Shite in Miniature II

[danthecapriman]

14 hours ago, bunglebus said:

Lucky boy! What's the chances of it still being in your parents attic? 😁

Slim unfortunately!

I don’t remember colouring them in even. Pretty sure the pens had all dried out, despite the set coming to me new.

The DAF artic, I definitely remember as that just stayed plain white. I can vaguely remember the sticker sheet too.

Im 99% sure they all would have gone to my cousin when she had her son. There was a big plastic Sainsbury’s tub full of my old toy cars. Before they went I did have a quick sort through them and pulled out a few memorable ones I kept but the vast majority went. No idea what happened to them, but it almost certainly involved landfill. 
My Cousins son is 17 now so it was a while back!

I did however find a big plastic tub full of stuff I kept from my childhood a couple of days ago so next week I might have a look through it. I know some of the Superkings I liked using in the garden are in there!

[Split_Pin]

3 hours ago, bunglebus said:

Toyotas(?)

'New Crown' is on the base of mine. It's ace! Almost certainly got it from one of you lot.

[Split_Pin]

2 hours ago, danthecapriman said:

some of the Superkings I liked using in the garden are in there!

I'd love to see those!

[ambassador84]

13 hours ago, danthecapriman said:

That’s a graffic traffic set I had! I remember that TV van now you’ve posted it.

BMW M3 E30 was made by Realtoy and likely to have been copied from the Corgi Juniors original.

The cheapo police car underneath was made by Summer and is actually meant to represent an AMC Matador.

[bunglebus]

36 minutes ago, ambassador84 said:

BMW M3 E30 was made by Realtoy and likely to have been copied from the Corgi Juniors original.

The cheapo police car underneath was made by Summer and is actually meant to represent an AMC Matador.

I must have been told that before as I have this one tagged as a Matador 

I think this one is the Crown

Thanks to Summer's somewhat loose interpretation of key design features, it's not always easy to tell!

I've got quite a few different BMW E30 castings, most I haven't been able to positively identify but I agree these M3 bodied ones look suspiciously like the Corgi. Here's "Mr. Robert"

 

[flat4alfa]

 Crikey Powertrack and TCR cars in one weekend

Not only that, one of them is a Lancia Stratos

I’m off for a lie down

[Tenmil Socket]

2 hours ago, bunglebus said:

I must have been told that before as I have this one tagged as a Matador 

I think this one is the Crown

Thanks to Summer's somewhat loose interpretation of key design features, it's not always easy to tell!

I've got quite a few different BMW E30 castings, most I haven't been able to positively identify but I agree these M3 bodied ones look suspiciously like the Corgi. Here's "Mr. Robert"

 

Good score on the Majorette Motor 911.

How many Graffic Traffic are you yet to find?

I've also found myself collecting E30’s so please bear me in mind 👍

 

[Datsuncog]

Friday afternoon and evening brought some more peg-hunting.

Thought I'd hit lucky in Poundland over at Cityside with a newly installed full dump-bin, but on closer inspection...

It mostly seemed to be old unwanted stuff with ripped or creased packaging that won't hang up any more. Bah.

Meanwhile, a few steps over at the Matchbox section, we were partying like it's 2023. Again.

How many two-year-old cases of Matchbox do they still even have in the warehouse?

Loads, apparently.

Being in the vicinity, I hit up B&M, Tesco and Asda but they didn't have anything much of interest. Home Bargains did have quite a lot of the Hot Wheels G-case with the Ford Model A hot rod and the yellow BMW 2002, but I think I've all I want from that selection now.

I took a wander around Smyth's also - some F-case Hot Wheels mainlines were in evidence, along with some of the recent Team Transports:

Also, the Silverline F&F Villains series, which definitely isn't an another desperate effort to wring more sales through blending an ever-spiralling franchise with a load of otherwise redundant castings:

Which was good, as I was kind of looking for the '66 Ford Fairlane GT - I had a mainline version a fair few years back but it was covered in custom-style graphics so I never quite gelled with it - this one looks good in plain red with the black rims.

I also picked up a Baja Bug from the Surf's Up series - I like those wheels, and with a diecast base it's an impressively weighty thing.

A final dash through my local Tesco Extra revealed that a Matchbox Mix E had finally landed - but unfortunately a sharp-faced middle-aged man was combing through the dump bin forensically, having already claimed the blue Morgan with the yellow 2CV doubtless not far behind...

Looks like I may have found myself a new Nemesis.

Ah well.

I just realised that I forgot to mention the Majorette VW T3 camper that I picked up in Sainsbury's a few weeks ago:

I've been quite wary about starting on another manufacturer, but there was just something about this one I found irresistible.

It might be something to do with the towhitch mechanism that hasn't much changed from the examples I had as a kid.

But the sliding door is awesome, and the badge detailing is also really good.

I don't want to go down the slippery slope here...

[Datsuncog]

On 03/05/2025 at 14:27, bunglebus said:

 The Car Tuned ones look interesting too

They're a relatively new one on me - I was in a branch of Toymaster a fortnight ago and they had a big freestanding cardboard display of Car Tuned models, which aren't something I'd seen before.

I'm not so much into stylised models, so I neglected to take a pic, but they did look pretty nicely done.

[bunglebus]

I found a spare Model A yesterday, so I opened it up prior to it going to live in customising box purgatory 

[barrett]

18 hours ago, danthecapriman said:

I wonder why so many of these models with the plastic bases seem to get that weird mark from the tyres into the base? It’s like the rubber/plastic is reacting against each other. Quite a few of my partwork and modern models have it too.

I flinch every time I get one and unscrew it for the first time, thinking the tyres will be ruined. There's a degree of cognitive dissonance where the soft, delicate bit (rubber tyre) is damaging the hard, robust bit (plastic base) but that's science, baby. I guess it's like dissolving body parts in acid in a plastic washing up bowl and not a ceramic bathtub, which I'm sure we've all done.

[bunglebus]

2 hours ago, Tenmil Socket said:

How many Graffic Traffic are you yet to find?

Absolutely no idea, there are a surprising number of them, and I'm not really bothered about trains, planes or buildings. I won't be trying to track down every last one, that's for sure!

[eddyramrod]

2 hours ago, barrett said:

I guess it's like dissolving body parts in acid in a plastic washing up bowl and not a ceramic bathtub, which I'm sure we've all done.

I told you not to mention that!

[bunglebus]

Found a few new Hot Wheels in the overstock boxes in Poundland today

New Miata is a crazy little casting

Found the Skyline 

And a Big-Air Bel-Air

Which looks suspiciously like the first version from a few years ago

 

[Zie]

Another I thought I not be able to find, this time HomeBargins. 

[eddyramrod]

Paintwork in progress...

I might have to do the Jag again.  I ran out of Brooklands Green painting this.  Have to see what it looks like when it's dried.

[AndyW201]

Had a run over to Smyth's at the weekend, primarily to see if any of that new National Icons Silver Series  stuff was in, as I've had my eye on a few of those on AliExpress but the release date on there is end of August.

Hur hur! As if! The restock from a couple of weeks ago is a distant memory leaving the pegs full of Boulevard black Volvo 142s, Terra Trek and F&F releases that nobody wants and Jay Leno 's Garage stuff that must be setting a record now for the longest time that any Hot Wheels Premium releases have gathered dust on pegs. Having used fuel traipsing over to Stockton and fought the usual Bank Holiday retail park traffic, I left with this, just to make the trip worthwhile.

Despite being another Crass & Spurious release, it's a nice enough thing, and it's a casting that I've not had anything of before, so it got the job. I dont think this casting has been seen much before now, if at all.

I'm a sucker for dished steelies on '70s cars, the ones on this look good.

Sadly, the black tampos on this release seem to be struggling a bit to stay on. There were a lot of these on the pegs and this was the least bad for black paint loss.

Next door to Smyths is a B&M. To be frank, B&Ms have been dogshit for the likes of Hot Wheels lately. It was like going back in time with last year's releases such as the grey Alfa GTV6 and Series Land Rover on the pegs. Then something else caught my eye.

THE Beetle, no less!

There was a fairly big display with these Welly NEX cars in. Quite a big choice, mainly modern sports and super cars, but I found a couple that were more like modern Autoshite material. 

I was pretty impressed with the Welly Corsa D VXR I got off Ebay last year,

It took ages to track down, being the 1/43 version, as it is less toy like than the 1/35 one with it's friction motor and badly fitting opening doors. As the nearest thing to the real Corsa we had at the time, it was a good alternative to the dealer packaged Norev version at 10 times the price...

Scale is a bit hard to judge with the ones I saw, they seem to be around the 1/43 ish mark, but also seem to be a bit "fit the box" as the Jaguar XJ looked a fair bit smaller in scale than the others.

For the pocket money price tag, I don't think they can really be faulted. The shape is captured well, there's a bit of brightwork on there, the wheels are realistic and not generic, the interiors are obviously not Minichamps standard, but through the panoramic roof, they look okay.

Even the baseplate has a lot more detail than proper 'models' costing 10 times as much.

The BINI Paceman was the other one I picked up,

Paintwork is shiny and flawless, easly a match for more expensive stuff. This one's a bit more of a lightweight than the Beetle as the arch extensions and sideskirts are part of the plastic baseplate and the roof is a painted part of the glazing unit. Quite clever. Wheels are a good representation of the actual Paceman alloys.

Hard to know what to class them as, I think they straddle the gap neatly between cheap toy and collector's model. At not much more money than a Hot Wheels mainline, they can be played with, destroyed and discarded. But then I have the Corsa alongside other Vauxhall/Opel models from the likes of Vanguards, Schuco and Minichamps and it doesn't really look out of place. One thing's for sure, how they can put together a reasonably detailed, licenced 1/43 scale miniature and knock them out through shops for three quid a pop in this country, in this day and age, is quite remarkable.

(Whether they cause as much excitement among middle age blokes who should know better, on market stalls in the future as much as 1970s and 1980s Welly cars do now. I'm not sure though...)

[danthecapriman]

39 minutes ago, AndyW201 said:

Had a run over to Smyth's at the weekend, primarily to see if any of that new National Icons Silver Series  stuff was in, as I've had my eye on a few of those on AliExpress but the release date on there is end of August.

Hur hur! As if! The restock from a couple of weeks ago is a distant memory leaving the pegs full of Boulevard black Volvo 142s, Terra Trek and F&F releases that nobody wants and Jay Leno 's Garage stuff that must be setting a record now for the longest time that any Hot Wheels Premium releases have gathered dust on pegs. Having used fuel traipsing over to Stockton and fought the usual Bank Holiday retail park traffic, I left with this, just to make the trip worthwhile.

Despite being another Crass & Spurious release, it's a nice enough thing, and it's a casting that I've not had anything of before, so it got the job. I dont think this casting has been seen much before now, if at all.

I'm a sucker for dished steelies on '70s cars, the ones on this look good.

Sadly, the black tampos on this release seem to be struggling a bit to stay on. There were a lot of these on the pegs and this was the least bad for black paint loss.

Next door to Smyths is a B&M. To be frank, B&Ms have been dogshit fot the likes of Hot Wheels lately. It was like going back in time with last year's case with the grey Alfa GTV6 and series Land Rover on the pegs. Then something else caught my eye.

THE Beetle, no less!

There was a fairly big display with these Welly NEX cars in. Quite a big choice, mainly modern sports and super cars, but I found a couple that were more modern Autoshite material. 

I was pretty impressed with the Welly Corsa D VXR I got off Ebay last year,

It took ages to track down, being the 1/43 version, as it is less toy like than the 1/35 one with it's friction motor and badly fitting opening doors. As the nearest thing to the real Corsa we had at the time, it was a good alternative to the dealer packaged Norev version at 10 times the price...

Scale is a bit hard to judge with the ones I saw, they seem to be around the 1/43 ish mark, but also seem to be a bit "fit the box" as the Jaguar XJ looked a fair bit smaller than the others.

