Shite in Miniature II

[flat4alfa]

5 hours ago, sheffcortinacentre said:

Fags or booze billboard 

[Spottedlaurel]

16 hours ago, danthecapriman said:

Took this too and did a retro style black & white filter. 
I still really need to colour the edge of the curbs and put something across the gap between the end house and petrol station wall. And put some white road markings on!

Brilliant stuff! I really need to do something similar one day at 1/24 for the kits.

What I'd be tempted to put in that gap is a covered passage with timber doors and a corrugated asbestos/tin roof, as the entrance to one of those funny little builder's yards or garages that mysteriously exist behind terraced houses (then eventually the plot gets sold for a Grand Designs place, but you capture it before then). Could have a suitably weathered Transit or D-Series about to head out with a load for the day.

[MAF260]

That Nova is awesome!

[danthecapriman]

I’ve never seen a Vanguard’s Nova in the metal. They do seem quite rare. 
Only Nova I’ve got is a partwork based one, which is actually an Opel but, you know!

309 is bloody nice too. Another one I’d like to find.

[lesapandre]

Portobello morning...

 

 

[flat4alfa]

The Crescent D-Type Jaguar is a good find.

It dates from 1957

Made in Ebbw valley.

[quicksilver]

10 hours ago, flat4alfa said:

Beat me to it. I was just about to say the Robin Reliant is missing its Trotters signwriting.

[Datsuncog]

6 hours ago, Spottedlaurel said:

What I'd be tempted to put in that gap is a covered passage with timber doors and a corrugated asbestos/tin roof, as the entrance to one of those funny little builder's yards or garages that mysteriously exist behind terraced houses (then eventually the plot gets sold for a Grand Designs place, but you capture it before then). Could have a suitably weathered Transit or D-Series about to head out with a load for the day.

I once took my Cortina to a place like that. All a bit Steptoe & Son.

 

They're still going, apparently, though the place looks a bit tidier these days.

They were terrible. I asked them to swap a cracked manifold for a known good replacment; they broke nearly all the studs then just glued the manifold on with exhaust paste...

[bunglebus]

Just mooching about in Smyths, not wishing to join the recent Mattel bashing as I generally like their cars - but the latest two "collector" sets are a bit of a piss take, as they both appear to just be repackaged previous releases

No thank you.

I wonder if the Stranger Things van will be hot property in 30 years time?

[flat4alfa]

1 hour ago, quicksilver said:

Beat me to it. I was just about to say the Robin Reliant is missing its Trotters signwriting.

[bunglebus]

 

[bunglebus]

Had a few new bits land here this week. Spotted this Hartoy branded Coke set in Binghamton USA

Of course these are actually Corgi castings, not that the front of the packaging makes any reference to that - anyone know how this mashup came about?

More (presumably) USA market Corgi Firebirds, but found in the UK

I've never felt the need to buy any of these "CarTuned" vehicles previously, despite seeing them in various independent toy shops - but they've launched a range of VWs so got some Brownie points from 'er indoors by sourcing the Trekker/Thing/181 from Putnam Valley NY via Vinted - still cheaper than eBay and Amazon

I'd like some of the others, so fingers crossed they turn up somewhere 

Sticking with yellow VWs, and more Brownie points, I stumbled across someone making 3D printed cartoon style cars - including a Lupo. They did this one as an Open Air with BBS wheels to match, although it's based on a GTI really

Matchbox Sand Racer is quite a hard one to find, ex-Kenner casting that was released once, in this colour, and then never again. I have one in a box but who could resist a carded one to match?

A swerve into left field here, with a model of all things. Unbranded PRC Tatra had a fair coating of giffer grime which I've tried to shift without breaking the delicate wipers etc. I do like a Tatra

Polistil Mini is a charming little thing

Lucky Capri is missing the bumpers, but the fragile boot and bonnet have survived intact

Lastly, this mahoosive Fox Mustang was £1.00 in a Birmingham charity shop

[matt79]

9 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

Had a few new bits land here this week. Spotted this Hartoy branded Coke set in Binghamton USA

Of course these are actually Corgi castings, not that the front of the packaging makes any reference to that - anyone know how this mashup came about?

 

Hartoy also used some MB & Lledo castings - limited info on Hartoy here -

https://www.hobbydb.com/marketplaces/hobbydb/subjects/hartoy-brand

 

 

[Datsuncog]

1 hour ago, bunglebus said:

I wonder if the Stranger Things van will be hot property in 30 years time?

