Shite in Miniature II

[Amishtat]

35 minutes ago, 155V6 said:

I think the blue cab originally came with the removals trailer

I did wonder whether the transporter trailer was original to this cab, the wheels are different and it's scruffier. 

[bunglebus]

36 minutes ago, flat4alfa said:

I thought Citroen spheres were green?

[Spottedlaurel]

5 hours ago, Amishtat said:

The Dodge has been a fixture of the same chap's table for the last six weeks or so to my certain knowledge and it was only a matter of time before it came home with me. It's a fair bit rougher unfortunately. As in, I've literally only just noticed the B-post has been stoved in.

Remove the B-pillars to give it the OE look?

[bunglebus]

Anyone seen one of these before?

Not mine sadly

[barrett]

2 hours ago, bunglebus said:

Anyone seen one of these before?

Not mine sadly

Never in real life. It was one of the vewry last Spanish Dinkys along with the Scirocco and Alpine(?). All those Spanish Dinky castings only lasted a a short time and became Pilens after Dinky collapsed - the Pilen castings of all are much easier to find. Here's a currently cheap Pilen Fiesta:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/194201808066?hash=item2d37546cc2:g:XSIAAOSwLjxgkA40

[barrett]

ooh, same seller has this

which I'm sure one of you needs

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/194201787122

[bunglebus]

22 minutes ago, barrett said:

Never in real life. It was one of the vewry last Spanish Dinkys along with the Scirocco and Alpine(?). All those Spanish Dinky castings only lasted a a short time and became Pilens after Dinky collapsed - the Pilen castings of all are much easier to find. Here's a currently cheap Pilen Fiesta:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/194201808066?hash=item2d37546cc2:g:XSIAAOSwLjxgkA40

I'd already watchlisted the Pilen Fiesta, found the Dinky after seeing this, which I bid on (and lost)

[High Jetter]

I'm new to this thread, but had Corgi & Dinky's in the 60's / early 70s, also a brand that seemed superior - Spot-On. Maybe covered before on here?

[eddyramrod]

23 hours ago, High Jetter said:

I'm new to this thread, but had Corgi & Dinky's in the 60's / early 70s, also a brand that seemed superior - Spot-On. Maybe covered before on here?

Oh yes, there are plenty of people here who had Spot-Ons, or still have; and even some who are too young to have had them new but have collected some used.  I had quite a few from new, including at least three mk3 Zephyrs, all of which were roundly abused by primary-aged me.  I still have a couple.  One of the things that placed them a cut above Corgi and Dinky was the constant scale, which the others didn't have.  They also tended to be quite heavy and chunky.  Oh and priced at a level beyond Corgi and Dinky too!

[bunglebus]

5 hours ago, eddyramrod said:

Oh and priced at a level beyond Corgi and Dinky too!

They still are! I have the sum total of one which I bought years ago probably from a jumble sale 'cos it was a Beetle.

Don't know if @High Jetteris using a phone or PC but the search function allows you to search the topic, there have been some nice Spot Ons posted previously 

[warch]

8 hours ago, barrett said:

Never in real life. It was one of the vewry last Spanish Dinkys along with the Scirocco and Alpine(?). All those Spanish Dinky castings only lasted a a short time and became Pilens after Dinky collapsed - the Pilen castings of all are much easier to find. Here's a currently cheap Pilen Fiesta:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/194201808066?hash=item2d37546cc2:g:XSIAAOSwLjxgkA40

Thanks barrett, you've answered one of those completely inconsequential yet vital questions I've always wanted an answer to, i.e. what make was the lovely little wine coloured diecast Scirocco I had when I was about four or five (early 80s). Having googled a Pilens that looks like the one I had.

[Amishtat]

Most of you will have seen this before, which represents 50% of the Spot-on in my collection. There's a Mini van too but I can't lay my hands on that right at the moment. Would love to add a few more but they're a bit pricey when they turn up. 

 

[sierraman]

I’ve had a few Spot On over the years but usually they’re really expensive. I think they only made them for a few years in the 60’s?

[bunglebus]

Never getting restored or sold

 

[flat4alfa]

13 hours ago, barrett said:

ooh, same seller has this

which I'm sure one of you needs

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/194201787122

It's been on for a few weeks now, but the all-important (to me) rear piece is missing

[flat4alfa]

On 7/1/2020 at 1:19 PM, Datsuncog said:

Probably should mention this acquisition from last month, too...

