Shite in Miniature II

[bunglebus]

15 minutes ago, MAF260 said:

My dilemma now is whether to open this and build it given it's over 50 years old as I doubt I'll find another like it. I really want to display the model, though, not the unopened kit.

As you're aware, the bits are sealed in plastic. I suppose your options are to careful cut around it enough to remove the parts, rip it off the cardboard or hope that the glue has dried out enough in the last 50 years that it will detach without much damage.

However, you'll never be putting it back in the pack once it's built anyway! 

An alternative might be to find a regular Phantom, get the parts you need from Steve Flowers and paint it Airfix blue to recreate your original. I had good intentions of brush painting the kit version of the Beetle, then got carried away...

 

[MAF260]

I didn’t pay a fortune for the kit, so I doubt it’s very valuable/desirable. I’d feel a little guilty for opening the packaging given it’s been undisturbed for over half a century, but it’s the model that I want and probably a trip down memory lane building it again. I’ll give it some thought when it arrives.

I’m also likely to put a lot more effort in than last time, so I can see how your Beetle build went beyond the brief!

[bunglebus]

7 hours ago, MAF260 said:

Some crackers in that last set! The Strada is lovely. Interesting the blue RR is a Silver Shadow. I'm wondering if it was an early Corgi release reflecting the model designation between 1965-1971 before the Corniche was launched in 1971?

I might be going mad, but I seem to recall the Corniche is a larger casting? 

I certainly have one in a similar colour

AHA I knew I had a pic somewhere 

 

[danthecapriman]

9 hours ago, MAF260 said:

I didn’t pay a fortune for the kit, so I doubt it’s very valuable/desirable. I’d feel a little guilty for opening the packaging given it’s been undisturbed for over half a century, but it’s the model that I want and probably a trip down memory lane building it again. I’ll give it some thought when it arrives.

I’m also likely to put a lot more effort in than last time, so I can see how your Beetle build went beyond the brief!

If it were me, I’d leave that unbuilt kit as it is. It’s lasted all this time like that and there cant be many of them now like that.

Then, I’d look for a ready made one that’s complete or close to, and restore that to represent your original one. You could display both the complete one and unbuilt kit together then too!

[quicksilver]

On 14/08/2025 at 23:06, danthecapriman said:

After building those buildings for my little display I’ve started on some cars again. I’ll probably start building up the base for the display next week. It’ll mean cutting a sheet of ply down and I can’t be arsed at the moment!

Heres one of my projects I wanted to do for a while. 

Mk2 Transit which was originally a Rally support vehicle. 
Unusual as the base model comes with a side door each side. I’ve kept the left hand door but filed off the raised hinge/handle detail from the right hand door and filled the shut lines. Once dry I’ll sand it down smooth, likewise the roof where the roof rack originally was.

Ive started converting the interior to right hand drive too, and adding some additional seats in the back as this one’s going to become a minibus! 
Once the filler is done I’ll mark out the positions of the new windows in the rear end side panels then drill & cut them out. I’ll have to make some new window glazing up for those too. 
Rear door is currently the tailgate type on this one but I need to change it to standard double doors.

Hopefully I won’t screw up the windows!

Not wanting to give you more ideas but that Transit looks like a good base for one of the posher PSV minicoach conversions. They typically had the one-piece back window with a luggage boot, and the side door on the driver's side as an emergency exit, the main entrance being through the front door.

[Spottedlaurel]

Visited the local Aldi again yesterday, found the standard red '73 Civic plus Z and Jaguar, then the Mazda after a restock at Tesco.

Datsun and Mustang were pre-holiday purchases from an independent toyshop in Norwich. Not sure about the black grille treatment on the former, I think some there have been more attractive non-Premium versions. Nice wheels though.

I was having a big sort-out and putting-away session yesterday, during which I found:

That I have all the '73 Civics released thus far, and.....

There are three HW versions of the Civic EG. I knew the custom version was different to the black one (which has also been seen as a mainline) but the green one isn't the same either.

P.S. Sorry about the rubbish lighting/reflections. With stuff scattered everywhere in the garage I was limited in where I could take photos....

[quicksilver]

32 minutes ago, Spottedlaurel said:

There are three HW versions of the Civic EG. I knew the custom version was different to the black one (which has also been seen as a mainline) but the green one isn't the same either.

P.S. Sorry about the rubbish lighting/reflections. With stuff scattered everywhere in the garage I was limited in where I could take photos....

Just why? What is the point of having three different but very similar castings of the same car in the same range at the same time? That just sounds like a colossal waste of money given how much diecast tooling costs. I really don't understand Mattel at all.

[MAF260]

1 hour ago, danthecapriman said:

If it were me, I’d leave that unbuilt kit as it is. It’s lasted all this time like that and there cant be many of them now like that.

Then, I’d look for a ready made one that’s complete or close to, and restore that to represent your original one. You could display both the complete one and unbuilt kit together then too!

Thanks. All thoughts, advice and opinions welcome as I'm already in a dilemma! I'll have a better idea of the condition when it arrives next week. I don't have the space to display the kit and it wouldn't fit with the rest of the models I have, so would likely be condemned to a cupboard for a few more years! The thrill of finding it has been fun, though.

[Tenmil Socket]

4 minutes ago, MAF260 said:

Thanks. All thoughts, advice and opinions welcome as I'm already in a dilemma! I'll have a better idea of the condition when it arrives next week. I don't have the space to display the kit and it wouldn't fit with the rest of the models I have, so would likely be condemned to a cupboard for a few more years! The thrill of finding it has been fun, though.

Open it and enjoy building it… 

[Tenmil Socket]

12 hours ago, bunglebus said:

So much diecast to discuss. Matchbox XJ220 was a cheap Vinted buy

Someone had already sliced the card, so we can have a better look. Hateful wheels but I like the casting

That links in nicely to a whole bunch of MC Toys and Maistos that turned up together, including an XJ220

Others include an XJS

MG RV8, the real version of which deserved to sell better than it did IMO

Flat nose Porker

GTO

and F40

Bugatti looks like one of those creations made in a back street garage based on a Lada Niva or something equally unlikely

BMW is Sunnyside Superior and probably sold as a Super Racer or similar

Not entirely convinced any of them came with a Ford V4 

This was what had actually caught my attention, is that a Corgitronics of some sort?

No, it's a Sunnyside Superior-tronics!

With a bit of tinkering, it Makes The Noise

Next box of bits are all Corgi. Rather lovely Unimog snowplough with the irresistible jewel headlights

This one was of most interest to me, the Block Paving version of the Volvo BM, to go with the similarity liveried Mazda pickup

I make no secret of not being particularly interested in heavy commercial vehicles, but this is a great bit of kit, articulating and twisting at its hinge point, and having a lever to engage the drum so it rotates with the wheels.

It was joined by the aforementioned B1600

This one has some extra tyres in the bed that I don't think are original, but they're pretty well attached. Nice tool chest too

Another boxed Matchbox, code 2 Model A van from a 1990 toy convention 

@Tenmil Socket sent me over a care package, including one of the Hairy Hustler Fandango copies

And some real Matchbox such as a Superfast Pontiac GP in need of some help

Plus two of the racing car transporters

Last, but not least, I scored these two Solido Fords, a MK3 Escort 

And my favourite, MK1 Fiesta

I still don't like clowns

Loving the red Merc! 

[bunglebus]

Didn't buy much this morning 

[bunglebus]

Let's have a closer look. 

Majorette looks fairly normal, until you notice the extra detail, number plates, Matchbox wheels and a driver

Ironside van, I've got a worse one I was going to customise so between the two hopefully I can make something good

Husky trailer

Minic Motorways Corvette looks right up @flat4alfa's street 

Darda single seater

Zylmex Mangusta

Never leave a Superfast Mustang behind

Fire Chief was too tidy to ignore 

And finally, a Ferrari

[Split_Pin]

Those Majorette Saabs are great, mine is black, got it from Bucketeer many many years ago now.

[bunglebus]

They always seem to be tatty

This one's the best I have

 

[cms206]

59 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

They always seem to be tatty

This one's the best I have

 

I had a black one as a child and I remember it being hugely fragile for some reason; it was complete but never felt very solid.

Died in Matchbox Motorcity when it collided with a Seddon Atkinson fuel tanker at speed and more or less broke in half, split the A-pillars and the sills and ended up with the B-pillars inside the doors. 

I was gutted and I've never had one since 😂

[bunglebus]

That's strange, it was regarded as being particularly safe in crash tests when new

[MAF260]

If anyone has one of those Saabs going spare I'd love to take it off your hands please.