That's an awesome van - I found one of those in Asda early in the year, only it was stuffed down behind some other homewares, with the figure apparently stolen. Couldn't work out where in the toy aisle it had come from or how much it was, annoyingly.

It's not the sort of thing I would ever buy these days, but the size and detail of it absolutely gave me childhood A-Team van vibes and I kinda did want it... 😬

 

Doubt it'll ever be especially valuable though, as I daresay 75% of production will remain still in its packaging on top of a dusty IKEA Kallarp shelving unit displaying Funko Pops and Lego Marvel releases, in a darkened room lit by RGB ribbon lighting that smells of energy drinks and socks... and in twenty years' time, I'd guess there will be more of these vans in circulation than people with the desire to own one.

I'm working on a theory that pop culture collectables are accelerating too fast these days to gain much enduring cultural traction - there's a flurry of hype surrounding a release, but then it's quickly on to something else to keep the product merry-go-round spinning.  As with fast fashion, the life cycle of toy lines is measured in weeks and months now, rather than years. Factories are set up to make a single huge production run, but then no more.

Without wanting to sound like a crap nostalgist (or a capitalist pigdog), the toys that have significant monetary value are the ones you lusted after as a kid but never got - the ones in the shop window display at Christmas, the ones you circled in the Argos catalogue, the ones with the exciting TV ads, the ones your friends talked about because that one kid from school whose family was rich but no-one really liked them supposedly had one. There were many more kids who wanted them than there were actual toys in circulation, and they're worth the big bucks because the appeal - and myth - has endured over the years, so grown-ass adults still feel a yearning for them thirty or forty years later. And they can now afford to do something about it, so you end up with this sort of thing...

Whereas toys like the Stranger Things radio van kind of tap into a secondhand nostalgia, a nostalgia for those kind of toys, without actually being one of those toys - if that make sense.

It's designed to evoke those kind of feelings in order to appeal to the adult collector market, which was once a very niche hobby - but now a full third of toy sales are made to adults for their own amusement. And toy companies have noticed. While it's always a balancing act, it's way easier for them to make money on a smash hit adult-oriented IP than it is to try to snare the notoriously fickle child market. I mean, right now all Da Kidz apparently want is blocks of squashy yellow foam that resemble a stick of butter. Why? I've no idea. Six months ago it was fake glittery Chinese dumplings. Who knows what it'll be in six months time?

It must be galling to go to the trouble of designing and producing a range of quality, instructive and imaginative toys only to be usurped by a trolley of squishy foam food.

Kids are weird.

But then, who profits from vintage adult collectables? It's auction houses, online selling platforms, and people who weirdly chose not to open their Christmas presents but instead squirrelled them away for forty years.

That's where the money goes.

Who doesn't make money from these vintage collectables?

Well, the original manufacturers who probably sold them at a loss trying to keep kids' attention and then went bust.

So I can see why toymakers today are effectively producing ersatz copies of the kinds of toys adults have a hankering for.

And it's probably happening on a cycle, and may well be worth digging down into.

I mean, favourites of this thread - Matchbox Models of Yesteryear, Corgi Classics, Lledo Days Gone - all of them produced in the 1960s -1990s, aimed for the most part at adults, and kinda mimicking playthings from thirty or forty years previously - to appeal to the person with the wallet of a fifty year old, but the desires of the ten-year old who misses their first-generation Dinky Toys of the 1930s because they got donated for the war effort.

Result = huge sales, for a while, then total crash-out and now there's crates and crates of unwanted collectables being sold for pennies on the pound, now that generation has passed.

With the Stranger Things van, it's kind of the same thing - it's mimicking the posable action figures and vehicles from forty years ago, AND the IP is even coded to that exact era. So it'll very much appeal to the fifty year old who misses their A-Team van with all the figures and accessories that got given away to the Blue Peter Bring & Buy sale in 1987.

It'll scratch that itch alright - but who's going to want it in another twenty or thirty years, and will pay a premium for it? Today's kids will have vaguely heard of the Stranger Things series, no doubt, in the same way I can recall the stuff that my parents were watching on TV in the 1980s - but probably won't have any sense of genuine nostalgia about it. And certainly won't be thinking about dropping a stack of eVirtuaDollarQuids (or whatever currency the future holds) on it. There'll be a few younger collectors, no doubt - but enough to make such things appreciate significantly? I doubt it.

