Shite in Miniature II

[flat4alfa]

1 hour ago, Datsuncog said:

I must compare it to the Corgi Dennis Simon Snorkel at some point...

Ahh..   bad news I think it was sold away a few weeks again in CogPurge™

These were your pics

[sierraman]

1 hour ago, Datsuncog said:

"And there's more..."

Of course I couldn't just walk away from an inexplicably MIB 31-year-old Super King, sat on the shelf in a High St shop.

Of course not. 

Partly because I can remember looking at one of these K-39s in this same open-fronted packaging at the Bloomfields branch of Toymaster, probably around 1993 - as I was uncomfortably aware that I was probably becoming a bit too old for such things - and knowing that it was quite an old casting, and kinda wanting it, but also thinking that it was maybe a bit crude and clunky. And then putting it back.

Y'know what?

I was right, it is kinda clunky. But still pretty cool.

The turntable platform mechanism works pretty well, giving some impressive height.

Pop-out stabilizer legs add further realism.

There's a working pull-out hose reel on top...

...which I think is meant to connect on to the end of the little dude holding the hose nozzle.

Annoyingly, it doesn't seem possible to get the figures out without doing irreversible things to the packaging.

There's another fold-out bit at the back of the rig, though what it's representing is beyond me. Some sort of compressor?

Unlike 1970s Corgi efforts, where friction-hold nylon 'hydraulic' rams support the arms, these are rack and pinion jobbers. Smooth action, but unlikely to fail over time like the Corgi items tend to do. Although possibly prone to damage if forced unsympathetically by a junior firefighter-in-training.

The platform at the top of the arm is pretty good though, with an adjustable metal water cannon and ladders leading up to it. The platform pivots depending on the angle of the arm; the wishbone part does seem a little unrealistic, but I guess there's always a compromise between fidelity and durability when it comes to toymaking.

In all honesty, the front end is a little clunky-looking; especially as the grille looks a smidge wonky and the lights aren't quite painted right.

But then the tooling was 14 years old by this point, and had been shipped from London to China...

Still - nice to have!

I must compare it to the Corgi Dennis Simon Snorkel at some point...

Always wondered what one of those would look like converted to a recovery wagon or a race support truck? 

[Split_Pin]

20 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

The Dinky Karmann Ghia from a few toy fairs ago

Now looks like this

In no small part thanks to the tyres and tiny tax disc supplied by MiniMinorMK3. Unfortunately the black and silver number plates suffered a bit in the post so I couldn't use those too

What a job on that KG! I have that one in the same colourway in pretty play worn condition. It was my dad's though so I may leave it as-is but yours looks fantastic.

[FakeConcern]

38 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

The Dinky Karmann Ghia from a few toy fairs ago

Now looks like this

In no small part thanks to the tyres and tiny tax disc supplied by MiniMinorMK3. Unfortunately the black and silver number plates suffered a bit in the post so I couldn't use those too

I'd like you to do mine now!

We went to Hythe, Kent today where I made a few rash and extravagant purchases

I've wanted a CMC Mini Countryman for some time now and bid on a few on ebay, but not won. So spotted one in a charity shop marked down from £45 (?) to £21, but told all were now £20 which i thought was reasonable so

Here with the one I got for Mrs Concern 5 or 6 years ago with repo surfer and boards, plus the one I made a new door for and the now yellow childhood toy

As I like to give to charity I also picked up these...

Here with my childhood De Tomaso

and E Type

They also had these left

I resisted this in another charity shop

and this

and this in a junk shop

I did pay £1 each for these in another junk shop, Corgi Mustang and Commer shop are repainted in case you couldn't tell

Dinky horse box, missing all the doors and horses is lovely

patina!

Not decided whether to turn it into a race car transporter or buy the parts (just looked on Steve Flowers) and put it back together.

Also I was surprised to find two proper model shops in Hythe, one even had quite a few vintage Corgi & Dinky at pretty reasonable prices, but nothing I wanted apart from a Corgi 311 Capri, but I held back as it was getting silly!

I'm not sure if I want to keep the CMC Jag and Mangusta long term or not though.

[bunglebus]

16 minutes ago, FakeConcern said:

I'd like you to do mine now!

That needs leaving exactly as it is, they're only original once.

[FakeConcern]

1 minute ago, bunglebus said:

That needs leaving exactly as it is, they're only original once.

I agree with you really, but I'd like a super re finished one as well!

[eddyramrod]

1 hour ago, FakeConcern said:

I agree with you really, but I'd like a super re finished one as well!

It's a dilemma, isn't it?  This is why I'm pouncing on all the old broken crap, because then my resto/code3 work doesn't matter; it's not like I can make it any worse.

[bunglebus]

Look out for these in a store near you*

[Datsuncog]

1 hour ago, flat4alfa said:

Ahh..   bad news I think it was sold away a few weeks again in CogPurge™

Fortunately not - those were mostly duplicates I passed on! Still have another Dennis Snorkel in my possession, thankfully.

The one I kept has slightly better paintwork and stickers, though the boom has yellowed a bit from sunlight exposure. Hard choices to make - the Rover SD1 police car I sold was also a duplicate, with some bits better and some bits worse than the one I held onto.

I also have a (fairly tired) Corgi Bedford TK Snorkel, so maybe a three-way comparison is on the cards...

[flat4alfa]

[bunglebus]

Bought a tin o' cars for a tenner at the slightly soggy boot sale. Shal we delve?

[junkyarddog]

That red line beetle already has paid for that lot!!

[flat4alfa]

3 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

Bought a tin o' cars for a tenner at the slightly soggy boot sale. Shal we delve?

You've found one for me, oh that's great thanks!

[bunglebus]

Ok old tin contains;

A lot of fairly tatty Matchbox, none of which are especially unusual 

But I have been after one of these, I have another in an odd colour scheme too

Major Pack M4

Presumably this trailer tags along behind

One of these in pink

Two of these

Dyson Low Loader which appears to be made from two different units

K-20 Tasker Transporter 

Love how these unhitch

Major Pack M9 trailer - two hitch slots though?

Hiding at the bottom were three Redlines

Other boot sale buys include this, which I've got to stop picking up examples of

McDonald's Hot Wheels 

A much better Zylmex Fiat 131 after posting my shabby one the other day

A Yatmong Corvette with amazing interior detail

And a tatty Dinky 

[MiniMinorMk3]

16 hours ago, bunglebus said:

Now looks like this

In no small part thanks to the tyres and tiny tax disc supplied by MiniMinorMK3. Unfortunately the black and silver number plates suffered a bit in the post so I couldn't use those too

That looks excellent. Those white walls look OK, pity about the plates suffering in the post.

[bunglebus]

Time to look through my eBay job lot. Smaller stuff doesn't contain too much of excitement 

Dustcart is sadly missing the back, shame as it's clean otherwise 

Nice little Tractor Shovel. Were Lesney in cahoots with Aveling Barford or were they the JCB of their day?

Hairy Hustler with unusual sticker and green base 

70s fantasy stuff is always welcome 

A couple of late models too, wheels on the Amigo remind me of a Rough Rider toy I had 

Tootsietoy Jag

Majorette Simca

Winner of Junk in the Trunk

Growlers E Type

The Speed Burner - friction motor not working though

This is a Funmate Camaro - but then you knew that, right?

[AndyW201]

Not made any purchases for a while, as there hasn't really been anything about. The local shops I usually go to are up to the Hot Wheels case with the Proton and green Escort in now, so we're only about 6 months behind the rest of the country now!

Was out shopping early doors today and struck a limited amount of gold. Smyths had a decent amount in for a change. Had the F&F set in with the Toyota Soarer, Nissan Silvia and BMW E46 in, which are all nice for F&F models. They actually had the full set (Chevy/Plymouth/Fiat) of Team Transports in too. Was tempted to join the Fiat Abarth club on here but have to be cautious as the Mrs' Corsa is in for fairly major surgery ATM and I'm expecting to get a good kick in the balls from that next week. Mainlines were the usual peg warmers from about 12 months ago but I did spot a couple of Hirohata Mercs and the weird Nissan Patrols with white tyres, so obviously they've had some recent stuff in, but the way their pegs are organised makes it impossible to look through them. In the end, I came out with this, it was out of this, the BASF BMW M1, or the F&F BMW M3,

Had to nip into town too, Entertainer had reduced the price of the Team Transports and Car Culture stuff but sadly, as expected, the TT Fiat set was nowhere to be seen. There were a couple of recent-ish mainlines like the custom Corvette Stingray, red Plymouth Cuda convertible, purple El Camino and that white-tyred Patrol again, but I was good and left them there.

