Shite in Miniature II

[155V6]

24 minutes ago, sierraman said:

Never seen a silver Astra police car! 

I knew they existed,but I've only ever seen pictures

[155V6]

17 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

@155V6 some good finds there, Color Changer Porsche is usually tatty as the paint chips very easily.

Hot Pants Crapi is also in great shape, Matchbox pickup is a pretty unusual one and I've also never seen the Astra in that colour!

I take it the Evel car is from Ideal? 

Yes,it is

[FakeConcern]

I may have mentioned that I'm addicted to ebay now and the other day even though I had decided to just concentrate on Corgi cars I had and lost or always wanted, I made a starting bid on a Spot On Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire and won it...

I'm not too annoyed with myself as I had one just like this in the same colour as a young child and no longer have it

I don't think I'll restore it as it looks just how I remember mine looking

This one is made in Gt Britain

The Land Rover I got the other day is made in Norn Island...

Now I'm wondering where my other Spot On toys from childhood were made, but CBA to dig them out and look...

[w00dy]

Spent the last of my nectar points on most of a Majorette 917 and a fancy boy Hot Wheels Countach. Was a tough call between that and the Alfa 155 DTM, but a Countach without a spoiler is just too alluring.

[bunglebus]

Those black and gold Majorettes look pretty good, the Charger is in that series but I've not found one yet

[eddyramrod]

My workbench...

And a bonus shot of my restored garage with some of the completed projects...

Just because I can!

[AndyW201]

Another arrival. Got this cheap off eBay as the piece that holds it to the plastic plinth is missing and one of the mirrors had been bent and snapped off.

One of Vanguards' best castings I think, the MK3, and Aztec gold is a lovely colour. Apart from the vinyl roof, it's a near enough match for Ray Doyle's steed in the later series of The Professionals. I have already got the Vanguards-based Corgi twin pack with VHK 11W and 12W, so this can go on display with the Vanguards Sweeney and Professionals themed cars Ive got and leave the twin pack cars all nice in the box...

One big bugbear is that they didn't cast a number plate plinth into the front bumper so the plate is printed straight onto the bumper which doesn't look great...

Being a later release, it has the upgraded interior detail, featuring a representation of Carla check fabric on the seats,

[FakeConcern]

10 hours ago, eddyramrod said:

My workbench...

And a bonus shot of my restored garage with some of the completed projects...

Just because I can!

That looks just the job! Some realy interesting projects on the go too, looking forward to see the finished items.

The garage is lovely, was it yours from when you where a child?

[Datsuncog]

18 hours ago, FakeConcern said:

Now I'm wondering where my other Spot On toys from childhood were made, but CBA to dig them out and look...

It's likely the majority of them were made in the purpose-built Spot-On facility on the Castlereagh Road in Belfast - only a small number of very early diecast models were assembled in one of Tri-ang's many GB factories (quite possibly Merthyr Tydfil in Wales, or else their Richmond or Margate works - I can't seem to find a reliable source), and these models had their baseplates stamped with 'Made in Great Britain'.

It seems that your Armstrong Siddeley is one of those, from the original six cars launched in 1959 (two saloon cars, the #100 Ford Zodiac Mk2 and #101 Armstrong Siddeley 236; two luxury cars, the #102 Bentley Four-Door Sports Saloon and #103 Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith; and two sports cars, the #104 MGA and #105 Austin-Healey 100 Six).

Full production geared up in East Belfast for 1960 at the new diecasting works built on the existing Lines Bros site, which already produced Pedigree dolls, plush toys, Arkitex construction kits, and doll's house furniture. From then on, Spot-On baseplates were stamped 'Made in the United Kingdom'.

(As an aside, it's worrying how many people still don't seem to understand that United Kingdom = Great Britain & Northern Ireland. This is particularly tiresome when trying to buy stuff online, and you see a price for 'UK delivery' which turns out to be actually 'oh, that's just for mainland UK m8, soz', and the cost to ship to NI is about three times higher - or they refuse to ship at all. Stop saying UK if you only mean GB!!)

Anyway, enough of the griping.

From about 1965 on some baseplates started to display 'Made in Northern Ireland' instead, and I've yet to discover why this was done.

It may be linked to changes made following Lines Bros' takeover of Meccano Ltd, to further distinguish between the premium Spot-On range and their newly acquired Dinky range, which continued to be made in Liverpool - or possibly there was some sort of localised drive around this time to raise the profile of NI's manufacturing base? As we all know, Corgi Toys were made just outside Swansea but never stated 'Made in Wales' on the base, instead going with 'Made in Great Britain'.

So I'm not sure why, but this also coincided with some cost-cutting measures, such as reducing the level of detail shown on the bases, and apparently even the introduction of plastic baseplates for some models (though I've never seen any of these myself, other than the classic range models).

The other curious angle is that at some point, a number of Spot-On moulds were shipped to Tri-ang's New Zealand factory in Auckland, where the toys were made locally with no place of manufacture stamped on them.

After the 1967 fire which destroyed the diecast area of the Belfast factory, together with all production records, UK production of Spot-On models ceased - although the Graham Thompson Collectors' Guide from 1983 states that production continued in New Zealand for 'two more seasons' - I'm not sure if he literally means another six months, or two 'catalogue seasons' i.e. two years - to 1969.

There was also the range of American cars which Tri-ang had been developing in an effort to crack the stubbornly resistant US market, and were initially intended to be part of the Spot-On range. However they were ultimately produced in Hong Kong and sold under the better-known Dinky brand in the US, and even then were not very successful.

What is interesting though is that even after the Spot-On name was dropped and Dinky became Lines Bros' only brand for diecast vehicles, newer Dinkys from about 1968 on tended to be designed to a larger scale of around 1/42 - the same scale which Spot-On had pioneered.

As was mentioned just the other day, this new scale choice for Dinky made Corgi Toys start to look distinctly weedy by comparison...

And that may have been a factor in Corgi deciding to upscale their new toys to 1/36 scale from the early 1970s on.

As a final baseplate related teaser - I can't find anything about why some (most) models were described as 'Spot-On Models by Tri-ang' - but some, like this Fiat 500 from a 2019 Tat Friday, were marked as 'Tri-ang Models by Spot-On'?

Any ideas?

[eddyramrod]

51 minutes ago, FakeConcern said:

That looks just the job! Some realy interesting projects on the go too, looking forward to see the finished items.

The garage is lovely, was it yours from when you where a child?

Thank you for those kind words!  

No, the garage isn't that old.  I picked it up from a stall at a car show some years ago -2014 IIRC - and restored it, because it was pretty battered.

[barrett]

17 minutes ago, Datsuncog said:

Spot-On

I've just checked - my Landcrab is made in NI, all my others are 'Gt Britain'. One day I'll have a big collection of Spot Ons, I really do love them

[egg]

30 minutes ago, Datsuncog said:

Margate works

I didn't know that - but I'm assuming that's the site that became Hornby and Scalextric (and is now the Hornby visitor centre). In a very lame to fame, the younger brother of a school friend has worked at Hornby as product developer for years. 

[Datsuncog]

2 minutes ago, barrett said:

I've just checked - my Landcrab is made in NI, all my others are 'Gt Britain'.

Ah, interesting - seems likely your Bristol is a pretty early example too, either a very late '59 or early 1960 release.

Also worth picking up that Spot-On were always sold as 'Spot-On Models' whereas Dinky and Corgi both sold as 'Toys'.

 

Quote

One day I'll have a big collection of Spot Ons, I really do love them.

I'd love to know what became of the Brighton Toy & Model Museum's collection:

I'm also still kicking myself, two decades on, for walking past it every day for quite some years and never going in...

[sierraman]

6 minutes ago, Datsuncog said:

Ah, interesting - seems likely your Bristol is a pretty early example too, either a very late '59 or early 1960 release.

Also worth picking up that Spot-On were always sold as 'Spot-On Models' whereas Dinky and Corgi both sold as 'Toys'.

 

I'd love to know what became of the Brighton Toy & Model Museum's collection:

I'm also still kicking myself, two decades on, for walking past it every day for quite some years and never going in...

It’s in John Noakes garage, he’s told them he’s looking after it when in fact he tours Swapmeets selling them. 

[egg]

Spot on base from me.

