H. Hudson Dobson and his pre-war distribution involvement

Hi Terry and Jonathan, reading all this I'm becoming more and more aware of the privileged position we had in the Netherlands, having had Hausemann & Htte as agents for Meccano products. This firm lived longer than Meccano, and many, if not virtually all Meccano products, also a lot of French, have been available through them, from the beginning until the end, well-distributed over a reliable web of retailers. Even their archives are still accessible. Every now and then I consult these archives and I am impressed about the control they had, both over the communication with Meccano, England and France, and over their retailer network. Kind regards, Jan

Jonathan----Jan and I are somewhat similar in our collecting preferences, as we both tend to focus on Dinky's made up to about 1960. That seems to be about the time that most of their product line was quickly evolving from the 'old school' look of post-war models....which many of us 'oldsters' seem to prefer. For myself, I was only 14-15 when this happened, and I distinctly remember getting many of those new issues around that time, such as the new American & British cars, and not really liking them as much......the advent of windows, shiny black baseplates, and new colors, heavily treaded white tires, followed by suspension, then crude interiors. I was really stuck with the older look, and that, plus starting high school actually ended my early collecting; I didn't buy another Dinky until the mid-1970's, and then only older models. I have bought a few of the 1960's models because they were continuations of earlier ones, or just interesting, plus I finally decided I wanted a few samples just to see how much they have changed. I even missed the old style yellow boxes. But that is just me.....I am very nostalgic and have such fond memories of my childhood and the Dinky's I had then, that I am 'stuck' in that era. The downside is I have fewer remaining models to try and find, so have been getting other colors, etc. That revolving display case must have been pretty impressive to see in person; all I ever saw were the old tiered wooden ones, or some stores simply had them in glass display cases. I also want to extend an invitation to you or any other members who happen to venture to Southern California, I would love to meet and visit any time. I did live in San Diego up until 1967, but now live in Fountain Valley, Orange County (1/2 hr from Disneyland). Best regards, Terry

Jan----Very interesting to hear more about your distributor in the Netherlands, and how fortunate that they were in place the whole time, and also saved and preserved their past history. The whole H. Hudson Dobson saga is both very interesting but also very frustrating due to the lack of both history or records, and all that remains are snippets scattered in a few documents here and there. Best regards, Terry

Terry and Jan, Yes, the spotty uneven distribution of Dinky Toys in the United States from 1961 right up to the bitter end was extremely frustrating! However, as I've written before, I think it was this very scarcity that made them especially cherished by me and my best friend, who was also a Dinky collector. Unlike Dinky, Matchboxes and Corgis were freely available -- we sensed that Corgi were 'the enemy' so we only had a few we couldn't resist, but we purchased Matchboxes weekly and played with them intensively on our vast cardboard road layouts. The cherished Dinky Toys were, in contrast, more for static display and admiration. In retrospect, the superiority of the 50s Dinky Toys is clear. But as a child, I knew Dinky only through what I could find in the shops -- it probably was not only about 1968 that I obtained a copy of Cecil Gibson's book and began to learn about older models. The 30s cars and trucks seemed very old, quaint, and drab to me, though -- it's amusing to think back about how, at that age, 30 years seems like a vast expanse of time, whereas to me now, something that's only 30 years old seems practically modern. The Lines Brothers-inspired switch to 1/42nd scale was jarring to me even as a child. The old models and the new just did not mix well in a display. And though my friend and I were too young to pay attention to business news, we knew all about the Lines Brothers takeover of Meccano Ltd. because Lines had started putting its brand on Dinky boxes. Specifically those horrible Visipak boxes, first in gold and then yellow, which I have hated dealing with ever since.

More about Meccano Inc. and H.H. Dobson. This shows that H.H. Dobson was alreadiy working for Meccano in 1922. 684 900

That's interesting to read, although when I researched Henry Hudson Dobson a few years ago, I found evidence that he was already working for Meccano by around 1915-1916, and visiting the US then.