Shite in Miniature II

[bunglebus]

Cool, more Blackwalls I need to find. Just checked and my Baja breaker is the green 1980 mainline release

[Datsuncog]

53 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

The large Mogul pressed steel toys certainly look like they were going after Tonka, but I have no idea when the big yellow toys started arriving in the UK.

Yeah, I think that Tonka toys were available in the UK in the early 70s - I'd read that the Mogul range was an attempt to muscle in on Tonka's patch, but they were rather more expensive than the US-made competition so simply didn't shift in the numbers needed.

I didn't realise that some of them were made to be compatible with Meccano though - that sounds like quite an interesting proposition, to use the trucks as a chassis to mount other youthful engineering projects.

I probably should crack out my Meccano...

[bunglebus]

26 minutes ago, Datsuncog said:

I probably should crack out my Meccano...

I sold all mine years ago on eBay, went to Australia of all places. Nice cheap* shipping

[Datsuncog]

Oddly, I never used my Meccano much - it annoyed me a bit, as the cheapo tools supplied never worked all that well. So whenever I attempted to get the dragster I'd just built fired up with the electric motor, the lack of tightness meant there was so much twist in the chassis that the worm wheel would just jam against the pinion crown and go nowhere...

Maybe I should have another go - doesn't look like it's been touched since 1992!

[flat4alfa]

13 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

Gosh that Capri is something else. I have the Police version and it is very heavy and well detailed. The correct Ford steel wheels are a nice touch.

I'd be interested to know the reason why they made just one model. Were they expensive? I know that Polistil had started to make 1/25 scale models at that time which were comparably detailed if not quite as well put together as the Dinky. 

My theory is that when the Besana brothers started producing their 1/24 Martoys range in 1974, soon to become Bburago in 1976 with greatly reduced detail compared to the others, they were possibly cheaper too. Interesting to see the timeline of Polistil models through the 70s, at the time the Capri was released they were quite heavy with full opening features and detailed parts, but by  the latter half of the 1970s bases became plastic, and by the mid 1980s they only had 3 opening features.

From Car Wars (Giles Chapman)

[flat4alfa]

12 hours ago, bunglebus said:

The large Mogul pressed steel toys certainly look like they were going after Tonka

[Split_Pin]

Giles doesn't mention the reason why the Capri didn't sell so based on the fact that the Mogul toys were expensive I'll speculate that the Capri was about twice the price of the Italian equivalent.

He's right about the play value of the Italian models, they were an absolute joy (until they fell to bits!) and they remain so just now. They have an authentic Italian charm. The Capri is lovely but it's somehow a little sterile in comparison. I'm very glad to have one though.

[flat4alfa]

Yes I assumed so too. I knew that material costs and engineering complexity (the Silver Shadow had ~40 components) meant that Meccano products had the largest price hikes in the early seventies. However, the Italian firms should have experienced those issues as well?

Photos of you Dinky Capri Please!

 

[NorfolkNWeigh]

I think either one of my brothers or I might have had one of thoseDinky Mogul army trucks.  I vaguely remember a lorry that wasn’t quite as good as the Tonkaswe had in the garden and too small to be an Actin Man vehicle.  It just sort of got ignored, I think we called it theTrumpton army truck.

The Tonkas were literally played to death, we had a Jeep Cj, a Waggoner, a bulldozer and a big dump truck. They lived in the garden in sandpits and mud holes from about 1972 until my youngest brother grew out of them in maybe 1995. They used to be always taken to the beach, we thought it odd to see others kids playing with buckets and spades, we had the Tonkas and my Dad would bring a full size shovel from the back of the Land Rover to dig massive holes and bury each other.

The two Jeeps also doubled as roller skates and it’ll come as no surprise to anyone that’s met me, we weren’t small kids... I remember once losing the Waggoner for a couple of years, we assumed we’d left it on the beach or something, then coming home from school one day and it was sitting in the yard, my Dad had got someone in with a JCB to dig some footings out for an extension  and it just surfaced. Quick wash with the hose and good as new, they really were that tough.

I saw an ad on eBay for a dump truck a couple of weeks ago. It said “ perfect condition never played with outdoors” I thought that was the saddest thing I’d ever read.

[bunglebus]

Got this bad boy finished. Got rid of the roof rack/bars, the supercharger and the bonnet "hole" came from a guy who 3D prints them. It's OK but you can really see the lines in it, doesn't sand well and has curved up away from the bonnet a bit unfortunately. Shame, as it's a great idea in theory.