[danthecapriman]

7 hours ago, quicksilver said:

Not wanting to give you more ideas but that Transit looks like a good base for one of the posher PSV minicoach conversions. They typically had the one-piece back window with a luggage boot, and the side door on the driver's side as an emergency exit, the main entrance being through the front door.

Have you seen the ones at the opposite end of the scale!?

Sold as a crew bus, it basically was a Transit minibus but had a long bench down each side in the back. The bench had wooden slats to sit on. Cushions on the slats were an extra cost option! 
It must have been horrendous sat in the back of one of those with no cushions for hours going down the motorway.

[Spottedlaurel]

2 hours ago, danthecapriman said:

Have you seen the ones at the opposite end of the scale!?

Sold as a crew bus, it basically was a Transit minibus but had a long bench down each side in the back. The bench had wooden slats to sit on. Cushions on the slats were an extra cost option! 
It must have been horrendous sat in the back of one of those with no cushions for hours going down the motorway.

I had friends in a band, and they got a support slot to a bigger group in 1991. I had holiday to use up so I went with them for two weeks, lugging stuff about and selling T-shirts. The four of them, plus me and the manager spent the fortnight in a hired SWB Transit Mk3 crewbus, which also had the luggage and all their gear in it. England > Ireland > Northern Ireland > Scotland > England, all on those wooden bench seats or in the front if lucky. At least we didn't have to sleep in it.

The other Transit-based vehicles of misery I recall were the Suffolk County Council minibuses, one of them here in orange and white:

Went to Germany in one of them, plus the trip up to Malham where the above photo was taken. Such a vehicle may have been bearable for routes on smaller roads around towns/cities (I remember them in Bath) but they weren't pleasant on longer trips....

[MAF260]

2 hours ago, danthecapriman said:

Have you seen the ones at the opposite end of the scale!?

Sold as a crew bus, it basically was a Transit minibus but had a long bench down each side in the back. The bench had wooden slats to sit on. Cushions on the slats were an extra cost option! 
It must have been horrendous sat in the back of one of those with no cushions for hours going down the motorway.

You've just brought back memories of my school geography field trip from NW London to Minehead in 1983. Our school minibus was exactly as you described, they must have paid to upgrade to cushioned benches. I'm sure there was a dozen of us in the back on the benches with no seatbelts, messing about as schoolboys do. I remember the awful packed lunches from the place we stayed in which consisted of a measly, tasteless sandwich and an orange every day. One of the more daring kids opened the back door as we were driving along and launched his unwanted orange into the following traffic  🟠🚙

[danthecapriman]

17 minutes ago, MAF260 said:

You've just brought back memories of my school geography field trip from NW London to Minehead in 1983. Our school minibus was exactly as you described, they must have paid to upgrade to cushioned benches. I'm sure there was a dozen of us in the back on the benches with no seatbelts, messing about as schoolboys do. I remember the awful packed lunches from the place we stayed in which consisted of a measly, tasteless sandwich and an orange every day. One of the more daring kids opened the back door as we were driving along and launched his unwanted orange into the following traffic  🟠🚙

 

38 minutes ago, Spottedlaurel said:

I had friends in a band, and they got a support slot to a bigger group in 1991. I had holiday to use up so I went with them for two weeks, lugging stuff about and selling T-shirts. The four of them, plus me and the manager spent the fortnight in a hired SWB Transit Mk3 crewbus, which also had the luggage and all their gear in it. England > Ireland > Northern Ireland > Scotland > England, all on those wooden bench seats or in the front if lucky. At least we didn't have to sleep in it.

The other Transit-based vehicles of misery I recall were the Suffolk County Council minibuses, one of them here in orange and white:

Went to Germany in one of them, plus the trip up to Malham where the above photo was taken. Such a vehicle may have been bearable for routes on smaller roads around towns/cities (I remember them in Bath) but they weren't pleasant on longer trips....

My biggest memory of those old Transits, aside from owning one, was the school minibus my old school had. It was a B reg mk2 long wheelbase semi high roof in that dull blue they came in quite often. It had the schools crest on the cab doors. 
Ours had the sort of seats as I’ve put on my model. One row of 3 next to the side door with two rows of two behind it, then a couple of singles on the other side. 
The single seats were the prized ones and if you knew a school trip was coming you tried to be at the start of the queue for the bus to snag yourself one of them. 
The other bus they had at the same time was a white unbranded Leyland DAF 400 series. I can’t remember ever going in that though.

