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Shite in Miniature II


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1 hour ago, flat4alfa said:

I would swap an Escort XR3 shell in order to save that Datsun from oblivion!

I have these two in the pile to go on 'bay

No glass or grille / bumpers on XR3i so would need to be fabricated - or just bought from repro spares fellas

Food for thought

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2 hours ago, Datsuncog said:

the Rockets clusterfuck of 1970

?  Did you mean this 

 

Quote

[Wikipedia]  It is suspected that losing a court case to Mattel (over a copyright claim by the American toy manufacturer to the sole production rights of associated tracks systems for their range of Hot Wheels cars) was the main reason for the failure of the range since the cars without tracks to race on had little purpose. Production of the track sets was halted immediately while stocks already in the shops were allowed to be sold. Sales of the Rockets cars suffered as a result and the costly-to-produce range was withdrawn at the end of 1971, after just over a year in production.

What did Corgi do wrong?  Did they mention the track being compatible with HW products in their advertising or something? 

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19 hours ago, TheDoctor said:

My littlun has asked if he can have a model Escort estate, Mk3 or 4. 

Is there anything about that isn't 60+ Euros? ?

 

If you were going smaller scale for an Escort Estate model, maybe use a Matchbox Escort cabriolet as a basis for the model, as the rear panel & lights are already the right type for an estate version (pic from Google)

 

il_794xN.1841982962_g0k3.jpg

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2 hours ago, flat4alfa said:

?  Did you mean this 

 

What did Corgi do wrong?  Did they mention the track being compatible with HW products in their advertising or something? 

If that was the case why didn’t Matchbox Superfast track get caught? It was more like HW as it was in short sections with joiners.

CR track came in 12ft or 16ft lengths.

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7 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

THERE IS A MICRO MACHINES BOOK BEING RELEASED ON 27TH APRIL WITH A PICTURE OF EVERY ONE RELEASED AND A DESCRIPTION.

That is all.

*Breathes into a paper bag*

I love micro machines. The early ones that were painted nicely with the nicer wheels not the cheaper looking later ones. 

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On 4/16/2020 at 4:27 PM, bunglebus said:

The purple 760's arrival means I can do the Volvo edition of WDIB?

 

From left to right; MC Toys, Zymex, Matchbox, Majorette, Corgi

 

49781386822_d9a2c67e84_4k.jpg20200416_160730 by RS, on Flickr

49781389837_6c86995e7d_4k.jpg20200416_160735 by RS, on Flickr

49781392932_a09288eb61_4k.jpg20200416_160831 by RS, on Flickr

49780524593_5597564504_4k.jpg20200416_160803 by RS, on Flickr

Bonus laughable Chinese job I saw on eBay

49780177302_ea12143015_c.jpg20200416_082820 by RS, on Flickr

49780176827_dd50ac2f7f_c.jpg20200416_082807 by RS, on Flickr

49779310138_31efeb7a8a_c.jpg20200416_082737 by RS, on Flickr

Although the Matchbox and Majorette both have opening doors, I reckon the French version is the most accurate and detailed

 

Slim pickings in the world of 240s

 

49781065161_764f73c491_4k.jpg20200416_161014 by RS, on Flickr

49781064721_299c75703d_4k.jpg20200416_161023 by RS, on Flickr

49781066576_18e034d866_4k.jpg20200416_161033 by RS, on Flickr

49780530193_e19e1ebc22_4k.jpg20200416_161107 by RS, on Flickr

 

Again, the French effort is much nicer, despite the rear window being miles off

I had one of those purple MC Toys Volvos. It was a colour changer so if you put that one in the sun it'll probably turn pink.

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Okay the weird Italian parcel arrived. 

IMG_20200417_190152.thumb.jpg.800095398bea7dd19111b8a3ef063eb7.jpg

No bubble wrap at all, just shredded newspaper. Definitely some warp in the model, the casting is pretty dire too, as you can see! I think it's been dropped at some point as there is a chunk of nearside headlight missing and the base has lifted at that end. 

Wonder who made it?

IMG_20200417_190232.thumb.jpg.90f20266a3bb1253ac1e54f53cfbcdb0.jpg

Yep dunno who that is. 

 

I've paid less for better, I'll be honest. But I couldn't stop looking at it. I just had to have it. 

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today i have mostly been striping the paint off of this Spot-on Armstrong Siddeley, courtesy of Mr Ramrod,

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having drilled out the rivets this happened.

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and then some of the paint fell off.

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revealing more paint.

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who knew that Joseph had a car of many colours, as well as that coat.

its like been an archaeologist. under the cream was blue, and under that was red, and under that was green, which was the original colour.

the glazing is shot, so until i get another window thing, Steve Flowers been closed cos of the chinese virus......

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so until i get another one, i have done it proper gansta/drug dealer blacked out spec.....

