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In this issue

EDITORIAL

Publisher Claire Ingram

claire ingram@warnersgroup co uk

Editor Rick Wilson

rick wilson@warnersgroup co uk

Editorial Design Cathy Herron

Editorial Assistance Katy Burrows

Editorial Contributors

David Pullen, Richard Carlson, Steven Downes, Francisco Mota, Michael Driver, Brian Gower, Mike Pigott, Andrew Ralston, Rick Wilson, Stephen Paul Hardy, David Lynn, John Harrison

Photography Rick Wilson

Marketing Manager

Katherine Brown Tel: 01778 395092

katherine brown@warnersgroup co uk

Marketing Executive

Luke Hider Tel: 01778 395085

luke hider@warnersgroup co uk

ADVERTISING

Advertising Manager

Kristina Green Tel: 01778 392096

kristina green@warnersgroup co uk

Advertising Production Manager

Nicola Glossop Tel: 01778 392420

nicola glossop@warnersgroup co uk

Advertising Production Assistant

Charlotte Bamford Tel: 01778 395081

charlotte bamford@warnersgroup co uk

News Trade Distribution

Warners Group Distribution Ltd Tel: 01778 391150

SUBSCRIPTIONS

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CONTACT

Write to us at:

Diecast Collector, Warners Group

Publications plc, The Maltings, West Street, Bourne, Lincolnshire PE10 9PH

Website: www diecast-collector co uk

www collectors-club-of-great-britain co uk

Printing Warners Midlands plc Tel: 01778 395100

G

0 4

News and events

W h a t ' s h a p p e ni n g i n t h e w o r ld o f d i e c a s t co lle c ti n g

0 8 What's New

S e v e n p a g e s o f n e w m o d e l re v i e w s

1 8 New Model Spotlight

S t e p h e n P a u l H a rd y a s s e s s e s a n o t h e r n e w b a t c h

2 2 Corgi Vanguards

Cortina Mk5

D a v i d Ly n n t a ke s a d e t ai le d lo o k a t t h e n e w t o o li n g

2 4 New from Corgi for 2023

A ll t h e n e w m o d e l s a n n o u n c e d fo r t h e f i r s t fo u r m o n t h s o f t h e ye a r

2 8 The very last of its kind

F r a n c i s co M o t a co n c lu d e s hi s d e t ai le d i nv e s ti g a ti o n o f L a n c i a r a lly i n g s p o r t s c a r

3 4 France's family favourite

The first of four parts covering the development of the Renault 4, by John Harrison

3 7 From the editor's collection

P re p a r i n g t o c e le b r a t e t h e 6 0 t h a n ni v e r s a r y o f S u m m e r H o l i d a y

3 8 Alfa Romeo 4C Coupé and Spider models David Lynn extends his collection of the stylish Italian beauty.

4 2 The Hot Wheels Years: 1999

M i ke P i g o t t co n ti n u e s hi s s e r i e s o n t h e a n n u a l H o t W h e e l s re le a s e s

4 8 The Standard Vanguard in miniature

A n d re w R a l s t o n d e t ai l s t h e m o d e l s o f t hi s w o n d e r f u l c l a s s i c .

5 4 The Corgi Years: 1965 part 2

R i c k W i l s o n c h a r t s t h e re le a s e s fo r t h e s e co n d h a l f o f t h e ye a r

5 8 Diecast for the Table Top

T h e n e w r a n g e f ro m O x fo rd

D i e c a s t , a n a lys e d b y R i c k W i l s o n

6 0 Workbench H i n t s , ti p s a n d re s t o r a ti o n p ro j e c t u p d a t e s

6 2 Collecting by numbers

M a t c h b ox L e s n ey S u p e r fa s t # 3 2

6 4 Desert Island Diecasts Chawit Chiwarattanaphan is this month's castaway

6 7 Auction news H i g h li g h t s a ro u n d t h e a u c ti o n ro o m s a n d o n li n e

6 8 Price Guide

Va lu e yo u r co lle c ti o n

7 1 ToyFair Times News of upcoming events and fairs

7 2 Vintage Dinky

DTCA Chairman, Michael Driver, picks another old favourite.

