New arrivals

A lovely Peugeot 403 Familiale arrived today. Far from rare this model, but harder to find in (near) perfect condition. As soon as I will have updated my catalogue description and completed a photo session I hope to post some remarks and questions about this model. Kind regards, Jan

JanVery nice, and I look forward to your more complete writeup and photos. My example is interesting, and still nearly Mint, after purchasing it directly from the French Meccano factory around 1959. A fellow collector had his mother, who knew French, write a letter for us, asking if we could have a new French catalog, and could we buy direct. And this was after we had already written H. Hudson Dobson, asking them if the French factory would sell direct.....they told us no, they would not. But they did, and some many weeks later our package arrived, along with the Peugeot Familiale which we could not buy in the USA then. Best regards, Terry

Thank you Jonathan for your information. I wrote to the seller but he does'nt ship to France !!!??? Stupid ! Jan, this 403 is very nice ; you just have to find the model with concav hubs. Yesterday, arrived the De Soto USA Police as shown below. Kind regards Richard

Today, a french Dinky : Opel Rekord coup 1900 with it's box Kind regards Richard

Richard -- I've always liked that Rekord, and the Commodore version. As you know, Liverpool used the tooling too, but marred it with the horrible plastic Speedwheels. Here are some more Atlantics that arrived last week, courtesy of Jose H. tipping me to the auction. Battered, but still driveable!

Jonathan. A very nice acquisition. I think you have also acquired both versions of the axle support. The light blue with dark blue interior and beige hubs has the long front axle support and the light blue with red interior and red hubs has the short front axle support? Jan O

I did not even take notce of that, Jan, but I think you are right about that. -- J

I did not even take notice of that, Jan, but I think you are right about that. -- J

A spotless black no. 24N Citron Traction Avant 11 legere berline (3rd type) added to its grey (4th type) brother in the French Dinky Toys division. Being rather busy completing my 2018 supplement it may take some time before having it fully registered and described. Just a photo here, the new one surrounded by its fellow-countrymen, may give a nice provisional impression too. Kind regards, Jan

A very nice find Jan. I do feel, however, that the Citren suffers from the same malady as the 25 series Bedfords with their rather too tall roofs. I have a very poor example of the Ciren that I may perform surgery on in the future. it's that, or maybe a part in a WW2 diorama! I recently added two French Dinkys to my collection. A decent 32c Panhard Esso Citerne, and a slightly better 34b Berliet that is sadly missing its container. Something I shall have to look out for at Sandown Park next time. Not worth posting photos though.

Some miscellaneous new items here, including an early postwar addition to my fleet of tatty taxis, and the Dublo Land Rover/horsebox. (Is the narrow width of that horsebox in any way prototypical? The poor animal has no room to turn around, and there certainly isn't room for two horses.) I also cherish Dinky figures and accessories, and was adding to my collection of both even though I have another sample of each item. I'm glad I got another set of the French 849 cases, because the others I have all came as a set of six, as seen on the left, and the new one is a set of 10! In the Encyclopaedia, Jacques shows that the 851 set of mixed accessories came in a packet of 8 or a packet of 10, but the variation in the 849 set has not previously been recorded.

The horsebox trailer is prototypical, there were also two-horse versions which had a moveable division down the centre to keep the horses apart. Perhaps the best-known manufacturer at that time would have been Rice's - Corgi made a two-horse trailer in their range around the same time as this Dublo.