Happy collecting milestones

Yesterday, after over 30 years of collecting, swapping and selling, I acquired my final Studebaker Tanker, with which I am satisfied enough to declare my tankers range to be complete! It is the green 'PETROL' version, one of the two (green and red) versions that were introduced in July 1950. The same happened last November with my Trojan vans, the 'OXO' replacing its rather poor predecessor in the collection and thus completing that fine half-a-dozen. don't be afraid that I will be annoying myself now. Enough series to be completed like that, and it is the cataloguing, displaying, photographing, discussing and writing about them that gives me the same satisfaction as merely collecting them. May be you have similar collecting milestones to report?Kind regards, Jan

Nice endeavor, Jan, and very nice results! Cordially, Jacques H.

Two lovely sets of commercial vehicles with nice adverting. My Trojan set is like your old one, all are really nice except for the OXO but it is just a matter of being patient, it will happen eventually. Dave

Here are mine. Not mint in boxes but it's OK for me !

Racing and record cars 23a-e in silver-red ... ... with improved 23b Hotchkiss now! Regards, Jan

Jan---Very nice collecting milestones to accomplish! And those all look in lovely condition too. I also finished the Studebaker tanker collection for myself last year; I was missing the later Mobilgas version and finally found one. I wish my early green 'Petrol' one was as nice as yours, but the rest of mine are quite nice. By the way, I also have both versions of the Esso tanker....the earlier one I think is the Robin's egg light blue border and the latter one is the darker blue? I have heard discussion of this before, but is it recognized as a difference? Terry

Yes Terry, it is a well-known difference. In fact I should try to find the one with darker blue frame which - in my opinion - is slightly more common than the light blue version, A detail: Kind regards, Jan

Hi Gents, Here are my Trojans, and yes I have now got the missing red hubs 'Dunlop' so they are complete apart from the 'Brooke Bond' with roof sticker... Chris Warr

In an amazing regularity I have been able to keep up a annual number of acquisitions of closely around 15 items in the past 33 collecting years. Again, this year, and again without deliberately pursueing that average number, I ended with number 16! They are not all worth mentioning at this place, because they cannot be qualified as collecting 'milestones'. My sixteenth acquisition is no milestone in a sense of completing a series of related models. But for me it is such a victorious acquisition that I think it deservedly fits here. In fact, I seriously doubt if I will ever accomplish completion of the whole series, because the scarcest of them go too high - that is, if one, like me, is not satisfied with a less than a (very near) mint example. I am talking about the famous series of six Guy Vans, the 'Slumberland', the 'Lyons', the 'Weetabix', the 'Spratt's', the 'Ever Ready' and the 'Robertson's Golden Shred' vans. The conquest of any of them is a great milestone in my eyes. My 'spoilt boy's' standards mean that I have been able to collect one Guy Van only, my favourite 'Slumberland', in all these years. And now my happy number 16 of this year's collecting is ... a splendid 'Ever Ready' van. So I proudly present to you my second Guy Van happy milestone acquisition: And this is my difficult task for the future: Kind regards, Jan

Jan--Congratulations on your most recent milestone, and a worthy one at that! Any new addition to the Guy van series is worth celebrating, and it appears that you have kept your high standards with the new EverReady version. And that is amazing that you are averaging that number of acquisitions so closely without really trying to maintain that pace.It appears that near mint models of these vans keep going up....they, along with their Foden cousins, are to me one of the pinnacles of Dinky collecting....good luck on the others!Terry

Hi all, my French no. 33 Simca family was completed today by the addition of the Saint-Gobain glaziers lorry, no. 33c Miroitier Simca 'Cargo'. Very dusty and dirty as it was I had to do the domestic job of dusting the body and cleaning the window and mirror (you can see the planking of the loading platform clearly reflected in the again brilliant mirror) and an 'as new' model resurrected! (A good lens wanting, there is some optical distortion in the family picture). Kind regards, Jan

They are really nice Jan Dave