[bunglebus]

1 hour ago, Datsuncog said:

Merthyr Tydfil

AKA "Basildon of the Valley"

I had the misfortune to visit a few years back and it was quite an experience. Literally the first person that spoke to us was a woman asking if she could have a few puffs on the roll-up my (ex) wife was smoking.

Lovely old building taken over by the homeless, and the only place I've seen a two-star hygiene rating proudly displayed, in a Chinese takeaway window alongside a menu with lots of dead flies stuck between it and the window.

Anyway, I digress - have a naked Matchbox 

[bunglebus]

I only have two Spot-Ons and they're both Beetles. 

Good effort at reproducing the floor pan, suspension, gearbox and engine 

[sierraman]

17 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

AKA "Basildon of the Valley"

I had the misfortune to visit a few years back and it was quite an experience. Literally the first person that spoke to us was a woman asking if she could have a few puffs on the roll-up my (ex) wife was smoking.

Lovely old building taken over by the homeless, and the only place I've seen a two-star hygiene rating proudly displayed, in a Chinese takeaway window alongside a menu with lots of dead flies stuck between it and the window.

Anyway, I digress - have a naked Matchbox 

Would look great in yellow that would. 

[Datsuncog]

11 minutes ago, egg said:

I'm assuming that's the site that became Hornby and Scalextric (and is now the Hornby visitor centre).

Yup, Rovex Plastics of Richmond started making model railways in 1950, and in 1951 were acquired by Tri-ang who fancied expanding into the burgeoning toy trains business.

A new Rovex Scale Models factory was built by Tri-ang in 1954 in Margate, with the products now sold in the shops as Tri-ang Railways. After parent company Lines Bros bought out the ailing Meccano Hornby outfit in 1964, most of the diecast Hornby Dublo products were divested off to their Wrenn arm, and Tri-ang continued to sell their plastic train sets under the Tri-ang Hornby name.

The Scalextric brand had been acquired by Lines Bros as far back as 1958, and production had continued at the former Minimodels factory in Havant until production was switched to the Margate Rovex factory in 1968.

As far as I know, that's the same place that now houses the Hornby Visitor Centre.

 

[bunglebus]

56 minutes ago, sierraman said:

Would look great in yellow that would. 

Plan at the moment is the original colours plus detailing, and hopefully a bit less rubbish looking

[danthecapriman]

58 minutes ago, Datsuncog said:

Yup, Rovex Plastics of Richmond started making model railways in 1950, and in 1951 were acquired by Tri-ang who fancied expanding into the burgeoning toy trains business.

A new Rovex Scale Models factory was built by Tri-ang in 1954 in Margate, with the products now sold in the shops as Tri-ang Railways. After parent company Lines Bros bought out the ailing Meccano Hornby outfit in 1964, most of the diecast Hornby Dublo products were divested off to their Wrenn arm, and Tri-ang continued to sell their plastic train sets under the Tri-ang Hornby name.

The Scalextric brand had been acquired by Lines Bros as far back as 1958, and production had continued at the former Minimodels factory in Havant until production was switched to the Margate Rovex factory in 1968.

As far as I know, that's the same place that now houses the Hornby Visitor Centre.

 

Sir, Sir, I haz questions!!

What/where was the minimodels factory? Havant is only a few miles down the road from me but I’ve never heard of it. Be interesting to know…

Also,

Years ago I had a plastic kit of a signal box, branded Hornby, came in their packaging but on the plastic base section it said ‘Rovex West Germany’. I always thought that was odd as it was a Great Western Railway building kit, not a foreign building rebranded by Hornby to sell here. Did Hornby have a factory in west Germany then?

[egg]

1 hour ago, Datsuncog said:

As far as I know, that's the same place that now houses the Hornby Visitor Centre.

Looks to be the same place. Fun* fact I bought my Mazda 323 coupe from a bloke in the B&Q carpark next door.

https://www.brightontoymuseum.co.uk/index/Category:Rovex_Plastics

[sierraman]

I’ve always had this hope that in these factory’s there would have been loads of old bits of diecast left. However on looking at the urbex reports of the old Lesney building in Hackney it looked pretty bare since they vacated in in 82-83. No piles of Superkings wheels or unused shells!

[Datsuncog]

1 hour ago, danthecapriman said:

What/where was the minimodels factory? Havant is only a few miles down the road from me but I’ve never heard of it. Be interesting to know…

Lines Bros bought up a lot of different toymakers in the 1950s and 1960s, but tended to let them continue on as before the buyout and in the same location, where possible.

Minimodels was set up by B. Fred Francis in 1947, making tinplate toys and models in fairly small numbers from premises in London.

In 1952 Minimodels launched the 1/30 Scalex range, which were 'keyless' clockwork racing cars, operated by pulling out the steering wheel to wind up the motor.

With Scalex suddenly becoming a 'must-have' toy, in order to meet demand Minimodels took out a lease on factory premises in New Lane, Havant the same year. They were soon turning out 7,000 Scalex models a week. 

However, demand for clockwork toys dropped off and by 1956 the company was in trouble. Fred tried a number of things, but settled on developing a racing track system where the players could actually control the speed of the cars as they played.

Starting off with electric motors fitted to Scalex cars to run on railway track, he finessed this down to cars fitted with motors running on rubberised track fitted with pickups, powered by batteries, and controlled with on-off hand throttles. He called this Scalex-electric, soon shortened to Scalextric.

Although not an entirely new concept - Lionel Toys in the US had marketed a very similar concept as far back as 1912 - there was a sensation when Minimodels launched this innovative new Scalextric system at the 1957 Harrogate Toy Fair, with orders pouring in from retailers. The Havant factory were suddenly facing the opposite problem, where they simply couldn't keep up with demand.

Keen to get in on a slice of the action, Lines Bros approached Fred in 1958, offering to buy him out - and so Minimodels became part of the Tri-ang Toys empire. They were able to bring in best-practice from elsewhere in their businesses to reduce costs and increase production capacity, such as switching to injection plastic mouldings for the car bodies and chassis instead of metal.

There were rivals, as Victory Industries launched a very similar range in 1957, as VIP Line - but Scalextric focused mainly on Grand Prix racers, while Victory's range was more akin to model roadways with passenger cars.

In 1961, the Minimodels factory moved to bigger premises in the Leigh Fields area of Havant, where they remained until 1968 - when Scalextric production switched to the Margate Rovex factory. However, Minimodels apparently remained at the Leigh Fields plant until the early 1970s (though I don't know what they were making by that stage).

Quote

Years ago I had a plastic kit of a signal box, branded Hornby, came in their packaging but on the plastic base section it said ‘Rovex West Germany’. I always thought that was odd as it was a Great Western Railway building kit, not a foreign building rebranded by Hornby to sell here. Did Hornby have a factory in west Germany then?

That's interesting - I know Lines Bros had subsidiary companies all over the world, including Australia, New Zealand, Canada, United States, Ireland and South Africa, but I wasn't aware of a Rovex subsidiary in West Germany... intriguing!

I know Hornby Hobbies subsequently acquired model railway companies from all over the world in the 1980s and 90s, such as Lima and Jouef, but I'm not aware of any German ones.

[Datsuncog]

Messing around with some of my more recent diecast acquisitions earlier in the week led to the sobering realisation they were unacceptably MANKY.

Yeuch.

Only one thing for it... a bit of rub-a-dub-dub.

The Aston in particular seemed to have enjoyed a previous career as a grasstrack racer - it was absolutely clogged with dried mud inside.

Not so much a toothbrush job as a coathanger job, to poke the muck out.

Less 'orrible.

Much better.

The Consul Classic looked a bit better, too:

The paint never seems to be all that great on these, but this one looks a bit less grotty now.

While the big Bedford bin lorry appeared more spruce after a tickle with the toothbrush...

...and a bit of strategic bending to straighten up the chassis.

The rails are surprisingly delicate just behind the cab, so it wouldn't take much pressure at all to create a bad bend.

Luckily, this meant it was fairly easy to knock back into shape as well.

Success all round!

[egg]

When you think about it from a logistics point of view having a toy factory in Margate is a daft idea - literally the edge of the corner of the country. OK, London isn't far away, but diecast from that factory must have done some mileage. But then again, 'Thanet earth' is the largest greenhouse complex in the UK - supplying the UK with fruit and veg - so wot do I know.

[bunglebus]

16 minutes ago, sierraman said:

I’ve always had this hope that in these factory’s there would have been loads of old bits of diecast left. However on looking at the urbex reports of the old Lesney building in Hackney it looked pretty bare since they vacated in in 82-83. No piles of Superkings wheels or unused shells!

That's now flats and workshops unless there's another place I don't know of

[danthecapriman]

1 hour ago, Datsuncog said:

Lines Bros bought up a lot of different toymakers in the 1950s and 1960s, but tended to let them continue on as before the buyout and in the same location, where possible.

Minimodels was set up by B. Fred Francis in 1947, making tinplate toys and models in fairly small numbers from premises in London.

In 1952 Minimodels launched the 1/30 Scalex range, which were 'keyless' clockwork racing cars, operated by pulling out the steering wheel to wind up the motor.

With Scalex suddenly becoming a 'must-have' toy, in order to meet demand Minimodels took out a lease on factory premises in New Lane, Havant the same year. They were soon turning out 7,000 Scalex models a week. 

However, demand for clockwork toys dropped off and by 1956 the company was in trouble. Fred tried a number of things, but settled on developing a racing track system where the players could actually control the speed of the cars as they played.

Starting off with electric motors fitted to Scalex cars to run on railway track, he finessed this down to cars fitted with motors running on rubberised track fitted with pickups, powered by batteries, and controlled with on-off hand throttles. He called this Scalex-electric, soon shortened to Scalextric.

Although not an entirely new concept - Lionel Toys in the US had marketed a very similar concept as far back as 1912 - there was a sensation when Minimodels launched this innovative new Scalextric system at the 1957 Harrogate Toy Fair, with orders pouring in from retailers. The Havant factory were suddenly facing the opposite problem, where they simply couldn't keep up with demand.

Keen to get in on a slice of the action, Lines Bros approached Fred in 1958, offering to buy him out - and so Minimodels became part of the Tri-ang Toys empire. They were able to bring in best-practice from elsewhere in their businesses to reduce costs and increase production capacity, such as switching to injection plastic mouldings for the car bodies and chassis instead of metal.

There were rivals, as Victory Industries launched a very similar range in 1957, as VIP Line - but Scalextric focused mainly on Grand Prix racers, while Victory's range was more akin to model roadways with passenger cars.

In 1961, the Minimodels factory moved to bigger premises in the Leigh Fields area of Havant, where they remained until 1968 - when Scalextric production switched to the Margate Rovex factory. However, Minimodels apparently remained at the Leigh Fields plant until the early 1970s (though I don't know what they were making by that stage).

That's interesting - I know Lines Bros had subsidiary companies all over the world, including Australia, New Zealand, Canada, United States, Ireland and South Africa, but I wasn't aware of a Rovex subsidiary in West Germany... intriguing!

I know Hornby Hobbies subsequently acquired model railway companies from all over the world in the 1980s and 90s, such as Lima and Jouef, but I'm not aware of any German ones.

That’s interesting to know. I’ve lived in this area most of my life and had no idea that place was there.

I do know New Lane, I did quite a few jobs down there in various places when I was the electricity board. I can’t think exactly where the factory would be or would’ve been. But lots of the sites there have been demolished and rebuilt, particularly more recently. There was a big place call Colt Ventilation on the corner of New Lane and Barton’s Road that’d been there years but that’s been flattened and now a housing estate (fuck knows where all these people work now!). It is quite a long road though. 
It’d be interesting to find pictures of the toy factory and see where it was/is and do a comparison shot of it now.

[MiniMinorMk3]

5 hours ago, Datsuncog said:

Ah, interesting - seems likely your Bristol is a pretty early example too, either a very late '59 or early 1960 release.

Also worth picking up that Spot-On were always sold as 'Spot-On Models' whereas Dinky and Corgi both sold as 'Toys'.

 

I'd love to know what became of the Brighton Toy & Model Museum's collection:

I'm also still kicking myself, two decades on, for walking past it every day for quite some years and never going in...

The Brighton Toy & Model Museum's collection is still there.

… Other exhibits | Brighton Toy and Model Museum (brightontoymuseum.co.uk)

[MiniMinorMk3]

3 hours ago, bunglebus said:

Plan at the moment is the original colours plus detailing, and hopefully a bit less rubbish looking

One of my favourite cars. I've had a few white metal versions.