I was utterly, utterly obsessed with this book when I was about ten or eleven. It was in our local library, and I used to borrow it every few weeks.

Reading it again now, it's surprising to see how little info there actually is - the overview of the entire company takes up less than a page. And there's a huge amount of doubt - various catalogue illustrations are shown, with the disclaimer "it is not known if this model was ever actually available".

But then how could you ever have found out, in 1983? Talking to people you met at swapmeets was all you could do, back then. We're pretty spoiled now, with hundreds of images of pretty much any given model only a click or two away.

Fair play  to Graham Thompson, for acquiring all of these and cataloguing them in those pre-digital days.

But there's a good amount of info on each model, though.

Some shown in colour, to give an idea of the variations.

This was the one I dreamed of finding: the VW Variant estate.

Or the Commer van:

And oh, that caravan...

I've mentioned this before, but I lived and breathed Spot-On for quite a few years, boring the arse off pretty much everyone I met about them... the only two I ever had were a trashed Cresta PA and an even worse Morris 1100, both found at a jumble sale c.1994.

I doubt I'll ever have a Spot-On collection of my own, but this is a great book to have again to relive that youthful passion...

 

[bicycle repairman]

here my sad collection lol,my mrs think there dust collecters got couple in loft that need doing most i have restored 

[flat4alfa]

Spot-On Catalogue 5th Edition 1965

[flat4alfa]

Probably the largest Spot-On collection on display is at the Brighton Toy Museum

[sierraman]

I don’t think even asking at a Swapmeet would leave you any more enlightened. I don’t know if they were the same in the 80’s but the ones I’ve attended have had some right bullshitters turn out. 

[bicycle repairman]

buy mine in joblots on ebay there not that expensive dearist is the bus i paid 90 greenbacks but its all original just had have it just love them,and all diecast off 60s and 70s,you can buy all parts off ebay.worth more befor ebay

[bicycle repairman]

be honest love ones need work restore how think they should look

[tom13]

Does anyone have a model of a T4 van?

Few on the bay but they are pricey. I have stuff to trade if anyone is interested.

[Datsuncog]

The two sole Spot-On models in my collectionette these days - both ex-@eddyramrod examples.

On restored, one not, and both awaiting reproduction windscreens and steering wheels.

It's maybe harder to grasp the significance of Tri-ang's Spot-On range looking back now, but when they hit the market in 1959 they were noticeably superior in detail and features to their Corgi and Dinky rivals.

With authentic colours, glazed windows and highly detailed interiors across the range, plus innovative features like battery-operated working headlights, they were more models than toys. However,  their detail and all-diecast construction (at a time when Dinky and Corgi still used tinplate bases across much of their ranges) led to a comparatively high price. Sales tended toward kids from wealthier families or adult collectors (only just becoming a thing), and so demand was never as brisk as for Meccano, Mettoy or Lesney's products.

It wasn't so much that Spot-On were totally unaffordable, but upon entering a toyshop with some birthday or Christmas money and given the option to either leave with one toy car or two toy cars, it's not hard to imagine what an average nine-year-old might choose...

Tri-ang also developed a full 'Spot-On Roadway' range of realistically scaled plastic sections of two-lane road,  along with a range of garages, filling stations and rubberised moulded buildings and bridges,  plus accurate road signs and scaled figures of pedestrians, road workers  and even trees - sufficient to build an entire 1/42 model village. Again, deep pockets were required - the larger of the two garages weighed in at £3/7s/6d, or over £70 in today's prices.

The constant scale of 1/42 meant that their buses, coaches and articulated trucks were huge and wonderful things, with heavy construction, detailed loads and accurate couplings. However sales were slow and all their large commercials were culled in 1963, along with the Roadways and 'Cotswold Village' ranges.

Spot-On's competitors also raced to develop their own versions of their features, like chrome-plated plastic bumpers and grilles, detailed plastic interiors, number plates and tax discs, sprung suspension (Spot-On's was branded as 'Flex-o-matic'), opening doors, bonnets and sunroofs, roofracks with loads, and steerable wheels. So before long, Corgi and Dinky Toys started to close the innovation gap between themselves and Tri-ang's offerings.

As the 1965 catalogue above shows, Spot-On were starting to market their models in attractive cellophane-fronted boxes, to allow prospective purchasers to actually see what they were getting, rather than the all-cardboard boxes which Corgi and Dinky would continue to use through to the end of the decade (and Matchbox into the 1980s).

