Shite in Miniature II

[flat4alfa]

  On 06/11/2019 at 15:50, Datsuncog said:

The ludicrously, pointlessly long nose married with the comically short boot did not, it seems, deter me one jot. Nor did the prospect of 18mpg.

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[155V6]

Both already mentioned on here I think,but Poundland have got Hotwheels in at the moment,& Lidl have got some Matchbox 5 packs for £4.99.

[flat4alfa]

Looked in yesterday and Tesco Matchbox 5-packs are now up at £5.  Last week they were sold out at £4.50 and new delivery came in on Monday.

 

[flat4alfa]

  On 06/11/2019 at 15:50, Datsuncog said:

...although I experienced a pang of jealousy when John Simm rocked a suitably shite Executive in Human Traffic.

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This opening episode of Auf Weidersehen Pet will do more than pang

Jump to 2:00

[eddyramrod]

  On 06/11/2019 at 16:17, Datsuncog said:

Trust me, there would have been more tears if I'd ever managed to buy the Bishop's old Zod…!

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When I was at L plate stage, about 1977, I knew of a 1966 mk4 Zephyr sitting in a back street in Southport - KLE 200D iirc - which I would have loved to get my hands on.  I never did, of course, and eventually it disappeared.  I never even saw it driving.  18yo me would have been king of the road in that, but it wasn't to be.  I've still never owned a Zephyr of any sort.

[egg]

Anyone spotted the hot wheels Alpine A110 in the shops? That's one I'm after.

[junkyarddog]

  On 06/11/2019 at 18:13, 155V6 said:

Here's the Chrysler with the caravan from my for sale thread,plus a couple of Seat 131's.Let me know if there's anything you like there.

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Chrysler is just what I'm after,Does it come with the caravan too?

I do like the silver 131 also.

What would you like of mine for those 3 items please?

 

[junkyarddog]

  On 06/11/2019 at 18:21, Split_Pin said:

If JYD doesn't want the green 131 I'd happily buy it. I have the silver Guisval one, albeit with clear glazing. I bought it new in Menorca in 1993.

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I'm not too bothered about that one,so it's all yours if you want it.

[junkyarddog]

  On 06/11/2019 at 18:31, sierraman said:

The two at the back are Majorette 

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Does the Mini van have the rear doors intact still?

[sierraman]

No, the back doors have long since gone. 

[junkyarddog]

  On 06/11/2019 at 19:37, flat4alfa said:

Yes please 

It’s a Porsche Carrera 6, 1970s reissue as in blue it was only available as part of a track set with their 250LM. I think that’s right.

Was originally a static Airfix kit from 1968 and then later adapted by MRRC (for Airfix) as a slot car

I have one already in the green. Here it is with a Strombecker release for comparison. 

As I said, yes please 

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I'm sure it would be a good source of spares,or even possibly a car to fix up,I bought it at a car boot sale during the summer,despite not really being interested in slot cars.

Just thought it looked good and it appealed to me.

Be interested in a swap for a Majorette Plymouth Fury,or a Matchbox flying bug in reasonable condition.

Can take more pics of it if you like?

 

[155V6]

  On 06/11/2019 at 20:44, junkyarddog said:

Chrysler is just what I'm after,Does it come with the caravan too?

I do like the silver 131 also.

What would you like of mine for those 3 items please?

 

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The caravan can come with the Chrysler.

I was after one of the Tomica recovery trucks,wouldn't mind a Matchbox W123 too if you've got any left?

[junkyarddog]

  On 06/11/2019 at 21:03, 155V6 said:

The caravan can come with the Chrysler.

I was after one of the Tomica recovery trucks,wouldn't mind a Matchbox W123 too if you've got any left?

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I'm sure we can arrange something!

[junkyarddog]

  On 06/11/2019 at 20:50, sierraman said:

No, the back doors have long since gone. 

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That's a pity,seems to be the general rule of thumb for them.

Sadly I don't see anything else there to interest me,sorry.

[flat4alfa]

  On 06/11/2019 at 20:58, junkyarddog said:

I'm sure it would be a good source of spares,or even possibly a car to fix up,I bought it at a car boot sale during the summer,despite not really being interested in slot cars.

Just thought it looked good and it appealed to me.

Be interested in a swap for a Majorette Plymouth Fury,or a Matchbox flying bug in reasonable condition.

Can take more pics of it if you like?

