Shite in Miniature II

[flat4alfa]

54 minutes ago, junkyarddog said:

 

Skills!

[bunglebus]

14 minutes ago, flat4alfa said:

20200319_184133 by RS, on Flickr

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20191211_143823 by RS, on Flickr

20170804_151127 by RS, on Flickr

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[quicksilver]

5 hours ago, Mr Laurence said:

and on the subject of diecasts with an ordinary subject matter, is there any love on here for 1/72 Cararama stuff? I’ve always been a fan of these, but I could only find a handful that I still have. For their size and what they cost, they have some really nice detail. Do they still make these?

Plenty of love for them here, and the similar ranges by Yatming, Automaxx, Real-X and the like. Last count indicates I have over 300 of the little things, including a good number supplied by Datsuncog Diecast Dispersals. They used to turn up in all sorts of odd places like market stalls and seaside tat shops for very little money and are superb models for what they cost. Sadly they've been discontinued for a few years now and are getting harder and harder to find at decent prices.

I still have a handful of the more elusive everyday cars on my wants list, so if anyone comes across a Fiat Punto (original style, not the Grande Punto as I have two of them already), Volvo S80, VW Polo or Ford Ka for reasonable money I'm definitely interested.

[bunglebus]

I had a few Cararama when they landed in Poundland, kept a few but sold a lot on when I had a life laundry years ago. Think I have a couple of VW ones somewere - air cooled so no Polo

[Mr Laurence]

What a shame they don’t make them any more! They’re something I’d love to get into collecting, but as you say, they’re not so cheap or easy to find any more, especially the more unusual offerings they made

[flat4alfa]

Market Yorkshireman's brother did well for himself.  He left the market trader industry many years before, focusing on holiday lettings.  He now lives in Italy, of all places.  Here he was last Thursday, retracing the alpine route film locations as seen in the Italian Job.  He brought along his (Siku) Lamborghini Espada for the drive, avoiding any heavy plant in the tunnels.

[junkyarddog]

27 minutes ago, flat4alfa said:

Skills!

Smoll Eddy prefers it to be called creative bodgery!

[flat4alfa]

Market Yorkshireman's sister on the other hand, stayed living in Thirsk, keeping mangy dogs and her trusty but rusty (Siku) Range Rover

[warch]

I've been inspired by the restorers on here to have a stab at doing an old toy up.

First up, one Britains Massey Ferguson 135, obtained from evilbay for the sum of 12 quid (including postage). It looked like this;

Got it in the post today. The basic toy was fine, although there was some paint loss. I stripped all the wheels, seat, mudguards and driver off and resprayed it using Volkswagen metallic grey (not strictly correct as the original shade was a sort of brownish grey but near enough).  One of the lugs holding the nearside mudguard had broken so I decided to glue it in place (replacements are available).

I ordered replacement bonnet, rear wheel pins exhaust, grille panel, hitch pin and stickers, these are all pre coloured and should go straight on. Here is a work in progress shot; 

The finished model should cost me about 25 quid all in, which is about £10 or £15 less than a reasonable one off ebay. Not a massive saving but I fancied doing a restoration project and I've long fancied having one of these sweet little tractors in my collection. 

[MarvinsMom]

On 7/7/2020 at 5:20 PM, bunglebus said:

 

Only red door is the sliding side ones - just checked mine out and one has suspension and one does not - might be missing?

 

20190805_161725 by RS, on Flickr

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all the Husky Commer Walk Thru vans that i  have here (there are 4 ,asi quiet like that casting) have all got fixed wheels with no suspension, so  i guess that there are 2 versions and the ones which have suspension are the less common variety?

[Spottedlaurel]

I think these are the only 1/72s that I have:

Carararararama RX300 and RAV4, Skyline from Real-X. All are nicely detailed little things.

[Jon]

So after going to bed, I arise in the morning to a veritable feast of Siku on here - nice one, chaps!

My Siku story started in 1987, when my dad's job in the Army had him posted to Germany. We moved there for around 18 months but it seems I made the absolute most of my 3 Deutschmarks in weekly pocket money (about £1) and would relish the Friday trip to Divi supermarkt, where I could splash DM2.45 on a Siku car each week. Seemingly, there was no budget for sweets and the like, just saving up for more Sikus. So 1987/88 is a personal sweet spot for these reasons but I do appreciate the older castings too, as they would've been hanging about in the rage at that time, still.

