Shite in Miniature II

[flat4alfa 25003]

1971 AIRFIX Construction Kit Catalogue

60 pages!  Those were the days...   and of those pages, these are the road transport ones

[eddyramrod 16724]

I had that Airfix cata!ogue!  Of the "Modern" cars shown , the only one I didn't have was the Sunbeam Rapier, I built at least one of everything else, and in many cases, several.  I had many of the "Vintage" types too.

I remember the Austin Maxi back seat was often warped...

[andrew e 1858]

Eddy youthful memories of Austin Maxi back seats should only be this 😁

[eddyramrod 16724]

My memory of a full size Maxi is of a car that needed constant attention; turned out to be two cars welded together; and filled up with smoke from a short behind the dash.  I owned it for some of the spring and summer of 1986, when I was dating a horse-loving girl named Julie,who had a green Audi 80.  We never got to fold the seats down!

[Richard_FM 880]

1 hour ago, eddyramrod said:

My memory of a full size Maxi is of a car that needed constant attention; turned out to be two cars welded together; and filled up with smoke from a short behind the dash.  I owned it for some of the spring and summer of 1986, when I was dating a horse-loving girl named Julie,who had a green Audi 80.  We never got to fold the seats down!

I remember cut & shuts being a problem in the 1980s but I've never heard of Maxi being given the treatment.

[bunglebus 14026]

Not normally the place for videos, but this is just amazing

 

 

[Datsuncog 15907]

On 11/14/2020 at 7:47 AM, bunglebus said:

Could I grab that one? Don't mind slipping a few quid in the tat fund.

Daaah, sorry - it was claimed via PM on Friday!

I'll look for another one the same for you, though - I tend to just pick up any trailers I can find these days, as they're generally really cheap and people tend to have a use for them.

[Frogchod 3438]

I'd forgotten I'd bought this, took about a month to arrive from aliexpress. 

I was looking for Buicks but accidentally saw this Daf. 

I like Dafs

I think it was 7 dollars posted. 

 

[flat4alfa 25003]

Corgi X-PLORATRONS !

Always intrigued me, being shown in the 1980 Corgi catalogue.  

The X-Ploratrons were four vehicles, each equipped with its own novelty tool: Magnifying glass ; Compass ; Mirror ; Magnet.  Cor!

There was a marketing campaign in magazines, of sorts

Can't think I ever had a friend who had one.  Didn't take off, so dropped after a year

Much more info here https://mikepigottsdiecasttoysandmodels.wordpress.com/2018/10/14/corgi-x-ploratrons/

Any one have one?  Anyone still have one?  

[Split_Pin 12543]

Amazing to see that at least 2 models in that Airfix range are still current, I have the Escort and Herald. They're pretty detailed for the size, I really like mine. The solid plastic wheels add a touch of, eh, nostalgia.

Speaking of kits, I made a start to this which I got from Mr Lawrence.

I'm going for the black colour scheme. This also appears in the 1991 Tamiya Catalogue I got from @Datsuncog. I'm quite excited about this one as I loved the real car as a kid and sorely regret foolishly selling my lovely 1/18 Revell NSX for a tenner to a 'collector' who was only too happy to oblige. This has a similar level of detail.

 

 

[bunglebus 14026]

54 minutes ago, flat4alfa said:

Corgi X-PLORATRONS !

Any one have one?  Anyone still have one?  

Just the one, came (as usual) in a lot, and is now on eBay as it's not my cup of tea

 

 

[Richard_FM 880]

I remember one of my friends had the X-PLORATRON with the compass in it, which was probably a hand me down from his older brother.

[Split_Pin 12543]

55 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

Just the one, came (as usual) in a lot, and is now on eBay as it's not my cup of tea

 

 

My older cousins had that in their toy box, never knew what it was till now!

[flat4alfa 25003]

Much more interesting than a Days Gone.

But, as we now know, far less valuable.

Does the 'reflector' still reflect or has something come adrift?

edit: studied the photos again.  Ok, so that's the trick of the light to emulate reflection

[Frogchod 3438]

Just repainted a Buick Riviera. 

I was surprised to find a load of prisums inside. 

Shine a light in the cabin and the lights come on 😁

An Led and button cell might have to be fitted... 

 

[flat4alfa 25003]

55 minutes ago, Frogchod said:

I was surprised to find a load of prisms inside

Hooray for TRANS-O-LITE !

An excellent marketing term that would be disallowed today.  Those woke b*stards.