Blue paint seemed to work with the window colour

 

20200427_123720 by RS, on Flickr

20200427_123619 by RS, on Flickr

20200427_123734 by RS, on Flickr

20200427_123644 by RS, on Flickr

20200427_123700 by RS, on Flickr

[bunglebus]

Started playing with the Hot Wheels BRAT, found a set of suitable wheels but they're a bit close to the arches

 

20200427_130338 by RS, on Flickr

 

Better

 

20200427_130243 by RS, on Flickr

 

Nice old Siku Merc dropped on the mat today...

 

20200427_153101 by RS, on Flickr

20200427_153116 by RS, on Flickr

 

...along with this really clean Volks-Dragon, somehow I'd got rid of my yellow interior version so now I have this and the white seat one...

 

20200427_153344 by RS, on Flickr

 

...accompanied by a type 3, missing a couple of spotlights but I have a good base - importantly the pillars are uncracked. The base is already trying to remove itself, destiny!

 

20200427_153423 by RS, on Flickr

20200427_153510 by RS, on Flickr

 

@Petrolize kindly sent me a couple of Majorettes (I actually thought the camper was the Matchbox one). The caravan can go behind the Lite Ace camper/day van from the other week

 

20200427_153151 by RS, on Flickr

20200427_153301 by RS, on Flickr

[Petrolize]

Looks great! Glad you like them

[Split_Pin]

Here is the 1/25 Dinky Capri.

I bought it at the November 2006 Falkirk Swap meet, one of the last I went to regularly as the sellers there were ostensibly greedy dickheads. I paid about £45 for this, no idea if that was good or not but I wanted it and had the money (I had moved back in with my parents at the time).

Detail is crude and the casting quality is rough AF, Bburagos were lower quality but the shells were far cleaner.

 

[RayMK]

19 minutes ago, Split_Pin said:

Here is the 1/25 Dinky Capri.

I bought it at the November 2006 Falkirk Swap meet, one of the last I went to regularly as the sellers there were ostensibly greedy dickheads. I paid about £45 for this, no idea if that was good or not but I wanted it and had the money (I had moved back in with my parents at the time).

Detail is crude and the casting quality is rough AF, Bburagos were lower quality but the shells were far cleaner.

 

Wonderful close-ups. Some of them realistically show Capris in their rotting magnificence.

[Split_Pin]

That's my new cheapie Amazon android phone which I'm actually delighted with!

[bunglebus]

That is a very cool Capri - has the paint been touched up or was it really that bad from new?

[Split_Pin]

A bit of both! Awful quality IMO, I didn't realise this until I took the close ups.

[flat4alfa]

“Ohh I can remember when 1:1 scale Capris were £45”, etc

[andy18s]

I won a raffle a couple of weeks ago,and my prize has finally arrived

Quite chuffed with it although the non-standard wheels will be getting changed

[Split_Pin]

I have that one, much better proportioned than the Autoart examples.

[Spottedlaurel]

6 hours ago, bunglebus said:

20200427_153423 by RS, on Flickr

20200427_153301 by RS, on Flickr

Superfast Type 3 is one of the most satisfying when carrying out a bounce test - lift one end up an inch or so then drop it. It boings very nicely, perfectly weighted.

That Majorette caravan is something to watch out for, what name and number is it please? I have a different one, called St Tropez No. 207. No opening door on mine, nor a sink!

[Datsuncog]

54 minutes ago, Spottedlaurel said:

That Majorette caravan is something to watch out for, what name and number is it please?

Prosaically named 'Caravane', it's numbered as No.325...

I had two, this one and another with an acid yellow base casting, in best late-80s tradition.

Both came as a two-pack with the same yellow Ford Sierra; disappointingly I seem to have let both the tow cars go, as well as the yellow caravan.

Not only does it have a sink and gas stove - there's a transistor radio and an ashtray on the table, so the tiny occupants can puff away on their 1/70 scale Gauloises while listening to Johnny Halliday and enjoying a glass of pastis no bigger than a pinhead.

La vie en vacances, c'est belle...

[155V6]

I think I've got the caravan with blue & green bases too.

[Sudsprint]

Here's my Dinky Capri, had from when I was a boy.  It's a heavy old thing and a bit clunky compared with Polistels etc.

[bunglebus]

So that's the police and standard versions, anyone got the rally one with the rear window louvre? Also is the GXL an auto like the police car?

