Dealers' display cabinets

The leaflet above is 100% conformation of how, what and when the revolving counter display was used. Thank you for your efforts, I just love this peicing together the story and learning the companies history. Yes it does revolve, you are obviously correct, it is the stand shown in the black and white picture above. The top sign is slightly different but matches the packet description. Have that Meccano magazine you refer and have now read the article. Impressed that you knew where to look that quick. Will now look for small Dinky to fill the stand. This encyclopaedia you refer to would like to purchase a copy if possible, do you know what I must do to secure a copy. Thank you for the infomation a little mystery solved. David

Certainly can rely on you guys for quick answers, just been on eBay to try and find the leaflet refered to above as I am an avid collector of all the ephemera of the company. Have also already secured some appropiate models for the stand off eBay so looking forward to them arriving. The period is a little later than I normally purchase but cannot have a naked stand doing nothing, and it is all part of the history. David

Hereby a clear scan of my Airfix catalog leaflet 1980 with 50 new models with the image of the relevant display stand. It consists of 4 pages and also mentions the relevant salesnumbers of the new Dinky models. Also a scan of an Airfix order form of April 1980 front and back side, on which I could not find a model with the price 59p as stated in this catalogue leaflet. Perhaps also suitable for Jacques to include in his Dinky Toys encyclopedia. Jan Oldenhuis, 26 July 2021

Do like these two counter carousels for the Mini-dinkys, clearly different form the catousel I purchased. Will keep my eyes open to see if I can find examples. David

David -- I think the two Mini Dinky displays pictured above by Jacques and included in his Encyclopaedia were prototypes created for promotional photography, with hand-lettered signs. However, the one on the right is similar to the 'cruciform stand' pictured in the dealer advertising below. I have one and indeed the Mini Dinkys in their garages fit perfectly. It is a relatively common display so you may be able to find one. Jan -- thank you for posting the good scan of the 1980 trade flyer. I know many collectors prefer to ignore this period (or indeed anything after 1971) but I think everything Dinky is of interest. I am not saying I'm about to put those little Hong Kong models from 1980 on display in my toy room, but it's all interesting industrial history. it's especially intriguing how Dinky history, including labor unrest etc., mirrors that of the full-size auto industry. When we look at these 1980 'Dinkys' bought in from Universal/Kidco and Solido, it is interesting to compare them to one of the last 'Rover' cars produced -- a rebadged Tata Indica imported from India. I'm hoping Mike Forbes will publish the article I have submitted for a forthcoming Journal about 'The Ten Worst Dinky Toys.'

After a long search i was able to pick up this shopkeepers cabinet today. Great to have this on my desk in the room which my kids refer to as The Dinky Toy room. I tried to find some old photo's of toyshops or Dinky promotional material with this cabinet on it but did not find any. Does anyone here has proof of this cabinet being used? How common was it for young kids to see this cabinet in their local toyshop? Does anyone has information about how many where made and in which year? greetings, Kas

Kas, I have a special interest in Dinky Toys displays so cannot resist congratulating you. However I am in California so I cannot answer your question about how commonly this display was seen -- U.S. distributor H. Hudson Dobson produced its own quite different displays during the 1950s, so this style was not imported. I believe your display was a fairly common sight, however, judging by the number that survive today. It comes from the mid 50s, and I have attached an image from the web of the Dinky Sales Aids 1956 flyer that promoted it to dealers. (Copies of this rare flyer may be purchased from an eBay seller; unfortunately I have misplaced my copy or I could provide a better image.)

Thank you Johnny for this flyer. Great info which i was looking for.

Well done in purchasing the cabinet, I to enjoy displaying in the original shopkeepers cabinets. They do turn up from time to time but not always local to yourself. There are two types front loading and rear loading, the front loading are always more expensive as you can change the display while the cabinate is up against a wall, so more popular but much rarer. The original intention was for them to be placed on the counter accessed from behind prefered by the retailer for conveience and security, hence being more available. They also made exactly the same but with Hornby Dublo at the top.

Here is a 1957 copy of the Dinky Sales Aids sheet for dealers. These images are thanks to photos originally shared via QDT, but I have cropped and digitally enhanced them. Meccano in England and France between them produced a fascinating, rather incredible variety of Dinky Toys dealer displays, and it will be nice to have pictures of them all in this thread. As I commented before, none of the displays shown on this sheet made its way to the U.S.A. or Canada as far as I know. (Though I would be happy to be corrected.) The Candadian distributors as well as H. Hudson Dobson had their own display designs in the 1950s, typically of stepped design. I wonder, were any of the displays on this sheet exported to other countries, or were they for Great Britain only?

Interesting that the header card on Jan's image of the Lines-Dinky Toys display shows a picture of the Jaguar XK SS, which of course was made by Spot-On, itself a Lines Bros. product, rather than anything made by Meccano !.

Airfix tried to survive at a Toy Fair in 1980 with a dealer display featuring a range of 50 new Dinky Toys models. Now called Dinky Die Cast Toys. It is the sad end of the Dinky Toys history. Jan Oldenhuis