Boxes - Lidded and end-flap. Excellent to Mint Condition After Many Decades

Bruce--All I can say is, wow......what unbelievable condition all those boxes are for in. It is amazing what is still out there, after all these years, and still unopened or unused. Great find.Best regards, Terry

This is my DT 344 Estate Car with box. It has the spun hubs and black knobbly tyres. Kind regards, Jan O.

Jan, I thought mine could hardly be surpassed. Hardly, because yours is really unsurpassable in quality! I always had the idea that my box was a little too old for the model (with cream hubs and treaded tyres) it contains, but I believe Meccano never used a box with italic brand lettering for this model - as introduced for many models ca. 1957/58. For yours this is even more remarkable, because many of these models with spun hubs will be found in plain red/yellow Dinky Toys boxes. Anyway, a beautiful model and box! In addition the box for the French no. 550 Chrysler Saratoga. Not 'new', but incredibly nice, taken into account that we played a lot with it, albeit in the final play-years. It shows the lozenge window, unveiling that it contains the lilac (and black) version. Kind regards, Jan W

Hello Jan. The table in the Ramsay Guide is in this case more detailed than Mike Richardson in his GBODT. Mike does not even speak about spun hubs, knobbly tyres and various types of boxes. Ramsay 15th edition mentions four types of boxes for model 344 Estate Car (1954-61) and describes each model with the corresponding box. Box Type 1: Dual yellow picture box. Box Type 2: Yellow picture box. Box Type 3: Yellow picture box showing red panels not brown. Box type 4: Red & yellow panel non picture box. My model is in Ramsay described as: Brown and dark brown side panels, spun hubs, 'M' tyres, type 2 or 4 box. My model has all these details and box 2. I also doubted about this combination when I bought this, but it is according Ramsay a genuine combination. By the way Jan: your 344 combination and the French box of the Chrysler 'Saratoga' are also sublime. A French box has mostly something special, such as text with details about the model. Kind regards, Jan O

Greetings Jan O, and everyone else To assist in your assessment based on details provided in John Ramsay's 15th Edition of his catalogue of which I was one of those who sent these details back prior to the 13th Edition I provide the following images. Here they are: Box Type 1: Dual yellow picture box. Box Type 2: Yellow picture box. Box Type 3: Yellow picture box showing red panels not brown. Box type 4: Red & yellow panel non picture box. We then find Estate Cars obviously in an incorrect box, and these from a very reputable auction house in the far north of England: And this model and box sold for an unbelievable sum of 120 - far in excess of its true value to an unsuspecting collector, with this the description, Dinky No.344 Estate Car - light brown with dark brown panels, spun hubs, ridged black tyres and later baseplate with No.344 inscribed - Near Mint in Fair dual numbered picture box. Scarce. And no mention of the fact that the box is incorrect for the model. The word 'scarce' was the clincher. Kind regards Bruce H. (150) 20161105/1031/1854

Thank you, Jan and Bruce, for this reminder of the 'box story' of the Estate Car. Checking my documentation I realized that Nigel Mynheer made some notes on the Estate Car and its boxes in Model Collector of October 2001. As you may remember this was a series of articles devoted to the Remy-Mees collection, then auctioned at Christie's South Kensington. In the mean time I came across a ten year old photo which I took when I had the pleasure to add a virtually mint boxed no. 660 Mighty Antar Tank Transporter to my already present childhood example, which had been repainted many times since 1956. The model was so nice in its fully original packaging that it took me some weeks to muster up the courage necessary for taking it out of the box with all its untouched interior packing pieces. As you may be able to see the staples look threatening, and might do serious harm to the pristine model (as often happens with many models inside). After taking it out I never put it into this box again since then. Kind regards, Jan

Jan---It is a joy to see these absolutely pristine boxes plus their inner packing pieces. Sadly, when I was a youngster, I saw no reason to keep most of these.......they just got in the way of setting the Model in the box; who knew?Best regards, Terry

Terry, I have always been a box maniac, that is to say, mainly an admirer of the designs, how simple or complicated they may be. The designers of the plastic kit box pictures are real artists and I have kept every box of the dozens of plastic kits I made in the 1960s. In some cases the model collapsed in the course of the years, but the box remained. Packing them into each other saves a lot of space and prevents them from getting discoloured or faded. A little off-topic a few of them below. Kind regards, Jan

Jan---Thanks for sharing those other boxes. I also made lots of plastic models in the late 1950's through the 60's, and you are right, many came with very nice, colorful illustrations like those you show. So nice that you saved them. Best regards, Terry

Terry, we, my younger brother and I, always kept the boxes to store them in, after play (ideally, we had to) and then they went into an old shoe box in the cupboard. But after doing so dozens of time, the boxes deteriorated soon and perished in the end. Only the boxes of the later, less played-with, Dinkies survived, and often in a very good condition. We didn't know then either that nowadays we would appreciate these dated contemporary designs so much, and the obvious contrast with the fact that we only see items packed in hard-to-open throw-away plastics at present.I thought you might like to see the box below for the 564/964 Elevator Loader. I had two of this common model already but bought this one especially for the nice and complete box (and sold the one replaced). No less than five packing pieces were needed to keep this complicated and hard to control model in place! For Bruce: the Dinky Toys box lid of this model with the dual number bears the quality control stamp HW 5 55. Kind regards, Jan

Jan What an absolutely stunning box and internal packing for that mint Elevator Loader! Seeing the quality of the box, it is unbelievable how it has remained in such mint condition after the passage of fifty one years! Truly unbelievable. Thank you too for the Inspection Stamp details that have been added to my data base. Kind regards Bruce H. (150) 20161911/1044/1538

Jan---Wonderful to see not only the beautiful box, but also those precious inserts so nicely preserved......what a treasure you have there!Best regards, Terry