7 3 Off the beaten track Andrew Ralston takes a Lancia transporter for a spin

74 Dear Editor

Your chance to get your questions answered

7 7 Signing off S t e p h e n P a u l H a rd y a t t e m p t s t o d i s co v e r t h e m e a ni n g o f li fe fo r co lle c t o r s

7 7 Next month

A s n e a k p e e k a t w hat's in the next issue

7 8 The last word B r i a n G o w e r e l a b o r a t e s o n a n o t h e r t r ai n o f t h o u g h t

R P E This publ cat on is printed by Warners Midlands PLC Te ephone: 01778 391000

WARNERS

DISCLAIMER

All material published remains the copyright of Warners Group Publications Plc no part of this magazine may be published without the prior permission of the publisher Views expressed by contributors are not necessarily the views of the editor or publisher and the greatest care has been taken to ensure accuracy, but the publishers cannot accept responsibility for omissions or errors

While we take every care, we cannot accept liability for loss or damage to contributed copy/ material and the large volume of enquiries means not all correspondence can be replied to personally Competition winners’ details are available from the editorial address; please enclose SAE with your enquiry

While every care is taken when accepting advertisements we cannot accept responsibility for unsatisfactory transactions

We will however investigate any complaints

Data Protection – Warners Group Publications Plc may lend reputable companies the names & addresses of readers who have responded to offers, services and competitions organised by Diecast Collector magazine If you do not wish to receive such mailings, please write or phone us at the given address

News&Events

Here's a round-up of the latest hobby news and events.

PREPARE FOR AN IMPRESSIVE LANDING FROM CORGI

MORE MERCEDES MODELS BY NZG

NZG has confirmed the release of a trio of superb new Mercedes-Benz road vehicles - the Citan, T-Class and EQS with lighting, all in 1/18 scale

Mercedes-EQ EQS (No 1021/55) comes complete with working lights in Hi-Tech Silver Metallic, priced at € 179 It features a highly-detailed interior, adjustable exterior lighting (either daytime running lighting or driving lights) and, by opening the doors, the interior lighting switches on, with footwell lighting and overhead/reading lights Seats are slidable, there is a functioning steering system and all four doors open

THROUGH Michael Clegg’s excellent Diecast Diaries blog on Corgi’s website, development images of the stunning new 1/48 scale tooling of the second generation Hawker Siddeley/British Aerospace Harrier have now been released into the public domain And what an absolute stunner this is going to be

Marking a significant development in the history of this magnificent aircraft, the Harrier II may have shared many operational and visual similarities with its famous VSTOL predecessor, however, this was a very different aeroplane altogether and owed much to America's McDonnell Douglas Corporation Essentially, this new generation of Harrier was a completely different aircraft, a much more capable aeroplane in every respect and a space age development on this now familiar VSTOL theme. The programme was intended to unlock the undoubted potential possessed by the original Harrier, address all of its operational shortcomings and turn it into arguably the most versatile attack aircraft in the world, one which could go anywhere and perform almost any offensive role From a UK military perspective, the programme would eventually result in the introduction of the much more capable Harrier GR 5 in 1987, with additional successive upgrades over the next couple of decades ensuring the Harrier maintain its position as one of the world's foremost strike/attack aircraft

With its high metal content, the new Harrier is a stunning addition to Corgi’s growing 1/48th scale post war jets range and a faithful scale representation of this famous fighting aeroplane The image shown here is the first time that metal, plastic and clear parts have all come together Packed with detail and features, notably the different engine nozzle positionings for hovering and standard flight modes

In addition to some of the many other components, this impressive new model has within the tooling, the material used to replicate the Harrier's tyres is a new compound, which has some play in it to give the impression of scale weight

Still at quite an early stage of development, the team will now be poring over the engineering sample, assessing every aspect of its fit, finish, detail representation and shape accuracy, to check if everything has translated from design file to manufactured components as intended and indeed if any improvements or modifications are needed Clearly, at this stage, the tooling is still in its development phase and as such, may well and usually is subject to future modification Two other aspects worthy of mention at this stage are the variety of nose sections being tooled up and the most impressive array of weapons and stores options that the tooling includes

Visit the Diecast Diaries pages at uk.corgi.co.uk/community/blog-and-news for more information and imagery Here you can also sign up for regular updates and future editions of Michael’s brilliant blog ■

Mercedes-Benz T-Class (No 1048/51) is painted Metallic Grey and is priced at € 79 The model features a highly-detailed interior, functioning steering system, opening front doors and suspension. Also available, but not shown here, is the van version of the T-Class, the Titan, in Arctic White Also priced at € 79, the model has the same features as the T-Class, but, in addition, the rear doors open to reveal the cargo area

Visit NZG’s webshop at www.nzg-shop.eu/en/ for more information, photos and to place an order, or contact your preferred retailer ■

