Shite in Miniature II

[danthecapriman]

You can educate yourself with diecast’s as well as collect them!

I had no idea the VW Santana was called a Carat in South America. Weird why they changed the names in certain countries yet the car itself is the same. 
I know Fiat did similar things with the Ritmo etc.

 

[sierraman]

2 hours ago, junkyarddog said:

Transport yourself to the early 80s and have a browse.

Note the giffer eyeing up the Models of Yesteryear "They're an investment M8"

😂

Isn’t that Clive James there? 

[Datsuncog]

4 hours ago, bunglebus said:

Found an independent toy shop with a few interesting bits

Ooh - I see they have some of the older Matchbox Action Drivers playsets on the shelves there - the 2020 Helicopter Rescue (with generic ambulance), the 2021 Park & Play Garage (with green Mustang) and the 2022 Bus Depot (with generic City Bus).

Getting quite hard to track down now - I wish I'd bought more of them when Home Bargains were stocking them for between £5 and £7!

Those seem to be the same sort of money as I'd expect to pay off Amazon or eBay including postage (£27/ £15), but still - good to see them in the wild.

4 hours ago, bunglebus said:

Nice Majorette trailer packs - haven't seen those before anywhere.

Well done on tracking down the elusive 2023 Matchbox case with the blue Ford F150 - not seen that selection anywhere near me.

[Noel Tidybeard]

5 hours ago, bunglebus said:

umm France? Fiat 500?

[Nibbler]

Some new acquisitions. The Melkus is probably a bit basic compared to the Minichamps version, but the Oltcit I must say is quite lovely. We don’t get Matchbox here in Sweden that I know of, so I ordered the Subaru SVX from Poland. Fox body Mustang was found in a plastic bag with mixed toys. I really like the fox body so I had to save it.

[bunglebus]

Anyone want a broken Vanguards Dolly for £2? Guy I see at the boot sale has it

[FakeConcern]

I'm not a Hot Wheels nut but this is interesting...

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/hot-car-becomes-hot-wheels2-13804105

[danthecapriman]

1 hour ago, bunglebus said:

Anyone want a broken Vanguards Dolly for £2? Guy I see at the boot sale has it

I’ll bite if nobody else wants it!? Please!

[bunglebus]

2 minutes ago, danthecapriman said:

I’ll bite if nobody else wants it!? Please!

No problem I've asked him to hang onto it. I'll pick it up the next time he's at the local boot sale

[danthecapriman]

1 hour ago, bunglebus said:

No problem I've asked him to hang onto it. I'll pick it up the next time he's at the local boot sale

👍cheers!

Just let me know and I’ll send you the credits.

[AndyW201]

New arrival time. Another Vanguards, for which I can only apologise, but another one I've been chasing for quite a while.

I've always liked the UK version of the Peugeot 205 Rallye. Not to be confused with the French market mad, lightweight, twin-carbed rally homologation job, what we got was more of a pared down 1.4 XS with stripes, colour coded steels and special interior. There are a few model makers that have done the French market Rallye but as far as I know, only Vanguards have done the UK version, and only in Express yellow.

I've not had a Vanguards 205 yet, they always seem to go for big money, especially the Rallye, and that version doesn't come up for sale that often. So this time, I've had to go down the unboxed route, the fact this one had bits missing kept the price down too. Apart from the missing wipers and aerial, which I'm not too fussed about at the moment, the main things missing on this one were the mirrors. With Vanguards, it used to be just a case of contacting Corgi for spares and more often than not, they'd send replacements out if they were in stock. Now they're just not arsed. Sets of genuine mirrors sometimes come up on eBay, but people ask almost the price of a complete model for them. I did however come across a manufacturer of 3D printed model accessories on the bay, and they had a style that looked very similar to facelift 205 mirrors. These were duly purchased for a couple of quid.

Quick coat of black, and they were fitted.

So, they do look a bit oversized for a 205, but I think it looks better now. The lack of wipers at the front doesn't really show, I think a cut down bristle from the yard brush, painted black, should make a replacement aerial, I've done that before.

The model itself is pretty good, with all the usual Vanguards detailing.

Only real let down is that this release seems to suffer from slightly over thick application of the paint, which does affect the sharpness off shut lines and some body contours.

The Rallye stripes and decals are all nicely done,

And those yellow steels look great. I was a bit peturbed at first to see that they modelled the 14" ones from the 106 Rallye rather than the 13" ones the 205 had, but this is correct as the real K988 VTT had the 106 ones fitted.

Interior, like most Vanguards of the time, is a sea of black and hard to photograph, but there is a decent rendering of the 205 dash, a GTi style wheel and the bolstered sports seats.

So another 'wanted' model crossed off the list, and being cheap and unboxed, it'll be good to join the other '90s warm and hot hatches in the display cabinet.

The hunt goes on for a reasonably priced boxed example though,

[Datsuncog]

Took a bit of a lunchtime adventure to another town today, incidentally.

Because I knew there was a newsagent which has a really old-school toy department upstairs.

I haven't been in for many, many years - but, as mentioned upthread, I've developed a bit of an odd hankering for those Matchbox Action Driver sets.

This is a branch of Stewart Miller - once a fairly substantial chain of eight or nine newsagent/ bookseller/ toy stores, but now there's just the two branches left.

I struck lucky over at the Holywood branch last month with some very nicely priced Matchbox Moving Parts vehicles and a 2020 release Action Drivers set:

And I had been quietly going doo-lally in the intervening period, wondering how I could get over to the Newtownards branch, just in case they had even more.

So, today something in me snapped and I drove over. About 45 minutes driving, each way.

Hopes were perhaps unfeasibly high, and...

There were lots of fairly inexpensive loose vehicles of far-eastern manufacture, but those weren't what I was looking for.

Matchbox... ah.

Mmm... not such a spectacular selection of mainlines. Mostly just motorbike trailers. And no Moving Parts range vehicles to be seen at all.

There was an Action Drivers set...

But it's the same one I bought from the Holywood branch, except it's missing the generic 4x4 vehicle that should be with the packaging.

So, no dice on that.

Dunno why I've become so taken with these sets lately. I mean, they're pretty good and all for what they are, but they're still very toy-like.

Nonetheless, I've found myself increasingly looking these up on eBay and Amazon, and watching unboxing videos on YouTube, and... generally falling down a hole.

It's hard not to weep when our Transatlantic cousins casually mention that these sets are 'ten dollars at Target', cos they're generally a brave bit more on these shores.

But I digress. I wasn't missing out, anyway, and that's the main thing.

These caught my eye, though:

A similar idea from Bburago, only bigger - 1/43 cars and buildings.

Not bad value to be fair, for a fiver.

But stay! What's this?

Crikey. Bburago City, no less. 

A smaller picture on top shows the actual contents, indicating that the box may be needlessly oversize:

But still, if you wanted to construct a backdrop for displaying 1/43 cars, you could probably do worse for the money.

But I'm not really looking for 1/43 diorama stuff, so... a wasted journey?

Not quite.

I was very surprised to find this Magirus-Deutz fire tender down among the loose commercials:

I mean... how old is this?

Thirty.

It's thirty years old. Matchbox by Tyco, 1994.

And... it's just been here, all this time, unsold and unwanted?

Apparently so.

Blimey.

There were no Matra Ranchos or BMW 7-Series from the same range lurking anywhere else, sadly. I did look.

But what an oddity. Just goes to show - you never know what turns up, sometimes...

[eddyramrod]

You know how I always refer to Barrow as a Diecast Desert?  Well today I found a tiny oasis.

Salvation Army shop.  Total investment one whole English pound.  So... the G-Wagen is going to get Humbrolled to match the one my mate Steve had years ago.  I already have a couple of his other Mercs modelled at this scale.  The Ford tractor unit is just something I felt sympathy for.  I have a good one upstairs, but strangely no trailer for either.  The wrecker I bought for parts.  The recovery deck is something I should be able to use, as is the chassis.  I might have to fettle the jib.  Happy with these, but it'll probably be several years before I find any more!

[Datsuncog]

Well, obviously, I couldn't just leave it behind.

This casting was originally introduced as the Super Kings K-110 Magirus Deutz Fire Tender, all the way back in 1984 as one of Universal Toys' new expanded range of post-Lesney 'big toys'.

It featured a working turntable ladder which revolved, raised and extended manually.

After two years in the lineup it was retooled and renumbered as K-132 for the 1986 catalogue year, with different tampo decals and the addition of steerable wheels activated by pressing down on the emergency lights on the roof, now mounted further back to accommodate the steering mechanism.

Further changes were made when the colour of the ladder changed from grey to white...

...and the wheel centres went from chrome-effect slot mags to slightly less snazzy red plastic ones, along with the interior going from white to black (as did the front wheelarches, which were part of the same moulding).

In the early 1990s, the former Super Kings emergency vehicles were grouped together into what was called the Action Emergency range. It was accompanied by this dramatic artwork on the inside and back of the box, showing many of the models that made up the range:

The catalogue number for the Magirus Deutz Fire Tender also changed again at this point, to EM-5; although the K-132 code remained cast into the base, along with the defunct Super Kings logo. This time, no changes were made to the model itself.

Not long after, the packaging also changed again to folded-over, open-fronted boxes - possibly as a cost-cutting measure, as by this stage Universal were making substantial losses and seeking to offload the Matchbox brand.

With the sale of the Matchbox brand from Universal to Tyco in 1992, it seems the casting continued on as before with slightly revised packaging, in terms of graphic design if not in style:

The toy I brought home with me today seems to be a super-late example, as the Matchbox Wiki seems to reckon that the fire tender was last produced in 1992 - but that's not what the box says:

Sadly, the Tyco years seemed to mark a bit of a low point for the Matchbox brand - to the extent that I don't have many catalogues from this era, so I can't have a flick through to see when it last made an appearance. The big Charlie Mack book seems not to bother with this information.

But even so - I can't help but get a bit of a thrill from finding a NOS Matchbox on a toyshop's shelves some thirty years after it was made. Leaving aside for a second that this specific model doesn't really look thirty years old - or indeed, forty years old, as that's how old the casting is - can you even imagine finding a 1964 model still sitting on the shelves in 1994?

Where has this little thing been, all this time? Did it fall into a corner of the storeroom and only just got found again? The packaging is absolutely as-new, and there's no dust or anything on the lorry. The price sticker looks new, too.

£8.99 seems about right for the time, price-wise - I can remember Super Kings cars in Woolworths priced at around £5 in the mid/late 80s, so I'd expect a fire tender with extra working bits to be a little more than that again, a few years after.

And, what with inflation and suchlike, I guess I could claim I got it half-price...

All in all, very mysterious.

But, it just goes to show - you never know what's out there...

[bunglebus]

[Datsuncog]

[sierraman]

I think of when I was a kid if I’d discovered Bburago City I’d have needed my trousers changing. I’d have shit myself in excitement as that was the type of thing just up my street. 

[bunglebus]

[Datsuncog]

[danthecapriman]

Wait a minute! There’s some twilight zone shit going on here!

Are there two of you at the same tat market!?

 

[Split_Pin]

RICH IS THE NEMESIS!!

GET HIM!!

😅

[danthecapriman]

6 minutes ago, danthecapriman said:

Wait a minute! There’s some twilight zone shit going on here!

Are there two of you at the same tat market!?

 

There’s definitely something wrong somewhere somehow, cos I’m not usually awake at this time of day either!😅

[bunglebus]

This is lovely

Tim buying cakes

[eddyramrod]

15 minutes ago, danthecapriman said:

There’s definitely something wrong somewhere somehow, cos I’m not usually awake at this time of day either!😅

I usually am, but only just.  Today I've been up nearly an hour and a half, brekky eaten, dog walked, rinse bath cleared and reloaded with the two remaining items from the stripper (yes, from Wednesday...), rinsed items taken upstairs to bask in the relative warmth while they dry out.  If tomorrow looks as good as today there should be some spraying happening.

@bunglebus @Datsuncog Happy Hunting!

[danthecapriman]

21 minutes ago, eddyramrod said:

I usually am, but only just.  Today I've been up nearly an hour and a half, brekky eaten, dog walked, rinse bath cleared and reloaded with the two remaining items from the stripper (yes, from Wednesday...), rinsed items taken upstairs to bask in the relative warmth while they dry out.  If tomorrow looks as good as today there should be some spraying happening.

@bunglebus @Datsuncog Happy Hunting!