The Transit was eventually sold off but after a few years reappeared at a church local to home as their days out bus. Same blue but with the old school crest painted over in a not quite matching blue. It spent years at that church parked outside and got progressively more and more rusty as the years went by. It disappeared eventually, presumably for scrap.

Ive said it before, but to me the mk1 and 2 Transit, for better or worse, is THE van imho. When someone says ‘van’ that’s what I see in my mind still even now they’ve mostly disappeared.

One of those big coach built Transits like in @Spottedlaurel photo is on my ‘to do’ list, although I’ll probably make the van version in mk1 form. The bodywork is all mostly flat panels so shouldn’t be hard to make.

[EyesWeldedShut]

1 hour ago, danthecapriman said:

Ours had the sort of seats as I’ve put on my model. One row of 3 next to the side door with two rows of two behind it, then a couple of singles on the other side. 
The single seats were the prized ones and if you knew a school trip was coming you tried to be at the start of the queue for the bus to snag yourself one of them. 

Early 80's I was Plod and we had the same (factory) seating configuration other than the hindmost double seat was taken out and replaced with a lashed up storage area for riot shields, spare kit, packed lunches. The remaining single seat at the back was allocated to the guy with either the worst hangover and/or the worst BO. If you were sat there you couldn't get out in a hurry and you also missed all the operational talk (banter) up front.
Prime seat was the triple (cos if we were a reduced crew you could lie across it for a fly snooze). 
Worst seat was the up front  passenger double cos you had to work all the radios and write up the log book. If we were fully manned up you'd also have a second guy taking up your writing room.

Happy days

[chancer]

Nice quick delivery from @Tenmil Socket yesterday. Looks like the taxi is earning its keep already working outside the Jazz Club....

[flat4alfa]

12 hours ago, bunglebus said:

Minic Motorways Corvette looks right up @flat4alfa's street 

Ahhh you can’t leave me hanging like that ….where’s the chassis/motor shot !

Presume this is the later non-gimbal chassis, being a 60s model

[bunglebus]

[flat4alfa]

2 hours ago, bunglebus said:

Sold!

[Split_Pin]

20 hours ago, bunglebus said:

They always seem to be tatty

This one's the best I have

 

Here's mine, Bucketeer gave it to me in 2014  with an equally mint Majorette 7 series and a Matchbox Citroen Traction Avant.

I did have a silver one as a kid but I don't know what happened to it. 

Maybe because they're such a cool wee model they were everyone's favourite and got played with a lot.

[danthecapriman]

Pretty sure I sold a green one of those Majorette Saab’s to someone here? It might even have been @bunglebus? 
I had that one from new and it was always a favourite. Still have a black one here.

[MAF260]

I now have yet another car to search for on eBay!

[flat4alfa]

On 15/08/2025 at 23:29, MAF260 said:

Interesting the blue RR is a Silver Shadow. I'm wondering if it was an early Corgi release reflecting the model designation between 1965-1971 before the Corniche was launched in 1971?

Yes, exactly that

Two examples from the Corgi Toys Whizzwheels era:

Bentley Series ‘T’ to the left, alongside ‘sister release’ Corgi Silver Shadow Mulliner Park Ward

Tidy interior decal fixed to a detailed dash moulding and fitted with a cast 'metal' steering wheel

Notice how they moved things about to incorporate the RR and B logos. As said these are Whizzwheels releases - the initial release was with cast wheels and separate tyres

I measured them to be 1:42.

A comparison showing the later upscaling of the Corgi 'Corniches' from ‘1:43’ to ‘1:36’, although I measured the latter to nearer 1:35

The larger Corgi Corniche is (to me) a bit special.  It's one of those models that just feels weighted 'right' when holding it, opening the doors, etc

Notice during production the front indicator colour changed...

...yet the rear indicator colour stayed the same.

Dashboard decal a bit of a cop-out, especially as the centre console detail being moulded-in is a good effort.  Plastic steering wheel this time.

Compare the Corgi MPW to the Dinky Toys Silver Shadow, whose casting dimensions are quite off, as the slim width is way out; taking the overall scale to approx 1:38 :

Both have opening things

Both have engines bays of detail

I wondered for a while if Dinky intended to fix a faux-woodgrain sticker effort on their Shadow, as they did on their earlier Silver Cloud Coupe. Dinky Shadow:

But no.

However! You did get an opening GLOVE LOCKER !

Which seemed to be thought as a *dramatic win in the toy features game !

Shocker.