I gotta say, I've been doing a lot of thinking as well about my own collection and how the contemporary stuff that adults pick up really doesn't cut across generations. By the time we're passing it on, there may not be anyone else who values it. Which is weird.

In essence, it dies with us.

Yow, Friday downer! Apologies, kids. 

I'll try to hit up some more diecast goodness later, but this just got me thinking.

[WillCarter]

To follow on from @Spottedlaurel I think a lot of it is about supply and demand too. For my sins, I'm a wrestling fan, and I still collect wrestling memorabilia from my youth. To give you an example of the difference in volumes these days, the WWF Hasbro line which is largely considered to be the most collectable of the wrestling figure lines, which ran from1990 to 1994 there were I believe 99 released figures (as well as a few mailaways etc). To give you a comparison, a quick Google tells me that Mattel release upwards of 50 - 60 figures in the WWE Elite line alone, every year. This is their higher priced collectors grade figures. They also do an Ultimates line which is their even more collector aimed line, of which there are 15 - 25 releases a year and then their Basics line, which are their toy grade figures which stretch into three figures every single year.

There are also various other more niche lines of figures, ranging from retro style figures, crossovers and collaborations with other Mattel brands and mini figures, but essentially you're looking at well over 200 figures a year if you wanted to be a completest. Now, bearing in mind that Mattel have had that licence since 2010, you're talking literally thousands of releases. So while some become collectible and gain value, through sheer numbers alone it's impossible for the majority to reach any sort of collectors status because of how mass produced they are.

[Split_Pin]

If I cash in my chips early Ive instructed my Mrs to come in here and donate my collection to you lot. As DC said, mine will die with me as nobody else in my family has an interest in model cars.

Whatever is left over I want to be donated to Alans 50p tray or Colins Irish Tat Stall. 

[danthecapriman]

10 minutes ago, Split_Pin said:

If I cash in my chips early Ive instructed my Mrs to come in here and donate my collection to you lot.

Whatever is left over I want to be donated to Alans 50p tray or Colins Irish Tat Stall. 

I was chatting with @eddyramrod about this a while back on PM, what will we all actually do with all this shit stuff we collect or make once we end up in a home or in the ground!?

Much of it will be so old both it and the 1/1 subject its copying will be about out of any living memory. Will anyone even want it? 
I have no family of my own so nobody to pass things on to, more distant relatives aren’t really the sort who would want or value it and as I said above, they’re so young they won’t have a clue what a Ford Cortina is let alone they’ve been left several models of them!

It’s entirely possible/probable everything I’m doing now will give me a bit of fun or pleasure now but ultimately it’s just going to become landfill. Not that I’ll be bothered of course as by then I’ll be pushing up daisy’s!

[matt79]

@Split_Pin is this of interest? 

https://www.vinted.co.uk/items/10216672550-124-scale-ferrari-f40-model

Gaahh! Just realised posted in wrong thread!

 

[Split_Pin]

Cheers! Could be!

[sierraman]

Picked up a Makokit Pharmacy. Scale a bit odd, should be 1/64 but more like 1/36?

[flat4alfa]

1 hour ago, danthecapriman said:

Will anyone even want it? I have no family of my own so nobody to pass things on to, more distant relatives aren’t really the sort who would want or value it and as I said above

#13 and #54 please.

[sheffcortinacentre]

Just try leaving it to a museum or tell them to contact some auction companies 

[flat4alfa]

[danthecapriman]

23 minutes ago, flat4alfa said:

#13 and #54 please.

You seem awfully sure your going to outlive me!😆

[FakeConcern]

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'm taking all my toy cars with me when I die!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[eddyramrod]

27 minutes ago, sheffcortinacentre said:

Just try leaving it to a museum 

My plan is that my collection will be viewable at the Lakeland Motor Museum after I've gone.  What will happen to the fantasy vehicles I'm creating is anybody's guess; as for whatever's left unfinished (or even unstarted!)... maybe someone will offer them here.  I won't care.

[danthecapriman]

Well, what a morbid Friday evening😄

[matt79]

Thread needs more hearses 😀

 

[eddyramrod]

7 minutes ago, matt79 said:

Thread needs more hearses 😀

 

Like this?

[matt79]

7 minutes ago, eddyramrod said:

Like this?

Is the hearse based on an ambulance casting?