New arrivals

At the NAMAC Toyfair in Houten last week I could buy this rare color Aveling Barford Diesel Roller. Far from mint, but when will you find another? I have only seen a handfull of these on pictures. This is the first one I can hold in my hands. Needless to say I enjoyed Houten very much! Kind regards, Rob

Hi Rob, thank you for having had the privilege to behold it with my own eyes in Houten. It was nice to see you so happy with it, despite having so many wonderful items in your collection already! Kind regards, Jan

Just back home, we had a delightful DTCA weekend in Derby. The get together with the fellow DTCA guys was another happy event. Demonstrations, buying and selling, the beers, dinners, the after dinner speech and the AGM itself were all in a very positive, comradely atmosphere. The limited number of my catalogue supplements sold like hot cakes. I took no photos, they will be published some time, no doubt. It has become a tradition to end with a visit to a nearby toyfair on Sunday, this time another visit to the Donington Park Fair. I always try to find one 'souvenir', and succeeded in adding a very affordable excellent boxed cerise no. 107 Sunbeam Alpine Sports, as a companion to my light blue one. Both are the early versions, with the numbers 107 underneath, smooth tyres and the boxes with their correct colour dots. I'm looking forward to next year! Kind regards, Jan

Very nice addition Jan, and it will pair nicely with your light blue one. With the AGM and visits with other fellow collectors, was there any mention of Jacques? I and certainly others must be concerned about the lack of any new updates, and I am quite surprised that his daughter, knowing his lifelong Dinky involvement, has chosen not to communicate further.Best regards, Terry

Hi Terry, Jacques is not well, still. But I will reply to you in a private email in more detail - not yet done, just back home. Kind regards, Jan

Hi, Just arrived today is this #195 Fire Chief's Range Rover. It is the early metallic red version which I have avoided in the past due to the lack of authenticity. However, this one I spotted on our local auction site (NZ) - it was the wheels that caught my eye - inappropriate mag style. It was cheap enough, so... Cheers, Ron F

I had an opportunity to purchase a very nice green version of the #110 Aston Martin Racing Car, in the competition livery, and it just arrived yesterday. Here are a couple of pictures....I will post a more extensive review of this nice model later. Best regards, Terry

I think we all love ebay don't we? Here is a lagonda in early post war trade box swagged for 28. Grey body with grey hubs, dark grey interior and silver edged celluloid windscreen. Not known to Richardson but mentioned in Ramsay with a zero on the end of the price. Where do they get these from?Then a perfect unboxed Castrol tanker courtesy of the local toy shop.

That Lagonda + trade box (or trade box + Lagonda?) is really a bargain, Al! It confuses me a little, because I always thought that the coloured hubs on these models were on later (export) models, whereas the trade box is early (or did this box last for a longer period?). Very fine Castrol Tanker, which possibly came from another trade box. Congrats, kind regards, Jan

I read on the lagonda thread that you and Jacques were saying lagondas with thin screens and coloured hubs were later export products. I can't find anything in the usual references to back up those statements. What sources were you looking at? The box came with the car but I cannot say if they were always together. The Meccano Magazine promised that some Dinky Toys would be available for Christmas 1945. Judging by the back cover notice, supply struggled throughout most of 1946 even in the months after the new models, of which 38c was the first, were announced. Thin screens seem to be more common however. How do we know that the thicker plastic screens were not a short-lived late alteration?

Hi Al, these statements are purely based on models seen and not from the usual reference books, which hardly discuss such topics. I believe the post-war models Terry has in his collection, exclusively imported in the USA and all with coloured hubs, show such a tendency, and coloured hubs are only explicitly shown in post 1952 export catalogues. But these experiences are welcomed to be 'tackled' by contradicting experiences, that's what this forum invites to. It is so difficult to find a kind of chronological structure in the appearances of windows for the 38 series (thick, with or without frames, the thin flimsy ones). My green Lagonda with black ridged hubs has the thick framed windscreen, whereas I once owned a Frazer Nash with later coloured hubs that also had the (silver) framed windscreen. The flimsy, mostly bent downward screens seem to prevail on later coloured hubs models, but ... Yes, it could all be mixed up in the factory. Kind regards, Jan

Hello Al and Jan, All the 38 models had the slot for the windscreen altered in 1945. We know this from the original drawings. For the Lagonda we have 2 change orders c.o. for the slot. First length of slot was original .937 and was altered to .900 on the drawing as change order 1640 d.d. 20-12-45. Width of slot was .025 and was altered to .035 on the drawing as change order 1862 d.d. 30-12-46. This alteration to wider slot is also done on the drawing for Alvis and Sunbeam. So I presume all models with thick windscreen must have been produced from 1946 on. John.