129 Volkswagen Deluxe Saloon - Volkswagen 1300 Sedan (1965-76)

This well-known VW model was produced from late 1975 to 1976, with spun wheels until 1972 and the ugly plastic Speedwheels after that. What has inspired my writing about it was the discovery of this Hong Kong copy from 'Tin's Toys' -- production date unknown but obviously after 1972 given the close copy of Meccano's wheel style. This model could almost be mistaken for having been produced by the original tooling, except that it does not have an opening boot or bonnet as the Dinky model did. However, it closely copies the Dinky in every other detail, right down to a non-prototypical line that appears at an angle intersecting the front fenders. Perhaps the makers purchased the Dinky Kit version and used it as their prototype?

Dear Johnny, You have got what seems to be a very rare toy. I have found only one more in the net but with a different blister card. The proper marque is : TINS' TOYS. the apostrophe comes after the S, not before. 200 142 This is what I found on the net : Tins Toys and Unique Replicas are brands of die-cast model cars developed in Hong Kong in 1965 and 1995 respectively. In 2014, the brands are incorporated into Elite Ace Limited.Elite Ace Limited The Galaxy , 17 /FL , Room 1706 313 Castle Peak Road , Kwai Chung , NT , Hong Kong Tel : 852-2111-4048info@tinstoys.com 611 700 This blister is different from yours. It shows that at least one more Dinky Toys has been copied, the Mercedes C 111 but I did not find any pictures of it.This model has certainly been made from a scan of the Dinky Toys 129 or 1003 just like the Atlas models. It would be interesting to have more pictures of your model. One of the front and one of the rear of the blister and a photo of the side of the model without the Dinky Toys on top. Let's not dream about a picture of the base plate. 450 558Tins' Toys seem to have copied several other models like this Porsche. 646 795This is the rear of the blister. Are these Solido ?

Jacques -- the cars you show on the back of the blister look to have Majorette-style plastic wheels. Tins' Toys is reported to have copied small-scale Majorette cars, and my guess would be that that is what these are. (They also reportedly copied a Majorette truck and it is actually labeled 'Majorette Truck' on the blister!) I am attaching a picture that was taken by Mick Driver (not the same as our Michael Driver) in Copenhagen. It shows the front of the blister and several color variants of the Tins' Toys model, again alongside the blue original Dinky. Mick collects Hong Kong copies and stated that a sample of this Beetle still in its blister pack took him 20 years to find (so no I will not be opening it, though I too would dearly love to see the base plate). Regarding the rear of the blister this blurry photo taken by the eBay seller will have to suffice for today. As you can see, it advertises the Mercedes C-111. The C-111 is an obvious copy of the Corgi model, not the Dinky, but is equipped with Dinky-style wheels (as the two photos I have taken from eBay show). As for how the copies were done, I would bet that when Tins' Toys made these copies they did not have the digital scanning technology that is employed today by CIJ Norev in the models it produces for Atlas, etc. They must have had a more traditional way of converting the toys into molds.