Shite in Miniature II

[Datsuncog]

Couple of Buddy L toys from the late 70s / early 80s - again, not exactly what you're describing but maybe in the ballpark? 

These are both made in pressed steel. 

[Datsuncog]

Last one for tonight (promise) and maybe a step closer to your description :

Majorette Series 3000/ Super Movers Chevrolet Blazer in 1/36 scale? 

Probably about 5" long, and the bonnet opens on this one. Diecast with plastic lower section and plastic canopy. 

Never seen this red version myself, although a later recolouring in pale green with chunkier wheels, black canopy and 'Fruit Of The Loom' decals is reasonably common. 

[bunglebus]

9 hours ago, SilverMachine said:

im currently down a rabbit hole an cant seem to find the thing i remember....

it was probably twice the size of a matchbox car - about 

it was a 70s american pick up, quite square, flat sides,  in a darker shade of red, it had an opening bonnet (hood) and im remembering a sort of  mustard yellow  rear canopy topper thing. it may have had some stripe decals too but im not certain! i must have got it in the 80s at some point and must have lost it somewhere in the early 90s. 

i cant seem to find anything similar online atm.

can anyone see anything in there collections similar to help me identify> ? thank you!

Lucky Toys plastic copy?

 

[bunglebus]

7 hours ago, Datsuncog said:

Last one for tonight (promise) and maybe a step closer to your description :

Majorette Series 3000/ Super Movers Chevrolet Blazer in 1/36 scale? 

Probably about 5" long, and the bonnet opens on this one. Diecast with plastic lower section and plastic canopy. 

Never seen this red version myself, although a later recolouring in pale green with chunkier wheels, black canopy and 'Fruit Of The Loom' decals is reasonably common. 

Good shout on that one, I haven't had maroon either but here's a green one opening wide

And an orange

 

[bunglebus]

7 hours ago, Datsuncog said:

Couple of Buddy L toys from the late 70s / early 80s - again, not exactly what you're describing but maybe in the ballpark? 

These are both made in pressed steel. 

Closest I've had to the description

 

[SilverMachine]

9 hours ago, Datsuncog said:

Last one for tonight (promise) and maybe a step closer to your description :

Majorette Series 3000/ Super Movers Chevrolet Blazer in 1/36 scale? 

Probably about 5" long, and the bonnet opens on this one. Diecast with plastic lower section and plastic canopy. 

Never seen this red version myself, although a later recolouring in pale green with chunkier wheels, black canopy and 'Fruit Of The Loom' decals is reasonably common. 

thats the one! well done, mr @Datsuncog i was sure it was a chev orr gmc, not a dord or fodge....  diecast, i should have said the topper was plastic and engine quite detailed! 

thank you for proving im not as insane as the voices keep telling me! 

also thank you for looking too mr  @bunglebusi didnt know there  was other colours! but then i couldnt remember who had made it or what exactly it was! you both did amazing with my quite brief description! 

the next one was a diecast metallic blue bmw with bodykit, opening doors and must have been about 1/25 scale ish? also lots of decals .... again no idea of exact model or manufacture 

[bunglebus]

44 minutes ago, SilverMachine said:

thank you for looking too mr  @bunglebusi didnt know there  was other colours! but then i couldnt remember who had made it or what exactly it was! you both did amazing with my quite brief description

No worries, those bigger Majorettes are nowhere near as common as Corgi or Matchbox SuperKings. Range Rover is probably the most likely to turn up

[bunglebus]

I jumped the gun a bit last week, @Tenmil Socket posted a job lot on the WhatsApp group, I decided to buy it and only afterwards realised he'd tagged @sierraman as it contained something he was after. I understand he's now found one anyway thankfully.

Wasn't the Specials Ferrari 

Majorette Allante

Or Extra

It was this rather lovely Laser Wheels Volvo 480

Also included were a Supervan and Sierra from a set

Plus a tidy 911

Lots of others too but these were the standouts. Survived OK in just zip-lock bag and plastic outer wrapping...

[bunglebus]

Only other parcel contained a Marx Bulldog Beetle

Bought purely for the intact interior/base card

[danthecapriman]

I got a bit behind on here. For some reason the last few days I’ve had trouble getting this site to either load at all or sometimes it won’t load pics. Even the little ‘like’ button thing won’t load! Seems ok at the minute though.

@FakeConcern those yank tanks in the cases are all from the American Cars partwork. An absolute steal at that price and I’d have took the lot if I saw them😄     
The Chevy Monte Carlo and Chrysler 300 Hurst are well worth getting at that price.

As I mentioned the other day, a scrap car carrier truck is in hand at the moment. It’s been something I’ve fancied doing for a while now having seen this photo from somewhere on the web.

Interesting photo I think. Particularly given the Mack B61 tractor is actually quite a bit older than the flattened cars on the trailer.

 
Biggest issue for stuff like that is finding vehicles for the scrap pile both in the right scale and cheap enough to strip down, mess up and use as scrap cars. Fortunately though a seller on eBay was doing some of the more common 007 partwork cars very cheaply so I figured I’d get the American ones and it’d also give me a pile of spare parts like wheels, interiors etc for other projects then the body shells can become the scrap car load.

Just a loose mock up at the moment but you get the idea! 
Mack was a damaged partwork (IXO) model picked up cheap for its original trailer which has gone towards another project. Trailer in the pic is temporary as I’m building one for this scrap truck. Lots of work needed to the cars but that’s what I’m aiming for.

[morrisoxide]

Charity shop mixed bag finds.

Matchbox car transporter is in a colour I haven't got. The Micro Machines Nissan is pull back and go

[danthecapriman]

Micro Machines don’t seem to show up on here very often.

I had shit loads of them as a kid, and a few of the play/road set things. They were popular when I was at school and we used to all take them in and run them around in the dirt on the school field or swap them with each other. I bet some of those ones we had are worth a bit now.

[neil72]

Charity shop Tonka Jeep

[matt79]

14 hours ago, danthecapriman said:

Micro Machines don’t seem to show up on here very often.

I had shit loads of them as a kid, and a few of the play/road set things. They were popular when I was at school and we used to all take them in and run them around in the dirt on the school field or swap them with each other. I bet some of those ones we had are worth a bit now.

I had a fair few Micro Machines back in the day, as well as some "Worlds Smallest Matchbox", which were of similar size (scale?) but seemingly not as popular.

I remember really wanting the fold out MM play set that was in the style of a white van, (I think it had orange and yellow stripes on it), never got it though 😕

[matt79]

23 minutes ago, neil72 said:

Charity shop Tonka Jeep

Nice find👍 Got some good patina on it 🙂

[sierraman]

8 minutes ago, matt79 said:

I had a fair few Micro Machines back in the day, as well as some "Worlds Smallest Matchbox", which were of similar size (scale?) but seemingly not as popular.

I remember really wanting the fold out MM play set that was in the style of a white van, (I think it had orange and yellow stripes on it), never got it though 😕

Supervan city. 

[bunglebus]

I could never get into Micro Machines but some of my friends had them. Any I've found have sold pretty quickly, genuine ones anyway.

Iffy weather means I'm stuck inside today, so I grabbed this out of the project pile and made some progress

[danthecapriman]

1 hour ago, neil72 said:

Charity shop Tonka Jeep

I had one of those. Mine was red. Sold it on eBay and made a fair price on it! 
 

1 hour ago, matt79 said:

I had a fair few Micro Machines back in the day, as well as some "Worlds Smallest Matchbox", which were of similar size (scale?) but seemingly not as popular.

I remember really wanting the fold out MM play set that was in the style of a white van, (I think it had orange and yellow stripes on it), never got it though 😕

I think that’s the set I had. There was another one that folded out with the carry handles became bridge support pillars. I had an aircraft carrier too for the military Micro Machines!

I don’t remember the tiny Matchbox ones though. There were a few different knock off Micro Machines from different companies which were to varying quantities compared to the originals. Some I had had a tiny pull back & go mechanism in them. If you wound them back as far as it went they’d do wheelies as they set off!

[FakeConcern]

On 17/05/2026 at 21:12, eddyramrod said:

@FakeConcern Yes please!

Oh which one?  Well, almost all!  I'll PM...