For the pocket money price tag, I don't think they can really be faulted. The shape is captured well, there's a bit of brightwork on there, the wheels are realistic and not generic, the interiors are obviously not Minichamps standard, but through the panoramic roof, they look okay.

Even the baseplate has a lot more detail than proper 'models' costing 10 times as much.

The BINI Paceman was the other one I picked up,

Paintwork is flawless, easly a match for more expensive stuff. This one's a bit more of a lightweight than the Beetle as the arch extensions and sideskirts are part of the plastic baseplate and the roof is a painted part of the glazing unit. Quite clever. Wheels are a good representation of the actual Paceman alloys.

Hard to know what to class them as, I think they straddle the gap neatly between cheap toy and collector's model. At not much more money than a Hot Wheels mainline, they can be played with, destroyed and discarded. But then I have the Corsa alongside other Vauxhall/Opel models from the likes of Vanguards, Schuco and Minichamps and it doesn't look too much out of place. One thing's for sure, how they can put together a reasonably detailed, licenced 1/43 scale miniature and knock them out through shops for three quid a pop in this country, in this day and age, is quite remarkable.

(Whether they cause as much excitement among middle age blokes who should know better, on market stalls in the future as much as 1970s and 1980s Welly cars do now. I'm not sure though...)

Those Welly’s look superb! The quality of them is really good. Hopefully they might do some oldies in that range soon.

[Split_Pin]

I nearly picked up that Corsa a while back but I didn't have a need for it. Very nice subject though.

I've got the 1/24 version of that Paceman, lovely model.

[AndyW201]

Other additions,

Ordered this from AliExpress, as even if this case does come to these shores, I wouldnt have a cat in hell's chance of finding one, just like the blue version.

I do prefer this version to the blue one. The metallic red is a nice '70s Jag style colour and the hubcap type wheels are much more suitable.

The badges at the rear are superb for the scale.

A careful dab of silver Sharpie around those window frames and it'd be a right stunner.

Tescotainer had had a restock, albeit not exactly up-to-the-minute. But I managed to dig out three that I've been after to make up the 3 for 2 offer.

Nice use of the slotmag type wheels on this one.

Keeping with the Dodge theme, love the colour scheme and graphics on this one,

I was pleased to find this one. Despite being a 2015 casting, I've never had a HW Escort Cossie yet.

At long last, Asda had got a Premium range in that isn't a bloody Fast & Furious one.

I've already got a few Integrowlers in mainline rally versions, its a lovely casting, but this one in standard road trim instantly appealed.

Not being plastered in rally graphics means lots of lovely detailing on this one,

[AndyW201]

1 hour ago, danthecapriman said:

Those Welly’s look superb! The quality of them is really good. Hopefully they might do some oldies in that range soon.

I notice that they do a few oldies, mostly Eastern European stuff like various FSOs, Fiat 126s, Lada 1200s, although some of them  are a bit basic. They do some nice Skodas in 1/35 scale, including a really nice Favorit, but I have trouble keeping to just Hot Wheels  and 1/43 scales. I really dont want to go down any more slippery slopes...

I've seen a few others in that range that are proper nailed down modern shite like a mid 2000s Toyota Corolla saloon and first generation Hyundai i30, but I guess they're a bit 'niche' for B&M!

[ambassador84]

2 hours ago, AndyW201 said:

Had a run over to Smyth's at the weekend, primarily to see if any of that new National Icons Silver Series  stuff was in, as I've had my eye on a few of those on AliExpress but the release date on there is end of August.

Hur hur! As if! The restock from a couple of weeks ago is a distant memory leaving the pegs full of Boulevard black Volvo 142s, Terra Trek and F&F releases that nobody wants and Jay Leno 's Garage stuff that must be setting a record now for the longest time that any Hot Wheels Premium releases have gathered dust on pegs. Having used fuel traipsing over to Stockton and fought the usual Bank Holiday retail park traffic, I left with this, just to make the trip worthwhile.

Despite being another Crass & Spurious release, it's a nice enough thing, and it's a casting that I've not had anything of before, so it got the job. I dont think this casting has been seen much before now, if at all.

I'm a sucker for dished steelies on '70s cars, the ones on this look good.

