Shite in Miniature II

[sierraman]

What were those Impy toys you used to get from the seventies that were really generic lorries?

[junkyarddog]

8 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

I have no idea. My police one has the engine cover but non-opening tailgate I think. 

What's the flyers version?

They have the thin plastic one piece wheels,thin wire axles held in place with a plastic suspension strip,and are held together by a screw rather than a rivet.

It should have Flyers cast into the baseplate too.

[bunglebus]

[junkyarddog]

Interesting. 

The top one is a Flyer version though.

[hennabm]

20 hours ago, eddyramrod said:

@hennabm Does it need to be Husky or will a no-name knockoff do?  I went back to the market yesterday to make some pickups and he showed me this, for which I paid £2.

I picked it up just on general principle, thinking someone here would love to have it.  I do have a sub-collection of fire vehicles but there's no real need for this to join it.

 

@flat4alfa Your Merc ambulance has joined your box, which now runs to three vehicles.  I'm happy to hang onto them and see what else shows up, or if you want them now we can make arrangements.

Hi Eddy

Thanks for the offer. It is the fact that it is a motor caravan Mk1 Transit that is the main part. I don't know if any other maker produced such a thing.

[RoadworkUK]

Way back on when this topic was young (well, five pages ago, actually) there was mention of the 007 partworks, and I got to browsing on eBay and, well, one thing led to another and a transaction was made.

It was all in the name of science, of course. Could they be the great untapped source of 1:43 delights I've been looking for? The answer is a very definite yes.... and no.

I reckon the Renner 11 is pretty damn gorgeous. The painted on indicators are a bit crapola, but the proportions are pretty neat, the yellowed headlamps and fogs are remarkably nifty, and general fit and finish is great (although the grille doesn't quite sit square on the nearside and the number plates are a bit wonky, but I reckon that's kind of charming).

If anything it looks better from the rear, where – mounting stud aside – the lights are nice and the spoiler / screen surround / wiper are pretty neatly done. Bonus points for the wheels, too, which are flipping excellent.  As with all of these, the little diorama that it's presented on works really nicely and puts the car nicely in context.

Were I a primary school teacher, I'd give it a pat on the back and one of those paper stickers with a smily frog on it that says "Very good work"

If I'm honest, A View To A Kill is a bit of a weakness of mine; I'd nag my parents to slot the tape into the machine as frequently as I could, and it's still one of the least stupid of the Moore Bonds. My favourite instalment of all, though, was the next one: The Living Daylights. Great action, great plot and some pretty tidy cars, too – not just the Aston Vantage, but the Audi 200. I was thrilled to find it in the partwork series.

It's a shame that it sucks rancid donkey plop.

The tragedy here is that the model 200 is of at least the same high quality as the 11, or even better – its paint finish is terrific, the wheels (even though the BBS cross spoke pattern is only applied to the surface, and the whole assembly juts out from each wheelarch as if Bond was driving customised Vitara in 1992) are beautifully detailed, the mirrors are the right shape, the grille badge looks decent... in fact all the details, looked at on their own merits, are nicely resolved.

The same is true of the back, too, where the exhaust and bi-colour rear lights look great, and the badges are neatly tampoed – if not laser-straight.

But what good is terrific detail when the whole bloody car is the wrong shape? It's all tall and RONG and seems to have a massive forehead above its radiator grille. In my view this is worse than having things the other way round, with mediocre details applied to a sound fundament. This is like your pizza having an exquisite topping, but the base being made from fertilizer and tapestry. No good at all.

If I were a primary school teacher I'd make it stand at the front of the class and apologise for wasting everybody's time.

I'm not angry, just disappointed.

[egg]

About to go in the bag marked charity shop, my brother's early 80's small Tonka tractor and trailer. Steering wheel missing. Anyone want it for £3, which is cost of postage?

[Datsuncog]

16 hours ago, RoadworkUK said:

Way back on when this topic was young (well, five pages ago, actually) there was mention of the 007 partworks, and I got to browsing on eBay and, well, one thing led to another and a transaction was made.

It was all in the name of science, of course. Could they be the great untapped source of 1:43 delights I've been looking for? The answer is a very definite yes.... and no.

Heh - oddly enough, I spent a fair proportion of this afternoon experiencing the same hand-wringing inner turmoil...

£8 each in a local model shop, and they had dozens of them... but yeah, they're so nearly brilliant. I've been agonising over the gold AMC Matador for the best part of five years now.

I quite like the Soviet stuff; the GAZ Volga's really rather well done, as is the Niva.

They also had a few other overseas partworks  - these South American Chevrolets popped up a few pages back as eBay items.

Better value online than in store, methinks - priced here at £15; online price was about half that, including post from China.

Odd Dacia crew cab is pretty shiteworthy. £6 on it wasn't too bad (I bought one a few years back).

Some impressive stuff in the cabinets, too:

Loose Redlines between £5 and £15; boxed Corgi and Dinky rather dearer (and good luck getting those price stickers off without ripping the surface of the box).

Mmm, what's that in the middle...

Not-quite mint but boxed Mattel Silhouette in approx. 1/43 scale - £25.

One already in the @bunglebus collection?

 

Various other items of loose tat too:

Matchbox Superkings Datsun 240Z rather optimistically priced at £8. Ditto the red Matchbox diggers.

Unboxed Days Gone for £6 a pop? Having a laugh, surely.

You can barely see it, but there's a Superkings Aircraft Transporter behind the Routemaster on the far right - no plane, and no better than the ones I picked up for 50p on Friday. Yet £10 on the price sticker.

Nope.

But then this mint and boxed K-36 transporter maybe isn't too far out at £30.

Weird.

 

Loose small models also bafflingly priced up: these pretty decent seventies Corgi and Matchbox items priced between £1 and £3 each...

...yet the trays also contain many playworn mid-2000s Hot Wheels of no particular rarity, with £4 sought.

Cray-cray.

 

In the end, though, I ended up with this...

One that's been on my to-get list since about 1990.

I loved these Matchbox Dinkys at the time, even if they look a little clunky nowadays.

The shop also had the earlier light blue version, but the box was knackered and yellow with UV damage, as were the blue plastic wheels. So I went with classic black.

Must get them all down from the attic sometime soon...

[barrett]

+1 on The Living Daylights. Best Bond, best story, best score, best atmosphere and weirdly one of the best cars in that Audi saloon. Model does look shite, though

[Sudsprint]

Best Bond girl too IMO

[sutty2006]

My favourite bond film, living daylights. 

[sierraman]

Naa View to a Kill. Some Renault Fuego and 11 activity. 

 

[RoadworkUK]

2 hours ago, sierraman said:

Naa View to a Kill. Some Renault Fuego and 11 activity. 

Close second to Living Daylights – helped by stretch 604 limo, 928 and Jenny Flex.

[Datsuncog]

On ‎2‎/‎2‎/‎2020 at 2:43 PM, RoadworkUK said:

Continuing from yesterday, here's a bit of a novelty.

Got this at Christmas '93, and I didn't really know quite what to make of it. 

As far as I know, there was a grand total of three of them in total: this, a Porsche 911 (which I've seen and am not especially impressed with, to be honest), and an XJ220 that looks half decent, with far better proportions than Maisto's effort. I don't think the Masterclass series were a massive success, though. I don't recall seeing them in the shops anywhere vaguely local to me, and 1:24 seems to be a bit of a forgotten scale, really – tonnes of it about in the '80s, and in the world of self-assembly model kits. In fact, only now that 1:24 partworks are becoming a thing in Europe does it seem that they're making any kind of comeback.

I guess, though, that Matchbox was better off abandoning efforts in the larger-scale arena and concentrating on what it knows.

Really loving the write-up here - thanks for this!

The Masterclass range wasn't one I ever saw in the shops either - and, looking up the Charlie Mack book, it seems that they were only really available in Germany and the US.

I would have been equally impressed with the flocked carpeting; although supercars don't quite float my boat the way they did when I was ten, that's a very handsome model nonetheless.

Glad I wasn't the only one to play 'guess the model' through wrapping paper!

[junkyarddog]

I got this Hot Wheels 50th anniversary redline cars in the post today.

Quite a nice set,all metal,with spectraflame paint and redline tyres,with replica collector badge,on a original style card.

Quite pleased with them.

[Datsuncog]

^^^ Those Redlines look fantastic - nicely snapped up!

[sierraman]

Doesn’t seem to be any diecasts anywhere at the moment, Tesco has last years, no Hot Wheels etc in Poundland. 

[bunglebus]

16 hours ago, Datsuncog said:

 

Mmm, what's that in the middle...

Not-quite mint but boxed Mattel Silhouette in approx. 1/43 scale - £25.

One already in the @bunglebus collection?

WOW. Didn't even know they made one in that size. I'd really like it, it's probably priced about right but...can't justify it. 

Maybe if it's still there once I'm a bit more flush eh?

Great spot though ?

[Datsuncog]

No worries - I don't think anything's moved in that case for about ten years, so hopefully it might linger there a little longer... I'll ask to have a proper look at it next time I'm in though, just to get a feel for the condition.

Not one I've ever seen before, and net searches haven't yet revealed pics of another in that scale.

Diecasts, hey - just when you think you know what's out there...

[bunglebus]

Frankfurt is not proving to be a good place to hunt Hot Wheels. Don't get me wrong, I highly recommend anyone travelling to Germany heads into a Müller store as they have a massive selection 

Some cheap, some very much not so. But this particular one had virtually no Hot Wheels other than a couple of incomplete sets of premium cars. Not worth €10 

[RoadworkUK]

Bloody hell, that ancient Maisto casting is €58 now? That's nuts.

Makes I larf that the same old Bburagos that I know were £10.99 in Beatties, are now listed for €40+ at CK Modelcars. What a time to be alive.

 

[RoadworkUK]

6 hours ago, Datsuncog said:

Really loving the write-up here - thanks for this!

Cheers! But, think nothing of it; your Friday Tat exploits are a weekly highlight that I save for the commute home.

What's more; writing stuff up helps me justify buying occasional diecast rammle without feeling too guilt-stricken.

[155V6]

On 2/1/2020 at 10:43 AM, 155V6 said:

As mentioned earlier in the week,I've bought a few lots of cars & have quite a few I don't need.Some are better than others,some have issues which I'll mention if anyone wants that car.I'll sell them Datsuncog-style,3 for a pound or 20 for £5.00 if anyone wants that many.Prices plus post.

I forgot to number them,so start at the top left & go across top row & then across the bottom row from the left if that makes sense.Let me know if you want better pictures or more info on anything.

Picture one

Picture two

Picture three

Picture four

Picture five

Picture six

Picture seven

If you wanted any of these,let me know if you want me to send them,or if you wanted to start a box to add to later.     Thanks.

[egg]

@155V6- happy to pay up and have mine posted please. Thanks.

[Split_Pin]

Y0, speaking of Matchbox does anybody remember the Matchbox American trucks range in 1-58 scale from around the late 1990s?

Kind of like Models of Yesteryear but relevant.

They were very detailed and quite heavy if a bit chunky and mostly made of diecast.

I have a 1939 Peterbilt in 'Work Refreshed' Coca Cola livery. I think it also came in Campbell's Soup livery.

This one isn't mine but it is identical. 

Nice pieces.

[bunglebus]

I didn't leave empty handed earlier;

 

I couldn't leave the Trabby behind

 

20200205_223021 by RS, on Flickr

 

It's really not a bad little model. Comes out of the box without damage too

 

20200205_223145 by RS, on Flickr

 

Also

 

20200205_223335 by RS, on Flickr

20200205_223412 by RS, on Flickr

20200205_223507 by RS, on Flickr

Another one that's escaped its packaging. Was the only one left on the shelf

 

20200205_223637 by RS, on Flickr

20200205_223742 by RS, on Flickr

20200205_223930 by RS, on Flickr

20200205_224011 by RS, on Flickr

 

[RoadworkUK]

12 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

Y0, speaking of Matchbox does anybody remember the Matchbox American trucks range in 1-58 scale from around the late 1990s?

Hadn't heard about these at all, and now dangerously intrigued.

[Datsuncog]

12 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

Y0, speaking of Matchbox does anybody remember the Matchbox American trucks range in 1-58 scale from around the late 1990s?

Kind of like Models of Yesteryear but relevant.

They were very detailed and quite heavy if a bit chunky and mostly made of diecast.

I have a 1939 Peterbilt in 'Work Refreshed' Coca Cola livery. I think it also came in Campbell's Soup livery.

This one isn't mine but it is identical. 

Nice pieces.

Those look really nicely done; like Roadwork UK's Masterclass Diablo they're not ones I'm familiar with either - but then Northern Ireland's sole Matchbox rep went AWOL from about 1996 to 1998, so the model shop where I worked missed out on a fair chunk of their Collectibles range.

Must look those up in the Mack book later.

Can you remember where you picked yours up?

 

11 hours ago, bunglebus said:

I couldn't leave the Trabby behind

I love that casting, great to see it's still doing the rounds (even though there's not much fresh about it).

Think I picked up an Edocar version in blue around 1993 while on holiday, which I adored (Jalopy magazine had a thing for Trabants - so I did too).

I kept it boxed, then stupidly lent it to a 'friend' along with a load of other Matchbox-sized diecast to populate an architectural model he was making as part of a university project.

Never got any of them back.

About ten years ago I found a Maisto branded version in a charity shop, in that mushy-pea colour - think I still have it, too.

Looks good in beige!

[bunglebus]

I have visions of your friend's project as a proposed future city, full of fantasy Superfast Matchbox Mod Rods and Piston Poppers...

[Datsuncog]

Just looking at that Majorette Beetle packaging....

Has anyone else noticed some copyright-baiting diecast brands on the shelves lately?

Hmmmm…. remind you of anything?

Possibly better than 'Wot Heels' branding, just about.

I especially love the utter barefaced lies of 'Metal Car' printed on a manifestly plastic car.

 

These multipack delights are courtesy of The Range - enough to confuse old biddies into thinking they're buying quality toys for the grandkids?

 

Of course, they also stock those even worse Cheapo Gift Packs Of Regret - the kind of thing I would have spunked half my holiday money on in 1987 because OMG 36 CARS!! before realising that they were all pretty crappy...

Interesting to see that many of the castings haven't really changed much in 30 years, with loose approximations of a Jaguar XJS, Porsche 928, Lotus Esprit, Dodge Charger and Porsche 959 still in evidence... the 'Formula 1' cars that make up a full half of the set seem largely stuck in the 70s and 80s too.

Mistakes you only make once...