Dinky of the day.

Hello friends, Just a small addition to the excellent article of Jan. The Queen Mary was also available in France. The model can be found in many french pre war Meccano catalogues. First as 52A in small catalogue 1935-1936 at 6,- francs. In catalogue 1936-1937 the price was 6,50 francs. Catalogue 1939 showed the ship at already 8,- francs. The pricelist of 1940 list the 52A but is 'suspended'. At some time Meccano France had the Queen Mary in a special box. The plinth was printed in french language. My box has no label on the lid and just a label at the side with text: Meccano Dinky Toys No 52 A, 'Queen Mary'. John.

Is that you, Jacques, at the back? Kind regards, Jan

Yes, I know this is not a nice model but it is not a Dinky Toys, that's the Atlas copy.

Too busy yesterday with Sint Nicolaas presents for my children and grandchildren, I had no opportunity to post the Dinky couple below, my Dinkies of (the)(yester)day. This is the illustrious couple that represents the start of my vintage Dinky Toys collecting, on December 6 1979, marking my 35th Dinky collecting anniversary now. They were on display in the (then) famous Amsterdam toy shop Merkelbach (non-existent anymore), making part of a small but extremely fine collection of Dinky Toys, Tootsie Toys and the like. I had spotted them for several days already and had been wandering around them like a little child. A month before I had bought the little booklet by Noboru Nakajima 'Model Cars of the World', which, looking backwards, betrayed my renaissance of interest in Dinky Toys already. After much deliberating I decided to strike and bought 6 of them, in several stages until February 1980. The rest is history ... But this Studebaker Land Cruiser and the Estate Car were the real firsts on 6 December and they still form the favourite core of my collection. The card catalogue photo shows my initial way of cataloguing the collection, from 1979 until 1988, the arrival of the PC. Of course I have always carefully kept the historic coupon of Merkelbach! Kind regards, Jan

Hello Jan, Congratulations with 35 years of Dinky Toys collecting! I hope many happy collecting years will follow. Fantastic to see how you kept records from Day One!And two very nice models to start with. Both with the scarcer cream hubs. On the sales ticket of Merkelbach the prices are very low compared to todays standards, but not for 1979 I assume. Truly Dinky's of the Day. Kind regards, Rob

Hi Jan, I too had the Noboru Nakajima book, but sadly I no longer have mine, any chance of a picture of yours for old times sake? Chris Warr.

Sunday December 7, 1941.

Rob, those models were expensive for those days, but not extremely, just what you can expect from a quality toy shop selling some spotless vintage models. I didn't know of other collectors, collections or swap meets then, so I had no idea of reasonable prices. Advantage of such pristine models is that you never regret having bought them, they are so lovely. Chris, here is one double page of Nakajima, for the sensation/sentiment: Jacques, I cannot match you with a Pearl Harbor model, or it should be a Revell scale model of USS Arizona, but this is a Dinky place. Kind regards, Jan

Thanks Jan! I found one on Ebay so I've bought it, only

Not the car of the day but in this Sunbeam Alpine, the grand mother of the day, Grace Kelly, later Princess Grace of Monaco and Cary Grant in the film 'To catch a thief'.

Jacques-- Lovely image from that film, and it shows the car well; it had nice lines. I finally saw one in person a couple of years ago at a concourse in San Diego, and it was a handsome car. Regards,Terry