Greetings from Rome!

Hello everybody, My name is Gianni and I am a brand new DTCA member (Nr 172). I have been told I am the first Italian to join the club. I do not know if it is a good news for you gentlemen, but now its too late: it happened. I beg your pardon for my poor knowledge of English language. Ill do my best to improve it. I live in Rome, I used to be a journalist for four decades but now I am in retirement and very happy to be so. I am an old collector of any kind of old mechanical toys, mainly connected with the history of transports, like cars, commercial vehicles, trains, ships and planes. Up to now, I have gathered some four thousand objects, a considerable amount of whom are Dinky Toys or Hornby. Too many for a single person, so I decided to open a toy museum, in order to show my collection to the public. Look: I dont think to set up any kind of business: its going to be just a free exhibition... One year ago I found the right place: some very large premises in a village near the Adriatic Sea, close to Ancona (that is a town not far away from Rimini, which you perhaps know better). Now that I have bought the building, work is going on to arrange it for purpose, and I am afraid it should last for long. I mean, at least two or three years. Never mind, Im not in a hurry. Meanly because, previous to open the museum, I need to gather a satisfactory documentation about any single toy that is going to be shown. And this is, at the end, why I need your help: to identify what real life vehicle each Dinky of my collection is related. I have posted some questions in the 'where it came from' Forum discussion, but I have got many more... Lets stop here, for the moment: thank you in advance for any help you can give to me, all the best to everybody and greetings from Rome!

Welcome aboard Gianni! Sounds fantastic, I've always dreamed of a Dinky Museum, lets see some pictures of your collection! Chris Warr.

Greetings from the Netherlands, Gianni. Nice Dinky Toy you're sitting on, and welcome to the DTCA! Kind regards, Jan

And a big welcome from Southern California......you will enjoy the DTCA as we have many knowledgeable members who love posting pictures of their Dinky's and discussing them. I am a modest collector from childhood days, and still have almost all of my earlier ones as well as those I have added over the years. I also enjoy seeing pictures and information on the real prototypes that the Dinky's were modeled after.Please show us some of your Dinky's and give us some info on your collection...sounds quite impressive!! Terry Hardgrave

Well, you asked for it...

Thank you, Chris: here it comes

Thank you Jan. I love your Houten Toy Fear, I have found many interesting things there...

Wow! What a pleasure to get comments from California. As a matter of fact, I'm not only collecting Dinky Toys, but a wild bunch of different old toys. See here for a little essay:

Wow! What a pleasure to get comments from California. As a matter of fact, I'm not only collecting Dinky Toys, but a wild bunch of different old toys. See here for a little essay:

And one more...

Let me show something else. Here you can see many Hornby products.

Very nice models there....thanks for showing us!! You have quite a diverse collection, with many interesting pieces.Terry