Shite in Miniature II

[sierraman]

1 hour ago, Split_Pin said:

I found one of those in Stockton last weekend of all places. I have been looking for it for ages.

Curiously enough it had a big Perspex anti theft thing round it. It was only £1.50, if you were going to nick something you’d take the 15 year old Glenmorangie. 

[sheffcortinacentre]

I'm no good at links & stuff but the Chevy stepside pick with dodge Monaco police car is the shape Chevy suburban my mate is looking for that I was recently asking about.

[flat4alfa]

These arrived a few weeks back now, only just got around to looking at them....  Was in denial of slippery slopes perhaps and forgot to unwrap

The Hot Wheels Pepsi Challenger has been an outbid chase for some months now, but finally got this for under £4.  The Matchbox '55 Chevrolet have never seen before, so had that too for same money off seller to make up the weight.  Apparently part of the '50th Anniversary Real Riders' range, it has extra detailing and rubber(ish) tyres

Matchbox '33 Ford also a make-weight.  Don't quite know what the vampire livery is really about, but it as 99p, thought it would go well with the track-nosed '33 they also did recently.  That is also still in its box...

[Datsuncog]

4 hours ago, flat4alfa said:

That Bentley is the Spot-On isn’t it?  
If so....    arghhh

All the new arrivals were indeed Corgi, bar the Dinky Land Rover set and Bburago Escort. No Spot-On today!

4 hours ago, bunglebus said:

Spot On are nice, but no better in terms of quality and accuracy than Dinky and even Corgi of the same era. Don't really get why they command such a premium 

What might get overlooked is that Spot-On represented quite a step beyond both Dinky and Corgi's offerings on their launch in 1959 - Corgi had glazed windows as its point of difference on release in 1956 (though still no interiors) but only three years later Spot-On were featuring things like number plates, tax discs, roof racks, dashboard instruments, working lights and plated parts. It forced both Meccano and Mettoy to up their game, which they absolutely did - to the stage that by 1964, Spot-On's point of difference was lost.

With parent company Lines Bros falling into difficulties and the takeover by Meccano, the rival Spot-On range was allowed to effectively wither on the vine from 1965, as the Dinky range took precedence.

The fact that Corgi's Bentley Continental S of 1961 reminded so many of us of Spot-On's version was, I believe, quite intentional - Corgi really went all-out on that one to outshine Spot-On, with the unique jewelled lights, steerable front wheels and the plated grille. Corgi CEO Arthur Katz used to travel with multiple samples of the Bentley to leave with distributors and chain store owners, as his best possible calling card.

I think the mystique of Spot-On comes from the fact that they were relatively expensive compared to other diecast (and so objects of envy and desire to kids at the time) and that meant they never achieved the same volume of sales as their rivals - hence comparative rarity to collectors. The loss of nearly all documentation about the range in the Belfast factory fire of 1967 also added to the collector frenzy, as no-one was even sure what had been produced, or when. I suspect that, like most collectables, the price premium won't last forever - when there are no longer as many oul lads with deep pockets trying to buy back a slice of their youth (and as collections are broken up and come onto the market) values will fall. We've seen it with the pre-war Dinkys that were making astonishing prices at auction in the 1980s - they're only worth a fraction of that now. But that's the way of the nostalgia game...

I reckon you're broadly correct though - fifty or sixty years on, when you're looking at a box of assorted diecast tat, it's hard to see exactly what all the fuss is about. But for a short time Spot-On were just that bit ahead of the competition, producing super-detailed and well-engineered models that pushed the boundaries of what a young customer could expect from a diecast car.

And from that, I think we all benefited...

[bunglebus]

The 55 is really nice, only got one Matchbox with Real Riders type wheels - a split bus that I can remember where I bought it, but it was unboxed.

[bunglebus]

12 hours ago, Datsuncog said:

But then in the late 80s, Corgi bought the tooling back again, and though they erased the Kiko name from the baseplates they never got round to adding Corgi back on - and then soon after, they sold a lot of the same tooling on to Metalbox in Hungary.

So the plastic base Corgis I find quite often were a later run, despite being identical to the names ones? How odd.

I'm still on the hunt for the ex-Corgi Hot Wheels, especially the Sierra. Found a couple of Porsche Carreras but I suppose they were never intended to be marketed in Europe.

I still spot castings now in the cheap sets you see that I know started with another manufacturer, makes financial sense I suppose, do kids notice care that the truck in their new airport set is actually a  70s Toyota?

These are both Tomica but you see this casting used in new sets

 

20191029_162452 by RS, on Flickr

[bunglebus]

A couple of new veedubs. Couldn't resist the moving parts Matchbox fastback for comparison to the old one, and I like how the Tooned Baja colour schemes mimic the Sand Scorcher and Monster Beetle

Zylmex Datsun wagon is pretty cool

Found a lovely Hot Wheels Neet Streeter, thought it was the metallic red one I've been searching for but it's maroon

This one's a bit of a mystery. Looks a lot like a Tomica but it's slightly larger and is marked Bidai Corporation on the base. Can't find anything online

[junkyarddog]

That is an interesting casting.

Nicely done with the tilt cab.

[Split_Pin]

That Zylmex Datsun looks like a copy of the Tomica version which I have.

