Shite in Miniature II

[MiniMinorMk3]

Random pic of the day

[bunglebus]

Update time. Bought a few of the Fat and Furious set I spotted in BuM

[bunglebus]

This came in the post. Box isn't great but the Gulper within is pretty good

[bunglebus]

Moving onto boot sale and charity shop stuff with big Matchbox. The 70s were a weird time, case in point generic transporter and V8 Caterpillar 

Cossie is all there other than the wheel centres

Smaller commercials consist, among others, of a Major Pack Bedford

A "My First" Dump Truck

Royal Mail branded Dodge 

Another "My First" in the form of the Leyland Titan

Plus two trailers with decades between them

[bunglebus]

More Royal Mail stuff in the form of this Group C Racer

Ever since @Datsuncog found me the more unusual red Gruesome Twosome, the flippin' things keep turning up!

Tincorner is really nice and worth £3 all day

Making a hat-trick of "My First" models, why are these Astras always battered?

Nice rozzers Jag

Think Prairie is a duplicate 

Lasertronics Merc 500 SEC doesn't laser or tronic anymore

Can't remember the name of this series

Don't think I had a G wagon at all before finding this Matchbox 200 GE

Only picked this up as the aerial was intact. Might pinch it for an earlier one in need. Maybe

[bunglebus]

Corgis, really pleased to find this Rockets Jag even with its defects. Not an easy one to track down!

Couple of Chinese releases, can't get a handle on the chronological order of these as the Porsche has a metal base

Cubs doesn't actually have any branding on it - but we know!

[bunglebus]

Battered Husky Bug has a better body than one I started to restore that has some odd casting defects

Only Lone Star commercial I've seen that's supposed to be an actual vehicle 

Trickshifters Firebird

Here's that Guisval Seat Ibiza following some emergency repairs to the rear wheels

Solido Pug could be up for grabs - fairly scuffed but otherwise OK

Soma Porsche 928 should do something once new batteries are installed

No-name pickup just because I liked it

And probably the worst rendition of an E30 I've seen - excellent effort by High Speed here

[bunglebus]

Hot Wheels - ZX must be one of the few of the era with opening doors

Ultra Hots - those wheels yet again

Majorettes include F40

Tatty Volvo

Quite nice Pug

Trailers 

And this larger Saviem tractor which I wasn't familiar with

[sierraman]

£3 a bargain for that Cortina, they seem impossible to find these days except for £10-20 on fleabay. 

[eddyramrod]

Ebay parcel arrived the other day, from a very helpful seller I've dealt with before...

These Bond cars are rather good, and these unboxed examples were cheap enough.  The yellow pickup (From Russia With Love) is a bit smaller scale, so it's probably the earlier Corgi issue, which is fine; it's in nice condition and has gone straight on display.  The others are all getting painted.  I'm building up an impressive collection of seated figures that I've take out of my purchases!

[bunglebus]

19 minutes ago, sierraman said:

£3 a bargain for that Cortina, they seem impossible to find these days except for £10-20 on fleabay. 

I've sold a few of the common gold ones in average condition for a couple of quid each - but yes I wasn't leaving that behind!

[bunglebus]

Just noticed something

Rally versions of the Astra have opening fire exits

But the police and My First ones don't

 

[MiniMort]

Been to Silverstone Festival this weekend and there's always a stand that sells models. In previous years they've had a box of tatty Matchboxes and Corgi Juniors for a quid. Sadly, not so this year but I did get all of these for £3 a pop.

They're all brand new De Agostinis but (like the real deal) the build quality isn't great. Already broke two wiper arms by trying to adjust them into where they should have gone. Ah well, superglue will remedy that.

Might head back this evening and see if the stand's still open - they had some Polonezes and I might even treat myself to another Yugo I could use as a testbed to customise into a UK spec car.

[sheffcortinacentre]

On 8/25/2023 at 5:33 PM, Datsuncog said:

Sure thing squire - £3 alright?

Great pm'd you.

[FakeConcern]

Had to give bbot fair a miss, but popped into Toy & Model fair and as usual Mrs Concern bought much more tat than I did! Hers on the right...

I've wanted a Dinky Zephr since I was a kid, never had a toy car with four opening doors that I can remember...

Of course I forgot to check the door cards, but still happy for £5

This broken Daf/Volvo for 50p was interesting

I can't make out the diamond shaped logo as it's covered with glue and not had a chance to try and remove it

Mrs Concern got this beach buggy with cast body and plastic base

No idea about this either

Also this strange thing she rather liked

Looks like out of a cracker!

[sheffcortinacentre]

Zodiac 

[bunglebus]

I've got that same buggy - not worked out who made it yet

My silver Zody resto is missing the opposite rear door card!

Volvo/DAF is Auto Pilen I believe

[AndyW201]

Usual lack of pickings at the weekend. 

Couldn't leave this behind at Asda though. Seeing as I constantly waste my time and fuel trying to find decent mainlines and failing, might as well spend some money on a nice premium...

It's a lovely casting, don't think I've seen the FJ60 as a mainline as yet and the Autoshite colour scheme is nice too.

It's a big, weighty bugger, probably due to the sheer size of the real thing and the chunky metal base on this one.

As expected, the detailing is pretty nice,

Shame about the back to front rear tampo though, 🤣

OMG M8 factory error, worth ££££££

[AndyW201]

Had a package arrive from K&R replicas, a smol set of slotmags, so dug out the Atlas Marina plod car.

In a rare happening of having an hour or two to myself, I thought I'd have a play around with it. I've always wanted a Vanguards Marina 1.8 TC but they've only released one official TC version, and they go for a bit more than I want to pay. So "de-commissioning" an el-cheapo Atlas Vanguards-based is the option at the moment.

Straight away, I had a disaster as the very basic Police  lettering looked like it would come off straight away with nail polish remover, as the markings did on the Atlas Cortina I did before. But all it did was just make the lettering bleed into the white, leaving it with two blue doors. Repainting the doors white came out horrible so I just thought I'd do a rough looking '80s boy racer shitbox type TC, like I did with the Cortina.

So having removed the Police roof sign, I was left with two small holes to fill. While wondering what to do with the roof, I found some small self adhesive vinyl upholstery repair sheets, so I thought I'd fashion up a webasto type fabric roof.,

I don't think it looks too bad.

I think the slotmags suit the Marina too,

The problem was with the Police markings removed, like the Cortina, it seemed to have too much of an expanse of white along the sides. But with the paint on the doors looking so atrocious, and the slotmags fitted, it reminded me of a proper shitbox of a MK1 Escort a mate of my brother had circa 1990, in white, with slotmags and a 1700 X-flow that was probably a bit too powerful for the shonky shell it was in. Anyway, after some substantial welding on the inner and outer sills, this Escort ended up with a fairly wobbly tidemark in silver Smoothrite, as he had no black underseal to hand. So out with the silver Sharpie, and some equally wobbly council tidemarks were added...

Ahhh, I can hear the KLF and 808 State wow & fluttering through the Harry Moss stereo and Goodmans speakers from here...

Saying that, this probably will be up for a repaint as it's crying out for something like Limeflower or Black Tulip.

[AndyW201]

Finally got around to opening my box from @155V6 cheers fella.

Corgi Juniors Metro in red is unusual. Only red variant I can find is the one in Datapost racing livery, seems to have been the only one with black interior too.

I already have the small 190 with the same type wheels as the Metro above, but I think this is one of the few castings that looks better with these four-blob wheels. The body casting is of  the 2.3-16 version, but the colour, wheels and colour coded grille remind me more of a period '80s  high spec 2.0 with the kit fitted.

Finally got one of my favourite Corgi Juniors, I didn't even know this existed until fairly recently. Its a pretty good rendition of the Polo and this one's in lovely condition,

A couple of Sikus,

I do like a yellow car, and considering how bad some Sikus of this era had got, it's not a bad rendition of the A4,

Something a bit unusual, an Iveco camper,

For its tiny size, the living area isn't badly done, with the sink and cooker visible, and the seating area and table the other side (gotta have somewhere nice to sit and wait for the recovery truck 🤣)

Moving onto moderns,

Since I was a kid, I've always been attracted to Majorette, since they mostly tend to go for more normal, everyday subjects, this Yaris being a good example,

Most of the time you get opening features, without having to pay for the privilege like you have to nowadays with Matchbox... I had to break with tradition and open this one to play with the opening bonnet,

I already got the Renault Migraine coupé years ago as the Premium edition in matte black, when Home Bargains were knocking them out cheap. Does look nice in colour though!

The Clio was one I never managed to find at the time though, I do like the fact this one is the Renault Sport version, with the right bumpers. I do like a little sporty hatch in yellow. My brother recently had a Clio RS line and it was a pleasant wee thing,

Another one I was pleased to find was the Dacia Duster, my wife even liked this one, as it seems that a real life Duster is destined for our household sometime soon...

