New arrivals

Apart from the nice models: wonderful and unusual display case you have! Kind regards, Jan

Still some new arrivals to squeeze in ...

Nice adds Jonathan! I rather like the Daimler Ambulance in white, instead of the older cream color. I would think white would be a more realistic color. I couldnt tell from the photo...does that still have the smooth tires, or are they the later treaded type? Best regards, Terry

Terry -- this sample has smooth tires. I have collected every Dinky ambulance (though I do not have a prewar one) but I belatedly realized that I didn't have the Daimler, so that had to be rectified. To be honest I never thought this Dinky to be one of their best efforts. If they weren't going to open up the rear windows because of concerns about die wear, they should have at least painted the windows in black or silver. Also the red cross is inaccurate and the rear window spacing is wrong.

Well, the day had to come -- I think this will be my last Dinky acquisition, at least until I give up on the idea of displaying almost every model I have. (I might be able to squeeze one small bus into the relevant area, so we'll see what turns up.) It came from a nice gentleman who bought the model with 'paper route money' in 1958, and had gotten a discount from the toy shop because of one chip on the hood (not shown in the picture)

Your latest additions are too beautiful to be squeezed Jonathan . All of them look 'as new', untouched. The Snow Plough especially is fine, with the scarcer silver blade and the attractive later box. The Daimler model has its shortcomings indeed, but, as an iconic Dinky Toy, we all went to believe that this is how a real ambulance should look like! An addition to my library below. Britain's Toy Car Wars: Dinky vs Corgi vs Matchbox by Giles Chapman. Stroud : The History Press, 2016. Bought in a bookshop in Liverpool and plenty of copies still in stock. Also plenty available on the internet. Besides the illustrations a lot of text, which I did not have the opportunity for to read yet. Comment on the internet: 'Diecast-metal Dinky Toys arrived in 1934. In 1953, Lesney launched the Matchbox series. Mettoy brought its Corgi range in 1956, with working suspension, seats, steering wheels, and opening doors and hoods. The brand hit the jackpot with its James Bond movie tie-in: a 1:43 scale Aston Martin DB5 with working versions of the on-screen gadgets, including ejector seat. Dinky hit back with models based on Gerry Anderson TV shows. From the U.S. (but made cheaply in Hong Kong), Mattels Hot Wheels arrived in 1968. The British establishment was left reeling. Throughout the 1970s, the nations three toy car heroes battled on, trying to alter their offerings so that they offered as much 'play value' as possible.' Any comment by others? With the addition of two tiny dublo figures sets, 1001 Station Staff and 1003 Passengers, I have definitely completed the figures sets in my collecting era. Excellent for use with Hornby Dublo trains but hard to adopt for Dinky Toys layouts. Only the Dinky Toys buses and coaches are modelled in the OO or 1/76 scale. All other Dinky road vehicles are too large for them in comparison. Kind regards, Jan

Thanks for your nice comments, Jan. Below are several shots of the cramped conditions my Dinky Toys must endure. (When I acquired a second ex-shop display earlier this year, it was supposed to allow better spacing, but being essentially incorrigible, I took the opportunity to expand the collection instead.) There is a non-Dinky Miata in one picture, which may be subject to eventual banishment -- but it is a model of a full-size car I own, right down to the proper color. Oh, and one can't tell from the photo, but the Snow Plough with the silver blade also has a lighter blue roof beacon than the other version, whose beacon is more of a dark purple. Meanwhile you raise several thoughts. The 'Toy Wars' book, which I also have, does succinctly state the impact of Hot Wheels (as well as why I have always disliked Mattel, and decry the fact that they own the Matchbox and Dinky trademarks now). Their unrealistic wheels, colors, and prototypes had a devastating effect on competitors, and while one could argue that these are what children wanted, people want what they are made to want, and Hot Wheels were -- in the U.S., at least -- advertised on television. No rivals could match Mattel's promotional efforts. Secondly, as the author notes, Mattel was the first to move to cheap overseas manufacture in a major way. Regarding the 1001 and 1003 sets, does anyone know whether the 051- and 053-labeled versions came first, or second? I'm guessing second, since the later plastic OO-scale figures (some seen in my photo) have 05x numbering.

The parking police has a tough job to do, as I am aware of, seeing your photos. 1001 precedes 051 and 1003 precedes 053, both renumbered in 1954. Kind regards, Jan

Jan, I did ring the police, but they complained they could not help as they cannot get out of their car park ...

This bus arrived today. The stickers supplied with it by Binns Road were for the Single-Decker Bus, and certainly not appropriate here.

I friend. I got also a bus this morning with two Bedford van from John Gay production. Johnathan, beautiful police squadron but tell us more about the red Jaguar : is it a Dinky ? Kind regards Richard

Richard -- I've never seen those two particular John Gay models, though as we know, he created a practically endless number of 410 vans, some in bespoke boxes! Meanwhile the Routemaster Bus models are a continuing source of confusion to me, specifically in trying to correlate all the different variations with the boxes they came in. Your Tussaud's bus is just like one I have in that it has the diecast wheels and still retains the more detailed casting showing where windows opened, and yet you have the last-type box. My silver bus has the last-type casting with the horrible Speedwheels, and yet it came with an earilier box. I've seen enough anomalies like this to believe that it was Binns Road itself that mixed up the boxes, rather than it happening after the fact, but I guess we'll never know. The red Jaguar in my police compound is the Nicky version, made in India from Dinky tooling. Behind it one can see another of those anomalies I love, a Pilen Ford Fiesta in police livery. It fits in here because the same Fiesta model was sold in civillian guise as a Dinky Toy.