Shite in Miniature II

[Split_Pin]

Aye same here! Anything that old has served its time as a toy and deserves a retirement.

I too can't resist a 1/36 Corgi or Superkings, still got a few to get, especially the latter.

[bunglebus]

Now I need a Tomica VW bay window ?

[Datsuncog]

On ‎11‎/‎14‎/‎2019 at 4:24 PM, Split_Pin said:

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.

Was looking into that a bit more, and apparently 'Macao' is a valid variant of the name of the territory - just a bit older, but no less correct.

I had a look at my own BMW cabrio last night and it has the regular spelling, but I'd be interested if yours says something different!

The first I'd ever heard of a place called 'Malaysia' was when I saw it stamped on the base of a Hot Wheels Stutz when I was five or six, and went to look it up in an atlas - so basically, diecast collecting is nearly as good as doing your geography homework.

[Datsuncog]

On ‎11‎/‎13‎/‎2019 at 12:57 PM, Datsuncog said:

Does anyone remember Corgi's ill-fated efforts to muscle in on this multi-level playset market in the late 1980s?

I have a 1988 trade catalogue giving this whole spiel about fantastic opportunities and brilliant mark-up, followed by pages and pages of... really weird, really grey, really bland plastic sets that don't make any sense, and which I couldn't imagine any child wanting to own.

In fact, they look more like the dashboard out of a base Metro than a child's toy. Really odd.

I know Corgi did an Eddie Stobart depot set in the 1990s which was similar to the Matchbox Convoy truck stop, but these pre-date all of that.

Must scan some pics of that catalogue later on, as I can find nothing online about them.

And just to follow up on this one, and all - do these sets ring any bells with anyone? These are from the 1988 Corgi trade catalogue, and seem to pre-date the Auto City range.

(Not sure how legible these scans are, but here goes.)

So... much marketing waffle, promising 'more than just a garage' and 'offering real play value'.

Using the Bank of England's inflation calculator, a 1988 price bracket of £10-£50 equals £26.34 - £131.71 in today's money.

These weren't cheap!

So what did you get for your money? These...

Then expanding a little more...

You may be noticing by now that these sets are essentially the same damn thing, just with different stickers and different Juniors vehicles each time.

Set against a doomy grey background, to my eyes these sets appear weirdly unfinished - with various sections where vehicles can just drop off the edge.

And then they get bigger again...

I never remember seeing these in the shops, and I was a fairly avid toy aisle lurker c.1988. The boxes would have had to be huge, too.

Compared to the much brighter and more 'integrated' Matchbox and Hot Wheels sets (with playmats and accessories) these Corgi offerings come across as strangely austere. Just some plastic catacombs, a lift or two to nowhere, and a few ramps.

It's like Blade Runner, but not in a good way.

I'm really baffled by these.

But stay! There's more!

These were presumably the cheaper parts of the range - which commit the cardinal sin of mixing their scales. Is this range for Corgi Juniors, or 1/35 scale Corgis? We just don't know.

While the vehicles here are good, there is the unavoidable fact that we're really only looking at two separate sets among this six - either a four-post ramp, or a filling station - with only the stickers to differentiate (and not even that in the Pitstop Service Bay/Race Team Service Bay, which appear identical - and also to be made out of cardboard).

Matchbox Motor City, by contrast, offered a number of quite different playsets, as I recall.

 

So what's the story, AS hivemind?

Were these an unsuccessful sales flop for Corgi, but which ultimately paved the way for the Auto City range?

Or did they never even make it past the prototype stage, crashing out amid retailer apathy? I've never seen any of these, either at the time or since (even as broken bits at a car boot sale).

Over to you!

[sierraman]

I have an Autocity ring road type thing with a bridge. Or should I say the kids have it now. Had it bought me round about 1992/93, my dad told me subsequently that the garage set was practically impossible to get hold so I had to have the ring road instead. Also had the ferry terminal as well - a proper roro ferry that had a smoke dispenser thing (which has never worked) on the stack plus fog horn. 

[Datsuncog]

Oh, that looks amazing... I would have loved a decent ferry terminal! Still would, now I think of it...

So the Corgi Centre garage sets did exist, then - but were just really hard to get hold of? Interesting!

On the subject of Auto City, the only one in our house was this one belonging to my brother, c.1991 or so...

Sadly it's long gone, so I had to nick these images from online sources.

Basically, it came with some self-adhesive magnetic discs which you stuck onto the roof of any car (such as the depicted dark blue Aston DB6, which came in the box), hoicked it up in the air using the winch on the crane, then dropped it into the 'crusher' mechanism - at which point, a lever would simultaneously close the lid and pop out a plastic cube meant to represent the crushed car.

