405 Universal Jeep

The Nicky Toys 405 Universal Jeep is a good representation of this capable 4x4 vehicle in a military green colour. It incorporates the strange plastic wheels found on Nicky Toys and Maxwell Toys of India which incorporate a kind of rim, or flange, on the inside. It features an aerial on the front wing which was never included on the Dinky Toys version. The US ARMY sticker on the front bumper is a bit gimmicky. Whilst crude like all the Nicky Toys it does have a certain charm and I am sure it was enjoyed by its owners. Dave

Remarkable surprise, Dave! Was the space between front bumper and radiator grill filled in during the 'Dinky years' already or is this a post-Dinky era change? The tiny front lights have almost disappeared too. One might wonder why it was so difficult to make the windscreen fit correctly. Why at all do most Dinky Toys look so clumsy when they fall into the hands of later manufacturers? Kind regards, Jan

Hello Jan I am fairly sure the filled in front bumper was post Dinky, I have not seen enough to guess whether they were all like this. I suspect that the problem with the windscreen is that the locating/securing tab that goes into to body is simply too long. You are correct about the clumsy appearance, Dinky just got it right!!! All of the Indian toys are crude I have seen a lot of the Maxwell and Milton diecasts and all are extremely rough round the edges, however, it was all they had so the kids would have accepted them as normal. Dave

Nevertheless ... good of you, Dave, to collect and share them with us, because they are an unmistakable part of Dinky Toys history, albeit not the the part to be the most excited about. Kind regards, Jan

Dave In regard to your Post #3, you are quite correct - most of the castings in the Nicky range were woeful. Unfortunately, Maxwell and Milton had dies which had already reached their use-by-date when Meccano off-loaded them so they were already up the proverbial creek at the very beginning of their Indian adventure. I have had a few pass through my hands, and only one stands out as an excellent casting, the 194 Bentley Coupe whose image is below. The only items that were detrimental were the wheels and base plate, the casting itself was virtually without fault. The driver was strange, but what the heck! Bruce (150)20160318/838/2300

It seems that all the universal Jeeps civilian and military had their front bumper filled in. The US army one had two different base plates. The early ones were those made in Liverpool, later Nicky made their own plate. There are at least four different boxes for this jeep, one of them was marked 'ARMY JEEP'. Where all the army jeeps packed in these boxes or were some packed in th 'UNIVERSAL JEEP' boxes ? Any way, a rare model in a very good state. Congratulations David.Jacques.P.S. I have a mint boxed Nicky howitzer for sale, Why not make me an offer ?

Thanks for that Jacques, I'm OK for Nicky Toys for now. Dave

Just a nice 25y/405/669 trio below: