24e and 524 Renault Dauphine (1957-1959)

Hi Friends. To complete this topic, here under you wil find my Dauphine team. With and without windows Convex and concav hubs Colours variations in red and green Black front license plate or not And the family's queen : the colour try in 'bronze' with windows and concav hubs. Kind regards. Richard

What a fabulous Dauphine collection, Richard! Is that 'bronze' on the color try the same paint that was used on the Renault Floride?

Richard - an impressive collection of Renault Dauphines. Is there a green one between it? This is, perhaps due to the light, not easy to see. Terry's one in comment # 2 is clearly green and looks darker than yours. That of you looks more like the light green / grey side. Very special that one with concave hubs and white tires. Hard to find I think. According to Ramsay only available in 1960-61 and became individually unavailable in 1961 but remainded in Gift Set 503 up till 1964.Then I have a question to you about the inside roof of your collection Dauphines. My two red Renault Dauphines (1 with a black and 1 with a red license plate) both have a checkered roof on the inside (see photo). Do you have one with a smooth inner roof?Kind regards, Jan O

Thank you to both of you for your nice words. No Jonathan, it's not the same colour ! it's (for me) a grey/green. I add a photo comparing with the Floride which is really green and the Opel more grey ! And also an another photo of the Dauphine in a better condition. Jan O : -yes it's a green but, if you look on the photo where are my three green models, you can see that this one is more 'grey' (the model on the left) -No smooth roof in my collection and I think that the smooth roof don't exist for the Dauphine. -the 'bronze' model is a plant try. it is one and only. Cheers Richard

quote - Jan-Very nice writeup on this popular French car that Dinky Toys modelled so well. I have often wondered why they did not model the earlier 4cv, as it was exceedingly popular and around for quite some time. - unquote.The Dauphine was the first Renault made by Meccano because Renault had an agreement with C.I.J. and did not let Meccano have licences for previous models. When the real Dauphine was issued Renault found that the Dinky Toys production was much more than C.I.J. and the advertising potential would be better with Dinky. So Renault broke the agreement and gave Meccano licences for all the next models like R8, R12, Fregate etc... The Fregate was planed and the drawing job N 20 106 was drawn in Liverpool. The catalogue number 185 was given to this project. The glazed windows were added to the Dauphine in January 1960. There are some rare issues. The white Dauphines are probably the pilot lot. In the early 1960s the Dinky Club de Paris paid a visit to the Bobigny factory. They were presented with a special colour run of Dauphines, a deep blue that never appeared again. As a result it is very, very scarce and to find one in this condition is a real treat. This very near mint boxed example has window glazing and convex hubs. The end flaps of the boxes marked 24 e were covered by stickers marked 524. This model has also been offered as a price for a competition of the Meccano Actualits news sheet. End of production model with window glazing and concav hubs. A rare light blue finish often called turquoise also with concav hubs. I heard that in 1945 Ferdinand Porsche was captured and made to work for Renault. He would have designed the 4cv which is based on the Beatle. The Beatle was in fact copied from a pree war Tatra. The 4cv was the first of a long line of Renault : 4cv, Dauphine, R8, R10. The road holding of these cars was apaling and as the cars got larger it became worse and worse.

Considering car manufacturers agreeing Dinky to produce their models does this mean that every model Dinkywas planning had to be agreed with in some form with the car manufacturers? Does this apply to modern die cast models also?

Firstly, welcome new member -- glad to have you join us! Secondly, as mentioned earlier in the thread, yes, the Dinky Toys modelled had to get permission from the manufacturers, and sometimes plans for the modelmakers to work from in addition. As Jacques mentioned above, Renault had an exclusive agreement with CIJ in the 50s and did not let Dinky model its cars until the Dauphine was released. (Later on the companies became very close and Dinky was treated to pre-release details of the R4, for example.) Permission being required is all the more true today, in our litigious age, and you will see the boxes for many toys (and the Atlas/DeAgostini Dinky replicas) festooned with manufacturer copyright notices and logos. There are some relatively late Dinky Toys that were very clearly models of specific manufacturers' vehicles that did not get named as such. I'm thinking particularly of the GMC 'Cannonball' (Tractor-Trailer McLean) and the GMC Brinks Truck. One wonders if Meccano Ltd. was initially dealing with General Motors when it designed these toys, but in the final event a (financial?) arrangement could not be reached ....