[bunglebus 14026]

54 minutes ago, Frogchod said:

Just repainted a Buick Riviera. 

I was surprised to find a load of prisms inside. 

Shine a light in the cabin and the lights come on 😁

An Led and button cell might have to be fitted... 

 

Cool aren't they? But they don't work as well as the ones on the Toblerone VW van

 

[bunglebus 14026]

And in case anyone cries foul, here they are under the same light

you have to get the front in shade to see them

I hadn't even realised the rear lights work too

[Frogchod 3438]

Another Dinky from china next to a real repainted one.

All three of my Roadmasters together:

The convertible is a Solido.

[155V6 4105]

Commer with  main beam on 😂

[bunglebus 14026]

[Frogchod 3438]

Seeing flat4alfas post above reminded me I have templates for Corgi and Dinky boxes. 

First attempt looks OK. 

Now to flood ebay with fake MIB cars 🤣

 

[flat4alfa 25003]

1 hour ago, 155V6 said:

The interior looks like something from a Cheech & Chong film !

[flat4alfa 25003]

Close Encounters of the Rover Kind

Just when you thought it was safe to go out for a night-time drive in the woods, not knowing that E.T. had phoned home earlier.

'Trans-O-Lite' action on the Corgi Rover 2000.  

[RoadworkUK 5793]

I had some fun with a Lesney GMC refrigerated truck the other day; we were out logging fungi (as you do) and I got a bit sidetracked.

I'll not spam this thread with the results; I've instead done that on the Amateur Photographer thread. Here's a taste, though.

 

[flat4alfa 25003]

Well worth a cross-reference though!

https://autoshite.com/topic/16123-the-amateur-photographer-thread/page/31/

I really like the second one down.  I can almost hear the Toro-Flow diesel howling as it gets over the rise

 

[flat4alfa 25003]

Part of the 99p each stash was this

Any ideas?  Not found it in any catalogue as-yet

Quite likely fantasy

But still, it's a good size, all of 6 1/2 inches long

So should it be left as-is?  It's seems the driver came to a sticky end.

Or given a make-over?

Will have to see.  Found another for sale,  Its rear number plate sticker would read 'GE1969' and the side stickers read '18 GENEVA'

[bunglebus 14026]

BOOM

Mini Hi-Way Rally Car series Geneva

Want some new decals for it?

https://dinkyclub.com/118-tri-ang-rc--mini-hi-way-rally-car-no-18-decal-set-7456-p.asp

[flat4alfa 25003]

Double boom!

[Datsuncog 15907]

Yet another arrival for the bulging Corgi cabinet this weekend...

Mmmm, it's the C403 Chevrolet Superior Ambulance, as seen in the Corgi lineup between 1978 and 1980.

Complete with occupant.

In he goes.

Off to the hospital with you, me bucko. They'll have that aubergine out in two shakes of a lamb's tail.

Although obviously based on the Chevrolet panel van, this was a completely different casting with much more detail - the panel van had completely flat sides to facilitate stickers, while this has properly picked out doors and handles. It also has side windows, and a unique roof and rear door treatment.

I did pick one of these up at a jumble sale c.1990 - aside from heavy chipping, it was also missing the larger of the two rear doors.

For reasons that are now unclear, I thought the transparent side windows were somewhat unrealistic, and so painted over them in white enamel.

Yeah, that looked great.

I probably also went over the chassis detail in silver paint; I had a very strange idea I was super-detailing my models.

I don't even know what became of it; I may have sold it at a car boot sale ten years back, or it may have ended up in my mother's P4 classroom toybox.

Ah well. This one's in really nice condition with only a few small paint marks - I'd had my eye on a mint and boxed example, complete with paramedic figure and all, but it went and sold before I could make my mind up.

Probably just as well, as it was triple the price and anyway, I awoke this morning to a text from my bank advising I was now overdrawn and would I like to schedule a little chat to discuss finances?

I probably should, just in case the bank dude wants to buy a load of scratched Lesneys.

And I've more boxed Corgis currently in the post, so I probably should dial it back a little on the diecast auction front, for a while...

But! How could anyone resist that purposeful front end?

Scratty diecast: the cause, and solution, to many of life's problems.

Huzzah!

 

(Fret not, I'm not potless - had just forgotten to move cash from one account to the other. But still, a phone message you don't wanna see on a Sunday morning... and a reminder I should probably get round to listing some of those models that have been offered out with no takers...)