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No no need

yes I have a couple of MB Flying Bugs, one missing the helmet, the other broken a tail wing. Clean condition from memory, idea was to make good one out of the two

Photo to come, when I get in from the pub karaoke noise

[Amishtat]

As promised and undoubtedly the best condition of any of my Dinkys. I was over the moon with this last Christmas partly because my other half knows me well enough to know this was right up my street and partly because I don't usually buy really nice boxed ones. 

[flat4alfa]

Crikey. My wife just gets me socks.

[Split_Pin]

Best present ever!

[Tenmil Socket]

@Datsuncog it was me indeed. BTW do you still have the blue MK1 Clio?

[Sudsprint]

  On 06/11/2019 at 20:15, flat4alfa said:

 

 

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This is brilliant. Everything you could ever want in a car ad.

Textbook on how to sell a lardy hostess trolley of a car with girls, glamour, chinzy opulence and as much phallic imagery as you could get away with.

[Datsuncog]

Cheers for all the MkIV Zodiac love, both in big and small versions - nice to know I'm maybe not totally weird in my affections for these ungainly big brutes!

It seems the only MkIV model around that isn't a contemporary Dinky or Matchbox toy was a 1/43 version by Lansdowne put out a coupla years back - so that'll be ludicrously heavy and with a three-figure price tag, though in fairness they seem to have captured the proportions fairly accurately.

 

  On 06/11/2019 at 16:08, Amishtat said:

I shared your fascination for Mk IV Zodiacs and came across a presentable enough example at a small car sales lot a few miles south of Coventry around 2002. It was the same colour as your Superfast (Aquatic Jade I think, my joint favourite colour for them along with Aubergine) and sitting on a set of polished slot mags. Can't remember why I didn't buy it in the end, it was about four hundred quid which wasn't bad even then. Still never had one and it doesn't look likely now but I was lucky enough to receive a silver Dinky one last Christmas. I'll get it off the shelf for a photo or two when I get home

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Cor, £400! Yeesh... it's hard to believe now, but I can well recall unloved 1970s cars being advertised for a mere coupla hundred quid back then too. Sometimes I torture myself over the £`100 Victor FE I turned down, or the £300 Princess HL... The ones that got away, hey?

Your Dinky example is fantastic!

 

  On 06/11/2019 at 16:13, Split_Pin said:

Excellent write- up, I love the Dinky version!

I have a green Zodiac with the wide Superfast wheels and of course no bonnet.

I'm going to look out for a better one now! Really nice period registration mark on the back end too.

Quite a few MB models were sculptured out to accommodate these big wheels as you probably know. I have a metallic pink VW 1600TL so treated however I preferred it over the earlier superfast version due to the latter's purple paint. I also bought another example of the former as the one I bought in the early 1990s at a Swapmeet is very faded on one side. The pink is actually a much darker shade on my recently purchased example.

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Yeah, I'd forgotten just how nice a casting Lesney made of this most-unBritish land yacht... well worth seeking out a decent example. I'll keep my eyes peeled on your behalf, just in case one shows up.

Funnily enough, I'd no idea that some older Superfast castings had been modified to accommodate the later wide wheels until I found the orange BMC 1800 Pininfarina (now with @egg) and noticed how different the arch profiles were from my early gold-painted example. The 'big arch' Zodiac was equally unknown to me until I started looking at pics online yesterday!

I have a purple VW 1600TL too (bought from the same stall as the Zodiac, in Brighton), and didn't know they'd been modified later and all... might schedule a study session with my Matchbox catalogues later on.

My pink Lotus Europa from last week's tat haul is also curiously faded on top (hard to tell in the pics, though) - I'm guessing they must have used a rather unstable pigment in the paint.

 

  On 06/11/2019 at 16:24, C1am said:

My Dad had a Mk IV Zephryr 6. I absolutely loved that car for the styling, the gorgeous dashboard and its size. I cried when he agreed to sell it.  Luckily the person who agreed to buy it never turned up, so we had it a further few months, until it went to a cousin. He had for another year until it was stolen and written off. 

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Mmm, I think I would have been devastated if we'd had a MkIV and sold it... talk about presence. But probably not great on anti-theft properties, like most of the era... still, good memories though!

 

  On 06/11/2019 at 17:50, junkyarddog said:

The late great Irish guitar legend Rory Gallagher was also fond of his mk4 Zodiac.

Fond of the old mk4 myself, I remember one in the locality, a mettalic green executive converted to diesel.

It ended up in a quarry smashed up, sadly.

Was quite rotten by then.

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Ah yes, I remember seeing Rory's MkIV in a programme on TV one night - wasn't it tuned by Broadspeed or someone?

Good plate and all.

The top brass at Ford UK might have been horrified at a bunch of noisy longhairs piloting their flagship model...

Diesel conversion for economy, perchance, the one round your way?

Most economical when you're sucking red... still, shame it ended up where it did. They do indeed like to rust, it appears.

 

  On 06/11/2019 at 19:27, bigstraight6 said:

Great write up on the MK4 Zodiac DC, although the look of them was quite a controversy when new they look very stylish and graceful when you see one these days, still not a patch on a MK3 though!

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Yeah, funny how odd it turned out, given the styling basically amounted to a big Mk II Cortina... wonder how different it might have been if Roy Axe had penned its lines?

A bit off the bonnet and a little bit more on the boot, and I think it would have looked quite a bit more balanced. But yes, compared to what Jaguar and Austin were building in 1966, it was certainly a radical departure.

The Zephyr 4's front end treatment was particularly striking; very bold to go with a blank front panel and underslung grille - though with the spare wheel in the way of any airflow, the 'normal' grille fitted to the V6 models was cosmetic anyway...

  On 06/11/2019 at 20:30, flat4alfa said:

This opening episode of Auf Weidersehen Pet will do more than pang

Jump to 2:00

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Yep, probably a fair representation of how quite a few MkIVs ended their days, as smokey workmen's hacks - I never saw the show when it was current, but remember catching the first few minutes when it was repeated a few years back. Nice!

 

  On 06/11/2019 at 20:32, eddyramrod said:

When I was at L plate stage, about 1977, I knew of a 1966 mk4 Zephyr sitting in a back street in Southport - KLE 200D iirc - which I would have loved to get my hands on.  I never did, of course, and eventually it disappeared.  I never even saw it driving.  18yo me would have been king of the road in that, but it wasn't to be.  I've still never owned a Zephyr of any sort.

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Ah now... yes, I think I fancied myself king of the road a bit too - what a difference that would have been from all the Novas and Clios in the sixth-form car park!

One day, maybe... unlikely, but maybe!

Still, I think if I had a Cadillac, a MkIV Z-car might seem a trifle insignificant alongside it!

[Datsuncog]

  On 07/11/2019 at 09:12, Tenmil Socket said:

@Datsuncog it was me indeed. BTW do you still have the blue MK1 Clio?

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I do indeed - happy to add it to your box for 50p!

[C1am]

  Quote

  On 07/11/2019 at 15:12, Datsuncog said:

the 'normal' grille fitted to the V6 models

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The grille was only introduced on the revised version. My Dad's was a 1966 V6 and had the same black banded front in your picture. 

[flat4alfa]

What is approx scale of the Dinky Zephyr IV ?

Or just let me know length and breadth and I'll work it out

[flat4alfa]

I forgot to say please

[Bren]

A broadspeed V6 in a car with the bulk of a zodiac would be as much use as an ashtray on my hayabusa.

[myglaren]

 

https://starshy.myshopify.com/collections/toy/products/german-tiger-i-electric-remote-control-tank-model-2-4g-rc-tank?fbclid=IwAR3OQWIj2HuxbZxhYBg8AKlOzJtmtDGKvrbUJPmAie8KUPHoTlOOzl_KJUk

[flat4alfa]

  On 07/11/2019 at 16:02, Bren said:

A broadspeed V6 in a car with the bulk of a zodiac would be as much use as an ashtray on my hayabusa.

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A MKIII Focus BASE is only 38kg lighter than a V6 Zephyr IV

A MKIII Focus loaded diesel estate is 163 kg heavier.

Progress made..

[eddyramrod]

  On 07/11/2019 at 15:12, Datsuncog said:

I think if I had a Cadillac, a MkIV Z-car might seem a trifle insignificant alongside it!

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One might imagine so, yes, but given the part the mk3 played in my childhood, I still nurse a soft spot for the old Zs.  Not so much the mk1 and 2, but certainly the 3 and 4.

[Bren]

  On 07/11/2019 at 16:23, flat4alfa said:

A MKIII Focus BASE is only 38kg lighter than a V6 Zephyr IV

A MKIII Focus loaded diesel estate is 163 kg heavier.

Progress made..

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But what about aerodynamics?