113 Steed's Jaguar (Not Issued)

Thu, 06/25/2015 - 16:51 /comment/7283#comment-7283]#151 dinkycollect Offline Joined: Fri, 06/26/2015 - 16:49 /node/2749?page=4#comment-7283]Re : Dinky of the day. John Steed left us today. The above is an edited version of Jacques' tribute to Patrick McNee, star of 'The Avengers' and 'The New Avengers' who passed away on 25 June 2015. See 'Dinky of the Day'. Here are two samples of the unissued model of John Steed's Jaguar, the Jaguar itself by the way, still exists for those who are interested in this sort of stuff. (150)20160302/809/1202

Not sure if it is just the angle, but that real Jaguar seems to have exaggerated front fender bulges compared to the model........I think it looks rather ugly with those! Best regards, Terry

How's this angle? Designed to take extra wide tyres. (150)20160302/810/0257[/b]

This is an XJ with something very much like a Broadspeed racing body.

The really rare ones came with the optional V-12 engine, instead of the normal six; quite a performer in its day!

After some web crawling, it seems that Steed's Jag was indeed a broadspeed custom job - on an XJC v12 - which went missing through the '90s and was discovered vandalised in a barn last year and sold for 12k www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/john-steed...ar-cult-show-6341419 In The New Avengers, Steed's Jag is racing green like his Bentley had been in the '60s series. So not surprising that Dinky proposed a blue paint job. All their other TV related vehicles had been completely the wrong colour too. The 1978 catalogue illustrates the model with a body stripe (wrong) and the front scoop as a continuous part of the main colour (right). Except the top casting was actually split through the fender with the lower portion in black. The model was supposed to have some kind of flicker feature for added play value.

Al It is an XJC of which about 10,500 were built between 1975 and 1978 of which 241 came to Australia, some of these being very rare examples of the model. Bruce (150)20160302/811/0936

And then the 113 Steed's Special Leyland Jaguar made its appearance in Meccano's final Trade Catalogue issued in 1979, and not forgetting the Gift Set No 307 that was also planned and included in the 1979 Trade Catalogue but never released either, with the only model that made it to the shop shelves being 112 Purdy's TR7 Triumph, that required very little work to change its appearance from the 207 Triumph TR7 Rally and 211 Triumph TR7. Bruce (150)20160302/812/1435

The 1978 Trade Price List dated June 1978 (actually printed on 27 February 1978), lists 112 Purdys TR7 as being available as from May 1978 included in the Price List at a wholesale price of 5.00 per trade pack of six cars. 113 Steeds Jaguar Coupe is shown as being available in September 1978 although the price list has no prices as yet. Is it possible the special feature of a fly-off assailant may have been one of the causes for the models failure to appear in September 1978 and for the rest of the factorys existence? How similar was the prototype 113 to the 219 Big Cat? My knowledge of this period is woefully lacking! Most price guides these days list the 219 as being available until 1979, yet the model is omitted from the 1978 Trade Price List. No longer in production? If so, was its problems similar to the 113? Bruce (150)20160302/813/1926

In fact Purdey drove a yellow MGB more than a TR7. More often she was riding a motorcycle, which better suited her character. I don't even remember the TR7 in any episodes. But I do remember seeing three different TR7's on fire on the dual carriageway near our house.Plastic wheels... dear me. Notice how the packing on the gift set picture only vaguely conforms to the shape of the cars. And it apparently needs three punch holes for hanging. The title says 'Avengers Gift Set' - no, it's 'The New Avengers', Dinky. Could this pack be any more of a mock-up if it tried? There are no obvious sign of a trigger or flicker mechanism on the Jag. I don't have this version but I dug out my Big Cat variation and took it apart. I can't see anywhere for a flicker or a trigger mechanism to be located. There are also pegs inside the upper casting that damp the suspension tabs - so much that the suspension effect is virtually cancelled. The plastic base makes the whole thing feel lacking in heft and the thick axles produce a sluggish roll. The exhausts should stick out at the back, so I'm not sure what the pattern on the base is supposed to represent.

The catalogue shown above by Al is actually the 1977 issue. Steed's Jaguar is also shown in the 1978 issue on Page 13 and has now turned Blue. Dave

Yes, it's the 77 issue, not the 78 issue. To make the front suspension work, I just ground down the posts that were obstructing the springs. Just enough. It does make the car a little more pleasing once it has some bounce - although the ground clearance is so low there isn't far to bounce before it hits the deck. But this is a very cheaply produced toy and a very perfunctory modelling effort. The hubs are all wrong and too big, the tyres are too shallow and the wheels don't bulge out at the sides like they should. Even if the Steed version had made it into production, I can't imagine it would have got onto very many Christmas lists.