Shite in Miniature II

[sierraman]

My W123 arrived today courtesy of Junkyard Dog. Part exchanged a Peugeot 405! 

[loserone]

405? Which 405? ?

[sierraman]

A red Majorette MI16, went for German reliability you see... ?

[flat4alfa]

That violent teacher story had me whincing

If my child was treated like that I’d be raising the school roof

[bunglebus]

I do enjoy Datsuncog's stories, even if that one was a bit sad!

 

On a lighter note, here's a few comparisons for you. First, early vs late Superfast BMC Pininfarina 1800. The arches are cut back to the point where the tyres are almost visible from above

20191113_131558 by RS, on Flickr

20191113_131533 by RS, on Flickr

 

Regular vs late Superfast Rolls. I like both versions

 

20191113_105410 by RS, on Flickr

20191113_105444 by RS, on Flickr

 

Lastly, the Hot Wheels 944 vs the Matchbox version. They're very similar but I think the Matchbox just edges it, having proper doors, a B post and better base detail

 

20191113_131656 by RS, on Flickr

20191113_131752 by RS, on Flickr

20191113_131831 by RS, on Flickr

20191113_131733 by RS, on Flickr

 

 

[Datsuncog]

On 11/13/2019 at 2:08 PM, junkyarddog said:

I picked up a few sets of these knocked off Matchbox roadways,during the summer at a car boot.

"Advanced Toys" - okaaaay.

"Motorcity-B001" - risking copyright infringement, but if you must.

"Good" - eh?

"Pick up brains" - WTF??

That's utterly demented fantastic. Well found!!

[junkyarddog]

Yeah,the "pick up brains" part intrigued me too

[vulgalour]

You've got to love the attention to detail with things like the very obviously photoshopped and out of scale child, and the way GOOD doesn't even come close to fitting inside, or with, that orange starburst thing.  At least they tried.

[Lord Sterling]

3 hours ago, 155V6 said:

My Corgi garages

? ***wibble*** 

What I wouldn't give....

[flat4alfa]

 

4 hours ago, junkyarddog said:

pick up brains

I would like half a pound of those please 

Can you deliver?

Also a yoghurt.

 

[bunglebus]

God speed for tomorrow Mr. Datsuncog, I'm away working so may not be able to check in

[egg]

Checked local Tesco extra - no new Matchbox in stock apart from the 5 packs. 

[DoctorRetro]

Latest charity shop haul.

 

[egg]

Nice little haul Mr Panda.

Let's focus on this Silver Spirit, I've never had one of these, a bit late for me as they started mid-80s and most of my matchbox were a bit earlier. It's a substantial, heavy, large thing for this scale as befits one of these. Made in China (by which they mean Macau? Or a different factory?). It is in good condition, but as it is fairly modern and not uncommon, I hope no-one will object if I repaint it in a suitably RR colour?

[flat4alfa]

16 minutes ago, egg said:

I hope no-one will object if I repaint it in a suitably RR colour?

I might* object

Only because it is a suitable colour

[flat4alfa]

I love your

Wedge action

It's just a 

Distraction.

Dinky Princess measures to 1:34, same as the Lancia Stratos.

[flat4alfa]

Who you gonna call?

Cambusters.

[C1am]

I think it's a gorgeous colour, but I'd be interested to see it if and when you do repaint it. It really is surprisingly heavy (the RR).

[egg]

32 minutes ago, flat4alfa said:

I might* object

 

25 minutes ago, C1am said:

I think it's a gorgeous colour

The jury has spoken. It will be saved from a Caustic Soda bath for now....

[junkyarddog]

11 hours ago, flat4alfa said:

 

I would like half a pound of those please 

Can you deliver?

Also a yoghurt.

 

Sorry,no brains to spare unfortunately. 

I need all I've got here!

You want this slot car?

I've got a suitable box for posting it, if you are still interested?

[flat4alfa]

18 minutes ago, junkyarddog said:

You want this slot car?

I've got a suitable box for posting it, if you are still interested?

Belated PM is sent

[Datsuncog]

On 11/13/2019 at 4:57 PM, egg said:

Crikey DC, what a tale. Took me right back to infant school myself. In my school the headteacher occasionally administered the slipper to your backside. In the early 80's that threat was able to keep me on the straight and narrow and I avoided it!