Sadly, the black tampos on this release seem to be struggling a bit to stay on. There were a lot of these on the pegs and this was the least bad for black paint loss.

Next door to Smyths is a B&M. To be frank, B&Ms have been dogshit fot the likes of Hot Wheels lately. It was like going back in time with last year's case with the grey Alfa GTV6 and series Land Rover on the pegs. Then something else caught my eye.

THE Beetle, no less!

There was a fairly big display with these Welly NEX cars in. Quite a big choice, mainly modern sports and super cars, but I found a couple that were more modern Autoshite material. 

I was pretty impressed with the Welly Corsa D VXR I got off Ebay last year,

It took ages to track down, being the 1/43 version, as it is less toy like than the 1/35 one with it's friction motor and badly fitting opening doors. As the nearest thing to the real Corsa we had at the time, it was a good alternative to the dealer packaged Norev version at 10 times the price...

Scale is a bit hard to judge with the ones I saw, they seem to be around the 1/43 ish mark, but also seem to be a bit "fit the box" as the Jaguar XJ looked a fair bit smaller than the others.

For the pocket money price tag, I don't think they can really be faulted. The shape is captured well, there's a bit of brightwork on there, the wheels are realistic and not generic, the interiors are obviously not Minichamps standard, but through the panoramic roof, they look okay.

Even the baseplate has a lot more detail than proper 'models' costing 10 times as much.

The BINI Paceman was the other one I picked up,

Paintwork is flawless, easly a match for more expensive stuff. This one's a bit more of a lightweight than the Beetle as the arch extensions and sideskirts are part of the plastic baseplate and the roof is a painted part of the glazing unit. Quite clever. Wheels are a good representation of the actual Paceman alloys.

Hard to know what to class them as, I think they straddle the gap neatly between cheap toy and collector's model. At not much more money than a Hot Wheels mainline, they can be played with, destroyed and discarded. But then I have the Corsa alongside other Vauxhall/Opel models from the likes of Vanguards, Schuco and Minichamps and it doesn't look too much out of place. One thing's for sure, how they can put together a reasonably detailed, licenced 1/43 scale miniature and knock them out through shops for three quid a pop in this country, in this day and age, is quite remarkable.

(Whether they cause as much excitement among middle age blokes who should know better, on market stalls in the future as much as 1970s and 1980s Welly cars do now. I'm not sure though...)

I think Welly are probably THE best diecast toy company in the World in terms of what they offer vs their low price point. Anyone who has seen their 2025 catalogue will marvel at the sheer choice of scales and castings though it's very frustrating their 1:60 line isn't really available here anymore. 

[AndyW201]

Another arrival in the post was a set of wing mirrors for this damaged  Vanguards Cortina I got a few weeks ago.

Happily AC model spares have started listing on Ebay again, I've had a few spares packages in the past from them and they're a good source of spares for Vanguards that easily get lost like mirrors, bumpers and wipers, and a lot cheaper than all the other sellers. I got a pair of bullet mirrors as they're generally a bit more robust than the standard long stem type. 

So after a long job hoiking the stumps of the original mirrors out of the wings, the new bullet mirrors were dropped in, and then I had an idea.

I dug out this other Mk3, the shitbox special ex-police GT. A bit of messing about later, the yellow GXL now looks like this,

When I got this one, it had a small crack in the windscreen. I manged to get the screen more or less straight, and added a strip at the top to hide the crack. Then to try to disguise it further, I used some of a decal sheet to sort of make it into a period style sunstrip, partly inspired by the Tawny Brown GXL owned by my cousin Steven circa 1982 that proudly wore a 'Middlesbrough Speedway' sunstrip.

Being the snazzy top of the range GXL, it struck me as the type of Cortina that would have had a set of flashy slotmags back in the day, rather than a rough around the edges GT.

So, the dartboard steelies were transferred to the GT,

To make it look more like an early '80s beater, I added an underseal tidemark arond the sills and front and rear valances.

Despite the scratches and blow-ins, it still looked a bit bare along the sides, which I put down to losing the '2000' shield wing badges when I removed the police livery. So, getting my money's worth, I spied the Escort  '2.0' wing badges on the rally decal sheet, so they were added to fill a gap on there. Yes, they are from slightly the wrong period, but they remind me of the sort of thing a typical Mk3 owner might get out of a scrappy, in period, and glue on to upgrade it. Hell, I remember when people were throwing Sierra wheel trims on them...

Although half of me still wants to see this nicely repainted in a period colour, something like Le Mans green or Vista orange. Resprays are out of my skillset though.

[bunglebus]

9 minutes ago, AndyW201 said:

Resprays are out of my skillset though.

Have a go, there's nothing to lose. Take a cheap car apart and try!

I had one of those odd moments earlier, photographing some cars to go on Vinted. Picked up this Husky Volvo tractor and it struck me that probably over 50 years ago, some kid got it brand new and admired its gleaming red paint before setting it to work trundling up and down the flowerbeds. 

Here it is, all these years and an unknowable amount of owners later, in my hand - and about to go off to yet another custodian. Maybe they'll restore it, or give it to the kids to play with, or, like me, pass it on once again

[Spottedlaurel]

Fujimi Daihatsu Move SR Turbo off the bench and now in the cabinet:

 

 

Now to concentrate on the Subaru XT I have on the go, and Galant GTO which is next.

[Spottedlaurel]

Popped into a couple of shops in Ipswich on Saturday:

Pleased to find the National Icons Skyline, Master SL got himself one too. Couldn't resist the Yokohama/Advan set, MR2 and Skyline the main attraction to me.

Entertainer (shop, not Tesco).  Good to find the yellow Autozam.

[Lord Sterling]

2 hours ago, AndyW201 said:

Other additions,

Ordered this from AliExpress, as even if this case does come to these shores, I wouldnt have a cat in hell's chance of finding one, just like the blue version.

I do prefer this version to the blue one. The metallic red is a nice '70s Jag style colour and the hubcap type wheels are much more suitable.

The badges at the rear are superb for the scale.

A careful dab of silver Sharpie around those window frames and it'd be a right stunner.

Oooh! Does anyone have a AliExpress account and could fetch me x 2 of these Jags please? And I can send funds over + little extra?

I used to deal with AliBaba/Express work accounts back in the day and I really can't be bothered with them. Same with Amazon.

[Lord Sterling]

On 04/05/2025 at 18:11, bunglebus said:

Small scale stuff next, starting with another Welly. I think this is white plastic bodied, so it looks odd where the paint has worn off

I've got one of those Welly Golfs. I always thought they looked nice but the crappy wheels let it down. When I got one, I replaced it with a set of Siku 5-spokes that originally came off my Siku Mercedes S500:

[flat4alfa]

On 04/05/2025 at 17:55, bunglebus said:

And what does this lever do?

Turns out it's a cigarette lighter operated by pressing down on the hood - I did try filling it but it burst into flames when I tried to use it, turns out the gas tank is faulty. Not quite sure how the LED headlights are turned on

It seems the lever pulls forward a latch to release some fluid to the ‘wick’

I would solder that flailing yellow wire back into the battery terminal and fit some fresh cells

It looks like the plunger pressed in by squeezing the hood down would complete the circuit as well so the headlamps would light when the ‘wick’ in the bonnet centre is lit

It all could be quite exciting if you do that before you replace the seal in the fuel tank

[danthecapriman]

1 hour ago, AndyW201 said:

Resprays are out of my skillset though.

I respectfully disagree with you there.👍

Those Cortina’s you’ve customised look fantastic so the next step is to try a full repaint. As @bunglebus said, just pick a cheap vehicle to try things out on. If you bugger it up just strip it and have another go. 
Last year or whenever it was when I started I just used some old Corgi Buick Regal’s (the bigger version) to test on. A few bigger Matchbox Superkings and Dinky cars followed. It’s just building confidence. 
I kid you not, the biggest hurdle to doing it is getting going on the first one or two. Once you’ve pulled one to bits and messed around with it the fear disappears and it’s easy!

I could probably find you something to try it out on here for free if you want? 
But you definitely can do it.