Nipped into Toy Town as they can usually turn up something unusual. There were these Porsche racing trailer sets, which were quite nice, 

I was tempted by the Martini-style liveried set with the 935. But I was being good.

With recent MB Action drivers, er, action on here, I was also tempted by the Pizza Hut set,

reduced to £15, as Mrs_201 works as a manager for Pizza Hut, and I also like the Golf GTi that comes with it. The separate clip-on Pizza Hut delivery sign for the car is a fun touch

Then I spotted this,

Ah shite!

Being good went out of the window, as I've been after one of these for ages now. It's a great wee thing.

Spotted a couple of mainlines too, that I've never seen in the other shops. Didn't even know Matchbox had done an RX-8,

A very nice casting though, with some nice detailing,

Another one I missed out on when it came out,

Looks great in Kyalami green,

Was starting to think I was cured, it appears not...

[flat4alfa]

Quote

Hiding at the bottom were three Redlines

SOLD!

[flat4alfa]

Quote

Major Pack M9 trailer - two hitch slots though?

[flat4alfa]

Quote

Presumably this trailer tags along behind

[sierraman]

7 minutes ago, AndyW201 said:

Not made any purchases for a while, as there hasn't been anything about. The local shops I usually go to are up to the Hot Wheels case with the Proton and green Escort in now, so we're only about 6 months behind the rest of the country now!

Was out to the shops early doors today and struck a limited amount of gold. Smyths had a decent amount in for a change. Had the F&F set in with the Toyota Soarer, Nissan Silvia and BMW E46 in, which are all nice for F&F models. They actually had the full set (Chevy/Plymouth/Fiat) of Team Transports in too. Was tempted to join the Fiat Abarth club on here but have to be cautious as the Mrs' Corsa is in for fairly major surgery ATM and I'm expecting to get a good kick in the balls from that next week. Mainlines were the usual peg warmers from about 12 months ago but I did spot a couple of Hirohata Mercs and the weird Nissan Patrols with white tyres, so obviously they've had some recent stuff in, but the way their pegs are organised makes it impossible to look through them. In the end, I came out with this, it was out of this, the BASF BMW M1, or the F&F BMW M3,

Had to nip into town too, Entertainer had reduced the price of the Team Transports and Car Culture stuff but sadly, as expected, the TT Fiat set was nowhere to be seen. There were a couple of recent-ish mainlines like the custom Corvette Stingray, red Plymouth Cuda convertible, purple El Camino and that white-tyred Patrol again, but I was good and left them there.

Nipped into Toytown as they can usually turn up something unusual. There were these Porsche racing trailer sets, which were quite nice, 

I was tempted by the Martini-style liveried set with the 935. But I was being good.

With recent MB Action drivers, er, action on here, I was also tempted by the Pizza Hut set,

reduced to £15, as Mrs_201 works a manager for Pizza Hut, and I also like the Golf GTi that comes with it. The separate clip-on Pizza Hut delivery sign for the car is a fun touch

Then I spotted this,

Ah shite!

Being good went out of the window, as I've been after one of these for ages now. It's a great wee thing.

Spotted a couple of mainlines too, that I've never seen in the other shops. Didn't even know Matchbox had done an RX-8,

A very nice casting though, with some nice detailing,

Another one I missed out on when it came out,

Looks great in Kyalami green,

Was starting to think I was cured, it appears not...

Hmm the Pizza Hut set, where are these for sale? 

[AndyW201]

6 minutes ago, sierraman said:

Hmm the Pizza Hut set, where are these for sale? 

A shop called Toy Town, they've got a few branches up and down the country. There seems to be one in Sheffield, that's near you isn't it?

[bunglebus]

I had a wander into Basildon after the boot sale too. Tesco have naff all other than big signs promising future goodies

Asda has a decent amount of premiums, including the Skyline I bought online think I wouldn't see it

And Majorettes

I can confirm Entertainer have reduced Team Transports including the Fiat 

BuM had a good selection of long cards

I bought two new mainlines

[flat4alfa]

13 minutes ago, sierraman said:

Hmm the Pizza Hut set, where are these for sale? 

Unit 43/44 West Mall, Crystal Peaks Shopping Centre, Sheffield, United Kingdom

0114 248 6276

Open now   😁

[sierraman]

16 minutes ago, AndyW201 said:

A shop called Toy Town, they've got a few branches up and down the country. There seems to be one in Sheffield, that's near you isn't it?

It is indeed there’s one about 5-10 minutes away I’ll check that out. It looks like the sort of thing my youngest would probably like. 

[bunglebus]

Back to that job lot. Bat Boat

Bat Copter is pretty cool with the rotor mechanism and winch

Tidy Batmobile, I'll have to find a trailer to go with

Complete with Bat Geezers

I had a metallic red Jag like this as a kid. White one feels somehow cheaper

Ferrari 312

Complete with Geezer

US Racing Buggy was a bit of a strange choice when most people outside of America wouldn't have known about the Baja 1000 etc

Geezers don't seem concerned though.

Is that the engine from the Organ Grinder?

Here's the big bus. What a heavyweight it is too

Spot-On Beetle is possibly the most valuable one of the bunch

Geezer agrees

I had one of these Harolds, think I swapped it with @Amishtat who doesn't seem to post on this thread anymore 

Mini is in decent shape

Another Mini, Dinky this time

Those of you with long mammaries might remember I restored one a while back. Strange to think they could have been produced together

Think this is actually my favourite out of all of them, especially as it's one I've never owned before

Bond Bug. No VW content

One of these with a spare hook

And another pinky

The ubiquitous transporter 

MB DAF commercial just needs a bit of red for Bob Marley's approval 

Corgi rozzer Escort 

Dinky double decker

Matchbox crane is sadly a three wheeler

MB ambulance is a slight disappointment. I don't mind fantasy stuff but surely this could have been modelled on something real?

Dinky Spectrum Patrol Car has a cog in the back axle and some sort of mechanism inside - but doesn't appear to do anything 

Lastly some mostly Corgi light commercial castings. Sadly these circus ones do nothing for me

FC150 grain elevator thing is pretty clever but probably not going to stay

Karrier is great though, very stylish

Someone was trying to extract £25 out of me for one of these last week

70s shag pile still in situ

Absolutely love these Commers

Not seen one with glazing in the back before

Dinky Atlas. Even utilitarian vehicles had so much more style back then

Lastly but not leastly, a good example of the VW Kombi

[sierraman]

Licensing costs I think would be behind the ambulance, sometimes though what you’d think was something they’d made up was actually based on a design like the Freeman Intercity Commuter. 

[eddyramrod]

While we're investigating job lots... a DanBox has arrived today.

Well... that's the overview.  Now let's look closer.

Kojak Buick is going to be broken for parts.  I have "Plans" for it!

Couple of Bond partwork cars which are going to get painted!  And look, pairs of twins!

Those, like most of the delivery, have gone in my Projects box.  All the trucks except the orange Albion have gone straight on display.  The red Zephyr and bronze Lincoln have too, and that lovely NYPD Caprice... that's actually in a cabinet!

Thanks Dan!  (MrsR is using different words, lol).

 

[MiniMinorMk3]

30 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

Ferrari 312

 

Missing rear wing.

 

30 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

Is that the engine from the Organ Grinder?

 

Looks like the Organ Grinder motor with the bug catch on the other way because the engine is mounted backwards in the Baja thing. Back in the early 1970s there was a TV show about the Baja 1000, no idea if it was on BBC or ITV, it might have been an Alan Wicker show, but I was about 9 or 10 at the time. Also they featured it in Custom Car. Here's the February 1972 issue of the magazine article that inspired me to build my wrecked VW Beetle into a Baja Bug.

 

30 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

Dinky Spectrum Patrol Car has a cog in the back axle and some sort of mechanism inside - but doesn't appear to do anything 

 

103: Spectrum Patrol Car – Dinky Toys: TV Shows, Space and Specials (dinkytvspace.com)

Quote

The car was fitted with a ‘Jet Engine Sound’ which was produced by pushing the rear of the car down while pushing.

The sound was generated by a large gear attached to a pinion, which turned the shaft on which was mounted a pressed steel flywheel . After it spun up to speed and the pressure on the back axle was released the flywheel spun freely and a spring steel “clicker”, which rested against the pinion on the flywheel shaft, made a whining noise. This was then amplified by the white plastic soundbox to which was riveted.

 

[FakeConcern]

@eddyramrod what a great haul from Dan!

I was getting on with a few projects today...

Started making a door for the 50p 480ES from aluminium sheet

a coat of primer on the Mebetoys Mirafiori and Lone Star Dart

Kermit green on Dinky Porker 914 and Corgi Carrera