Shite in Miniature II

[andy18s]

15 hours ago, bunglebus said:

Bachelor's Peas Transit in matching box

BP R5

Nova 

Schweppes Firebird 

A big stack of promotionals I got off @andrew e a while back

Not all of them had sponsorship on, but the Polo Porsche did

Weetabix promo

The Golden Wonder crisps one

Weetabix Leyland 

And a Pepsi

Plus Coke

Maybe that's straying from the path, as lorries, fuel tankers etc would always bear some sort of company logo

Alitalia Capri

Shell Sierra - there are of course loads of motorsport type liveries

Like so

Homefire Sierra

Elf R5

British Airways TR7

Frosties Ferrari 

Bachelors Porsche

Frosties Porsche 

Duckhams Landie

Somewhat knackered BP Wrecker

Alternative colours

Shell version 

Pointers Transit 

Lots of Chevrolet vans with sponsorship 

Fuji Hot Rod van - part of a set?

Pretty sure this was too

Loctite Renault 

And a Dyno-Rod

Or just the company name

I left out the usual AA, RAC, British Gas, Telecom etc too

I've got the same Bachelor Transit somewhere,along with a Ford Iveco truck in the same livery.

I'll have to dig them out for some pics. 

[sierraman]

58 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

Matchbox certainly pushed this one as a promotional item

I must have got 20 odd MB38 vans, it’s one of those if you are completionist you have to seek out. The livery is usually more fascinating than the van itself. We had a Dewhursts Butchers near us a kid and they had their branded ones in the window round the edge. Looking back now I can’t help but think they were a bit of a H&S risk. 🤣

[quicksilver]

1 hour ago, Datsuncog said:

The Frosties Corgis were great (or indeed, grrrr-eat!)

I think the Siku Jeep came a little later:

It must have been popular, as they're probably the most widely-found Siku around:

And then there's the Matchbox Firebird that started it all:

So unexpectedly popular that Kelloggs quickly ran out of stock and had to rush-order a second batch, at significant cost, so as not to let all the little tykes down.

 

I think the end of in-pack giveaways were a combination of manufacturers trying to cut costs, some high-profile cases in the media of toddlers choking on things hidden in food that weren't actually edible, and a growing sense that 99% of the products were ending up as plastic landfill, so not very eco-conscious... all of which I can understand, but I absolutely loved some of the giveaways. I remember Kelloggs in the mid-1980s having little plastic mini-kits of aircraft and I think a tiny submarine that rose and sank in water if you put baking powder inside it?

But other offers were crappy things like bike reflectors and folding spoons, which didn't really grab me as much.

I think nearly every major diecast toy manufacturer put out cereal promotional models with Kelloggs in the '80s and '90s - I can also remember a Matchbox Ford Model A van for Kelloggs' cornflakes, a series of 'chromed' Majorette monster trucks with Rice Krispies, and the unique Corgi Cameo series of Brooklands Racers (and cardboard display diorama) with Corn Flakes - they also put out a 'Cars of the 1960s' range (Mini, incorrect Beetle splittie, 2CV, Minor), plus Land Speed Record cars by Lledo.

I believe my first ever Oxford Diecast was a Bullnose Morris van acquired through collecting tokens from Jordans Cereals.

Those are ringing bells too. I definitely had some of the Brooklands racers (but I thought they were Lledo?), the sixties cars with the cardboard service station that wasn't the same scale and the record cars, and maybe one or two of the monster trucks. My first Oxford Diecast was acquired under similar circumstances except it was from a box of Soda Crystals my granny had and I'd never heard of Oxford Diecast until then. I had the Jordans one too and IIRC this was so popular they ended up doing three or four re-runs. Oxford Diecast have come a long way since those early days of copying Lledo and are now the most numerous brand in my collection.

I suspected the demise of in-pack gifts was down to kids eating them, but why did the token giveaways stop? I guess having to wait until the whole box was finished before your parents bought another to get more tokens, repeating that several times to accumulate enough, sending them off in the post and patiently waiting for the thing to arrive just took too long in an age of kids with short attention spans used to instant gratification.

[sierraman]

50 minutes ago, quicksilver said:

Those are ringing bells too. I definitely had some of the Brooklands racers (but I thought they were Lledo?), the sixties cars with the cardboard service station that wasn't the same scale and the record cars, and maybe one or two of the monster trucks. My first Oxford Diecast was acquired under similar circumstances except it was from a box of Soda Crystals my granny had and I'd never heard of Oxford Diecast until then. I had the Jordans one too and IIRC this was so popular they ended up doing three or four re-runs. Oxford Diecast have come a long way since those early days of copying Lledo and are now the most numerous brand in my collection.

I suspected the demise of in-pack gifts was down to kids eating them, but why did the token giveaways stop? I guess having to wait until the whole box was finished before your parents bought another to get more tokens, repeating that several times to accumulate enough, sending them off in the post and patiently waiting for the thing to arrive just took too long in an age of kids with short attention spans used to instant gratification.

Loads of things back in the day had coupons etc, remember in Co-Op they had the brown books that you’d spend ages sticking the ‘5’ or the ‘40’ stickers in. Or fags where you had the Superkings catalogue where if you gave yourself emphysema you’d have enough for a 14” Nicam Television. 

[Split_Pin]

Received a brace of resto projects from @FakeConcern today.

I wasted no time in digging out a set of AMT Camaro wheels and test fitted the missing one:

That's a yes! Not sure if I'll fit all 4 or just leave it as is, depends how hard the other wheels will be to extract.

A good wash and some Glue 'n' Glaze for the missing light lenses and this one will look really nice again.

The wee Fiat is going to be a challenge to get looking better.

I can sort the bent windscreen, the glazing is OK, I can make some new bumpers and paint is no problem but finding a suitable set of wheels will be hard as one has a missing tyre. I did have a smashed Saico Minor which might have had some suitable wheels but I binned it. It's really small (obviously as the real car was tiny!)  for a 1/25, not much bigger than a Corgi Sierra.

If anyone's got any wheels with an approximate diameter of 18-20mm I'd be very interested. Or even a tyre that will fit the 13-14mm rim.

[bunglebus]

I found another unusual European die cast of a Volkswagen with bits missing

Yeah it's a Majorette K70, not common but not hen's teeth either

But this one is an early example with the square headlights

Most have twin round lamps

Can't remember if I have a door donor in my project box but I'll find one somewhere and give it a once over

[Datsuncog]

1 hour ago, quicksilver said:

I definitely had some of the Brooklands racers (but I thought they were Lledo?)

You're right - they were by Lledo, not Corgi.

Must have got myself all in a lather with this morning's general excitement!

[Datsuncog]

1 hour ago, quicksilver said:

I suspected the demise of in-pack gifts was down to kids eating them, but why did the token giveaways stop? I guess having to wait until the whole box was finished before your parents bought another to get more tokens, repeating that several times to accumulate enough, sending them off in the post and patiently waiting for the thing to arrive just took too long in an age of kids with short attention spans used to instant gratification.

I think another factor in the death of token giveaways could be the soaring price of postage - I seem to recall that you might send off your eight tokens or whatever with a 20p piece taped to a piece of cardboard to cover P&P, back when a second class stamp was 18p or so, and after 28 days or thereabouts you'd receive a car in the post worth a pound or £1.50, maybe more.

Whereas nowadays, you'd have to stump up £3.25 in small parcel postage to receive a toy car worth about £1.50... so another victim of a shifting economy where the price of manufactured goods has gone down, relatively speaking, but the price of services has gone up?

[bunglebus]

The Kellogg's Motoring Marvels set also included a crap cardboard garage setup, never had this

That out of scale Mini still irks me

[sierraman]

35 minutes ago, Datsuncog said:

I think another factor in the death of token giveaways could be the soaring price of postage - I seem to recall that you might send off your eight tokens or whatever with a 20p piece taped to a piece of cardboard to cover P&P, back when a second class stamp was 18p or so, and after 28 days or thereabouts you'd receive a car in the post worth a pound or £1.50, maybe more.

Whereas nowadays, you'd have to stump up £3.25 in small parcel postage to receive a toy car worth about £1.50... so another victim of a shifting economy where the price of manufactured goods has gone down, relatively speaking, but the price of services has gone up?

It used to be ‘send a postal order’ IIRC. 

[sierraman]

Just now, bunglebus said:

The Kellogg's Motoring Marvels set also included a crap cardboard garage setup, never had this

That out of scale Mini still irks me

I can’t stand corn flakes but I think I’d have made an exception for that garage. 

[bunglebus]

4 hours ago, Datsuncog said:

a tiny submarine that rose and sank in water if you put baking powder inside it?

[quicksilver]

11 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

The Kellogg's Motoring Marvels set also included a crap cardboard garage setup, never had this

That out of scale Mini still irks me

That's the one I had. Clearly a much smaller scale than the cars and probably rare as hens' teeth now as it would have lasted about 5 minutes being played with.

[MiniMinorMk3]

Next lot for the clean up were some modern Corgis. Well I think they are modern because they do not have separate tyres.

Not another Metro

X1/9 is a good effort. The early 1.3 engine cars came in a colour similar to this

Opening doors and tow hook.

Chrome engine under the cover.

Pity they didn't do a removable roof panel, but then again, most would be lost from play won examples.

This one is from the 1/36 range.

Next are these things that look like they are straight out of a Gery Anderson show.

The Ambulances are in good condition.

The tow truck has seen a bit more action.

Metal base on van type and plastic on truck type

I never knew this sort of stuff existed. By the time these were a thing I was playing with real cars.

Did they come with glass?

Two very modern Jags.

The XJR-9 is a model of the car driven to 3rd place by Eddie Cheever, John Watson and Johnny Dumfries in the 1988 Daytona 24 Hours

Last Corgi is this 1989 Collectors Club issue.

It has the Swansea address on the back.

 

[bunglebus]

 

[bunglebus]

Never found a High Speed "Crackle"

There's one on eBay...

[Datsuncog]

Took myself over to Cityside at lunchtime, to see if they could meet my diecast requirements - sadly, the answer was NO.

B&M, Home Bargains, Asda, Tesco and Poundland - nothing much going on in any of them, in terms of diecast.

B&M had some 2025 A-case items, but only a handful - possibly they just jammed on a couple from a new box in the delivery to fill up the display.

Home Bargains had no Hot Wheels cars at all, and definitely no Matchbox.

Asda had the scene of someone else's crimes, and that was about it.

Tesco and Poundland had quite a lot of Hot Wheels mainlines, but all older 2024 stuff that I've picked through many, many times before.

And so that was that... a bit anticlimactic, maybe, but ain't that just the way?

[Datsuncog]

I'm still enjoying yesterday's Nissan Pathfinder (US)/ Terrano (Japan) by Matchbox:

It looks every so slightly squashed, but then the real thing looked a bit odd too. 

Introduced in 1985, this vehicle borrowed parts from the Nissan Hardbody pickup and also the Patrol 4x4 and packed them into what we'd now call an SUV body, but this was an unknown market segment at the time.

Japanese spec models were quite plush, often fitted with high-end features like leather seats, CD players and air conditioning, and even came with the option of a 'widebody kit' which extended the arches beyond the parameters of the standard taxation class - hey, it was the boomtime for Japanese society, and what shows you're rich more than deliberately making yourself liable for 'wide car tax'?

US spec versions tended to be a little more utilitarian, up against semi-offroaders like the Ford Bronco and Chevrolet Blazer, but sold pretty well. Five door versions were offered from 1988 on. It was never offered for sale new in the UK, although doubtless a few grey imports found their way here over the years.

Bit of Sharpie might disguise where the tampo print doesn't quite make it.

It's a nicely put together little model, and I'm pleased to finally track one down!

[Tayne]

[bunglebus]

1 hour ago, MiniMinorMk3 said:

Did they come with glass?

 Just the ones sold through Mothercare I think. Otherwise as basic as can be

[andy18s]

Just popped up on a local page. 

[bunglebus]

Very nice, for sale?

[flat4alfa]

4 hours ago, MiniMinorMk3 said:

Next lot for the clean up were some modern Corgis. Well I think they are modern because they do not have separate tyres.

The Ambulances are in good condition.

The tow truck has seen a bit more action.

Metal base on van type and plastic on truck type

I never knew this sort of stuff existed. By the time these were a thing I was playing with real cars.

Did they come with glass?

What you have there is an *eclectic mix of both Corgi Hi-Speed and Corgi Cubs which are pushing 50 years old

To complete the collection, next you need to get hold of the Mini-Bus of cracked side window fame: Corgi 'MINI BUS' as it says on the base, was available 1974-78 and shown in Catalogue 1974 as 'Inter-City Mini-Bus' - the same as the sticker on the sides.  The box itself had it as 'High Speed Mini-coach' instead.

 

Joined by the others (and Noddy!) in 1975

Omitted from the catalogue for 1977, but back in 1978.  1977 did see the new 'Security Van' which was given code C424, so not numbered as part of the C70x series unlike its 'sister' the 'Motorway Service Ambulance' and the others.

All gone gone from catalogues for 1979 which gave us....   X-PLORATRONS !

Perhaps the High Speed series was the precursor to Corgi Cubs….   which I’ll post about next and bore you all further

[FakeConcern]

21 hours ago, flat4alfa said:

The Lotus Esprit was produced generically in Hong Kong and sold under Speedtrax, Toltoys and other brands depending on market.  The sets were 6v and battery-powered.  Speedtrax became Artin.  Pretty sure I have a later red one here, will have a look...   might make a good 1:43 track sister.

The gen-4 Camaro is much later (obviously!) and was in a set with a Corvette ZR-1.  Produced by Kwong Wah Toys, Hong Kong and sold under their brands such as Super Speed.  They go right back into the 1970s with battery-powered 6v sets, but this particular 1990s set was powered by a mains AC transformer

You should be able to see if they run by putting a 9v PP3 battery across the terminals.  Don't hold it there for long though as the LED will likely blow.  Yes, both of them have light!

That's very interesting, thank you. I'll try them with a battery when I get a chance I'll be interested to see the lights. Let me know if you would like them.

5 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

Received a brace of resto projects from @FakeConcern today.

I wasted no time in digging out a set of AMT Camaro wheels and test fitted the missing one:

That's a yes! Not sure if I'll fit all 4 or just leave it as is, depends how hard the other wheels will be to extract.

A good wash and some Glue 'n' Glaze for the missing light lenses and this one will look really nice again.

The wee Fiat is going to be a challenge to get looking better.

I can sort the bent windscreen, the glazing is OK, I can make some new bumpers and paint is no problem but finding a suitable set of wheels will be hard as one has a missing tyre. I did have a smashed Saico Minor which might have had some suitable wheels but I binned it. It's really small (obviously as the real car was tiny!)  for a 1/25, not much bigger than a Corgi Sierra.

If anyone's got any wheels with an approximate diameter of 18-20mm I'd be very interested. Or even a tyre that will fit the 13-14mm rim.

I really liked all of those and would have been happy to keep any of them if you didn't want them. The Pug looks better already, I hope you do all the wheels!

I did have a look in my wheel and tyre box for a tyre to fit the Fiat, but nothing was any good. However I have replaced tyres on other similar scale models with one from Scalextrics. I do often see someone selling them at toy fairs so I'll keep my eyes open for something suitable.

 

As regards the Cereal packet toy cars, I have related this before; when I was very young the old man who lived kind of backing on to our garden (drove a Wolseley 1500) gave me the tokens from (I think) Frosties to get free toy cars. We didn't have cereal like that as it was too expensive! Anyway I got Lone Star models (wish I still had them) Fiat 2300 which was my fave, Ford Taunus, Ford Corsair & Rolls Silver Cloud.

[flat4alfa]

SPEEDTRAX LOTUS ESPRIT FOUND IN LOFT BOXES 

Your example is in far better condition but will post about it later 

@FakeConcern

[andy18s]

40 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

Very nice, for sale?

I have asked,what sort of price would they go for? I have no knowledge of them . 

[flat4alfa]

A glazed Corgi Cub is a rare beast and separates the men from the boys 😝

And why? Because it makes a basic Mothercare toy transform into a potential Gerry Anderson film prop!

Tiny Tom agrees.

[flat4alfa]

The Corgi Cubs range was produced in 1977-78 and withdrawn shortly afterwards. They were designed to be cheap to produce so that Corgi could enter the nursery toy market. The models and the packaging were all made in Britain.

The range was launched October 1977 at price point 55p each RRP.  They were produced through 1978 but proved to be a low seller.

There was an advertising campaign to encourage Mums to spend 55p and do the patriotic thing.  Note *xenophobic bottom paragraph!

They came in blister packed singles:

Then boxed singles.  Notice the price had doubled to £1.10, inflation rate in 1977 hit 15.85%, but still, maybe the first few months they were sold at 55p as a loss-leader ploy  (also check out the regular Corgi line wheel type on that ambulance) :

The R600 4-pack set looks like a nice historical artifact to collect

But true TAT Connoisseurs should surely go for the R601 6-pack set

Mothercare became a stockist:

Later, they were also distributed by Avon Cosmetics (with the Corgi brand removed) as part of the elusive AVON SMILERS range.  The 'AVON Smilers' trademark was filed in Australia in 1988 and Canada in 1989, but was never filed in North America, so those would be a European market exclusive (therefore potentially more valuable to Men living in their attics, in Connecticut)

As you can see, I have no interest whatsoever in the things.

But there is a man in Belfast who runs the DATSUNCUB CLUB, apparently, and perhaps will be along shortly to show off his superb collection that we helped lumber him with 😎

@Datsuncog

[bunglebus]

25 minutes ago, andy18s said:

I have asked,what sort of price would they go for? I have no knowledge of them . 

Not hugely valuable, you might pay a tenner if you're feeling generous. Fiver would be great

[Split_Pin]

307cc progress.

Disassembled, cleaned and glue setting on the wheels on one side.

New headlights made from Glue N Glaze, they'll dry clear in a day or so.