 

On 11/13/2019 at 5:29 PM, vulgalour said:

Nearest I ever encountered to corporal punishment in school in the 1980s was some ancient old teacher complaining he couldn't administer it to sort out 'the rough uns'.  I mean, I say ancient, he was probably only in his 50s or 60s, but to pre-teen me, he was practically a dinosaur. 

 

On 11/13/2019 at 5:45 PM, junkyarddog said:

So much for letting toys fuel your imagination DC,miserable old biddy.

 

On 11/13/2019 at 8:06 PM, flat4alfa said:

That violent teacher story had me whincing

If my child was treated like that I’d be raising the school roof

 

Quote

I do enjoy Datsuncog's stories, even if that one was a bit sad!

Aye, it's strange but I'd never really thought all that deeply about it until I was writing it all down yesterday.

Diecast Therapy, anyone? ?

 

From what I can gather, teachers weren't really meant to behave the way Miss Finlay did. I don't remember there ever being a school culture of 'the slipper' as an ultimate threat; the headmaster was great and I couldn't imagine him as the disciplinarian type. But there were supposedly rules for administering physical chastisement, as per a 1956 Department of Education memo - involving two senior members of staff and a permanent written record of the infraction and the punishment meted out.

Finlay just used to lash out with that ruler for any minor infraction, such as whispering, or messy work, or whatever she didn't like; a quick but sturdy rap over the knuckles. We were all frightened of her; and frightened to tell anyone else too. That wasn't all she did, either.

Clearly she didn't view herself as doing anything wrong, but a year or two later she took 'early retirement' which makes me wonder if she was eventually rumbled for what were, looking back, highly abusive patterns of behaviour.

I don't know what became of the big box of wrecked diecast, though!

 

Quote

I do remember the kid that brought really big, expensive, NICE diecast to school just to smash up.  Bburago, Dinky, Corgi, that sort of thing.  He'd get new ones at the start of the week, spend the week demolishing them, and turn up the next week with another new one and repeat.  My friends and I didn't much like him.

Yeesh, I'm sure he wasn't popular... what a knob. I can just imagine the sort, too.

I can remember being horrified at seeing a bunch of older kids smashing up a Corgi VW Polo rally car (the metallic bronze one, with opening doors and boot) out in the playground, and leaving the bits scattered all over the tarmac. It just seemed like such a waste.

I mean okay, so I smashed up loads of my diecast with a hammer, and crushed them in a bench vice, as previously confessed - but in my mind, I was building a toy scrapyard out of already-broken old diecast. I kept all the bits in a metal tin, and I would then arrange all them in rows of wrecks and heaps of parts, and load them into trucks, just like Bobby Shaw's yard up the road... I prefer to think back to that short but destructive period as a phase of extreme creativity, not just smashing stuff up for kicks.

 

On 11/13/2019 at 9:16 PM, bunglebus said:

On a lighter note, here's a few comparisons for you.

Ohhhh, that's good to see!

I've been trawling through my 70s Matchbox catalogues, and it's surprising that some models don't seem to ever be shown in 'widened arches'  format - the Mk IV Zodiac, for example.

Whether the folks who put the catalogues together just used an older model when setting up their layout, or whether the later modified versions tended to appear in gift sets and twin-packs rather then as separate mainline diecast - I'm not sure.

I'm putting a list together slowly, though!

 

On 11/14/2019 at 11:45 AM, egg said:

Let's focus on this Silver Spirit […] Made in China (by which they mean Macau? Or a different factory?).

As far as I can tell, Matchbox's China and Macau factories were quite separate, both administratively and in terms of output.

From what Wikipedia tells me, Macau was one of those Special Administrative Regions, like Hong Kong, and was under either direct or indirect Portuguese rule between 1557 and 1999 - first as a trading post, and latterly as an autonomous colony.

As a landmass, Macau's absolutely tiny - the very tip of a peninsula sticking out into the Pearl River Estuary, totalling twelve square miles in size - and two-thirds of that is reclaimed land, mostly housing container ports and an airport. It remains the most densely populated place on earth, with nearly 700,000 people living there. Imagine somewhere not much bigger than Canvey Island, but with twenty times the population...

