New arrivals

And more new arrivals ...

Hi Jonathan, that's quite an interesting bunch of nice additions. The bright red immediately post-war British Salmson Two-Seater is lovely, with its original white-greyish medium size tyres! It must be a dilemma wether to leave the wind screen bent down as it is, or lift it up into its correct upright position, with some risk of breaking it. The tyres of your models are remarkable anyway. The correct medium white tyres on the Autocar Chausson are my favourites, even though they are hardly realistical. The fine tread tyres on the yellow Sunbeam Talbot are not very common and the lonely odd left front tyre for the grey Salmson begs for replacement. The British fine tread white tyres on the French Traction Avant look special indeed. They are almost a decade older than the model itself. If only one knew the history of such a model ... The Terex must be a milestone for you indeed, as it was for me. Yes, three times at least the value of a regular Euclid. But, one can have some collector's luck, sometimes. Kind regards, Jan

JonathanWhat a nice, mixed batch of new acquisitions! You have been heard at work.....not easy to find a Terex like that....and yours appears to be very nice condition. I really like the red Salmson, especially an early postwar with the smooth wheels and white tires....very sporty! Best regards, Terry

Several days ago I received what ought to be my last-ever acquisition, as I have no more display space nor room for another cabinet. (But of course I say 'ought to be' because I've made that promise to myself before.) This is an item I've wanted ever since I saw it in 1961 in a Dinky catalog as a five-year-old -- the French #845 Barriere Vauban. My local stockist did not have any and could not get the item. (As many will know, the longtime U.S. distributor H. Hudson Dobson ceased trading that year. Subsequent distributors in the 60s did not import the entire Dinky range -- and especially not most French models -- so '61 would have been the last year the barriers were imported. Suffice it to say they turn up very rarely in the States. I obtained my barriers from a Canadian seller, and now have twenty -- two packs worth. They did not come in the original sealed plastic packets, so the value is of course lower, but on the other hand now I can play with them as I always wanted to. A dream fulfulled many many many years later! I present a comparison between the plastic Dinky barriers and a current Norev production, which is the same barriers modeled in metal. I had not expected the difference in scale -- the Dinky barriers are 30mm high whereas the Norev is only 25mm high. Assuming that the 12-bar barriers modeled by both Dinky and Norev were the same height as the 14-bar Vauban barriers still sold today, I calculate that the Norev model is 1/43 scale, while the Dinky, surprisingly, is 1/42nd. It is a pity that Dinky never modeled a trailer to carry the barriers around, since not many will fit into a van!

Hello Jonathan, sorry to hear you feel forced to end collecting because of space restrictions. If you wish to continue 'the joy of collecting' you might consider to confine yourself to upgrading the quality of your collection, replacing poorer items by better ones - as I do more and more. Just a suggestion. Kind regards, Jan

When these accessories were sold in Britain, they were in packets of six, except for number 851 which had eight items - two each of 846 oil drums, 847 barrels, 849 packing cases and 850 bottle crates. Note that 848 luggage trunks were not sold in Britain, neither were 844 and 845, barriers and oil pipes (for the Unic Saharien).

Jan, thank you for your kind words. I tend not to upgrade models because I am really bad at selling anything -- with no shows/swapmeets here, the only way of letting models go is via eBay, and I dislike the process of packing and shipping items -- and I would only wind up storing duplicates. (It has already happened in a few cases.) Also, the models where Ihave had to accept less than mint are the very ones where it would be the most expensive to upgrade. Fear not, however -- my collection has not been fully catalogued for years, the boxes need to be put in order, there is always photography to experiment with, and plenty else to do. Unlike you and so many others here, I am not a very organized collector:) Anyway I will never be finished with Dinky Toys, that is for sure!

Jonathan, so beautifull and hard to find, your bus with MECCANO publicity , Is that normal that the pub is only on the right side ? This morning arrived a Renault 4L . This model is the first version made in a little quantity : no letters under the left front wing. Kind regards Richard

Richard, I like your early Renault! Regarding the Routemaster, I have never seen another like it, so I don't know what is normal for the transfer. Toward the end of Dinky, there were many variants of the Type 3 Routemaster produced, some documented and some not. For example, in addition to the ones JD lists in his Encyclopaedia, there are others shown on this defunct web page: link
link

Just arrived from the printing company: the printed and bound catalogue supplement over 2018, the fourth in succession. I am extremely happy with the professional printing quality and finish! Kind regards, Jan

Jan. Looks great. If you have built up such a valuable collection over the years and described so many details of each model, with photos added, it also deserves to be kept in a book. Congratulations on the result. You have made a nice work of it again and you can be proud of the result. Kind regards, Jan Oldenhuis

Jan, very beautiful books ! A new arrival is a Citron 2 cv ref. 558, in beige colour. I already had this item but with paint chips and without box. it's better now ! Kind regards Richard