Happy collecting milestones

Greetings Another set now complete - red, yellow, pale green and pale blue interior, at least until someone finds a previously unrecorded interior colour! Kind regards Bruce (150) #637 15 June 2015

Congratulations Bruce! Rather ignorant as I am for this period (although I have one good childhood example, with red interior)I wasn't aware of this full 'set'. Actually, which one is your last addition and how are they to be rated in terms of scarcity? Kind regards, Jan

Thank you Jan. I was nearing the end of my Dinky Toy collecting, (my last one was the 196 Holden Special Sedan), when I received my 449 Chevrolet El Camino for Christmas 1961. I was already 16 almost 17 when it arrived, so there was no 'playing' on my tarred road network so it spent most of its life in its box, except for the period I was away from home when anything happened, and did on looking at its condition now! But back to your question 'how are they to be rated in terms of scarcity'. Well here is my assessment using mainly Vectis and other auction houses catalogues : Red Interior - common Blue Interior - uncommon and 'difficult to find' Pale Green or turquoise - very uncommon to rare Yellow - rare It is interesting that Ramsay's Diecast Model Toys Catalogue, even the latest issue, does not include the blue interior version, although the listing for 'turquoise interior' mentions a number of shades, and yet the blue interior appears more times in Vectis catalogues going back to 2009. Under proper lighting of my blue interior version, there is no way it could be confused with it being a 'various shade of turquoise' and the photograph above is an excellent rendition that used natural sunlight for its photograph. It is strange that my acquisitions were yellow, green and blue interiors, commencing with the hardest to find! I will post a story on how I acquired it in an appropriate Thread some time. Kind regards Bruce (150) #644 16 June 2015

On August 15 1961, I visited the Berlin Meccano importer exactly here in the Friedrichstrae. I was back there a month ago but the building has gone, there is a new one instead. Fortunately, the checkpoint Charlie which had been erected two days before behind the two blue signs in the background has gone as well. But the Avus speedway is still there although the bank of the north bend has been demolished recently. On the picture, one can see two Mercedes W 25 racing southward and the rows of seats on the west side of the runway. The Avus is now a main motorway leading from the north of Berlin (Tegel airport) to Postdam and the west passing by the now disused checkpoint Bravo.

Thanks Jacques, Berlin is my favourite city in Europe, miles better than London, I worked there in the East, when it WAS the East, had a run in with a 16 year old Soviet squaddie with an AK, but that's a whole different story! Happy days! CW.

Interesting information Jacques! I have many similar Berlin memories too. And ... what is the happy collecting milestone? Kind regards, Jan

Good to see these El Caminos. I have the yellow from new in the '60s, and the red since but had not seen the others. I have the 263 Criterion with 5 different colour interiors and the 258 Fairlane with white and red. Incidentally just visited Dallas where the Sixth Floor Museum uses two repainted Dinky Fairlanes as escort cars in their assassination convoy diorama.

Many thanks townie54 for you comments. I like the El Camino, even though the model was aimed squarely for the American market with the use of the terminology 'pick-up truck', unless that is a term also used in the UK. Here in Australia, where it actually invented this type of vehicle in the 1930s (a farmer asked the Ford Motor Company in Melbourne that he wanted to buy a motor car that he can use during the week to cart farm stuff around, pigs, bales of hay, fertiliser, etc, and also to be able to take the wife to church on Sundays. Ford then came up with the 'Utility Vehicle' a name that has been used ever since in Australia to describe a 'pick-up'. Here are my five 263 Criterion Ambulances with their five different interiors: I was fascinated to read that you 'visited Dallas where the Sixth Floor Museum uses two repainted Dinky Fairlanes as escort cars in their assassination convoy diorama'. Does the museum approve the taking of photographs and if so were you able to take one of the diorama? It is nice that two repainted Dinky Toys 148 Ford Fairlanes were used. Great observation and well done! With the 148 there are three difference interiors - red (uncommon to rare), a pale grey and another colour that is difficult to describe, but something like a pale cream colour. I will see about posting some images of them. Perhaps with your mention of white there are four different interiors! Kind regards Bruce (150) #663 20 June 2015

Me too! I'd love to see a picture of that diorama. CW

You cannot take pictures in the Sixth Floor Museum. However if you google 'The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza' then follow 'About the museum' then 'permanent exhibition' then 'further highlights' you will see the Diorama next to the Investigations section. Zoom in and the two Dinky Fairlanes can be seen centre left painted a cream colour and passing the Grassy Knoll. I could not discern the manufacture of the presidential X100 or follow up car on the diorama, but I think scratch built. Certainly not as neat as the Minichamps X100. They could do worse than substitute an 1/43 Atlas Heads of State X100 and Queen Mary. The Signature Queen Mary, slightly larger at 1/38, was on sale in the adjacent shop. I attach a photo of Dealey Plaza from the nearby Reunion Tower, so you can orientate the Diorama. By the way the Dallas Police cars were actually '63 Galaxies, as opposed to the '61 Dinky Fairlane (my Dad had a '63 Fairlane). Although a new '64 model year Cadillac Miller Meteor hearse took the coffin to Dallas Love Field airport, at the other end at Andrews Air Force Base a Pontiac Bonneville Criterion ambulance collected the body, being a '63 stacked headlight version as opposed to the Dinky 263 1961 Bonneville model. On the seat colours of Dinky Fairlanes I have revisited 258 and what I called 'white', and which I thought was the same as the solid green 148 interior, but is not. 148 is definitely cream, 258 must be what you call light grey or ' grey white'. The 258 grey white is the same on my RCMP and also on my later metallic green 148. Interestingly the solid green 148 has closed windows and the metallic green open front windows. Then I looked at the Cadillac 62s red and grey white, and grey white RCMP and 258 Police.

townie54 wrote: 'You cannot take pictures in the Sixth Floor Museum. However if you google 'The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza' then follow 'About the museum' then 'permanent exhibition' then 'further highlights' you will see the Diorama next to the Investigations section. Zoom in and the two Dinky Fairlanes can be seen centre left painted a cream colour and passing the Grassy Knoll. I could not discern the manufacture of the presidential X100 or follow up car on the diorama, but I think scratch built. Certainly not as neat as the Minichamps X100. They could do worse than substitute an 1/43 Atlas Heads of State X100 and Queen Mary. The Signature Queen Mary, slightly larger at 1/38, was on sale in the adjacent shop. I attach a photo of Dealey Plaza from the nearby Reunion Tower, so you can orientate the Diorama. By the way the Dallas Police cars were actually '63 Galaxies, as opposed to the '61 Dinky Fairlane (my Dad had a '63 Fairlane). Although a new '64 model year Cadillac Miller Meteor hearse took the coffin to Dallas Love Field airport, at the other end at Andrews Air Force Base a Pontiac Bonneville Criterion ambulance collected the body, being a '63 stacked headlight version as opposed to the Dinky 263 1961 Bonneville model. On the seat colours of Dinky Fairlanes I have revisited 258 and what I called 'white', and which I thought was the same as the solid green 148 interior, but is not. 148 is definitely cream, 258 must be what you call light grey or ' grey white'. The 258 grey white is the same on my RCMP and also on my later metallic green 148. Interestingly the solid green 148 has closed windows and the metallic green open front windows. Then I looked at the Cadillac 62s red and grey white, and grey white RCMP and 258 Police.'

By the way my Profile Picture is me with the X100 which is in the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan.