Shite in Miniature II

[quicksilver]

6 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

Actual cars in a charity shop

 

The charity shop I was briefly in on Wednesday had a grand total of two toy cars in the entire shop, both generic Chinese shit. I can't understand why there are so few now when I'm sure in my youth charity shops were full of them. Are kids these days not playing with cars anymore?

[bunglebus]

2 hours ago, quicksilver said:

Are kids these days not playing with cars anymore?

I do get the nagging feeling that may be the case - when new Hot Wheels/Matchbox turn up, all the ones us adult collectors want get bought immediately then the rest seem to just gather dust.

Anyway, someone's kid decided they didn't want this so it ended up in that charity shop

Yeah it's plastic but the effort to make it accurate is applaudable. The sticker was still on it holding the sliding door and right front door closed, plastic strips are still holding the surfboards on the roof.

It can go with the T3 I bought in Germany .

The steering is an oddity. It's clearly designed to work but is locked by a tab cast into the chassis. Doesn't seem to be any way of removing it

With the front suspension removed it moves freely

[bunglebus]

Anyway from big Volkswagens to small, my birthday present from the Mrs arrived

An original Johnny Lightning Bug Bomb. I've had a saved search on eBay for years looking for one but they're always in America and the postage is prohibitive.

Now I need to find my Hot Wheels Evil Weevil and Corgi VW Hod Rod for comparison 

[bunglebus]

My searchings around Basildon today were not entirely fruitless.

Renault 5 from Sainsbury's

Porsche from Poundland

And some more Hot Wheels from both Entertainer and Lidl

[sierraman]

2 hours ago, quicksilver said:

The charity shop I was briefly in on Wednesday had a grand total of two toy cars in the entire shop, both generic Chinese shit. I can't understand why there are so few now when I'm sure in my youth charity shops were full of them. Are kids these days not playing with cars anymore?

I don’t know if it’s representative but my nephew aged 5 does. 

[chancer]

Nice wee haul from Smyths this evening. Not bad for a fiver 

[bunglebus]

Here we go, three of a kind. I think Hot Wheels did it first, followed by Johnny Lightning, with Corgi bringing up the rear.

Twin engined Beetles were certainly a popular idea in the 70s, even if they couldn't possibly have actually worked in the real world.

And the modern version of the JL. It's completely different.

[eddyramrod]

I'm quite sure kids are not playing with cars any more.  I was in several charity shops in Chorley yesterday, while waiting for MrsR's minor op to be finished.  There were very few cars at all.  One shop had a handful of very playworn Lesneys in a cabinet, starting at £3 and going only one way  while in another shop I actually found a Bburago (badged as Corgi) Saab 9000, worn but whole.  At first I thought the ticket said 50p and I would have brought it home for that, but fortunately I looked closer before I moved away from the shelf.  £8.50.  Eight whole pounds and fifty pence!

Coming on top of the shock of my former employer closing down, the only thing I could really do after that was go back to my car and "rest my eyes" for a while.

Incidentally... going straight for the toy section in both charity shops and supermarkets, does anyone else feel like some sort of pervert?

[bunglebus]

17 minutes ago, eddyramrod said:

Incidentally... going straight for the toy section in both charity shops and supermarkets, does anyone else feel like some sort of pervert?

No couldn't give a hoot what strangers think, it doesn't even cross my mind any more. 

[danthecapriman]

When I was little I had road mat for my toy cars.

It wasn’t one of those new fandangled ones though made out of carpet or whatever, it was like a thick polythene sheet with the roads and buildings all printed onto it. 
Obviously it disintegrated many years ago but I’ve never seen one since, or even a picture of one. No idea who even made it.

Anyone else seen or remember them?

[Tenmil Socket]

16 hours ago, bunglebus said:

I do get the nagging feeling that may be the case - when new Hot Wheels/Matchbox turn up, all the ones us adult collectors want get bought immediately then the rest seem to just gather dust.

Anyway, someone's kid decided they didn't want this so it ended up in that charity shop

Yeah it's plastic but the effort to make it accurate is applaudable. The sticker was still on it holding the sliding door and right front door closed, plastic strips are still holding the surfboards on the roof.

It can go with the T3 I bought in Germany .

The steering is an oddity. It's clearly designed to work but is locked by a tab cast into the chassis. Doesn't seem to be any way of removing it

With the front suspension removed it moves freely

There’s likely to be an RC version of that too.

