Atlas Dinky Toys UK issues

Jacques, Thanks for the information! I have had various white metal copies of Dinky Toys before and they did not concern me too much, mostly because they were essentially handcrafted out of love and in almost every case the Dinky name had been obliterated. I certainly have no objection to the DTCA Airflow. (Imit' Toys were also laudable, and I'm sad to hear about the fire.) But, cynical mass production by three multinationals working together (Mattel, Atlas, and CIJ-Norev) crosses the line in my view. European law obviously permits the copying of old toys and the graphic art that accompanied them. I'm ignorant of whether this would be allowed in the U.S., but it would be nice if someone were at least making a contribution to an ex-Meccano employees' pension fund. (And I'm pretty sure that's not the case.) As the replicas move forward in time, it seems more likely that people who were involved in creating the originals are still alive, and ripping off their work becomes that much more insulting. As you have pointed out in the Encyclopedia and elsewhere, many of the copies have been issued under the CIJ brand as well as under the Dinky and Dan Toys labels, so anyone who believes promises of 'limited production' is being fooled. -- J

More information about upcoming models in the Atlas 'Dinky' range -- According to an item on this page ( www.forum-auto.com/automobile-pratique/m.../sujet4227-11830.htm ) J-M Roulet has confirmed that the Guy Warrior Heinz van will be released in early 2016. And from the club.caradisiac.com website: I also found the following photo and have no idea what it means. Somebody's Photoshop exercise, or does this portend a new range of reduced-scale copies?

A new range of 'mini Dinky' with the 1/64 collector or train enthusiasts in mind?

Johnny, Where did you find the picture of the mini Dinky Pigeot 206 ? Is this a photoshop trick or Roulet's last way to fill his pockets ? On the same web site Roulet announces a new set with the 25C Citro

The 'mini' 206 appeared on this page: www.forum-auto.com/automobile-pratique/m...s/sujet4227-6895.htm As for the other announced Atlas versions of French Dinky, again we have the usual confusing mix of some things that are new, and some things that were released already by Dan Toys and CIJ. I did like the livery on the 'limited production' (ha ha) CIJ Stradair, as shown. I would love to know more about the relationships between J-M Roulet, Daniel Pajchert (Dan-Toys), Atlas, CIJ-Norev, and of course Mattel. (If the latter's license of the Dinky trademark is only temporary, what horrors will we be subjected to next?) It would be also interesting to know who is the one really 'in charge' in terms of proposing new copies. History shows us that Pajchert and CIJ-Norev started a year or two before Atlas and Mattel became involved; on the other hand, who better to spin this complicated web than the individual who has experience as a government minister and head of a secret police agency? As a former journalist, I can only wish I spoke French. I would interview Roulet, Pajchert and others and attempt to get the whole interesting story. It would also be fascinating to document the process through which the original Dinky Toys are copied. I presume originals are taken to pieces before they are laser-scanned, and this is ever more complicated as they turn to duplicating models with opening doors and other elaborate parts. (Will the doors on the cloned Ford Cortina and Zodiac actually work smoothly and without scratching paint, unlike the Liverpool originals? Good luck with that!)

Ah, and regarding the Napthex model, I see from the Atlas website ( www.editionsatlas.fr/collection/minisite.../camion-du-mois.html ) that they are justifying this release on the grounds that the designer of a Napthex advert used the Dinky as a model for an illustration he created. A tenuous connection indeed, and as Jacques has noted, this takes the 'Dinky' line in a new and inauthentic direction. And thus the madness continues. The CIJ recolour at least did not claim authenticity.

Johnny, As far as I know, it all started with Dan having some copies of Dinky Toys made in China by Norev. In fact Norev owns less than 49 % of the factory as any other foreing company in China. Does anybody know which factory this is ? As Dan sold under the marque Dan Toys, there was no problem with Mattel who says that they own the marques Dinky, Dinky Toys, Dinky Supertoys, Super Dinky and Mini Dinky. Do they ? As anybody can notice, the Atlas Dinky are sold under the marque DINKY TM which means that the marque is not registered otherwise it would be DINKY

These are the only two documents after which Roulet has made this 'r

I am in the middle of a house move, but eventually when I can find my Dinky-related files I will post a copy of the letter I received in the early 80s from General Mills Kenner Parker division offering to sell the Dinky trademark to me. I do not recall whether they explicitly offered 'Dinky,' 'Dinky Toys,' or other variants or not. But I wish I had a time machine to go back and somehow scrape up the money. (At the time, I had the fantasy of producing models very similar to what Imit' later did.) I checked the US trademark database and it seems that Mattel asserted the trademark to 'Dinky Toys' but let it die in March of this year. Now they just lay claim to 'Dinky'. In any case, their hold on the Dinky name or any of its variants could only be questioned by someone with pockets deep enough to go up against their lawyers (which means nobody, unless Donald Trump could be interested in this issue). I'm sure our discussion may have annoyed readers who are in love with the Chinese replicas. I have already confessed to purchasing several dozen (but that spare display case is filled, and now no more!) in a 'know thine enemy' spirit, or maybe the morbid curiosity that makes it hard not to glance at a traffic accident. The bottom line is anyone can and should collect what they like. But the Chinese replicas will always bear the same relationship to real Dinky Toys that seeing a prostitute does to love and marriage. Fleeting pleasure, but ultimately meaningless.

Moderator - there seems to be a lot of references to 'whoring', 'prostitutes', morality and the like and I wonder just where the Dinky Toys Collectors Association is going?

it's those degenerate Californians. Even worse than the French. P.S. To show you how early the rot began, my love of Dinky Toys began in 1959 when I was a tot living in a Chicago suburb: I noticed that the local taxi company used Plymouths in two-tone blue, of which the #178 Plymouth Plaza made a superb replica once my mother had created a sign to glue to its roof. On another of our mother-son walks, this time on State Street downtown, I spied a mobile billboard advertising a burlesque show. It consisted of a slowly-driving truck fitted with picture windows at the back, behind which stood two or three scantily-clad women. I cannot even find a Google image to prove that such a thing existed, but it did -- and as family legend has it, I threw a tantrum, demanding 'I want a Dinky of that!' My mum did not, however, find me any bathing beauties to glue to my Guy Warrior flat truck, another early acquisition!

This mobile brothel was impounded in Miami; not aware of any models of it.