Shite in Miniature II

[andrew e]

Earlier in the week I happened to be yards away from the once great Hamleys in London. It’s seemingly just a big toy shop, not the too the ceiling every brand colossus I remember as kid, but hey that’s rose tinted glades for you! Anyway these prices might amuse 😳 

 

[andrew e]

However how great is this shelf!

Scenes like this were just before my time (being born as these boxes vanished) but isn’t this great!

[ambassador84]

36 minutes ago, andrew e said:

Earlier in the week I happened to be yards away from the once great Hamleys in London. It’s seemingly just a big toy shop, not the too the ceiling every brand colossus I remember as kid, but hey that’s rose tinted glades for you! Anyway these prices might amuse 😳 

 

Who buys Hot Wheels at £4 each! 

[MiniMinorMk3]

23 minutes ago, ambassador84 said:

Who buys Hot Wheels at £4 each! 

London rates in'it.

I used to go in Hamleys when I worked in that there London back in the 1980s and 1990s. The used to do Minichamps, Brums, Quartzos, Vitesse etc etc. However the prices were always just a little bit more than what Beatties or St. Martins Lance Accessories were asking.

1 hour ago, andrew e said:

However how great is this shelf!

Scenes like this were just before my time (being born as these boxes vanished) but isn’t this great!

I don't remember seeing Corgi Toys displayed like that. They were always in cabinets or rotating displays and you asked for one and teh shop keeper would go to the stock room and bring one out.

Juniors were hung on a thing like a coat stand

[bunglebus]

Sole new Hot Wheels find today in Sainsbury's 

But I did get another Model A and a couple of other doubles for my mate, and a white Majorette Volvo I wasn't expecting 

[bunglebus]

A few bits awaited my arrival home. Got this off Facebook, quite why Matchbox decided to produce a mango police car I'm not sure 

69. Fnar

Majorette XM

These two came with the Matchbox Plymouth, Mira Sierra is best described as approximate 

Plastic doored Guisval is pretty nice though

The XM above came with this. I take it no-one has any exceptions to me robbing the doors off this for my early square headlight version?

[ambassador84]

40 minutes ago, MiniMinorMk3 said:

London rates in'it.

I used to go in Hamleys when I worked in that there London back in the 1980s and 1990s. The used to do Minichamps, Brums, Quartzos, Vitesse etc etc. However the prices were always just a little bit more than what Beatties or St. Martins Lance Accessories were asking.

I don't remember seeing Corgi Toys displayed like that. They were always in cabinets or rotating displays and you asked for one and teh shop keeper would go to the stock room and bring one out.

Juniors were hung on a thing like a coat stand

It must be the Yorkshire in me but I can't imagine who thinks £4 for a Hot Wheels is good value no matter where in the World you've visited from. Bah humbug! 😅

[bunglebus]

Corgi Thames is all done

Hang on, that's it before I started. I felt I should try and do a slightly better job of what it was the previous customiser tried to achieve. I'll let you be the judge

Quite pleased with the rear lights on this in particular, as the back was pretty ugly to start with (those doors are still terrible looking things to be honest). Yellow sock material interior and as much detailing as I dared do finish it off.  You can't really tell but the grille, badges etc are all painted, as well as the three separate shades on the body. Those wheels are possibly my favourite bit though, edging it into custom territory. I left the window blinds out as they hid the interior too much.

I think Corgi took a few liberties with this one anyway as I can't find a real one with the same windows, and it should have separate quarter bumpers on the back.

[sierraman]

10 hours ago, Spottedlaurel said:

As of this week I have voluntarily dropped to a 4-day working week. Getting old and tired. Not sure this will happen every Friday, but ended up 'celebrating' this by trawling around something like 10 charity shops in two different towns. The result of which was:

One Majorette Thunderbird, for £1.

Hopefully will be able to make more progress on the kits over a 3-day weekend.

Good choice on dropping some hours, you can’t put a price on having less stress in your life. 

[sierraman]

1 hour ago, ambassador84 said:

It must be the Yorkshire in me but I can't imagine who thinks £4 for a Hot Wheels is good value no matter where in the World you've visited from. Bah humbug! 😅

Not just me that’s a tight fucker then!! 😂😂😂

[sierraman]

2 hours ago, bunglebus said:

A few bits awaited my arrival home. Got this off Facebook, quite why Matchbox decided to produce a mango police car I'm not sure 

69. Fnar

Majorette XM

These two came with the Matchbox Plymouth, Mira Sierra is best described as approximate 

Plastic doored Guisval is pretty nice though

The XM above came with this. I take it no-one has any exceptions to me robbing the doors off this for my early square headlight version?

I don’t know why but I really like those Plymouths in that colour. 