[eddyramrod]

27 minutes ago, danthecapriman said:

When I was little I had road mat for my toy cars.

It wasn’t one of those new fandangled ones though made out of carpet or whatever, it was like a thick polythene sheet with the roads and buildings all printed onto it. 
Obviously it disintegrated many years ago but I’ve never seen one since, or even a picture of one. No idea who even made it.

Anyone else seen or remember them?

I'm a generation older than you Dan: I had printed cardboard sections that I could put together to make a road layout, with fold-up shop fronts to line the streets thus created.

[danthecapriman]

5 minutes ago, eddyramrod said:

I'm a generation older than you Dan: I had printed cardboard sections that I could put together to make a road layout, with fold-up shop fronts to line the streets thus created.

I remember making my own extensions by drawing and colouring in bits of cardboard and paper to make it even bigger. 
They probably looked like absolute shit of course, but it enabled me to fill the room eventually with little roadways!

[Jon]

30 minutes ago, danthecapriman said:

When I was little I had road mat for my toy cars.

It wasn’t one of those new fandangled ones though made out of carpet or whatever, it was like a thick polythene sheet with the roads and buildings all printed onto it. 
Obviously it disintegrated many years ago but I’ve never seen one since, or even a picture of one. No idea who even made it.

Anyone else seen or remember them?

This one?

Currently for sale here (but not cheap!):

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/354917947701

Came as part of the Corgitronics Leyland truck set, which IIRC had a couple of interchangeable covers for the rear trailer and a clicker thing, to make it turn, or something.

Certainly, I remember playing with the mat and truck (both my older brother's), with Yorkie liveried box on the back and although the clicker still existed, it was long defunct.

[danthecapriman]

9 minutes ago, Jon said:

This one?

Currently for sale here (but not cheap!):

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/354917947701

Came as part of the Corgitronics Leyland truck set, which IIRC had a couple of interchangeable covers for the rear trailer and a clicker thing, to make it turn, or something.

Certainly, I remember playing with the mat and truck (both my older brother's), with Yorkie liveried box on the back and although the clicker still existed, it was long defunct.

No it wasn’t that one. I’ve never seen that one either though.

Mine was like a little town with buildings and car parks etc etc.

[eddyramrod]

These are things you can pick up in charity shops, even ones that don't carry many diecasts.  I suppose even their onsite "experts" don't think they're worth much usually.  Want me to grab one if I see one?

[FakeConcern]

My parents had a hearth rug with a geometric design on it, the shapes on it became the roads for my cars!

[eddyramrod]

I did that with our tablecloth...

[bunglebus]

Had a right result in Smyths this morning - spotted a new set of premiums

Someone had put them out in place of the reduced Jay Leno sets, I knew full well they wouldn't be £9.99. Just mentioned it at the till so they wouldn't have problems and she decided to honour the price, should have been £24.99! 

[egg]

New arrival, the earliest version of the MB wreck truck (55-58), which normally suffers from loss of the jib because it literally just clips in, whereas on the slightly later model they integrated it with the axle. Pleased with this one.

[bunglebus]

This set is lovely

[bunglebus]

Burnin' 280 has had a good soak in hydrogen peroxide next to the window, much less yellow now

 

[danthecapriman]

Last few days has seen a bit more done to various models.

FG recovery truck has been converted to rhd. Quite easy to do on this one, just a bit of messing around to get the steering column out of the floor on the other side. Just need to sand that big lump of moulding flash off the instrument cluster!

  
Lada Riva got painted in authentic Lada Adriatic blue!

  
Which strangely dried overnight darker!? I wish it’d have stayed the lighter colour.

Sierra estate is now in Ceramic blue. It looks brighter on the photo than it really is, but I hope the grey trims etc help tone it down a bit! 
Im pretty sure this shade must have faded quite a lot with age, as it seems to have a slightly purple-ish tinge to it on real cars. But I suppose the paint is going on 40 odd years old on them now!

 
Dodge RAM pickup is being put back together. 
I did the bumpers in molotow pen chrome and the grill unit in silver paint as that’s normally in that duller painted plastic silver on real ones. Cab back wall is painted too. I’ve had to paint the inside of that black as it’s made from clear plastic and you get lots of light bleed through it if the suns on it.

 
Dinky Volvo has had its wheels refitted and new tyres. Wheels are Dinky Transit wheels.