[Split_Pin]

That Marina turned out great, its an excellent casting. After the Millenium, Vanguards leaped forward in their level of fine detail. I remember being really impressed with the Teal Blue Marina 1.8 I got in 2001. I think that was the first release of the model.

The Duster model is a cracker too. I have both this and the Norev version which are weirdly almost identical. My 1/1 scale version is long gone though

[Dick Cheeseburger]

Spotted this on the diecast collectors fb page. Mini blackwall Bonk? 

 

[bunglebus]

Is that ^^ a Pontiac Trans Sport? 

[bunglebus]

Ah - Chevy Lumina

Here's mine

[eddyramrod]

That was a very confusing tactic by Chevrolet!  At the same time the Trans-based car was available, there was also a smaller (Volvo 740-sized) sedan also called Lumina.  I know because I had one!  I've still got the number plates on my wall...

[MiniMinorMk3]

20 hours ago, bunglebus said:

Corgis, really pleased to find this Rockets Jag even with its defects. Not an easy one to track down!

 

 

One of my faves.

20 hours ago, bunglebus said:

More Royal Mail stuff in the form of this Group C Racer

 

 

Looks like they used a generic Group C car for that model, looks a bit like a 956 Porker.

The actual car was the Ecosse C286, chassis number 003, that was campaigned throughout the 1987 Season.

Chassis 86/003 - Photo Gallery - Racing Sports Cars

12 hours ago, FakeConcern said:

 

This broken Daf/Volvo for 50p was interesting

I can't make out the diamond shaped logo as it's covered with glue and not had a chance to try and remove it

 

 

As mentioned by @bunglebus, the Volvo is a Pilen.

You can just make out the diamond logo on the box top.

Also came in Rallye guise too.

[Split_Pin]

1 hour ago, eddyramrod said:

That was a very confusing tactic by Chevrolet!  At the same time the Trans-based car was available, there was also a smaller (Volvo 740-sized) sedan also called Lumina.  I know because I had one!  I've still got the number plates on my wall...

When I went to visit my cousin Sam in Canada back in '99 he had a Lumina sedan and his daughter had a Lumina van. Both cars were about 8 years old even then and the wipers in the van didn't work. Thankfully my cousin was very laid back and didn't flap when we got caught in a rainstorm 😅

[Datsuncog]

Bit of a catch-up from the weekend's happenings, then...

Saturday morning wasn't lashing with rain, in a rare change, so I threw caution to the winds and headed out fairly early to the car boot sale.

This one only runs on Saturday mornings during July and August, so I was banking on the final event this year to be a busy one.

I was right, it was heaving.

Haven't seen this many sellers here for years; cars were crammed in three-deep on the grass.

This is the same event that only had about six or seven cars a few weeks back - but clearly those who had been holding off recognised it was now or never...

As I was crossing the road, I was mildly surprised to see Market Blokey crossing the other way, clutching an upholstered flamingo-print stool.

Well, I guess he's gotta get his stuff from somewhere?

I've long lamented that I never seem to see the same levels of diecast offered at these events as you fortunate folks - but I was somehow hopeful I could buck the trend today.

And indeed, one of the first stalls by the path had diecast!

Oh.

Well, sort of.

£5 Days Gone, £18 Bburago, £2.50 for opened early 2000s Matchbox. Or £12 for a sloppily repainted Dinky motor coach.

Naaaaah. 

Moving swiftly on, it seemed that many sellers did have a few toy vehicles - but none of them were really Our Thing, to be fair.

Just generic plastic shite, for the most part.

Some recent-ish Hot Wheels and Matchbox were on show, but nothing to set me all of a-flutter; not at a pound a go, anyway.

Oh great - more of those beloved* Reader's Digest clazzic carz.

These Suzuki and RAV4 no-names weren't in bad nick - but I felt £2 each was a bit steep. 

Maybe I was expected to haggle enthusiastically with the stallholder, but I wasn't really feeling it. Keep 'em.

I'd  hoped that my overly-familiar Geordie military dude might be here today, with the rest of his boxed Matchbox Dinkys and primed to do end-of-season deals just to get shot of them all.

But he wasn't.

Instead, some other fella with an awful lot of Matchbox Models of Yesteryear and Lledos was there, looking rather morose.

Yes, I'd be glum too if I were trying to palm this stuff off.

I just dunno who this stuff appeals to anymore; though having said that, at the point these models were new in 1982 they were representing vehicles some 50-60 years old; and I guess that's now equivalent to vehicles from the 1960s and 70s.

Are we gonna reach a point in 2063 where future collectors will look at tables of Escorts and Cortinas and think, I just dunno who this stuff appeals to anymore?

Hmmm, makes ya think. 🤔

Just as I was starting to feel a smidge like I'd wasted my morning...

I spied this rather tired-looking Superman-issue Corgi Buick Regal, languishing amidst the detritus on a charity fundraising stall.

Not exactly cheap-cheap at £1, and with missing roof lights plus A-pillar damage, but still... would I pay this to rescue it from the Friday Tat Market? Yes, I probably would.

In fact, there's no 'probably' about it - I once paid £5 for one of these in slightly worse condition back around 1991, from an antiques shop.

Bloody hell.

They sure saw me coming.

So, a quid seemed like a comparative bargain - and so we were off...

[AndyW201]

Delivery from Ana's Facebook Hot Wheels site. Been building this box up for a good few months now. Some stuff I would have bugger all chance of finding in the shops.

Been after a Moving Parts Moggie for ages. Would have preferred the yellow version, but this anniversary one will do nicely.

Love how they actually did the engine in BMC green,

On the subject of 70th anniversary editions, I can't resist a Matchbox Fintail,

Already got this MR2 as a mainline, I just like the card with this one,

Not sure which mix this Audi is from, never seen it in any shops,

I got this one cheaply in the small matchbox type packaging, which I set free. This is one of my favourite recent  MB castings, the detailing is lovely,

This was the only one out of that VW collection I could get, I was really after the Golf,

Lastly, I've been after this Treasure Hunt Subaru for ages, but people want daft money for them. Got this a hell of a lot cheaper, I can live with a slight crease in the card...

[Datsuncog]

Purchasing cherry popped for the day, I then did a second, more detailed sweep of the stalls.

Closer perusal of one small stall presided over by a very well-dressed lady revealed a few diecast oddities in a Tupperware, amidst the books and DVDs.

Apparently they belonged to her son, who was heading off travelling and had charged her to dispose of some of his old stuff to raise funds.

I'm not sure how old her lad was, cos these weren't all that recent...

Matchbox Ford F150 Flareside in Roadblasters colours, and a (still working) Hot Wheels Crack-Up.

And this glorious very-near-mint Sierra XR4i in simple white, which I don't recall seeing before.

This was more like it.

And, best of all - they were only 50p a go.

I was so overcome, I also stumped up for this RealToy Ford Galaxy and no-name Hong Kong Ferrari, which I think may be a reworking of some European maker release - the wheels look quite like Majorette, while the base looks just the same as a Fiat Ritmo I've had for years.

Origin stamp looks to have been added in to the moulding at a later date, while there's a standard LOL to be had at the propshaft/ exhaust detail for a mid-engined car...

Any ideas of the maker?

So continuing my second sweep, I'd earlier clocked quite a large stall that had a number of boxes of tat sitting out on the ground, but had beat a hasty retreat when I overheard they were wanting £200 for a secondhand e-scooter.

And the boxes didn't look all that enticing.

Although...

Is that a Bburago Fiat Tipo?

And on closer inspection, there were actually quite a few oddities to be seen.

Mostly cheap unbranded stuff, but appealing nonetheless.

The adjacent box had more Bburago and similar-scaled items...

Quite a lot of Bburago, and not all of it was just Ferraris... Not in top condition, it's true, but still...

And is that... a Tonka Ford Maverick?

Ohhh, now we're cooking with gas.

I pulled out a few likely candidates - but after being burned a few weeks ago with the £2  Shitty Sierra, I was kinda wary...

So I thought I'd better ask before getting too carried away. 50p seemed about right for some of them, but I didn't much care to go to £1 and paying even more would be unwise...

"How much are the wee cars in the box?" I tried to sound offhand and generally nonchalant.

"20p" came the reply.

"Even the bigger ones?" I proffered the Tipo, by way of illustration.

"Aye."

😲

GO GO GO GO GO

I may* have got a bit carried away with their low, low prices.

With the car boot sale thoroughly inspected, and the rain clouds beginning to gather, I went off to calm my tits with a poncey latte...

But we weren't done for the day.

 

No, not yet.