But like Hong Kong, Macau's peculiar status meant it could offer global corporations a winning combination of low labour costs coupled with extremely low corporate tax rates, making it a popular site for export-oriented manufacturing.

When Hong-Kong based Universal Toys took over the Matchbox brand in 1983, the first thing CEO David Yeh did was set up a new factory in Macau to take over production, shipping most of the tooling over from England. 

However, Universal Toys quickly realised they couldn't source enough skilled labourers in Macau or Hong Kong to produce the toys in the volumes needed, and in 1984 set up a separate Hong Kong-Chinese joint venture sub-company, called Shanghai Universal Toys Co (SUTC). This was co-owned, with the Chinese government acting as the sole investor for the Chinese side.

Sources disagree on details, but once the Chinese factory came on-line in the mid-80s it seems that one of the two factories produced all the metal components, much of which were then cleaned up and shipped in bulk to the other one ready for painting, assembly and packaging for export.

Between 1985 and 1991-ish, both factories produced finished models, but partly as a result of these kinds of successful arrangements, China began to liberalise its own export market rules from 1985 on.

Because of these changes, it didn't take long before Macau's main point of difference was lost and by the early 1990s Matchbox followed most other factory owners by moving all their production to the more convenient Chinese mainland.

By the time Tyco bought the Matchbox brand from Universal Toys in 1992, their toy manufacturing was based solely around Shanghai.

Production largely continued as before, with the SUTC concern still part-owned by Universal and continuing to manufacture the Matchbox range on a subcontractor basis to Tyco.

Macau nowadays exists basically as a casino city, its legacy semi-autonomous status allowing it an effective monopoly on gambling (which remains illegal everywhere else in China and Hong Kong). As it result, its revenues are seven times higher than Las Vegas...

So, a Matchbox diecast stamped with 'Made in Macau' can be dated between 1983 and 1991-ish; while 'Made in China' diecasts date from about 1985 to 1998. Because of the overlap, it's quite possible to find two identical models: one made in China and the other made in Macau. Good to know, if you're a completionist...

Following the Mattel acquisition of Tyco in 1997, Matchbox production was gradually moved across to Thailand - but there were still plenty of Matchboxes stamped 'China' well into the 2000s.

 

As an additional factoid, Universal Toys also set up another Chinese joint venture called Shanghai Universal Plastic Toys Co (SUPT), who were subcontracted to make all the plastic mouldings for Matchbox diecast lines, such as wheels and interiors. SUPT also produced the range of Matchbox plastic model kits alongside other plastic toys such as their preschool range. They also - rather topically - produced all the components for the Motor City range.

But whenever Mattel bought over Tyco, including the Matchbox brand, they severed all previous arrangements with both SUTC and SUPT. They also decided to immediately kill off the entire Motor City range, since it was in competition with its own Hot Wheels playsets.

This sudden decision left SUPT with a huge stockpile of unpackaged Motor City components stored in their Shanghai warehouse, which under the terms of severence Mattel  forbade them to sell on. It was agreed that they were to be destroyed.

SUPT were eventually re-named as the Yuan Jie Co - but, going by @junkyarddog's 'Advanced Toys' playset, it would appear that some of the components perhaps made it out of the Shanghai factory, eventually...

I'll wager that although the box itself may be a total knock-off,  at least some of the components inside are 100% genuine Matchbox items.

[egg]

Nice info DC - In my opinion the Macau/China MB castings of that time still have a certain quality to them. It may have been cheaper labour for sure, but it wasn't quite race to the bottom stuff. Strange to think how Smith and Odell's ideas ultimately played their part in the move to a capitalist economy in the far East!

[Split_Pin]

Great info as always DC, if you ever consolidate this all into a book put me down as your first customer.

I'm sure I have several MBs that were made in Macau however I'm sure I have one that says made in 'Macao'. I'll be sure to check tonight, its the red BMW 323i Baur Cabriolet.

[Datsuncog]

So, on a happier note than before, maybe - I also managed to score this US-release from the model shop.

It was only when I rummaged around my old box of nostalgia diecasts that I realised I hadn't quite got it right...