[FakeConcern]

3 hours ago, bunglebus said:

Corgi Thames is all done

Hang on, that's it before I started. I felt I should try and do a slightly better job of what it was the previous customiser tried to achieve. I'll let you be the judge

Quite pleased with the rear lights on this in particular, as the back was pretty ugly to start with (those doors are still terrible looking things to be honest). Yellow sock material interior and as much detailing as I dared do finish it off.  You can't really tell but the grille, badges etc are all painted, as well as the three separate shades on the body. Those wheels are possibly my favourite bit though, edging it into custom territory. I left the window blinds out as they hid the interior too much.

I think Corgi took a few liberties with this one anyway as I can't find a real one with the same windows, and it should have separate quarter bumpers on the back.

That looks superb!

Having seen your custom I did have a quick look on Google and found one with windows like the Corgi version

[Split_Pin]

Anyone ever noticed the tiny 'Gran Fury' scroll on the front wings?

[flat4alfa]

19 hours ago, Datsuncog said:

Wait... what...  that's an early 1970s Aurora AFX HO slot car in there

Please grab if seen next time please thanks (but don't make trip specially, obvs) as in good condition that would be around 50 quid if it was one of the lighting circuit examples.  Tyres are available, as are pickups

It's a model of the 1970 Ferrari 512 M, typically bundled in track sets with a blue Porsche 917 ....which might also be in that box perhaps

[ambassador84]

3 hours ago, sierraman said:

Not just me that’s a tight fucker then!! 😂😂😂

I can peel oranges in my pocket! 😅

[sierraman]

12 minutes ago, ambassador84 said:

I can peel oranges in my pocket! 😅

A pound hit me on the back of the head when I dropped it at the bar last week. 😂

[sierraman]

12 minutes ago, ambassador84 said:

I can peel oranges in my pocket! 😅

A pound hit me on the back of the head when I dropped it at the bar last week. 😂

[bunglebus]

41 minutes ago, Split_Pin said:

Anyone ever noticed the tiny 'Gran Fury' scroll on the front wings?

I hadn't, but Matchbox often seemed to include nice details like that

The COMMUTER script on the lower rear quarters on both the Speed Kings and smaller version is lovely too

Missing front door handles was a bit weird though

[sierraman]

I’ve been reading the ‘First Forty Years’ Matchbox book past few days. Fascinating as it’s all first hand accounts from people why changes were made. 

[bunglebus]

A couple of other bits I found in random corners of the internet

Majorette bay window looks pretty good

But it has a crusty bum

Siku LT that came with it is decent though

Finally a Polistil 2CV that didn't make it into the yellow tin snail line up I did recently

 

[sierraman]

Siku tended to be very inconsistent as far as their interpretation was concerned. Some the Jaguar XJ6 and the LT were superb but others like an Escort or a Kadett were not terribly convincing at all. But what they lacked in reality they made in quality! 

[Mrcento]

1 hour ago, sierraman said:

Siku tended to be very inconsistent as far as their interpretation was concerned. Some the Jaguar XJ6 and the LT were superb but others like an Escort or a Kadett were not terribly convincing at all. But what they lacked in reality they made in quality! 

I have a couple of Siku trucks somewhere and i'm sure at least 1 car, (Can't remember what 2 of them are, but 1 is definitely a Mercedes bin lorry, as pictured iirc), my biggest memory of them was the sheer weight of the things, undoubtedly the thickest metal of any of the die cast models. Even at 1:55 scale, they were heavier than something like a Burago 1:18

[Nibbler]

I love Siku! But this isn’t there best day at work. Found cheap at a flea market a week ago.

[Datsuncog]

11 hours ago, flat4alfa said:

Wait... what...  that's an early 1970s Aurora AFX HO slot car in there

Please grab if seen next time please thanks (but don't make trip specially, obvs) as in good condition that would be around 50 quid if it was one of the lighting circuit examples.  Tyres are available, as are pickups

It's a model of the 1970 Ferrari 512 M, typically bundled in track sets with a blue Porsche 917 ....which might also be in that box perhaps

Yes, I did pick that one up and noticed it was an old slot car - unfortunately missing quite a bit of its innards, including pickups and possibly the motor too.

Will see what I can do!

[Tenmil Socket]

On 04/04/2025 at 23:36, Datsuncog said:

Yup, a bit of a scoot round the Friday market was in order. It's been a while.

First up was Nostalgic Collectables, home of the irascible Market Blokey.

Actually some decent stuff to be found this week; not a vast amount, but some okay bits and pieces. Not very cheap at £10 a go, though.

The Superkings Volvo estate is one I've yet to own; metallic green for preference, though a red one would do nicely too.

I'm not so struck on the rally support version - it's pretty good, but not quite as appealing and while this one had relatively little chipping, the paper stickers looked like they'd got oil or something on them, so I passed.

The Superkings Leyland tipper was very very clean; most of the others were good if mildly tatty, bar the Matchbox Porsche 924 which was missing the rear hatch and had 'whitewall tyres' courtesy of a bottle of TippEx.

Late 1960s Corgi Classics Rolls Royce Silver Ghost was nice, but was it £20-nice?

I couldn't make up my mind. So, no.

The cheapo £3 table was a bit same-old, but...

... what's this?

Well, a K-9 Fire Tender of course, it's right there on the box.

Not quite mint, but jolly good overall condition.

While I was dithering over whether or not to begin a collection of 1970s fantasy vehicles, a man in an ironic cap and sporting an ironic moustache scooped it up and bought it instead. Probably ironically.

Ah well.

Over at the Charity Stall, things were also hotting up:

Mmm, Dinky Range Rover.

Hand-painted Corgi SM was... ambitious.

Large tanker by Mira:

Some nice stuff, but Larry the stallholder was perpetually engaged in earnest discussions with a punter each time I passed, so I never did find out what his prices were.

He's not usually cheap, though.

Colin on the Irish Tat Stall didn't have much fresh stock, though these JDM Majorettes were in the loose cars box:

Kinda look like they're illustrations. Weird.

Yeah, but…

 

[sierraman]

25 minutes ago, Tenmil Socket said:

Yeah, but…

 

The connoisseurs choice!

[bunglebus]

This morning's boot sale haul

[bunglebus]

1 hour ago, Nibbler said:

I love Siku! But this isn’t there best day at work. Found cheap at a flea market a week ago.

Terrible casting. I love it

 

[bunglebus]

Interesting morning at the boot sales, had the dreaded "had loads of those earlier but someone bought the lot" which usually means thin pickings. However I still found some interesting bits, mostly from one seller who I also scored a load of great stuff from a couple of weeks ago. These two were from the earlier sale, and weren't exactly cheap, but still well below market value at £9 each I'd say

They come with a little collector card too

Even the box is a little art piece, with a background and a road going off into the distance inside

Hot Rocker is in great condition 

As is this Transit 

Hi Tailer is also very good, the paper decals on these always suffer

Silver base too, not red

Two different Renault 5s

Don't you just hate it when you find a serious rarity, but it's absolutely trashed? Baja Buggy with the two seat interior from the Beach Hopper is a tough one to find. Typical!

Ah well. Ruff Rabbit is one I've wanted to customise for a while, so now I have this to work on

Speed Kings Capri was too good to leave behind 

This Mercedes ambulance similarly so, those gunsights always get snapped off

And another one I wasn't walking past

This poor thing was in a 3 for £1 tub, not my area of interest but I rescued it anyway 

Don't think my new favourite seller quite knew what he had here as it was cheap

Shame I didn't keep any spare of the dozen identical promotional Darda jeep/buggy things I had, as this one needs a headlight

Tomica just too late for the yellow 2CV lineup

Came with a Morgan too (+2)

Corgis now, with the ubiquitous Carrera 

Not seen this version of the Formula 1 Racer before

Bought this Bat Car as the screens are intact

Very tidy Landie

Came with an equally good Commando 

Majorette represented by a Super Cinq

No junk in this trunk though

XR3 is rather excellent 

And has a boot full of stuff, yay

Lastly one of those odd splatter painted Unimogs. Actually don't think I've seen this treatment on the 'mog before, just the pickup and Beetle 

[Tenmil Socket]

54 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

Interesting morning at the boot sales, had the dreaded "had loads of those earlier but someone bought the lot" which usually means thin pickings. However I still found some interesting bits, mostly from one seller who I also scored a load of great stuff from a couple of weeks ago. These two were from the earlier sale, and weren't exactly cheap, but still well below market value at £9 each I'd say

They come with a little collector card too

Even the box is a little art piece, with a background and a road going off into the distance inside

Hot Rocker is in great condition 

As is this Transit 

Hi Tailer is also very good, the paper decals on these always suffer

Silver base too, not red

Two different Renault 5s

Don't you just hate it when you find a serious rarity, but it's absolutely trashed? Baja Buggy with the two seat interior from the Beach Hopper is a tough one to find. Typical!

Ah well. Ruff Rabbit is one I've wanted to customise for a while, so now I have this to work on

Speed Kings Capri was too good to leave behind 

This Mercedes ambulance similarly so, those gunsights always get snapped off

And another one I wasn't walking past

This poor thing was in a 3 for £1 tub, not my area of interest but I rescued it anyway 

Don't think my new favourite seller quite knew what he had here as it was cheap

Shame I didn't keep any spare of the dozen identical promotional Darda jeep/buggy things I had, as this one needs a headlight

Tomica just too late for the yellow 2CV lineup

Came with a Morgan too (+2)

Corgis now, with the ubiquitous Carrera 

Not seen this version of the Formula 1 Racer before

Bought this Bat Car as the screens are intact

Very tidy Landie

Came with an equally good Commando 

Majorette represented by a Super Cinq

No junk in this trunk though

XR3 is rather excellent 

And has a boot full of stuff, yay

Lastly one of those odd splatter painted Unimogs. Actually don't think I've seen this treatment on the 'mog before, just the pickup and Beetle 

That Tamiya Capri is great and if you ever want to offload that XR3 you know where I am 😉