Ford F100 is about ready for being put back together. Hard to photograph this and get the metallic sparkling from it but you can just about see it in places. 
I had to paint the cab twice! Had it sat on the side while I was painting the Sierra, shook the can of blue to mix it and the nozzle must have been on loose and a jet of the blue paint and propellant shot out and landed directly on the F100 cab side! Being fresh paint it melted and went funny. I was mighty pissed off I can tell you. Lots of words that rhyme with ‘duck, ducking and hunt’ were said…

 
Converted a few interiors to rhd too ready to refit.

 
And stripped one of those cheapy DelPrado mk1 Capri’s which came from some collection or another. 
These aren’t actually too bad with the old paint gone. Originally they’re in a horrible gun metal grey colour. Why they picked that colour for these is anyone’s guess as it really doesn’t show off a Capri’s shape at all. A Capri wants bright blues, greens, reds, yellow etc etc not dull boring dark grey! 
I think with a bit of extra detailing and a better colour paint job it’ll look just fine!

No prizes for guessing what colour this one will be getting! 
A clue is: I conveniently already have a can of it…

[MiniMinorMk3]

19 hours ago, bunglebus said:

Here we go, three of a kind. I think Hot Wheels did it first, followed by Johnny Lightning, with Corgi bringing up the rear.

Twin engined Beetles were certainly a popular idea in the 70s, even if they couldn't possibly have actually worked in the real world.

And the modern version of the JL. It's completely different.

 

Johnny Lightning came first in 1970

1970 Topper Johnny Lightning Bug Bomb. VW Beetle Redline Era. Near Mint Original | #4604071192 (worthpoint.com)

with both the Hot Wheels and Corgi Junior coming out in 1971

Evil Weevil (1971) | Hot Wheels Wiki | Fandom

Corgi Juniors 160a Volkswagen Hot Rod (stinesdiecast.com)

It is possible to make a twin V8 bug work. Make the rear engine drive the front wheels and make the front engine drive the rear wheels, synchronising the engines would be a bit difficult. Alternatively send both engines power to a big central diff.. Both options would probably last about 5 seconds but it is possible.

[AndyW201]

Thanks to the hot tip on here, I've just nipped down to the local Lidl. As expected the bin was fairly well rifled through, so no Quattro or yellow Civic alas, (the two I was most after), but there were still a few worth having,

Autoshite-themed surfboard on this version of the Landy,

Don't normally go for the motorbikes or mopeds, (although I do quite like the Honda Cub casting), but I did like the look of this Vespa,

Nice to see the Alfa in a road going colour scheme

[w00dy]

Been out of the die-cast game for a bit, but I've made a couple of recent additions.

[bunglebus]

2 hours ago, AndyW201 said:

I saw that Civic and dismissed it as an old one

Oops

[hennabm]

I have had to clear out my display cabinet as it has to move for some work in the house. In doing so I took the time to photgrph the majority of them. 

As you can see there is a clear theme going on here in all scales.

The first E30 I bought was the Japenese interpretation of the 323i. It is set up with steering and soft tyres and is powered by two AA batteries, if required.

It looks more like an M3 body than a standard 323i but hey ho.

Then came the Corgi E30. Not too bad, just wish the sunroof had matched the car.  The silver one is of an actual car and it's a 325 sport. Several Minichamps then came along.

 

Then another large one, this time from OTTO of a 325i. The image is reversed to make it RHD.

Then came another large one in the shape of a 323i from Minichamp again but in 1/18. Again image reversed to get it to RHD.

A BMW dealer special of a Touring and another Corgi. The Corgi is yet again of an actual car and the box gives its history.

 

In the smaller sclae I have a little collection of the Matchbox Bauer, plus a copy from unknown in silver; a Corgi give away (came as a promo with petrol in the day) and a blue one in playworn condition. The silver car was found for a couple of Euros at a car boot in Portugal a few years ago.

 

Finally here, something a little more French. An R18 bought in Model Motoring in Leith for an amazing sum of £1.50 back in 1985.  Then an R12 that came on a French magazine I just happened to spot onone of my trips over.

[ETCHY]

3 hours ago, egg said:

New arrival, the earliest version of the MB wreck truck (55-58), which normally suffers from loss of the jib because it literally just clips in, whereas on the slightly later model they integrated it with the axle. Pleased with this one.

That's just delightful, it really is.

[egg]

14 minutes ago, ETCHY said:

That's just delightful, it really is.

One of my faves from the original 1-75 - along with perhaps the Removals van, Vauxhall Cresta, Morris Minor etc.