Tyres, general

No doubt some tyres matters have been discussed here and there already, but they should be more concentrated in my opinion. So a new 'tyres' thread here.Inducement is the '1950s smooth white tyres' issue. In the 1950s it was the black Austin Atlantic only which was officially fitted with small 15mm white tyres. Nevertheless several occurences are incidentally spotted of small smooth white tyres on other Dinky Toys. Of course the evidence for their originality has to be strong or very convincing, because tyres can easily be swapped. It is my 'theory' that when Meccano decided, in August 1957, to replace all smooth 15mm tyres on the smaller Dinky Toys by treaded ones, they had to get rid of the smooth ones, in favour of new introductions. The black ones were no problem: they soon were 'consumed' by the majority of the smaller Dinky Toys. But the black Austin Atlantic was not able to 'consume' the surplus stock of the smooth white tyres and Meccano just fitted some batches here and there of other Dinky Toys with those white tyres, before they could use the treaded white tyres, exclusively for new introductions. In my circles I have several Dinky collectors who are first owners of such models or have bought their models from reputable dealers. Perhaps only the first owners should be taken seriously as 'proof' because the more links in the chain from first to present owner, the less probable or hard to be certain. Here are some examples of Dinky's that I was puzzled about too, but the first owner, who was a good friend of mine (he died seven years ago), bought many Dinky's new in box in the toy shops in the second half of the 1950s, and who had no purpose at all to cheat about this, stated that he bought these himself in that period, most of which still new in box. He was so used to them that he was wondering what I made all the fuzz about, and gladly allowed me to make some photographs of these models, hidden here and there between his many 'regular tyred' Dinky Toys. The photos are rather primitive, because I made them unexperienced, with flash, many years ago. Apart from these models I know several other likewise 'testimonies' of others. If the provenance for the original dating is not convincing enough, the Mobilgas Tanker is the best example. It was introduced in 1957, was always fitted with treaded tyres and invisible replacement of the tyres is very hard (although not fully impossible). If Bruce and others never spotted them, it may be that only batches of such 'hybrid' 1957/58 models have been exported to the Netherlands. It would be nice if others could mention or show similar occurences (or just can disprove my little 'theory'). Kind regards, Jan

Hi Jan, Thanks for this thread, a difficult one as you say as they are so easily swopped, I have seen a Morris J van with the white tyres, but assumed it was a swop, maybe I was wrong? I presume the fitting of white tyres to the American cars was a way of replicating the look of a whitewall? The whole look of a model is completely changed by tyre colour, just look at the Supertoys with the black and then lovely grey tyres fitted, different model entirely. Sad I know, but I do have a favourite Dinky tyre, the 1st series Foden Herringbone. Chris Warr.

I must admit the Studebaker tanker looks rather good with the White tyre.

There has been frequent mention on various threads about some models, normally fitted with black treaded tyres, having white treaded tyres. The 150 Rolls Royce Silver Wraith being one notable example. Although there may be many who disagree with this, the two models shown below is a classic example how white tyres can be easily swapped

Hi Bruce, thank you very much for these apparent examples, and I completely agree with you. An overwhelming majority of unexpected tyres or tyre combinations will no doubt be the result of swapping after leaving the factory and toy shop. That's why my condition 'of course the evidence for their originality has to be strong or very convincing, because tyres can easily be swapped', is one that has to be taken very seriously. One strong fact (first buyer has bought it like this in the shop in apparent original condition) or a firm combination of other circumstantial evidence have to be present. Of course, some of the tyres are visibly in different individual condition, but I have so often seen white (or black) tyres deteriorating differently in the course of years. Only after so many years it becomes visible that tyres of batches of different age and quality were circulating in the factory at the same time. This may plausibly have been the case if some remaining stock was swept together from different corners. N.B.: I am explicitly talking about the smooth white tyres only, not the treaded ones, which were never fitted on the only mid-1950s Dinky that officially used white tyres: the black Austin Atlantic. Kind regards, Jan

Hi all, I just bought a nice boxed one dozen tyres no. 10253, the 20 mm black

Hi Jan, there's another one here that looks the same, the pencilled price is different to yours though, I've found a few pictures of this size box, maybe supplies were short of the tyres box and boxes meant for other Meccano parts were used? dead ebay link Chris Warr.

That is really striking and takes away most of my suspicion! it's hard to imagine that two persons created such a similar 'custom made' box independently from each other. Chris, thanks for your assistance and best regards, Jan

I have three boxes of spare tyres: The 10253 grey tyres are suitable for the Big Bedford, AEC Shell Tanker, Leyland Comets etc. Sadly there is no way they can ever be used as they have hardened so much they are absolutely solid. The 13978 black tyres would fit the Euclid, 7.2' Howitzer etc., they do still have some flexibility and possibly could be used. My third box is possibly more interesting as it is still sealed from new and has never been opened - it still contains Liverpool air!!!!!! Dave

Hello Dave, As a young boy I got a small box for tyres and I still have it. This is for black tyres as the label shows. Number is also 50099. Price was 0,35 cents for one tyre. John.

Hi John, I don't know what kind of cents or which period you are referring to, but the 1955 Dutch catalogue lists a price of 84 cents for the dozen of the 10253 20mm tyres, which means that a single tyre (were they sold separately?)would cost a mere 7 cents. Or were they sold separately for a different, extortionate price? In that case a single tyre's price of 35 cents would almost match the price for a twin engined fighter! Kind regards,Jan

John and Jan The price written on the outside of the box was for the entire contents of twelve. In Australia, the price for the box of 10253 per dozen was 35 cents as shown by the image below. Kind regards Bruce