Looking at all the stuff people have posted up here and seeing all the items I remember having, it's safe to say that I was an avid collector and obviously made the most of Christmas and birthdays - I recall at least 4 trucks and 4 car/commercial & trailer combos. I mostly looked after my stuff, so I'm sure my folks didn't mind feeding my habit.

Anyway, my post here is useless without photos, so here's the Siku I forgot I had:

 

Bought from a stall at a local market, I was drawn to this Opel Astra caravan, as it's not a bad old rendition. It's also painted in an oh so German shade of green - I remember solid, bright colours being a common theme for cars and clothing, when I lived there. 

 

As you can see, the boot opens for much desired marble storage space and the suchlike. It's also nice to see clear headlamps, orange indicators and painted tail lights, too. Although the wheels are admittedly much closer to the real things, rather like @Split_Pin, Siku nirvana for me is the painted spoked wheels era (I can confirm that the Ford Cargo ADAC helicopter rig did come with earlier spoked wheels, as mine has them!).

On return to York in 1988, Sikus weren't seen for a couple of years and then became a thing to save up for. I remember buying a red Beetle and a white Beetle convertible, plus a VW T4 van with later, nobbly spoked wheels but then interest waned beyond this, although I'd still peruse when visiting model shops, of course.

I picked up a 2020 catalogue a couple of weeks ago and the Siku range is now depressingly drab - mostly super cars and SUVs in dark metallics and I could hardly identify any of them. Small hatchbacks and light commercials are conspicuous by their absence. I imagine it's really hard to compete with the likes of Hot Wheels now, since they have a giant range of castings and always seem to be launching new variants.

[Spottedlaurel]

11 hours ago, warch said:

A good selection of Britain's best and most realistic models. Back in the 70s when the 880, 5000/6600 and TW came out they were all unique castings, whereas during the late 80s and early 90s there was a great deal of reuse and shared castings to the detriment of realism.

There is a firm who sell replacement parts for damaged Britains tractors https://www.britainstoyfarm.net/index.php/8/284178/ if you ever wanted to replace your TW's bonnet.

That Bamfords baler is another nostalgia trip for me, again a really good model and one that I had when I was 2. I still have my original.

The baler was a more recent addition, picked up cheap at a toyfair as I recall.

What I liked about the Britains range as a youngster was the ability to add machinery and accessories at a variety of prices.

My dad sold International Harvester tractors and various bits of machinery back then, after some years working on a farm, and we had relatives who farmed in Essex that I used to stay with, so I enjoyed building up my own 1:32 farm.

I ended up with a couple of these Ertl tractors and a loader from my dad:

Sold this one on eBay back in 2006, even then it made something like £32. Still have the other one. Same scale as Britians stuff but limited interchangeability.

When I sold this one the following year I thought it would make a decent amount, but I had to let it go for the £10 starting bid.

[bunglebus]

There's still a pretty big Siku range in The Entertainer - but as they are of current vehicles (and farm stuff) it just doesn't interest me. Not Siku's fault, they've always done the same thing, I just like cars of a different era.

The Karmann Ghia I posted earlier is an exception, they do a half decent gullwing Merc too but the wheels let it down - nice but too modern

 

Being sensible German folk, they never got drawn into the Hot Wheels race doing crazy customs.

[bunglebus]

I do have a few small scale cars, probably the most interesting ones to me are these Lone Star Tuff Tots - found all of three so far

 

20191117_135649 by RS, on Flickr

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20200331_125252 by RS, on Flickr

[sheffcortinacentre]

I've only got the odd siku couple of ford cargo beavertails & a yellow version of the MK1 Granada estate. All from toyfairs in the 00's.

Only place I used to see that for sale was a toyshop in Skegness of all places,can't remember any where in Sheffield stocking them.

[Split_Pin]

I was trailing around Dobbies garden centre after my wife last weekend when I remembered they used to have a carousel of Sikus. It was still there but a car cost about 4 quid and were mainly Beetles, Fiat 500s and a few oddly scaled commercials and were too small. With Matchbox and Hotwheels moving more into castings of interest to collectors as well as children and at a fraction of the cost, I'm surprised that they are still available.

[eddyramrod]

On 7/8/2020 at 9:33 PM, junkyarddog said:

Smoll Eddy prefers it to be called creative bodgery!

That's funny, so does Full Size Eddy! :)

[Christine]

JCB 3c.  By NZG

 

[Datsuncog]

Well, if it's Siku night...

The couple that I couldn't bring myself to sell with the others a few years back - VW Transporter crew cab, VW Passat wagon and Audi 80.

A Passat was the first Siku I ever owned - picked up from the toy stall at some school fete or Scout jumble sale.

Unfortunately the front rivet failed and the base came away from the shell, then the axles and wheels went missing... and eventually it put in a star turn at the toy scrapyard. I may still have one or two bits left, but the one above is my second Passat, this time bought along with the VW and Audi at an autojumble c. 1990.

It's maybe a smidge over-wheeled too, though not as bad as the Granada - and even though it has no rear seats, it's still a lovely toy. I'm very attached to it.

The Audi is a cracker too, with opening doors and finished in a lovely deep metallic green.

The crew cab was (and is) simply delightful - detailed, well proportioned and nicely weighty.

I didn't see Siku for sale in a toy shop until we went to Bath while on holiday c.1991, when I picked up a gorgeous VW T4 panel van, plain-painted in turquoise with no decals. This pleased me, as I knew Matchbox or Hot Wheels couldn't have helped but plaster some lairy signwriting on the side: this was so simple, yet obviously different from other toys.

The T4 lived on my railway layout for many years, quite happily, and I don't now know why I sold it.  The plastic base was a minor disappointment though - it never felt as solid as the three above did.

The Matra Rancho and the Range Rover with horse trailer were picked up last year, but more because I knew that folks on here would appreciate them.

I enjoyed my time with them, for sure.

[bunglebus]

I got outbid on one of those Passats the other day, I'm just hoping some nice stuff starts turning up in charity shops and at the boot sale, don't really want to pay £7+ when then can be had for 50p with luck

[flat4alfa]

Not much Lone Star Tuf-Tots in the party stash here, sorry.

Just have the Corvette with its plastic roof but no driver figure; and what I recognise as a mid-sixties Ford N-series 'Heavy Duty' truck

Corvette has 'Scale 87-1' on the base.   The Ford is clearly smaller than that but I've not been able to find a brochure, to determine cab width and calculate an approx. scale

Both state 'Made in England'

Odd that they chose to model a truck cab not seen on British roads 

[NorfolkNWeigh]

Sorry, I just don’t get the love for Sikus. Their Granada estate has to be a contender for the “ Don’t know what it’s supposed to be until I read the baseplate award “ That green Passat is not much better, in fact apart from commercials , I think mostSikus never look “right”. A lot is the oversized wheels but of the few posted up here all have something  that spoils the likeness. 300SL - door window too small, Passat - arches of comedic proportions, Rancho - best of a bad lot but still not right, same as the Range Rover.  The Type 2 is great, but then it’s a commercial.

Maybe being brought up with Matchbox and Corgi Juniors spoilt me.

[Split_Pin]

They are ostensibly toys though and at this scale it's not always about accuracy. I agree though, they dropped the ball on some castings, notably the Granada. I think this situation kind of worsened into the 1990s for some.

The VW LT, Type 2 double cab and most of the trucks are lovely though.

[155V6]

Hotwheels at Lidl from next Thursday,according to the leaflet.

[Volksy]

I had the Siku 928 and LT, we were given them on a Lufthansa flight to Munich as kids. 

[Split_Pin]

My friend got a Matchbox 928 on a flight to Switzerland where they used to go their holidays every year.

They brought me back a lovely little Wiking Beetle in PTT livery which I still have.

[junkyarddog]

Another recent tidy up of a Matchbox Renault 5.

Originally white with racing decals and black base, I decided to turn it back into it's surbuban shopping cart roots.

"Humdrum froggy motor M8 "

[Split_Pin]

That's transformed it, what were the wheels originally fitted to? They look grand.

[DoctorRetro]

Today has been a 'get electric stuff working' kind of day. 

Also realised this week has brought quite a haul. The R16 at the front was bought as a donor for the red one, not sure if I want to ruin it now....