ROYAL TRIBUTE FROM MATRIX

Mike Coupe of Spa Croft Models (www. spacroftmodels.co.uk) has passed on the news that Matrix will be releasing a tribute to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth in the form of her beloved Rover P5B, in 1/43 scale Specially packaged with a figurine accompanied by two of her everpresentfour-legged companion Corgis, this wonderful limited edition release (numbers to be confirmed) will be priced at £140 99

This model will surely prove very popular indeed

so don’t delay, contact your preferred retailer today! For wholesale enquiries, contact John Ayrey Die-casts (www ayrey co uk) ■

NEXT RELEASE FROM THE CORGI MODEL CLUB

THE 22nd model in the Corgi Model Club collection (or 23rd if you count the pre-collection Ice Cream Van) that should be about to begin to arrive with early subscribers by the time that you read this, is No 419, the Ford Zephyr Motorway Patrol Car (as pictured above, left) This one should bring back memories of Z Ca r s , the long-running TV series based in Newtown, a fictional Lancashire town. The following months will bring us the Buick Riviera and MGB GT

As ever, this latest model in the Corgi Model Club collection will be delivered to those who are up to date (i e those who last received the Corvette Stingray) For anyone who'd like to catch up and receive these latest models faster, you can find out more by calling customer services on 0333 030 77 44 or by emailing the team at enquiries@corgimodelclub. com Even if you’re not a subscriber, you can buy any of the releases so far (subject to stock) as a standalone purchase.

And there’s more great news from the Corgi Model Club! Three more models have been confirmed for the collection – No 358 Lotus Elan S2, No 247 Mercedes-Benz 600 Pullman and No 334 Mini Cooper Magnifique That's another three classics that we can all look forward to and get excited about, complete with the original packaging replicated as much as possible, with just a few minor tweaks to fit in with current regulation requirements These will be with early subscribers in September, October and November respectively. See the accompanying table (above, right) for the full list of models (not including the trial ice cream van)

To find out more about the whole range, including some excellent t-shirts that feature original Corgi artwork, visit the club’s comprehensive website at www corgimodelclub com ■

DID YOU KNOW WE ARE MORE THAN JUST A MAGAZINE?

An interesting email received from a reader during the festive break (see Dear Editor on pages 74 & 75), has really got my old grey cells whirring. Don Townshend queried collecting motivations, wondering if readers may be driven by sheer pleasure of custodianship, or more by investment purposes I'd honestly never really asked myself that question before

I've always hung on to the theory that many vintage collectors find enjoyment in our hobby by collecting examples we all had as youngsters, or of vehicles that our parents owned, or even that we've owned or had experiences with I'd like to extend that a little by adding in a little side collection of mine and that concerns aircraft that I have flown in, preferring the models to carry the exact registration, where known Then I also go for racing cars that I've had some involvement with, by working with them at certain race circuits It's all about the personal touch at this point

There will always be the thought of investment hanging around vintage collectables, of course, but what about new models? Like buying a new car, most models will instantly lose a little in value as they 'leave the showroom forecourt' (read that as breaking the seal and opening the box) But in today's world of limited edition runs, many of which can be sold out on preorders alone, it is easy to see how the investment angle can creep in here quickly too I've noticed that a fair bit as I delve deeper into the specialist 1/64 scale market - but that's not always the case

At the end of the day, apart from it always being midnight (sorry, couldn't resist that), it really is down to personal choice. I for one consider that most things I buy will always recover (mostly) any outlay, but if sometimes a little extra cash comes my way, then I'm quite comfortable with that too

RAMSAY’S 18TH EDITION – ON SALE NOW!

NOW in its 18th edition, Ramsay’s British Diecast Model Toys Catalogue is brought to you by a team of experts who have scoured thousands of auction results over the past three years to ensure you have all the updated market value prices

With over 19,000 listings, this catalogue remains the benchmark for all price guides, and is a must from anyone collecting diecast models As previous editions, whether it’s Dinky Toys, Corgi or Matchbox, or you desire to seek out models from the more unusual or smaller manufacturers such as Brimtoy, Charbens, Cherilea, and others, this has it all!