It wasn't really all that convincing - not least because the cube appeared before the lid had closed - and the 'electronic' functionality was limited to a very loud, very annoying chugging noise from the crane activated by pushing down on the cab roof, and seemed to go on forever.

What did impress me though was that clearly the 'parts' scattered around the base moulding had been derived from the Corgi Cameos Morris Minor and Mini diecasts, and also grille from a Peterbilt-type US truck from their range.

I think Matchbox and Hot Wheels both also produced 'crusher' sets - but the Corgi version was the only one which seemed to have some stab at the reality of a grimy old scrappie, piled with Moggy Minor wings and Mini bootlids.

[155V6]

My own collection is a bit excessive,I live on my own so can have what I want.Miss_155 understands though as she collects various things too,we both like wooden animals & she has a few cars & trucks too.

I have no real theme to mine,but do prefer older models & don't really spend too much on individual cars.Some of the sub-sections are Majorette,Corgi Juniors,Siku,Matchbox 1-75,Tomica(quite a few from Datsuncog?),1/64 VW's,1/36 Corgi & Matchbox,1/43 '60s & '70s cars,Hearses,1/87 cars,cars I've had in real life,& NASCAR models from a few years ago from when I had literally hundreds of them.

Here's a few pictures of what I've got on display in my 1 bedroom flat ?

 

These last two show some of the stuff that's not on display,the boxes in the 2nd picture are those truck carry cases that you always see at car boots ?

 

 

 

 

 

[sierraman]

Yes I had the crushers as well plus a sort of sliding gantry type thing. The one I wanted was a multi story type thing, not like in the picture, it had a ramp going round it. I think they sold through Argos, Beatties etc. In addition to the big sets you could buy things like a police station/garage etc and then a mobile welder type thing, a police launch amongst other stuff.

[Datsuncog]

1 hour ago, 155V6 said:

Here's a few pictures of what I've got on display in my 1 bedroom flat ?

Cor, that's quite a collection!

Some fantastic pieces in there for sure (a few of which do look strangely familiar!) - the Tomica garage looks especially impressive.

Cheers for sharing those pics!!

[bramz7]

This is what I had!! Not BP but identical colours. 

 

[Split_Pin]

Speaking of Corgi, does anybody remember the 'Luggers' sets?

You could get a red MK3 Transit or an American GMC. I had the latter but lusted after the former.

They were to a scale of about 1/28 and consisted of a range of axle/wheel/engine combinations, bodies and accessories.

I never really got the appeal as Lego was much more versatile.

[sierraman]

Anyone remember power spark kits? They were a truck like thing and you plastic welded bits on to it. Came with this gun thing and these plastic filler rods, it rotated and the rods got got fusing the plastic together? 

[flat4alfa]

Post Lady had been, again

Ken and Dolly are at their wits end - the racket coming out of that Radio Van is making them regret their pitch.

[ Yes, Radio Van is in working order ! ]

[Datsuncog]

1 hour ago, Split_Pin said:

Speaking of Corgi, does anybody remember the 'Luggers' sets?

You could get a red MK3 Transit or an American GMC. I had the latter but lusted after the former.

They were to a scale of about 1/28 and consisted of a range of axle/wheel/engine combinations, bodies and accessories.

I never really got the appeal as Lego was much more versatile.

Yes, I had one of those!

It was the GMC pickup thing, in breakdown livery - didn't know there was a Mk3 Transit in the range, though.

Agreed, once I'd dismantled it and put it back together a few times, there wasn't much else to do (especially since I took all my models apart whenever possible anyway, particularly my 1/18 Bburagos).

Funnily enough, I encountered a similar one only the other week in the Smithfield model shop...

Dunno if it's worth thirty notes, mind...

[Split_Pin]

A&J Construction, ha! I remember that. I restored a Polistil Mini and used the number plates 'SEJ 311' and the steering wheel from the set. The rest went in the bin years ago.

Had it been a transit though, I would oribably have kept it!

[Jon]

Hi all, I'm home again!

So what better way to celebrate being home and not doing necessary grown-up things, than updating my shite in miniature report? There's a backlog, so I'll report in order of purchase - or at least, which ones were bought together, as I've had these a few months now.

 

First off the lot came in this nice little box but what is it?!

 

Sadly, it's this high top loaf tin or whatever these vans are nicknamed in more local markets.  Here's how it first presented out of the box:

 

 

But it's missing a securing screw or two, so here's an artist's* impression of how it presented once in my grubby mit:

 

Ah well, it was only a fiver. If anyone's keen on it and can wait until next year for delivery (or pay the extra cost right away), they can have it for £5 plus post. Screws apart, I think all the bits are there! 

[Jon]

Next up was this Corgi 505, which was a result of sleuthing through Trademe for bargains.

Including postage from the south island to mine, this came to less than £3! It's a nice enough thing but I bought it purely on price and condition alone. Sadly no bikes or box and I've done all I want with it now (i.e. taken a rather bland photo of it), so if anyone wants to add a metal base 1/36 Corgi to their collection, they can do so for £2.50 plus post, same as above. In fact with either, I'd happily do swaps for something interesting!

[Jon]

Making a return to a local second hand/junk store where I bought my Tamiya Bruiser earlier in the year for a bargain price, I picked up these for a slightly less bargainous price, though still in takeaway coffee territory.

Moody pic is a Corgi Series IIA Land Rover, which I'd been looking for, so as to cut one down to make a miniature version of mine, which is a SWB. Sadly for me but happily for this, it's in way too good condition to be messing about with, so it'll stay as is. Being ex-army, here it is de-mobbed.

 

And here it is realistically depicted during its active service, transporting a patient with vim in an African outpost. 

 

I also picked up this Rash 1 Redline, purely because it was a Redline and I thought it might be worth something. Yes, I was speculating but it turns out that the £3 I spent on it is probably about all its money, especially since the exhaust tips have been snapped off. Oh well, still a nice thing but again, available at cost as per above if someone really takes a shine to it! 

 

[Jon]

Another Trademe purchase but this time something that really floated my boat!

 

I think these BMW 2000CS are real lookers, though I'll admit that the later E9s have much more palatable front ends. Still, this is a period Solido, so I'm not going to argue.

 

I'm going to admit that on reflection, these photos don't do the casting justice, as it's nicer in the metal than it appears here. It's perhaps a slight downside that it's silver but there's plenty of opening parts yet still nice body lines and the wheels aren't the naff efforts seen on later Solidos, which is a mega bonus.

The only thing is, I now seem to have an inordinate amount of 1/43 BMWs, despite not really being a big fan of the blue and white roundel cars. In actual fact, that probably goes for much of the small stuff I own - I think it's the casting that attracts me, rather than the car it's depicting. But like others, I'm consciously making decisions to cull the fleet, as I seem to be finding hidey holes of mini tat I'd forgotten I'd bought, squirrelled away round the house and garage! 

[Split_Pin]

That CSL is very nice indeed!

[flat4alfa]

Courtesy of Sir Ed of Ramrod, General Lee has met General Grant again - but in much happier surroundings.

Even Dolly is excited and flirting something rotten

@eddyramrod

[bunglebus]

Never seen those two before, was that General Grant an official release? 

[bunglebus]

[Split_Pin]

As a trailer to thr main showing today, I got these in Tesco this morning. Not my thing but I thought some of you may want one?

There were loads of Binis, 181s, a Caprice and some Rancheros too. I took another Bini as I want to open it and paint the pillars black, the other one I got will stay in the pack as I like the picture on it. I also put back a Guilia as one is on the way from Datsuncog.

Anyway, let me know!

 

[quicksilver]

13 hours ago, Datsuncog said:

Yes, I had one of those!

It was the GMC pickup thing, in breakdown livery - didn't know there was a Mk3 Transit in the range, though.

Agreed, once I'd dismantled it and put it back together a few times, there wasn't much else to do (especially since I took all my models apart whenever possible anyway, particularly my 1/18 Bburagos).

Funnily enough, I encountered a similar one only the other week in the Smithfield model shop...

Dunno if it's worth thirty notes, mind...

Here we go again, I had one of those too! It was a white Transit so I presume the P302 'police emergency set', and it always intrigued me as it was so unlike anything else made by Corgi and I never saw another anywhere. IIRC the various accessories were held on with Lego-style studs but these Luggers don't seem to be documented anywhere. A target for DC's legendary tat-sleuthing skills I think.

[flat4alfa]

1 hour ago, Split_Pin said:

Would it be greedy to have all three?

[Split_Pin]

Not at all, they're yours.

Anyone know how much this would be to post?

[flat4alfa]

6 hours ago, bunglebus said:

Never seen those two before, was that General Grant an official release? 

It's one of the 'liveries' offered by Pioneer slot cars.  I'm sure a real car was dressed in these colours over the pond and they used it to model.

I think it's great and it's one of the very few slotters that I paid 1) good money for, and 2) new in box!

https://www.pioneerslotcars.com/charger

[flat4alfa]

1 minute ago, Split_Pin said:

Not at all, they're yours.

Anyone know how much this would be to post?

£3 second class parcel post

Happy to do some sort of swapsies.  What are you after?

[Split_Pin]

Nowt really, until the HW 850 lands!

Shall fire you a PM.