Shite in Miniature II

[eddyramrod]

Is it "That Time" again?

[bunglebus]

Looks like Toys Я Us is coming back

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/toys-r-us-return-uk-stores-b1947031.html

I expect they'll be smaller stores as most of the old sites I pass are still empty

[Datsuncog]

On 10/29/2021 at 8:43 AM, eddyramrod said:

Is it "That Time" again?

Yes and no...

Heading out into another filthy dark wet morning, and squelching in with one shoe plainly less watertight than I'd like, I was rewarded with... nothing.

The Tat Stall was seemingly focusing pretty much on books and glassware this week, and diecast be damned.

Not even particularly attractive books, either; I'm not sure how thrilled the denizens of Belfast will be to find histories of French battles (written in French) and "Tales of Old from Bible Lands'...

No sign of the Adidas Avenger today either, and tragically enough no sign of the two Ideal slot-car racers from last week either - all apologies to @flat4alfa. Market Blokey was busy chinwagging with one of the other stallholders but there wasn't much with wheels to be seen anywhere.

No, wait - there was this, in a box of assorted bric-a-brac.

Store yer cigs in style, hey? Hmmm. No thanks.

I trundled round the rest of the stalls, but it was a bit of a busted flush. Charity Stall mostly had the same stuff as last week, minus a few of the Le Mans Jaguars.

It turns out that the W30 series Toyota MR2 is indeed a Minichamps effort.

I was vaguely tempted, but I'm not overly fond of these in real life and plenty o'dust and missing mirrors didn't really boost my levels of wantage, at a fiver.

This was interesting, though:

I can recall various Buddy L products over the years, mostly with some sort of action-powered motor, but these were unfamiliar to me - the Rev 'Em Up Racer range.

In pretty good nick, but the £25 asking price was steep enough.

Not sure how the '2-wheel side stunts' work, but I'm sure it's good craic for everyone, except the person having to paint the skirting boards.

A quick potter around the other stalls netted me a few grocery bits and pieces - though, surprisingly, no apple tart or barmbrack, two Ulster staples of this time of year - and then it was away out into the swirling tumult of copper leaves and puddles aplenty, clutching my wanky latte...

A happy Friday to you, one and all.

Here's a few seasonal illustrations from the market, too...

FOLK ART YO

[bunglebus]

My small contribution to Tat Friday, a couple of PG Tips giveaways. There were several from the same seller but most were snapped up at £too much. I think these may be High Speed but aren't branded

[bunglebus]

Also took pity on the charity shop Blackwalls Stutz and gave it a bashing. Might go over it with a bit of black touch up too 

[sierraman]

Can see a custom coming on there. 

[bunglebus]

12 minutes ago, sierraman said:

Can see a custom coming on there. 

Maybe - the roof is very week/starting to split so I might just tidy it up and leave it alone.

I should have left this alone - poxy Electro Rocket has tested my patience. Needs a nice long cure then it can go off to @flat4alfa for electrickery to be done

[bunglebus]

[flat4alfa]

1 hour ago, bunglebus said:

Also took pity on the charity shop Blackwalls Stutz and gave it a bashing. Might go over it with a bit of black touch up too 

Opportunity to do a full refresh...  as the last photo of Elvis was in his Blackhawk at midnight.  He died the following afternoon

The red leather interior with 18-karat gold-plated trim will be fun* to recreate

Greenlight did a 1:43 tribute, but Mattel never have using their casting

[2cvspecial]

ordered off old bay of E , Oxford diecast Irizar i6 coach Just like my *"allocated" coach at work , Galleon travel livery should be here by next friday.

* Allocated being losse term as Yet to drive my "Allocated " coach !

[AndyW201]

Off work this week, and had to nip out to do an errand to the local 'little' Asda. Not one I go to often as its just a small express type shop.

But Lo and behold! New case Hot Wheels goodness!

Was jealous when I saw bunglebus had got one of these as it was on my 'to get' list.

Pics don't do justice to the paint on this, it really does sparkle.

Been looking forward to getting hold of this!

Not sure if this is a new casting. It's down as 'Hot Bird' on the base too, rather than Trans Am, and it's dated 2021 on there.

Flying chicken present and correct.

Still one of my fave HW of recent times.

[flat4alfa]

57 minutes ago, AndyW201 said:

Not sure if this is a new casting. It's down as 'Hot Bird' on the base too, rather than Trans Am, and it's dated 2021 on there.

Hot Bird has been around since 1978.  It was recast in 2006 and last seen 2012 as a 'Rockford Files' tribute

If it says 2021 then perhaps they've recast again, but it does look very similar

[stuboy]

Mate picked this up for me from his local charity .. thanks garry .

[barrett]

It's tat friday for me. Picked up these disgusting Spot Ons locally from marketplace

Mainly as an experiment, to see whether there was any way of removing the horrid repaints and revealing beautiful mint models underneath which I could flog for ££££ on ebay. Sadly the Armstrong and Mini don't have much paint underneath, but I've been attacking the Fiat with some nail polish remover. It currently looks like this

Which is certainly heading in the right direction. I need to get some cotton buds for more focussed scrubbing so I don't end up stripping all the blue paint off too. It's boring but relatively rewarding so I'll probably carry on, and get some tyres for it. No idea what to do with the other two.

They also came with some slightly nicer ones. Apart from the headlamps, the Alpine is complete and in great shape, and it's one I have particularly admired in the past. The 1800 is also nice and tidy but has had some 'primer' patches over some paint chips. I'll try and get those off which should improve it massively.

I paid £50 for the lot, which seemed like a great deal at first but having checked prices online perhaps the market for these things has dropped off slightly recently as 'projects' are available for a lot less than I thought they went for. I reckon £25 each for the two nice ones is probably fair enough though so I don't feel too hard done by

[sierraman]

Spot on were superb, I had the Armstrong Siddeley, got it in a job lot, it was complete but very tatty, in fact there wasn’t much paint on it but it still went for £15. I think they were the Siku of their day, twice the price perhaps of a Corgi. 

[sheffcortinacentre]

7 hours ago, AndyW201 said:

Off work this week, and had to nip out to do an errand to the local 'little' Asda. Not one I go to often as its just a small express type shop.

But Lo and behold! New case Hot Wheels goodness!

Was jealous when I saw bunglebus had got one of these as it was on my 'to get' list.

Pics don't do justice to the paint on this, it really does sparkle.

Been looking forward to getting hold of this!

Not sure if this is a new casting. It's down as 'Hot Bird' on the base too, rather than Trans Am, and it's dated 2021 on there.

Flying chicken present and correct.

Still one of my fave HW of recent times.

Screaming chicken should cover all the hood on 77/78 trans am.

[D.E]

54 minutes ago, sierraman said:

Spot on were superb, I had the Armstrong Siddeley, got it in a job lot, it was complete but very tatty, in fact there wasn’t much paint on it but it still went for £15. I think they were the Siku of their day, twice the price perhaps of a Corgi. 

Seems they made several obscure models that weren't done by other brands (the Meadows Frisky being another example). Were there any others back in the day who did a model of the Sapphire 234/236?  All I can find on the almighty Electronic Bay are these Spot-Ons and modern 1/43 scale models.

[Spottedlaurel]

A couple more recent kit acquisitions:

How could I resist this one?! I'm afraid it will definitely have a different set of wheels fitted when eventually built.

Great to see Tamiya have finally brought out a 1:24 version of the S30 Fairlady. They had the big 1:12 version from years and years ago, and a 280ZX along with every ZX since, but never this one. Worth the wait though, the detail on it is amazing, so delicate.

[barrett]

I went to a toy fair! My second ever (I think I was 7 years old for the first). Just on the off chance there'd be some obscure Italian 1960s diecast going cheap...

[flat4alfa]

On 10/7/2020 at 2:48 PM, flat4alfa said:

The Ford CL-Series, which I have a thing about.  The Hot Wheels Rig Wrecker dates from the early eighties:

They resurrected the casting for Semi Fast II, which I might dig out to bore you some more

Was in a charity shop at Moreton-in-Marsh the other day, as was doing a spot of family travelling across the Cotswolds, as you do.

Found a Majorette effort of a Ford CL-9000....  which was in a bag of broken trucks and cars that was 'destined for the bin' according to the lady in the shop. So for a swift pound donation, grabbed it as only have a Hot Wheels effort.

Interesting 'graphics' tampoed each side

Anyhow, it has now joined the orphaned Majorette tanker back here.  Both say nothing more than 'Majorette Made In France Ech 1/87'

Unlikely the Gulf tanker had anything to do with the Ford semi-tractor, but at least the wheels match and saved from the bin.

I'm not really into trucks and lorries, but I have a thing about this design from the mid-late 1970s

[flat4alfa]

The rest of the Moreton 'bag of brokens' was this lot

Will keep the Ford LTS Tarmac for now, and the Corgi Rice Horsebox for its wheels and axles.  But the rest can go

 

[flat4alfa]

In sleepy (and I mean sleepy!)  Alcester was these 50p efforts

Corgi Juniors City of Metropolis (Superman) Buick Regal and the Disney 'Cars' series 'ANTONIO VELOCE ECCELLENTE', which is one of the Maseratis.  Because, Maserati Quattroporte V for 50p.

Nice to see a tidy Juniors from the era

[bunglebus]

I like the manager in my local Entertainer. If he spots me knocking all the Hot Wheels off the pegs he asks if I want to look through their overstock boxes. Yes, yes I do 

[barrett]

Right, I'm home now. Here's my haul from today's very small village-hall toy fair. Honestly didn't expect to find anything as my interests are so narrow. And I don't collect toy cars.

Mercury No32 Lancia Flavia Pininfarina coupé, Pilen 347 Monteverdi Hai and Norev Citroen Ami 6.

The Lancia is pretty much at the top of my wantlist for a while, as it's one of my favourite real cars, and the toy version is insanely rare. There's a very playworn example on ebay at the moment for £120 in Holland, and that's pretty much it. Never seen one in the UK. This set me back a handsome £4...

Admittedly not that great from this side though! I'll try and find a couple of tyres that fit, but chances of finding a donor for the door seem pretty slim. I'll just point it the other way round. It's a shame, because apart from a broken windscreen, the missing door and one jewelled sidelamp, it's in in really, really good condition.

I've mentioned before about the small range of Pilen castings which were unique to the brand (ie, not recycled castings from other manufacturers) and the Monteverdi is one I've particularly wanted, but they're always too much money on ebay. This one is mint and boxed (looks like it's never been out of the box until now) and in a nice colour. Very pleased with this for £20. The detail is fantastic - the boot badge is beautifully rendered (not easy to photograph) and the proportions are spot-on. Lovely. Here it is with the other 'unique' Pilens

The Ami - we all know what those look like. It was a fiver and I couldn't leave it behind as it's much nicer than the one I paid €10 a few years ago in France.

[Spottedlaurel]

Just now, barrett said:

Right, I'm home now. Here's my haul from today's very small village-hall toy fair. Honestly didn't expect to find anything as my interests are so narrow. And I don't collect toy cars.

Nice little haul there. I much prefer buying at fairs etc to eBay.

I hope there was the appropriate amount of people of a certain age grumbling about their various ailments, and the occasional person with a bit of an odour?

[andrew e]

Don’t forget the pushing coupled with belligerence 😂

Mr B. Bus your scored well there! The McLaren F1 and F150 SVT are very nice, though @barrett (who despite not collecting toy cars) has you beat today with some connoisseur choices 👍

[bunglebus]

Yep. The Pilen certainly looks a lot more realistic than the Matchbox version

[Spottedlaurel]

33 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

Yep. The Pilen certainly looks a lot more realistic than the Matchbox version

That being said, there are probably many of us who'd never have heard of the Monteverdi Hai if it wasn't for that Superfast version.

[flat4alfa]

Anyone have a tatty surplus Vanguard Rover P6 3500 ?

Wanted to paint one 

Like my old Paprika one, but that release colour is scarce and way too expensive

Just wondered

[flat4alfa]

Matchbox Super Kings releases in 2005

What do we know about them?  Clearly US market only.  But why and how and where were the castings sourced?

Another just wondered