This is possibly why, when looking a table full of general 1960s models at a swapmeet today, it can be harder to appreciate that Spot-On were the first to come to market with many of these innovative features, and so acted as the catalyst for some great strides forward in 1960s toymaking.

Hindsight is not always 20:20, contrary to the old saying - only a kid with their eyes glued to toyshop windows would have been able to notice just how these rival ranges were developing month on month, year on year, and that Spot-On tended to be slightly ahead of the game.

Lines Brothers, Tri-ang's parent company, bought out the troubled Meccano group in 1965, acquiring former rivals Dinky in the process. Perhaps unsurprisingly, as Tri-ang worked through how to market two competing diecast ranges - one successful and one not-quite so successful - a number of new Spot-On casting releases planned for 1966 never saw the light of day.

Other than the new 'Magicar' range consisting of five plastic bodies which could be mounted on a steerable, battery-driven chassis, most new Spot-On releases for 1966 and 1967 largely consisted of colour variations and reworkings of existing castings.

One curiosity was the rare range of what are known as 'Hong Kong Dinkys' - a range of six contemporary US sedans and station wagons briefly made under the Dinky name by a contractor in Hong Kong specifically for the US market, and which had no equivalents in the UK or European Dinky ranges. 

Rumour has it that these were originally designed by Spot-On in an attempt by Tri-ang to crack the North American market - but in the end they hit shops in the US in late 1965 wearing the better-known Dinky branding. The range was not a conspicuous success, and production had stopped by 1967.

In 1967, a serious fire at the main Spot-On factory in Belfast wiped out much of the tooling, production facilities and all of the company records, and the line was allowed to quietly die out by Lines Bros - though production continued for a little longer at a subsidiary factory in New Zealand.

The last Spot-On branded model released was the 'Tric Trac Car' - a plastic battery-operated generic racing car aimed at very young children, which was available for a few short months in 1968. It was not a fitting end for this influential range.

The high degree of realism, unusual choice of models and comparative rarity means that Spot-On models continue to be very desirable little things, and while prices have fallen quite a bit from what was being asked 20 years ago, I agree it's no bad thing that internet auctions have allowed wider access to  restoration projects.

I have a real soft spot for them - but more as an observer than an active collector these days.

[flat4alfa]

2 hours ago, Datsuncog said:

Other than the new 'Magicar' range consisting of five plastic bodies which could be mounted on a steerable, battery-driven chassis

The Magicar sub-brand was a bit more than that, they were sold standalone or with a slot track set.  There was a peg that could be attached, to make it follow the track guide.  Will dig out earlier posting

[flat4alfa]

On 1/24/2021 at 5:09 PM, flat4alfa said:

Tri-ang Magicar example photos found on t'interweb: 

Battery-powered, proudly announcing the Wrenn motor in the advertising; which had a specific design feature of the motor cutting-out automatically, when the car was physically stopped from moving.

Notice the slot track pin, moving the steering arm.

The horse was in this set to encourage the child to stop the car in an typical emergency.

 

[flat4alfa]

Apart from the Aston Martin DB6, Rolls Royce Silver Cloud and the Jaguar MK10; there was a Batmobile, the Spectrum Saloon Car from Captain Scarlet, Bentley S3 with a canoe on the roof, Ferrari 500 Superfast, a boat on a trailer and a horsebox.  And a horse.

 So either as a standalone car or a sort of a 1:40 scale Minic Motorway

[flat4alfa]

Post Lady has been

All from same seller for a tenner

Corgi FIAT X1/9 in the seemingly less-common blue with FIAT/Bosch/Cibie stickers, which means I can convert and paint a spare white & green one

Corgi Honda Prelude in tidy enough condition so I can paint / convert / dispose of a sun-faded one with glazing problems

Dinky Corvette Stingray with flame stickers surviving for once.  Never had one of these Dinkys before, ever.

[High Jetter]

3 hours ago, Datsuncog said:

Tric Trac

At the risk of showing my age, I do remember playing with that - it was actually called Trik Trak. The track sections had a wider mouth than exit, made of moulded plastic, with lugs on the corners so they could be secured to a board if required. I don't have clear recollections of the cars though so either they didn't last or, more likely, my interest was overtaken by a Hornby train set and then a Scalextric layout.

[bunglebus]

1 hour ago, flat4alfa said:

Dinky Corvette Stingray with flame stickers surviving for once.  Never had one of these Dinkys before, ever.

Interesting, looks like a later version of this

Mine is stickerless

Both in considerably better shape than my earliest one though