[bunglebus]

Dug out the 1971 Dinky catalogue, there's some amazing stuff in this one

 

Dinky 197101 by RS, on Flickr

Dinky 197102 by RS, on Flickr

Dinky 197103 by RS, on Flickr

Dinky 197104 by RS, on Flickr

Dinky 197105 by RS, on Flickr

Dinky 197106 by RS, on Flickr

Dinky 197107 by RS, on Flickr

Dinky 197108 by RS, on Flickr

Dinky 197109 by RS, on Flickr

Dinky 197110 by RS, on Flickr

Dinky 197111 by RS, on Flickr

Dinky 197112 by RS, on Flickr

Dinky 197113 by RS, on Flickr

Dinky 197114 by RS, on Flickr

Dinky 197115 by RS, on Flickr

Dinky 197116 by RS, on Flickr

Dinky 197117 by RS, on Flickr

 

The Rolls-Royce with four opening doors, boot and bonnet plus the Mercury Cougar and Cadillac Eldorado are standouts for me

[Tenmil Socket]

47 minutes ago, Sudsprint said:

Here's my Dinky Capri, had from when I was a boy.  It's a heavy old thing and a bit clunky compared with Polistels etc.

The Ford lettering on the bonnet reminds me of those paint stamps you make out of potatoes at school...

[Split_Pin]

You must have really looked after that Capri, it's mint.

I've owned a fair number from that Dinky catalogue, all bought from swapmeets. Few survived the great purge(TM) of 2013 but I still have a sliding door Transit, MK1 Escort and Pontiac Parissiene Police and the Citroen Dyane.

[bunglebus]

12 minutes ago, Split_Pin said:

I still have a Citroen Dyane.

 

Or "Dyane Citroen" as Dinky wrote for some unfathomable reason. Good job they didn't make a Reliant... 

[Datsuncog]

That '72 Dinky catalogue really is a thing of wonder - even though I know some of the models are a bit duff in terms of proportions and detailing in real life, those illustrations are just so beguiling... there's such room for imagination in the white space around the edges.

This catalogue feels like a bit of a high water mark, to me - from this point on, after Lines Bros were bought out by Airfix in 1971, sales of diecast cars began to contract and cost-cutting measures meant that producing cars with multiple features like the Rolls Royce just wasn't feasible. Instead, simplified castings and the rather dreadful Speedwheels became the norm. 

I suppose it's hard to blame them - Hot Wheels had irrevocably marked a shift away from faithful automotive realism into a day-glo world of candy-apple colours and loop-the-loop stunt tracks, and Dinky's marketing gurus were alarmed to discover that the age at which children stopped buying toy cars had fallen from 14 in the mid-60s, to 11 in the late 60s - and by the early 70s, the average child stopped being interested in toy cars by the time they were 8. That's a massive market contraction, and all of it at the end where their more expensive models could be sold.

I suppose it was also much cheaper to just take group photos for catalogues in later years, rather than employ a team of illustrators, but somehow it kinda shattered the magic a little (not least because of the scale discrepancies in some cases, as 1/43 mixed unhappily with 1/35 on the same page).

The Eton Yale Articulated Tractor Shovel was one of very few Dinkys I had as a kid, and it lived in the sandpit at the bottom of the garden along with a Thunderbirds FAB1. Both were pretty battered and nearly devoid of paint, and the digger had a wonky wheel while the canopy was long gone on the futuristic Rolls - I'll assume they were jumble sale acquisitions on my behalf. I'll also assume they were binned on my behalf at some point in the early 2000s when my parents moved house... 

In later years I picked up a Cadillac Superior Rescuer ambulance, a Volvo 265, a non-sliding door Transit LWB, and a Princess 2200HL on the toy stall at my school's May Festival, but for me Dinkys mostly remained the stuff of Collector's Gazette and library books rather than reality. Older Corgi toys seemed to be much more readily available, for some reason.

Possibly Dinky never had the same market penetration in Northern Ireland - I'm not sure at what point Dinky abandoned their 'premium' policy of only selling to approved stockists who could display the range and give window space to their signage, but I understand this meant Dinky Toys were only really available in department stores and large toy shops. With much of NI still quite rural and served mostly by general stores, it's possible that Corgi and Matchbox dominated since their makers weren't as fussed about selling to retailers who could just about manage to squeeze a few boxes of diecast cars onto their shelves between the beans and the hot water bottles.

Loving the big Dinky Capri too - it's maybe not nearly as finely detailed as it should be at that scale, but still a jaw-dropping bit of kit. You can bet that if I'd encountered that in a toy shop when I was seven or eight, I'd not have wanted to leave without it. The appeal is strong!