Bloody hell Eddy! Chill! Slow down man. That’s about a week’s worth of stuff you’ve just done in a few hours!😆

[Jon]

Hmm. Cooper-Jarrett trailer with intact doors! If that's a couple of quid, colour me interested. Am still very much after a bogie for the double trailer rig, too...

Looking forward to further surprise duo updates! Were you aware of a guest appearance prior, Tim?

[bunglebus]

So as some of you have worked out, I made a cameo appearance at St. George's this morning, as I'm working about half an hour away this week it would be rude not too - and I thought it would be fun to keep it to myself until now!

Diecasts were exchanged, coffees drunk and cakes eaten - now back to work.

[Split_Pin]

Thats excellent! 😁

[Datsuncog]

Yes indeed, kids... some apparent Twilight Zone shiz going down this morning at St George's Market, with an unprecedented two-hander Bunglecog/ Datsunbus mashup on the cards.

I'd been given a heads-up a few weeks back, so it was great that the planets aligned and we could make it happen. Excellent to finally meet you, Rich!

As you'll also have discerned, it wasn't quite a case of tat unlimited on the Main Stall this morning - in fact, the Twilight Zone vibe was further enhanced with a bit of déjà vu going on...

Mmm, if you cast your mind back about a month or so, these were all kinda familiar.

And so were these.

On 26/01/2024 at 08:45, Datsuncog said:

But there were new tat boxes. And they weren't half bad. Some smaller stuff...

And some bigger stuff.

Small stuff involved many of the Lesneys and Huskys we know and love...

Quite a few had been on the receiving end of the Humbrols, though.

Majorette gooseneck camping trailer was quite nice, though.

Again, bit of a mixed bag in the bigger box...

A lot of repaints in here, and a wide range of eras. Noddy Car is by Morestone.

Matchbox from the fifties to the nineties, plus assorted modern bits.

Dinky Rover P4 looked ok; Lesney King Size Foden missing its tipper flap but otherwise not bad. Corgi Pug 505 cycling support car a bit worn, and lacking accessories.

Corgi DS saloon quite clean (there was a Safari in there also); Highway Maintenance Mazda B1800 had sadly suffered from hitting a lump of debris at speed.

Thunderbird was an odd one - labelled as a DCMT Roadmaster, so pre-dating the Lone Star branding.

Worn, but still eminently displayable.

Brace of Corgi Whizzwheels R-R Vigilants - paramedic and police variants.

Dinky Hudson Hornet not all that common, I don't think.

And this tired but still fairly magnificent Polistil Citroen BX in 1/24 scale...

As you may imagine, I was happily picking through the boxes and scooping potential purchases, when I thought to enquire what the tariffs were looking like this week.

Ten pounds on the stuff in the big box.

Five pounds on the small stuff.

And the 1/24 items?

£20.

Oh.

Yes, a lot had evidently been sold since the 26 January event, so the Dinky Rover P4 and Corgi Citroen DS were long gone, more's the pity.

BUT - the prices were a lot better this week.

This is how it goes, I guess.

And these... eh, let's not talk about these, they're all so very familiar.

[Datsuncog]

But there were some new tinplates, too.

And oh, this Rambler station wagon was just glorious. How it's survived in such good nick is anyone's guess.

The Greyhound bus alongside also appeared to be an original example, in superb order - as was the ocean liner beside that.

However, nice as this Cadillac and Buick appeared to be, I'm pretty sure they're remanufactured examples from the early 1990s - something about them just seemed a bit off. The wheels appear identical to those of a tinplate Corvette I bought new in about 1992, and they were held together with Pozi screws which seems a little anachronistic.

Still, I've no doubt they'll still display very nicely - and appealing as they were, I don't think it's a road I want to start going down.

Nor could I afford to - I believe the sum of £40 each was mentioned...

Some smaller tinplates up top were quite jolly, though.

This unbranded friction-drive suction lorry complete with a crimped-shoelace 'hose' was quite charming.

And this small clockwork rendering of a Mercedes W111 was lovely and bright:

The printed details were very nicely rendered, even if the generic car shape means that the distinctive 'heckflosse' tail fins are rounded off.

But I'm not gonna get on the tinplate train, nooo... 

Our Nemesis chum from took the big tinplate double decker bus with Good Year advertising that's just about visible behind the Rambler; I envy his storage space!