[bunglebus]

1 hour ago, Split_Pin said:

That Zylmex Datsun looks like a copy of the Tomica version which I have.

That would not surprise me - got any pictures?

[Split_Pin]

[bunglebus]

Need to see them side by side, but they certainly weren't afraid to look over other people's shoulders

[bunglebus]

Found another shared casting - Datsuncog sent me this lintoy Porsche 917.

Having a Google as I've not seen a Lintoy before and found this

[flat4alfa]

Ah, Lintoy were doing the ERTL range back then

So my Boss Hogg Cadillac is really a Lintoy?  Have I found a cheaper way to get the Fall Guy pickup?  *Slope slope slope*

50p carboot, last month, when I blew the wallet apart

[bunglebus]

Tinted windscreen is illegal ?

[Datsuncog]

5 hours ago, bunglebus said:

Found another shared casting - Datsuncog sent me this lintoy Porsche 917.

Having a Google as I've not seen a Lintoy before and found this

Looking at the ERTL pics and then back to the Lintoy version, it looks like the ERTL lettering has been scrubbed off and replaced with Lintoy's branding... I know very little about Lintoy, other than they were a Hong Kong concern who made toys for other manufacturers - Corgi used them when outsourcing production of their military aircraft. Be interesting to know whether Lintoy made toys on behalf of ERTL, and then issued them under their own name whenever the US company deleted them from their range... very curious.

Which reminds me... wasn't there a Corgi Porsche 917 on here the other week? I wonder how similar the two castings might be - I know Playart sometimes scaled down other manufacturers' 1/43 toys to make their own in 1/64-ish; possibly something similar happened here?

[flat4alfa]

The Corgi is quite different as it represents the later 1970 917K with the upswept tail

[bunglebus]

Mine's also a bit busted

 

20191212_170257 by Rich Secker, on Flickr

 

Did this come as a Junior?

*edit* I see what Flat4alfa' means now, Juniors is a different car

[155V6]

A few finds at the car boot this morning.I was chuffed with the Majorette transporter trailer even though it had no cab.The (metal)Norev Alpine A310 was a nice find too ?

 

[flat4alfa]

Ah yes, big Corgi was 917LH ‘Langheck’ and smol Corgi was 917K as favoured by Captain America 

[DoctorRetro]

@Datsuncog I'd be interested in the Renault 18 taxi if still available please 

[cms206]

Had a quick nosy through the job lot boxes from recent times; some shit in amongst it, but happy with these. The Convoys are near mint.

[bunglebus]

Ages ago someone asked if anyone had done a custom based on one of the Matchbox Superfast generic models. I started this one at the time and it's been an on-off project ever since. It seemed so simple to fit an engine out of the spares box, wheel swap and paint - but getting the altered and filled areas straight was a mare. Still not sure about the colour but it's the 2nd time it's been painted so it'll do. It's the Road Dragster.

[flat4alfa]

Wow !

[andrew e]

It shouldn’t work but it bloody does ?

[flat4alfa]

3 hours ago, cms206 said:

 

The Saviem Transporter!   
I still have the one I bought in France in 1981.  Must dig it out and bring it to the Majorette party

[flat4alfa]

Have these two MB Chevrolet wreckers.  Or should I say ‘Breakdown Vans’

Red one owned since a child.  It seems I coloured the Chev Bow-Tie badge in the proper blue

Orange one picked up recently- wondered what the thing attached to the base was all about

[155V6]

12 minutes ago, flat4alfa said:

Have these two MB Chevrolet wreckers.  Or should I say ‘Breakdown Vans’

Red one owned since a child.  It seems I coloured the Chev Bow-Tie badge in the proper blue

Orange one picked up recently- wondered what the thing attached to the base was all about

Wasn't that one part of an electronic playset,the vehicles made sounds I think?

[Spottedlaurel]

Went to a local show, picked up some small stuff from the trade stalls and adjacent boot sale:

Hadn't expected to fill a gap in my MIB Superfast collection. Oddly this only came about when the stallholder got another box of stuff out when we were pondering the usefulness of a Zippo lighter display cabinet for displaying 1:64-ish stuff (would have worked well, but a bit much for me at £40 - the boat and trailer cost enough as it was). Yellow Lexus LFA and Maserati Merak are both by Tomica. Couldn't recall seeing the HW Anglia before.

Matching small and large versions of the Polo were picked-up by chance at different stalls. Odd that they gave them similar stripes but different numbers.

[Datsuncog]

23 hours ago, flat4alfa said:

Have these two MB Chevrolet wreckers.  Or should I say ‘Breakdown Vans’

Red one owned since a child.  It seems I coloured the Chev Bow-Tie badge in the proper blue

Orange one picked up recently- wondered what the thing attached to the base was all about

Nice pair of Breakdown Vans!

The orange one is - as per the decoration on the side - from the Intercom City playset range.  I understand that when the barcodes on the base of each of the special Intercom City vehicles passed over a scanner unit on the playtrack, a little battery-operated voice thingy delivered some sort of phrase or other... never seen one myself, and I think they're quite uncommon. I'll have a look in some of my 1990s catalogues for more details.

Your childhood red version is in better shape than mine - though the one I picked up last week is a slight improvement in terms of paint, and much better in terms of UV yellowing.

One of my favourite 1980s castings, and a nice reworking of the standard Chevy van.