New arrivals

Hi all, herewith my season's greetings. Let's hope we can meet again in person, individually or at the AGM in 2022, after the last one, back in 2019! And some nice Christmas gifts: The very early post-war red Speed of the Wind with black driver is a special one, the same as Terry's, but this one with black tyres. The original French Esso Station is far more difficult to find than the abundantly available Atlas replicas. The Renault Dauphine is very nice, with a poor/fair box, but very affordable compared with many seen around. The almost perfect unboxed plastic wheeled Cooper Bristol was a real bargain, a replacement for one I sold not long ago. Kind regards, Jan

Jan--Lovely additions, and yes, your Speed of the Wind looks just like mine, but for the tires. They must not have had that black painted driver very long post war. And your French Esso gas pumps is also very nice, especially with those vulnerable, very thin hoses. By the way, earlier boxes for it had the word 'miniatures' printed on it. I think I have one and will post it later. Wishing you and your family a very Merry Christmas! Best regards, Terry

Jan--Thought you might like to see the earlier box for the 49d Esso Gas Pumps, with the quaint wording 'miniatures' on it. That wording was also on the very early boxes of the 24v Buick Roadmaster, and I also think the Simca Aronde. Best regards, Terry

Correct, Terry, thank you, mine is the later box indeed (although hardly visible on the quickly taken group picture above). Kind regards, Jan

New this week ...

Wow, Jonathan, these are really beautiful and rather uncommon French factory items! The detailing ... and the zamak wheeled Peugeot ... Congratulations, Jan

An excellent model of the Peugeot 402 on which the French tool makers showed their expertise from the very begining of Dinky Toys by reproducing the Peugeot Lion on the rear wheel spats.Congratulations Jonathan.Jacques

Jonathan---When I saw your very nice 24K Peugeot 402 I was surprised how familiar it looked....yet I do not have one. I then quickly realized it strongly resembled the English Dinky Toys 30a Chrysler Airflow Saloon, of which I do have a copy. Further investigation revealed that the real 1:1 Peugeot was inspired by the Chrysler Airflow, so the toy model resemblance makes lots of sense. For everyone's enjoyment I have posted two photos below, showing both models at about the same angle. Best regards, Terry

Several recent arrivals for 2022 ...

Jonvery nice new additions! That two-tone Oldsmobile was a great buy, and those road signs are nice. Have not seen the 2 level box before. Was that a later version?Terry

Jonvery nice new additions! That two-tone Oldsmobile was a great buy, and those road signs are nice. Have not seen the 2 level box before. Was that a later version?Terry

Thanks, Terry! I had not been aware of the two-level box before, but it couldn't help but catch my eye. This is the prewar box; in fact, due to an article by Peter Golden (avaialble as a PDF on this site), I know that the version of it I now have comes specifically from 1935. As for the signs themselves, they can be distinguished by the fact that they have open triangles on their tops -- these were later filled in. Unfortunately they can also be distinguished by the fact that they have metal pest (which you can see on a couple of the signs looking like white powder). They are definitely brittle, so unfortunately I won't be taking them out to play with them! As Peter noted, the signs tend to self-destruct, and many of the two-level boxes have had their contents replaced with the postwar equivalents.