Shite in Miniature II

[sierraman]

One thing that always fascinates me is the story behind the mint and boxed examples of toys you see on eBay. I would imagine 99.9% are bought and played with, wonder what was behind how they ended up almost perfectly preserved. I did see some Superkings Londoner buses for sale, a trade pack of ones for Chesterfield Council, presume they were left unsold and shuffled off into a warehouse for 40 years accumulating dust. 

[danthecapriman]

My childhood Transit is done. Excuse the light/reflections! A photographer I ain’t! 
The base plate was absolutely battered so I had to sand it back to shape and fill and dents/chunks missing. Then spray it black. Original wheels were absolutely trashed and covered in paint so I’ve used a good set from the donor provided by @bunglebus 

These pickups should have the black glazing but I don’t like that so used the donor’s clear instead. It does fit but being for the tow truck it is actually a different shape at the back so you get a gap between the glazing and rear window opening. Only noticeable if you look for it though.

Ive not taken any of the casting marks etc off, decided to leave it as it comes but I did paint in a bit more detail that Corgi didn’t. 
Colour is Ford signal yellow which is close to the original colour this one came in. Maybe a shade or two darker.

 
You can see the gap in the glazing here:       
Not massively noticeable but the back of the wrecker version is plastic and the glazing fits around it which is of course completely different on the pickup. There’s a little peg on the pickup chassis that sits under the edge of the glazing to hold it up, which needs about a mm trimmed off if you use the wrecker glazing.

 
 

Had a little score off the Bay too. 
Ages back I got a Dinky Albion skip truck in a job lot, missing the skip. Then some time later found the skip in another job lot from a different seller so I completed the model. 
Well, I’ve just done exactly the same again!

Truck was in a job lot with some others but the skip long gone. Then I spotted another small lot elsewhere with the skip and some other bits I’m not bothered about. Got a seller offer on the skip lot so that justified getting it! 
Still needs tyres but I’ve got a bag of those somewhere. I’ll try to put the skip hangers into some rust remover somewhen and make them look a bit nicer.

 
I’ll give this one a wash but it’s in nicer condition than my other one so it’ll remain unrestored. The other one I might take apart and restore now, maybe in a different colour.

[155V6]

21 hours ago, bramz7 said:

Nice delivery today.

My brother has an RLC membership and didn't like the pink Skyline, but I actually love it so asked him to buy it. It sold out incredibly quickly in the UK webstore.

The Norev Musa is another one off of my want list gone. 

If you ever get or see a Norev Laguna Coupe,please think of me.They're not that expensive,but a lot of French sellers seem to want a fortune for shipping 🙁

[bunglebus]

Corgi Marina looks a lot nicer now the paint is removed. Our intrepid "restorer" did a good job of sanding the door handles off, but other than that it's in pretty good shape. Mr Flowers does the window unit it seems, not quite sure what I'm going to do with this one, I think resto + with as much detail as possible 

[bunglebus]

Other bobbins today include a Hot Wheels 57 Chevy

This General Lee, which I could see wasn't an ERTL...

Plus a Darda copy buggy

Talking of buggies, I've been watching this on Vinted and it's been reduced twice. I knew if I didn't buy it, someone else would

Lovely lithographed interior 

Mayers Manx badge

The lights, and motor do work, hard to capture though

[Tenmil Socket]

20 hours ago, bunglebus said:

Just three older cars arrived today, these two from America on Vinted

Certainly not something I've stumbled across before.

Lastly, I think I've now cornered the market in Graffic Traffic Challengers, normally quite a hard one to find but this is #5 I believe.

I wonder if there is a market for restored ones, I recently got outbid at over £20 for two loose VW Transporter Ambulances, the GT one and the black Commando version. Both in very good condition with just some stickers on the white GT, and I thought my bid was certain to win

I think I’ve got the black commando version.

[sierraman]

43 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

Corgi Marina looks a lot nicer now the paint is removed. Our intrepid "restorer" did a good job of sanding the door handles off, but other than that it's in pretty good shape. Mr Flowers does the window unit it seems, not quite sure what I'm going to do with this one, I think resto + with as much detail as possible 

I’d do it as the type of Marina everyone remembers, awful colour so dog shit brown, disinfectant green, hearing aid beige or that rather sudden shade of yellow. Then garnish with various unfinished filler fibreglass repairs, miss coloured wings and a tide of underseal. 

[SilverMachine]

44 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

This General Lee, which I could see wasn't an ERTL...

 

trying to half remember a dukes slot car set, wonder where its rival ended up - or what it was.. dodge police car or daisys jeep..

[bunglebus]

44 minutes ago, Tenmil Socket said:

I think I’ve got the black commando version.

I've got one, in fact several. Good Graffics seems to get snapped up though 

 

[danthecapriman]

1 hour ago, bunglebus said:

Corgi Marina looks a lot nicer now the paint is removed. Our intrepid "restorer" did a good job of sanding the door handles off, but other than that it's in pretty good shape. Mr Flowers does the window unit it seems, not quite sure what I'm going to do with this one, I think resto + with as much detail as possible 

Starsky & Hutch with slotmags. Done!

[matt79]

2 hours ago, bunglebus said:

Corgi Marina looks a lot nicer now the paint is removed. Our intrepid "restorer" did a good job of sanding the door handles off, but other than that it's in pretty good shape. Mr Flowers does the window unit it seems, not quite sure what I'm going to do with this one, I think resto + with as much detail as possible 

Early 80's syle custom build would be cool - Purple 'metalflake' paint, raked stance, Lake style side pipes & Slotmags 

[andrew e]

I vote for scabby BRG 1.8 with a Vinyl roof (because it covered the rollover damage caused when new) and wing mounted mirrors. Then I can tell you thats exactly the same as the one I welded my thighs too every time in sat inside my dads on a hot day in shorts as a kid  😉

[Datsuncog]

2 minutes ago, matt79 said:

Early 80's syle custom build would be cool - Purple 'metalflake' paint, raked stance, Lake style side pipes & Slotmags 

Hmm... 

[bunglebus]

[bunglebus]

2 hours ago, SilverMachine said:

trying to half remember a dukes slot car set, wonder where its rival ended up - or what it was.. dodge police car or daisys jeep..

[sheffcortinacentre]

3 hours ago, bunglebus said:

I've got the bottom set, think top set is Canadian market so probably rarer.

[flat4alfa]

6 hours ago, SilverMachine said:

trying to half remember a dukes slot car set, wonder where its rival ended up - or what it was.. dodge police car or daisys jeep..

One lives here

[Remspoor]

On 16/04/2026 at 20:55, Bren said:

A trip to Southport bagged me this -

Not one I have owned before. Model.is mint but box is faded. Possibly a Berliet?

Not arguing for £10.

I also made another purchase but that's for another thread.

 

On 16/04/2026 at 22:31, bunglebus said:

I had this one from a large job lot I bought. Didn't get a huge amount of interest selling it but it went eventually 

Got this one more recently 

Based upon the 25 pounder Quad,

 

[Datsuncog]

I'd thought that the Riot Police truck was a clever way for Corgi to squeeze a few more years out of their Quad Tractor casting, but the army Quad set was introduced in 1976 with the Riot Police truck launched only the year after, in 1977.

Both were discontinued in 1980, when the last of the old 1/43 castings were nixed. 

I was very pleased to find a clean complete Quad Tractor set a couple of years back, with gun, ammo trailer and even all the shells still in there. 

[quicksilver]

2 minutes ago, Datsuncog said:

I'd thought that the Riot Police truck was a clever way for Corgi to squeeze a few more years out of their Quad Tractor casting, but the army Quad set was introduced in 1976 with the Riot Police truck launched only the year after, in 1977.

Both were discontinued in 1980, when the last of the old 1/43 castings were nixed. 

I was very pleased to find a clean complete Quad Tractor set a couple of years back, with gun, ammo trailer and even all the shells still in there. 

Wow, I always thought the Corgi Quad dated from the fifties. What a weird thing to introduce as late as 1976: I doubt there were any Quads left in service by then and how much demand was there for toys of WW2 vehicles thirty years after the war ended? Most kids probably wouldn't even have a clue what that weird-looking vehicle was.

[matt79]

My diecast mojo has waned a bit lately, mainly due to working loads of hours, family commitments and the family fleet of 1/1 scale cars needing fettling, but i came across another box of my old models recently and found an old custom I did, probably about 25 years ago (when I had less belly and more hair, now I have less hair & more belly 🙄)

Anyway, it's a simple custom, based on a Corgi Ford Pop van, it was resprayed metallic blue (Ford Amparo Blue iirc, at the time I had a mk1 Focus in Amparo Blue) and a set of wheels from a Maisto Muscle Machines model were added. 

Now planning on stripping it back and redoing it, maybe in a 70's / 80's style

[bunglebus]

Fair size haul from the boot sale, including a couple of weirdos

[Remspoor]

2 hours ago, quicksilver said:

Wow, I always thought the Corgi Quad dated from the fifties. What a weird thing to introduce as late as 1976: I doubt there were any Quads left in service by then and how much demand was there for toys of WW2 vehicles thirty years after the war ended? Most kids probably wouldn't even have a clue what that weird-looking vehicle was.

I think it is different when you are someone who is into any military models. Airfix still produce a version. 

[sierraman]

3 hours ago, quicksilver said:

Wow, I always thought the Corgi Quad dated from the fifties. What a weird thing to introduce as late as 1976: I doubt there were any Quads left in service by then and how much demand was there for toys of WW2 vehicles thirty years after the war ended? Most kids probably wouldn't even have a clue what that weird-looking vehicle was.

Corgi did some pretty decent military models, apart from the obvious tanks etc they did the radar unit, mess canteen and the bloodhound missile. 

[MVX11V]

On 12/04/2026 at 13:11, MVX11V said:

Sentron9

Years ago when I was into anything and everything MB, I came across the spectacular* Sentron 9 RC carz and came across 2 examples which I shoved in the display cabinet.

 

 

These cars take an enormous amount of battery power, a 9v and 4 AAs in the car and another 9v in the control pad. The car loaded up with these batteries weights several tonnes and doesn't look that exciting to operate... it's a lot of effort for not a lot of gain. What I did do was convert the silver one to a modern RC car utilising a doner RC landrover.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here it is with it's gubbins removed. It came with a proper controller too rather than some sort of 80's tv remote.

 

 

 

 

Out with the old...

 

              ...and in with the new!

 

 

 

 

 

And this gave me a fully functioning RC Porsche which consumed normal battery power and I could retain the cars appearance on top and underneath.

 

 

 

 

 

What bugged me the most though was the box. I find it frustrating when the company picture different variations of the contents which are seemingly not obtainable. In this case, the box pictures a red Porsche (and a yellow one on the other side). All that I could find was Silver and gold and the pictures are images of the real deal, so that means that they must be able to be got from somewhere!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These Sentrons were sold on when most of my then collection was sold off about 12 years ago. Roll on to recently and another inebriated session on the bay saw another one get bought, but this time it was different!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BEHOLD! The red Sentron9!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am so pleased with this. I plan to convert it to modern electronics just like the silver one, just got to search out a doner RC car. Of course, the closing of this chapter of want opens another... where's a yellow one?

The red Sentron 9 has now become 'Project Sentron 9'!

Doner car acquired today.

I wanted the trigger type remote but they came in too expensive as there is no budget for this project, and this 1:18 Lambot was less than a tenner. 

[andrew e]

Bargains at the model railway show in Hatfield today - lots of £1 a go books and these 2 for £1.50 the pair!

[bunglebus]

Okey dokey, lots of boot sale stuff to look at, starting with not a Voikowageng but the almost correct Voikswagens version of the LT

Terrible 205

Dinky Capri has had a hard time, but the bones are still good. Missing headlight is the biggest problem really 

This is definitely a weird one. Anyone have any info?

This is my most interesting find, Lucky Mini Mite isn't something I've seen before 

 

For someone that doesn't like single seaters, I bought a lot today. This one's a slot car from Playart

Zee Toys

Every now and again I buy one of these Dinkys to use as a wheel donor, then decide I can't bring myself to do it 

This one's definitely unusual, anyone collect plastic Norevs? 😉 It's a bit warped and broken but it survives...

Another one with missing bits, but how often does a Mini Dinky Cadillac show up?

Corgi stuff consists of a Home Wrecker

Early Whizzwheels Jag...

...and Jensen

Very pink van, definitely not a Charlie's Angels one

Nice ovloV

And a digger

Also a Husky Commer dragging its arse like a dog, and driven by a grey alien by the look of it

[bunglebus]

Majorette Toyota

And two of the usual one, as I don't have any

Thought this was an early Matchbox, but it's a far more interesting Playart

Honk Kong area now, very crusty Dinky appeals to me as rescue project 

Zylmex Roller isn't bad but I have a minter

And an actual Yatming, rather than a copy

Efsi Citroen was a nice score

Another one that I initially thought was a Matchbox, but it's a Budgie

Another weirdo. Pull-back works, door does not. Screwed together so probably an easy fix - anyone want it?

[sierraman]

I don’t know why but you never see these in good condition. 

[FakeConcern]

I collect plastic Norevs...

I do have this

I'd still give your white one a home if you want rid