Although my original example of the 4x4 was also white with red and orange striping and a Matchbox logo on the side, it seems it was a wee bit different. Ooops.

Mind you, checking through the Charlie Mack book shows that this casting - an evolution of the MB66 Chevy Van from 1980 - was made available in dozens of different finishes over the years, its chunky looks and flat sides making it ideal for Code 2 promotionals.

I believe my childhood version came in a single 'blue box' pack, although I have no particularly strong memory of receiving it.

What I do  remember is 'driving' it through the borders in my back garden, as the high ground clearance made it ideal for off-roading. Indeed, the wheels are still full of crap thirty-odd years later. And also driving it over some of my other cars, especially the wrecked ones.

And the reason for that was...

Does anyone else recall this highly derivative, unbelievable poorly animated cartoon?

Maybe not, but you'll surely recognise that it's based on the highly fictionalised adventures of Bob Chandler's 'original monster truck' - a 1974 Ford F-250, which he grafted on to the undercarriage of a military 4WD top loader to create an eyecatching promo vehicle for his Missouri-based business, Midwest Four Wheel Drive and Performance Center.

And which generated absolute mania when 'Bigfoot' was filmed, purely as a joke, driving over two cars in an unremarkable field in 1981.

Home-copied VHS and Betamax dubs of the stunt went viral in 4x4 circles, long before going viral was even a thing.

Amid all the hoo-hah, Chandler was asked to perform the stunt again, this time in front of a paying audience.

He refused, fearing that the whole thing had gone beyond a joke, and that it would appear overly destructive. But eventually, after much badgering and increasing sums being waved at him, Chandler agreed.

And then he was asked to do it again. And again. And again.

The Monster Truck era was born.

And it was everywhere, or certainly seemed to be - including this abysmal cartoon, which I think appeared on Saturday morning kids' TV around 1986 and quickly became as unmissable as it was unwatchable.

I mean, come on - how can you not be enthralled by a main character with the implausible name of Yank Justice?

Clearly the production team felt that calling the hero 'Bob' just didn't cut it.

I'm sure Chandler was crying all the way to the bank over that production team decision.

 

Now, my best friend at the time, James Down The Road, owned one of these:

Playskool's battery-operated version of Chandler's Bigfoot, which drove forward and back, and climbed obstacles, using the gear levers on the roof. It was a clever bit of kit alright, though heavy on batteries as I recall.

I didn't have one of these, but I did have my Matchbox Chevy, which was nearly as good.

Well, okay, it's a bit rubbish in comparison - but I was very fond of my Matchbox 'monster truck'.

So the Chevy got a lot of heavy use, and it's interesting to note that it's the white paint that's come away worst, while the coloured parts don't look too bad.

 

"Any more Chevy goodness to come?"

"Sure thing, Yank! Just let me drink my weak lemon drink first."

(Bonus joke for any Lee & Herring fans in the house)

[quicksilver]

You just keep bringing back the memories DC! I remember having a VHS tape of Bigfoot and the Muscle Machines acquired from a car boot sale, and the reversed image on the cover complete with a truck called TOOFGIB was the perfect indicator of the high-quality* content within.

[egg]

my brother had a Bigfoot, as is a theme that persists to this day, he had the cool stuff, I didn't. 

[warch]

I had the Bigfoot with the gears on the roof. 

The coolest 'monster truck' I ever saw was a Bedford Astramax van, cunningly mated to something like a Hilux chassis, parked illegally outside Ludlow Somerfield. 

I had something called a Rough Rider (tm) which was a bit smaller and powered by a friction drive iirc. Mine floated in water which seemed like witchcraft in 1983.

[quicksilver]

You know what, I have a vague memory that I might have had one of those Bigfoot toys too. I certainly recall something with a gearstick on the roof, which had sadly been broken off and taped back together with some sort of sticker so it didn't work all that well.

[Datsuncog]

20 minutes ago, warch said:

The coolest 'monster truck' I ever saw was a Bedford Astramax van, cunningly mated to something like a Hilux chassis, parked illegally outside Ludlow Somerfield. 

See, I reckon if Yank Justice had been driving, it would have been parked ON Ludlow Somerfield...

Seems a lot of toy manufacturers were quick off the mark to put out something with huge wheels!