 

On 17/05/2026 at 21:30, andrew e said:

At those prices I’m surprised at the restraint! If your back in Lewes and the black 80’s Buick Grand National is there think of me please!

I stopped at Lewes today on the way to Worthing to pick up the rest of those 1/43 Muscle cars at £3.50 each and they had all gone! Soz to @eddyramrod & @andrew e and obviously me as by then I'd decided I needed quite a few more of them!

Never mind, easy come, easy go...

[quicksilver]

This was a pleasing transformation. Welly 1976 Dodge Coronet, a rather basic 1/74 scale Tomica copy, picked up in a charity shop for 50p. Doesn't look too promising, does it?

But a suitably 70s colour, some chrome detailing and a new set of wheels (Wolfrace slot mags from Creative One64) have made it look like this.

Ideally the B-pillars should be moved forward as their location too far back is a legacy of the Tomica original having opening doors, but the glazing is shaped to fit around them. The wheels are too big really but proper scale wheels are pretty much impossible to find. It looks far better than it did though.

 

[155V6]

I never had any Micro Machines,apart from a few NASCAR sets. I do have a few of the buildings though,as they work ok with 1/87 cars

[andrew e]

3 hours ago, FakeConcern said:

 

I stopped at Lewes today on the way to Worthing to pick up the rest of those 1/43 Muscle cars at £3.50 each and they had all gone! Soz to @eddyramrod & @andrew e and obviously me as by then I'd decided I needed quite a few more of them!

Never mind, easy come, easy go...

Oh no! Appreciate you popping in, at least you grabbed a bucket full first time round 👍

[Datsuncog]

On 18/05/2026 at 23:32, danthecapriman said:

Micro Machines don’t seem to show up on here very often.

I'd a load of Micro Machines when I was about eight or nine.

I thought they were the best thing ever ever, especially as Matchbox and Corgi seemed to be losing their way a bit in the late 80s/ early 90s.

Some were better than others - the ones with massive monster truck wheels didn't appeal quite as much, but they were the ones I kept getting bought. I liked the 50s/60s/70s American stuff - a Chevrolet Nomad was a particular favourite - and the articulated trucks that came along a bit later, plus the ones with opening doors, bonnet and boot that just seemed impossibly tiny. 

I'd a carry case shaped like a truck to store them in, plus various play sets. 

From memory (and pics cribbed off the internet) I had a number of their small fold-up Travel City sets - the Auto Body Shop, the Fire Department HQ, the Car Wash and Boat Marina/ Aircraft Runway (which was a bit weird). 

There was a service centre that folded up into a box and had a storage tray, plus a bigger service centre with working bits like a lift and ramps. I also had a car wash with various moving bits and a multi-storey car park attached.

I don't know at what point I fell out of love with Micro Machines, but by the early 90s I stopped really being all that interested in them. Sometimes I'd get a pack given to me at Christmas or something (or indeed a knock-off non-Galoob version) but the magic kinda went. 

I don't even know what happened to my playsets, but I kept the cars in two plastic tubs in various attics for a decade or two, and then sold them on here for £not very much about eight years ago. 

I didn't even empty them out and take a photo for old time's sake, which seems monumentally stupid in retrospect. 

Ah well. I guess they went on to make another kid happy. 

I'll see if I can find pics of the playsets tomorrow, they're on a laptop somewhere. 

[Datsuncog]

8 hours ago, Datsuncog said:

I'll see if I can find pics of the playsets tomorrow, they're on a laptop somewhere. 

Here we go, all snaffled from internet search engines as I don't have any pics of my own.

This was the Big Rig carry case:

It hinged at the tyres and had space inside to fit about fifty of the mini-models in individual cells. Some spaces were bigger than others to allow longer and wider vehicles, like the articulated trucks and the monster truck models.

It was secured with a friction clip at the top which wasn't necessarily very secure, so sometimes it'd fall open and everything would spill out, much to my mother's displeasure.

And these were the big playsets:

I remember receiving the Car Wash City for Christmas one year; I really really wanted it and was so excited to finally open it and start building it up, but I also remember feeling kinda empty and disappointed after putting all the stickers on and thinking 'is that it?'

I guess I'd have been around 10 or 11 at that point, so maybe starting to age out of the sort of immersive play I'd have previously enjoyed.

There was a knurled orange knob on the side which could be turned to move a conveyor, and a car on it, through the car wash and out the other end. Although there were various foam rollers and plastic curtains inside none of it actually moved or really did anything. There was a small foam pad near the exit that could be dropped down onto the vehicle - simulating wax, I think - but that was it.

The adjacent car park had a manual elevator inside it, and a sort of rotating restaurant thing on top, but I'd never heard of such a thing and didn't understand what it was exactly.

It also wasn't brilliantly manufactured - I can remember struggling to get some of the pieces to fit together, and a couple of bits were either broken right out of the box or wouldn't stay fixed onto the plastic baseboard.

For years, the tall blue sign (broken at the base) and an orange vacuum cleaner (wouldn't stay on the board) were part of the general detritus that could be found at the bottom of my basket of toy cars.

The conveyor was also a bit clunky and required a surprising amount of force to turn the knob - it would often jam and then surge forward when more force was applied, spinning the car off the conveyor and into the void at the side, necessitating the young car wash operator to turn the whole thing on its end and shake it back out the other end. Hmm.

I also had the Service Garage City :

I think I got this one first, and liked it rather more - it had a number of quite good working parts which did actually work - a screw-type elevator, a rotating showroom platform, a working service lift and a rolling road with turning rollers.

The service bay doors also opened independently, and overall it was great just for displaying some of my favourite Micro Machines.

Between us, my brother and I had four of the Travel City sets, whose gimmick was that they all disassembled and the bits could be packed away into a pocket-size box. They also came with a vehicle.

I had the 24Hr Auto Body Shop, which was... okay. The only moving part was the garage doors, which were joined and both moved up at the same time. And... that was it. I think it came with a maroon Jaguar XJS, which was a double as I already had that one as part of a European Sports Car set.

I'm sure there are better pics out there of this one.

My brother also had the Fire Department HQ, which was exactly the same building moulding but did have a small movable barrier to add to the play value.

I believe this one came with a Datsun pickup in fluoro yellow fire service colours, and with a ladder on the back.

I had the Travel City Car Wash as well (for someone with such an apparent interest in car washes, you'd think I'd wash my real-life cars more than once a year, wouldn't you?)

This also came with a mechanism to move the vehicle though the car wash, but also suffered technical bother - you were meant to rotate the 'Mr Foam' sign on the kiosk in the manner of winding a clock, and this turned some cogs and (somehow) transported the vehicle through the building. But it also required an enormous amount of force to activate it, and very quickly the shank on the sign twisted and rounded on the bottom, making it inoperable.

I'm not sure which vehicle came with this one, possibly some sort of custom van but not the one in the pic here.

Lastly, the Travel City Marina was my brother's other mini set:

Now, this was an odd one. 

Despite being called a marina, it was very clearly an airport of sorts with a runway, a hangar and a control tower with a rotating radar scanner. There was also a big rectangular block which rotated at the base and contained a vehicle lift which went up and down a little by means of a lever on the side. From the box illustration, I think you were meant to put a boat on it and lower it into the 'water', but we didn't have a boat and the set came with a warplane!

Very odd. I don't think all the bits fitted into the box base terribly well, so this one always had a thick rubber band around it when stored.

Lastly, this one - the City Service Centre Carry Case:

This was an odd one, as rather than tough ABS plastic like the others the outer box here was made of cardboard wrapped in thin foam padding and soft plastic with a heatset edge, a bit like a cheap ring binder.

The base section was just a large paper sticker, the yellow 'carry case' insert was thin blown plastic like a mushroom tub, and only the rest of the components were more substantial injection-moulded plastic - a raised section with ramps for parking and garaging below, fuel pumps, a service lift, erm, another service lift, a sort of dynometer with a revolving scale, a mini-mart kiosk, and a fuel sign.

As I recall, this one started to fall apart distressingly quickly - the velcro fastener tab broke first, and then the box started to split all around the edge as the heat-sealed soft plastic degraded.

In terms of quality and play value it felt more like a knock-off Micro Machines set than the real deal, but apparently it was a genuine Galoob product.

Of course, the one we probably all wanted was the van set: