New arrivals

Nice.

great

The darker blue no. 23s Streamlined Racing Car arrived from Italy this morning. It is an early postwar example (1945-1946) with smooth black hubs, silver base plate and fine treaded white tyres. Not perfect but quite nice, a companion to my slightly later (1946-1948) medium blue one. Price: 14,90! Admittedly, the travel of the parcel cost the same amount, but even so, a quite fair bargain. And the journey from Torino took ... 4 days! Kind regards, Jan

For those of us whose collecting extends to later Dinky Toys ... I acquired this Coles crane from an eBay seller because the price was reasonable and I had never had the harder-to-find orange version. it's a little tired in appearance but is certainly displayable and had been played with gently. This model is packed with play value, and I could not resist operating the crane. And as you can see, this crane is even able to restrain a wild feline. How many Dinkys could make that claim?

For those of us whose collecting extends to later Dinky Toys ... I acquired this Coles crane from an eBay seller because the price was reasonable and I had never had the harder-to-find orange version. it's a little tired in appearance but is certainly displayable and had been played with gently. This model is packed with play value, and I could not resist operating the crane. And as you can see, this crane is even able to restrain a wild feline. How many Dinkys could make that claim?

A Dinky Toy and a book arrived today. That is, one virtually mint blue Standard Vanguard Saloon in one box, and many boxes with 400 books, just delivered by the printer. It is the toy garage book, a former colleague of mine, Dirk Tang, and myself have been working on for over a year, 224 pages, hb. Unfortunately for the international readership ... in Dutch only. It will be launched at the big Namac/Houten swap meet of next 18 February! Kind regards, Jan

Congratulations Jan, but that is sad, many of us will not be able to read it.I wish you many sales. Jacques

I had once a much admired O scale Modernist style white garage circa 1960 with rooftop parking and rear ramp, a central office tower with accesses either side and engraved sign and golden ball top, a clock tower with flagpole, side entrances and semi circular side pods topped with gold balls too. It came from my uncle who worked in Libertys so presumed purchased at nearby Hamleys - bespoke as my name was on the sign. I have only found similar once or twice on the web for sale and rather dilapidated. You may not have such in your book?

Jan, Does your book cover the Triang Tower Garages set? I would love to own this amazing item, or at the very least get to see one in person some day. It is a unique Triang-Dinky crossover item and must date from shortly after Lines Brothers acquired Meccano Ltd. It was supplied with the Dinky Shell and BP pump sets in the box -- presumably unaltered from standard, and retaining their Dinky labels on the bases? Apart from the inclusion of the Dinky components, this garage is also of interest because the same conical orange roofs for the towers were employed on various castles that Triang produced. (I once owned one of the castles, so could not miss the resemblance.)

As any completeness is unthinkable, we made a random, wide choice of garages: small scale, large scale, paper, wooden, diecast, tinplate, plastic, foldable, kits, fiction, self made, NL, French, German, Danish, Russian, Ukrainian, British, USA etc. etc. Interviews with owners, designers etc. etc. Just to get a fine impression of the field, but completeness - no way! Kind regards, Jan Some random examples below:

Jon, Thats a nice Coles Hydra crane find and in vgc too. Your cat doesnt seem to mind at all being hooked by it either. Great photo! Jan, Your new book looks very impressive, good luck with the orders and sales. Congrats.

Hi Jonathan, What you have is a second issue Coles Hydra crane, where the pinion drive to the jib quadrant was replaced with a worm gear thus making it impossible for the jib to fall under a heavy load. A nice example. Vic