Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2021.

Despite all the limitations surrounding the corona virus, I wish all membersand their families a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy 2021. Fortunately, we can continue to communicate with each other via the possibilities of the World Wide Web, DTCA and so on, and continue to enjoy our hobby. Best wishes to all, Jan Oldenhuis

Hi all, herewith my seasons greetings for this Christmas. Circumstances are different from what we had imagined, but let's hope for, and be optimistic about some relief in the course of 2021. it's been so long for many Dinky enthusiasts to meet each other in person! All toy fairs were cancelled since March and it was of course the 2020 AGM weekend that we missed, unfortunately. I added a wonderful red British Salmson 2-Seater Sports to the collection last month, which happened to climb the Christmas tree on the quiet, and I quickly took the picture to be included in my Christmas card for this year. Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy and better 2021, all of you! Kind regards, Jan.

Hi all, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you and your families. Stay safe! The blue Triumph with cream wheels just arrived today, in time to be my 2020 Christmas present. Kind regards, Rob van der Hoort

Yes, holiday greetings to all -- and here's hoping for a much better 2021. Meanwhile Dinky Toys have helped us through this horrible year and ensured that we keep smiling, at least some of the time! For next year I hope that I will again be able to meet some fellow Dinky collectors that I already knew, and I would like to make the personal acquaintance of some new friends once we can travel. Cheers, Jonathan

I'd like to echo the others and wish all DTCA members a very Merry Christmas. I don't have anything shiny to add but I did receive a Dinky today. Or should I say most of a Dinky! it's not bad news though as for many years I have had an Esso sign pole from the 781 set but not the island or the pumps. Then a not too bad example came up on ebay and I won it quite cheaply. The pole is packed away somewhere so I can't show the complete set but one day soon I shall unite all the pieces. Kind regards and good wishes. John

Hello Everyone, I'd like to (rather belatedly) send very Happy Christmas greetings from New Zealand. I certainly agree with others in the post, that 2020 has been a very difficult year - though we've been extremely lucky (so far) here. Still, for me this year has seen a really happy event: becoming a member of the DTCA! I was born in 1949, in England, and Dinky Toys were a complete passion for me when I was a boy. I'm so pleased that I've joined. Meantime, I echo Jonathan's comment about hoping for a much better 2021 and send my best wishes for the New Year, Kind regards, Mark

Welcome to the DTCA, Mark -- it's wonderful to have you here. (And may I assume from your user ID that you have a 2CV? I sorely miss the one I owned many years ago -- my favourite car ever!) Happy New Year, Jonathan

Hello Jonathan, Thank you for your very kind words of welcome - and like you I used to be a 2CV owner: my first was in blue-grey and had definitely seen better days, but gave me great pleasure as I gradually brought it up to a better standard; my second, in bright red, ran perfectly and I loved it. I drove both for many years when I lived in Canberra (incidentally there was a rare Bijou residing there, too) - a great place for such cars: dry climate, wide roads and relative lack of traffic. Both my 2CVs had been imported as ckd kits to Australia. I bought the red one in Adelaide and took three days to drive across to Canberra; en route a group of emus kept pace quite easily! I reluctantly sold 'Poppy' when I moved to Auckland: the wet weather plus the hectic driving conditions here made it a much less practical car....I still miss it, though! (I could wax eloquent about the merits of 2CVs / Amis, etc for a long time - at least I have the excellent French Dinkies to remind me how good they were!) Kind regards, Mark

Mark, Well this may bore other DTCA members unless they are fellow Citroen lovers, but before I had a full size 2CV I already owned several Dinky Toy versions. In 1983 I moved from California to the UK to do postgraduate studies in Scotland, and I shopped for a used car with the desire that it would be a full-size Dinky that I could never have owned in the USA. My choices narrowed down to a London taxi or a 2CV, but the taxi was bigger than I needed and too expensive to insure, so a 2CV it was. My green 2CV, dubbed Fiona, accompanied me to Scotland on a number of memorable trips. That winter, as I drove up from London with the car full of baggage, I made it through snowy passes and finally neared my goal (St Andrews in Fife) around midnight. Very tired, I was stopped for exceeding the 30 mph limit by about 8 miles an hour as I passed through a small village. The two cops joked that they didn't know a 2CV could go that fast! Later on Fiona was my honeymoon car. My bride and I were driving to Cornwall, but along the way we couldn't help but notice a steady stream of 2CVs, Dyanes, and Amis going in the opposite direction, particularly since their drivers were flashing their lights at us. Finally we grew sufficiently curious that we turned around to follow the caravan. It led to what proved to be a very large gathering of Citroens, the 1985 2CV World Rally at Cheltenham. I cannot resist attaching a photo of myself and Fiona taken that day. Unfortunately Fiona had to be sold several years later as a result of one of my several Transatlantic moves. Later on and back in the UK, I owned another big French Dinky, a Renault 4. It was a very useful car, but did not have the character of Fiona. Well, a happy coincidence makes this posting a little more relevant to Dinky Toy collecting. Within the last hour, I was successful in an eBay auction and another 2CV will be on its way to me. As the seller's picture shows, it is hardly pristine, but it is the hard to find Junior version.

Jonathan, Excellent reminiscences and great photo from the 1985 2CV World Rally. I attended one of these in Canberra and it was an amazing sight: a couple of hundred 2CVs, Dyanes, etc! I lived in Washington DC in the mid-1990s, and don't recall seeing any 2CVs there, though I remember spotting an Ami (and a Panhard PL17) up at a Hershey event in Pennsylvania. Congratulations on the very difficult to find Dinky Junior 2CV! - a model that I've not managed to acquire yet. Considering that the Junior models duplicated the main range, very few would have been looked after and most would surely have lived a very rough life, so yours looks pretty good. The only Dinky Junior in my collection is the Renault 4L. Kind regards, Mark

Mark ... as you probably are aware, not that many 2CVs were imported to the USA, and certainly not suited to our highways. (One does feature in the classic American Graffiti film, though.) When they crop up for sale, they are way too expensive. I have one of these FIATs today ... not the same, but at least the roof opens, and maybe when I am struck by a huge American SUV I wont be killed instantly ...

Hello Jonathan, A great - looking FIAT 500!, with what look like extra-strong additional bumpers / fenders, presumably to meet US safety regs. We certainly get the 500 here in NZ, though I'm not sure if we get the cabrio version like yours - just the sliding-roof variety or full saloon. Your car reminds me of the Citroen Pluriel from the rear, a reasonable attempt to update the 2CV. We mentioned the Dinky Junior range, and I'm attaching a photo of the only one in my collection - the Renault R4. Yes, the real-life R4 wasn't as charasmatic as the 2CV, but it was certainly practical. I had an early one with tiny thin bumpers, and then a later R4L with (slightly) more robust ones. Meantime have a very happy New Year's Eve, Best wishes from Mark