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putting the car back together it looks like this, the casting is, in common with most of these golden oldies really detailed.

but that now leaves me having a choice as to what colour to paint it. looking through the tins of paint, i have several choices. all humbrol colours, even though that is anathema to most folks, it is what i've got available, especially as most of the shops are shut. 

metallic gold? i have seen a picture of an Armstrong Siddeley in a similar colour, and that would set off the grill and bumpers nicely. this is the colour scheme i am leaning towards. 

or, brunswick green gloss, really close to british racing green. maybe italian racing red gloss? would something as posh as an Armstrong Siddeley really be painted such a daring colour?

i had thought about painting it Mid Admiralty Grey, though i think if i did use that colour the grill and bumpers would be lost against the grey. and gloss white that would make the car look like a wedding car.

my poor eye sight and none too steady hand does rule out a two-tone paint scheme.

choices, choices....

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10 hours ago, flat4alfa said:

What did Corgi do wrong?  Did they mention the track being compatible with HW products in their advertising or something? 

Straightforward copyright infringement, apparently. Mattel held a patent for flexible plastic racing track, and (perhaps somewhat vindictively) held fire until Corgi's version had been on the market for several months and awarded Toy of the Year for 1971. With Rockets production now in full swing, and sales booming, Mattel then slapped a writ on them. Corporate chaos ensued.

I'm not sure about the ins and outs of the case, but ultimately the court found in Mattel's favour and so Corgi were legally barred from producing any more Rockets track. They were allowed to sell through their existing shop and warehouse stock, but by Court order the track extrusion tooling had to be destroyed (one story has it that it was dumped in Swansea harbour).

Lesney, as it happens, were also taken to court by Mattel over their Superfast track (alongside other manufacturers, too), though I'm less clear what the outcome of that case was.

Certainly, Matchbox Superfast track sets stayed in the range (in one form or another) from 1970 until well into the 1990s, so possibly Lesney were able to cut some sort of royalties deal with Mattel?

Or, maybe the differing outcomes boiled down to Corgi making and advertising sets of plastic adaptors which made their track compatible with "other brands". Could this have been key? If Lesney's track was deemed incompatible with anything other than itself, then maybe the court took a different view of the infringement? I should probably ask my brother about this; Intellectual Property law is his field...

A flick through my old Matchbox catalogues shows that, rather strangely, the original Superfast Race Track range lasted for one year only.

The range that was launched with great fanfare in 1970 all began with an SF code; yet these were replaced for the 1971 catalogue by a similar, yet subtly different range, all beginning with a T code. I wonder whether there were other material changes made to the track itself following the legal action? The Charlie Mack book remains silent on the subject.

Regardless of the reasons, the whole affair put a massive spanner in Mettoy's works, as they'd invested heavily in product development, tooling and a massive advertising blitz for their new Rockets range and suddenly were legally bound to scrap the core product line, at ruinous cost.

As it happens, the candy-chrome finish of much of the Rockets range - which Corgi termed 'Solarbrite' - was a direct lift of Mattel's Spectraflame process, but since it was just a tinted lacquer sprayed over a silver coating, apparently it wasn't subject to any Mattel patents. Corgi had sold toy cars in both the Husky and regular line with shiny metal vacuum-plated finish from the early 60s and continued to use it with a tinted finish on some of their larger 1/43 toys in the early 70s, such as the Toyota 2000GT cabrio and Chevrolet Corvette).

Rockets cars, with their separate chassis and 'tune-up key' weren't directly affected by the legal action - but they were expensive to produce, and in future would be very expensive on the toy shop pegs compared to mainline Lesneys and the like. Corgi's accountants had costed them so that the individual cars would act as effective loss leaders for the much more profitable track sets. No more track sales meant no more subsidy for the carded cars. They had to go.

The Rockets debacle occurred around the same time that Mettoy were launching the Corgi Juniors range, having recently ended their exclusive deal with Woolworths to market Matchbox-sized models under the Husky brand. A 'crash programme' was already underway to rebrand Huskys as Corgi Juniors and bring in brand new models; the overall idea had been that Rockets would do the lairy stunt stuff, while Juniors would do nice detailed models of passenger cars and commercials.

But with Rockets now dead in the water, there was now a scramble to amalgamate two very different lines into a unified range - resulting in Rockets wheels being added to hastily modified former Husky base castings and taking on the Whizzwheels moniker from the bigger range. Results ranged from comical to terrible, with the NSU Ro80 and Duple Vista coach in particular seeing their previously elegant lines ruined with sticky-out binlid wheels.

Just to put the tin hat on Mettoy's annus horribilus, a fire at their Swansea warehouse in March 1969 had wiped out nearly a year's production of their larger models, leading to severe product line shortages and a pressing need to get something, anything, out to toy shops.

The Rockets range was supposed to temporarily switch the consumer focus onto smaller cars (made in their Northampton factory) while allowing the company to rebuild a new large-scale inventory in Swansea. But following the disastrous legal action, the Juniors range had to step up to the mark far too quickly in an attempt to prevent Dinky and Matchbox from further muscling in on Corgi's turf. But it was a traumatized birth for the small Corgi line, and it showed.

In fact, with large job losses at the factories as a direct result of all this, it's possible Mettoy's diecast division could have gone to the wall in late 1971. But what saved them? Diversification.

Mettoy's parent company also made and marketed that icon of the 1970s, the wildly successful Space Hopper.

Thanks to a grinning rubber ball with horns, Corgi would rise from the Mattel debacle  and live to fight another day.

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@MarvinsMom: I would put the window unit back in the caustic.  With a bit of patience and maybe toothbrushing, it should come clean, thus saving you money and waiting time.  As for paint, many outlets are closed, true; but Wilkinsons is open, at least in Barrow it is, and I managed to get some aerosols there the other day.  Choice of colour was a bit limited, but it could be worth a look.  If you can get a nice dark blue/green/maroon, that should look the part.

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Brilliant write up Datsuncog. I can just about remember Hot Wheels hitting the shops (I was about eight)  in the UK and having a few HW cars.

I remember they seemed very exotic and exciting but I didn't really relate to the actual cars that much.

Corgi Rockets also felt new and exciting, the metallic blue AM DBS was a favourite but had silly oversize wheels. 

The mirror green XJ6 was a favourite and I still have it.

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I agree - a very good write up Mr Datsoncog.

As a lad I had a lot of CR stuff and could pick up the cars even as late as 1975 for around 25p each. I had a number of sets and accessories. To me I also felt the cars were more like the ones on the road and not fantasies from a long long way away.

I sold off all my CR stuff in 2000. This included several cars still in their bubble packs and a Jensen Interceptor that wasn’t even opened. Some of the track accessories were also still boxed. All I got for it was £35.

Do I regret selling the cars - you bet I do.......

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9 hours ago, MarvinsMom said:

the glazing is shot, so until i get another window thing, Steve Flowers been closed cos of the chinese virus......

1441029290_2020-04-1719_13_49.thumb.jpg.9f28ce1bf22776a9763d239b4d18b2f1.jpg

so until i get another one, i have done it proper gansta/drug dealer blacked out spec.....

 

 

 

How bad is it? I've revived some nasty ones with wet and dry, polishing and/or a dip in some wood floor polish

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10 hours ago, Datsuncog said:

Or, maybe the differing outcomes boiled down to Corgi making and advertising sets of plastic adaptors which made their track compatible with "other brands". Could this have been key? If Lesney's track was deemed incompatible with anything other than itself, then maybe the court took a different view of the infringement? I should probably ask my brother about this; Intellectual Property law is his field...

A flick through my old Matchbox catalogues shows that, rather strangely, the original Superfast Race Track range lasted for one year only.

The range that was launched with great fanfare in 1970 all began with an SF code; yet these were replaced for the 1971 catalogue by a similar, yet subtly different range, all beginning with a T code. I wonder whether there were other material changes made to the track itself following the legal action? The Charlie Mack book remains silent on the subject.

Aha! Adaptors. I've never seen these either advertised or in photos that they existed!

Those three paragraphs raise enough questions to expand the research into an entire chapter (in that book you were writing - you know the Cog Book I want to pre-order)  ?

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5 hours ago, eddyramrod said:

@MarvinsMom As for paint, many outlets are closed, true; but Wilkinsons is open, at least in Barrow it is, and I managed to get some aerosols there the other day. 

Yesterday I ordered a rattle can of Rustoleum Mirror Gold off Amazon next day delivery, so you don't even need to go out. It was cheap too

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49656877947_dd64ee7eb5_b.jpg

Was this worth the £2.50 I shelled out for it? Not sure but it is nice, for a modern casting. But I don't know why this was 5 times the price of the Mitsubisi i-MiEV taxi I bought at the same time.

 

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I quite like the back number plate, though. Should this light anyone's candle, I'll gladly sell/swap it on at cost value, or thereabouts. Don't all rush at once!

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The glazing for the Armstrong Siddeley is pretty nasty, its cracked and the surface is deeply pitted, giving it a wipe with some black is the temporary measure as i have ordered a replacement off the bay of fleas..... now i have gotta wait for it to come. hopefully.

it has come out a couple of quid dearer than Steve Flowers would have been, but hey ho!

the nearest Wilko is in Redcar, so only a few miles from home, but i am trying to avoid leaving home and spend even more money....

so what has happened today?

seems the car has fallen into some paint!

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more updates to follow.

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Started on this Studebaker Wagonaire I got in a tat box a while back. 

I don't have any paint stripping chemicals, so it's a painstaking process, especially as it has a lot of paint layers. Also, managed to crack the chassis when removing, as it's very brittle and I'm very clumsy

IMG_20200418_163330.thumb.jpg.5281765942fdf543b282cdeaca3009ea.jpg

 

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