1 hour ago, Datsuncog said:

 

This scratchbuilt coach, apparently a Leyland, was an interesting one, though.

No maker's name to be seen, though.

And I've already forgotten what it was priced at.

Daaah.

Ah well - just thought some of you might like to see it.

 

 

That's no Leyland but a Duple 425. Another example of Bill Day's handiwork - note the same red plastic seats as that Olympian you procured for me off the market. Interested depending on price if you find your way back over there.

[Richard_FM]

I used to have a Corgi Jean Richard Circus Land Rover with a trailer for animals.

[Tenmil Socket]

31 minutes ago, quicksilver said:

That's no Leyland but a Duple 425. Another example of Bill Day's handiwork - note the same red plastic seats as that Olympian you procured for me off the market. Interested depending on price if you find your way back over there.

I was just going to say that it looks remarkably similar in construction to the ones found on the TAT stall.

[cms206]

I had seen pictures of this before but genuinely thought it a wind up.

Apparantly not. Unveiled this last week by Hot Wheels in Malaysia...

[eddyramrod]

I HAVE to have one of those Protons!

[sierraman]

2 hours ago, cms206 said:

I had seen pictures of this before but genuinely thought it a mockup.

Apparantly not. Unveiled this last week by Hot Wheels in Malaysia...

I don’t like Hot Wheels but every man has his price and that’s mine. 

[cms206]

No rear tampo on the model shown but just LOOK AT IT.

[egg]

full size

[Split_Pin]

I LIKE PROTON CARS

[alcyonecorporation]

BUT IS IT J REG?????

THE J REG PROTONS EVEN THE SCALE ONES MUST BE SAVED 

[NorfolkNWeigh]

[TheOtherStu]

So I was thinking (as I was wandering around the gift shop at Beaulieu yesterday).........

Is it worth putting together a list of "modern" cars to look out for? (and maybe an idea on how much you would be willing to pay).

I often pop by the toy shops in Southampton (not necessarily looking for cars, but all kinds of stuff). Plus when you go to quite unusual places like the above which seem to have great choice.

I was thinking, the really rare ones like this if I found it in some remote village toyshop.
I'm guessing people would pay £10 or something?

[Split_Pin]

If I can't get it at the original price (£2.50 or whatever it is these days) then its not happening. Sorry but I'm done lining someone else's pocket as far as diecast is concerned.

[sierraman]

6 minutes ago, Split_Pin said:

If I can't get it at the original price (£2.50 or whatever it is these days) then its not happening. Sorry but I'm done lining someone else's pocket as far as diecast is concerned.

I agree, it’s silly the amount charged for really basic stuff you can get in Poundland/Entertainer etc