Priced at just £29 99, with free UK delivery (European delivery is £5, Worldwide is £7) you can get your copy by going direct to the publishers at www collectors-club-of-great-britain co uk, or by getting in touch with your usual retailer ■

BRAND NEW OMNIBUS TOOLING FROM OXFORD DIECAST

LEADING the latest batch of releases from Oxford Diecast is the newly-tooled Duple Britannia in 1/76 scale The model makes its first appearance in the range in the well-known cream livery of Wallace Arnold, whose coach tours were particularly successful in the era before package holidays became affordable to the nation The model features orange masked roof skylights

The flat-fronted coach has the two-windowed passenger door on the nearside, with the driver’s door placed higher on the offside The interior features a beige floor and red seating Registered 4324 UA, the coach has a wealth of external silver sprayed detail, including bumpers and window surrounds. The destination plate above the chrome radiator grille shows the coach on its way to Blackpool To the rear, the Wallace Arnold name and key towns and cities are printed in red, while on the coach sides, the WA crest with the words “Industriae Nil Impossible” is printed in gold

Visit the website at www.oxforddiecast.co.uk for more information and to place an order ■

IS THIS THE WORLD'S FIRST CARBON NEUTRAL TOY FAIR?

THE second annual Whanganui Toy Fair, on the 14th May 2023, to be held at Springvale Stadium is set to be the world's first carbon neutral toy fair It all came about when applying for a seeding or start up grant through Whanganui and Partners The idea of the grant is to help new events to get established by providing funds for promoting the event outside of the local area Nationally and, or internationally, bringing visitors to Whanganui and stimulating the local economy.

One of the strict criteria for grant approval is for the event to be environmentally friendly

But, how do you make a toy fair environmentally friendly? Just by the nature of the event and the criteria of the grant, promotion of the event, encouraging people to attend from outside of the local area leaves a carbon footprint itself In the Whanganui Toy Fair's first year, environmentally friendly lines had been taken The paper that the promotional flyers and posters had been printed on was made from wheat straw and recycled wood Old and broken toys had been encouraged to be brought along and placed in a free bin, if not wanted rather than taken to landfill. Attendees could then take them home and repair the toys, use parts off them for modelling projects They were therefore recycled, reused and repurposed

Organiser Steve Brown, came up with the idea of giving everyone attending the Whanganui Toy Fair a free tree to take home and plant Granted in the first year the tree may not absorb enough carbon to cover the footprint left by attending the second annual Whanganui Toy Fair on the 14th May 2023 However, in future years, it should more than adequately do the job

The Whanganui Toy Fair acts as a platform for raising money for local charities, raising over $5,000 in its first year This year it hopes to do even better through various streams of funding Entrance fees, local business sponsorship A free table for charities with the idea being that they encourage their supporters to donate old toys to sell at the Whanganui Toy Fair with all the money generated from the sales going to the charity For further information, contact whanganuitoyfair@gmail com ■

CORGI TOYS NO 474 MUSICAL WALL’S ICE CREAM VAN BACK IN STOCK

AFTER a long wait, the wonderfully nostalgic No 474 Ford Thames Wall's Ice Cream Van is now back in stock at the Corgi Model Club Available to purchase as a standalone model (not part of the subscription), visit www.corgimodelclub. com to find out more and to place an order

DIECAST ROTCELLOC NEWS IN BRIEF

TERRIFIC TORNADO INBOUND IN 1/48 SCALE

IN addition to the new 1/48 scale Harrier tooling under development, mentioned earlier, Corgi has confirmed that the next large-scale modern era jet to be modelled in its larger scale will be the Panavia/BAe Tornado GR1/4 It is reportedly already at an advance stage of the design process

NZG'S BIG MERCEDES-BENZ G-KLASSE GOES LARGER AND IS NOW AVAILABLE AT 1/12 SCALE

THE mighty Mercedes-Benz G-Klasse 4x4, or G-Wagen as it is sometimes known, has been around as a concept for over 40 years, since 1979 to be exact This wonderfully big vehicle has an equally impressive following and now NZG has released its largest scale model of the popular vehicle to date Packed with features, such as opening doors, bonnet, tailgate, fuel flap, glovebox and centre console, the models are available as either a roadgoing or off-road version, in metallic grey or vibrant metallic green respectively The of-road version also has a night package, roof rack and rear ladder Visit NZG’s shop at www.nzg-shop.eu/en/ for more information, photos and to place an order, or contact your preferred retailer.

1/18 SCALE DIECAST JAGUAR C-X75 IS, IN FACT, ALMOST REAL

THE exquisitely-stylish Jaguar C-X75 is a seductive, hybrid-electric, 2-seat, concept car And now Almost Real has released an astonishing 1/12 scale diecast replica. With steerable wheels, opening doors, trunk and hood, plus working suspension, the model is beautifully finished with a flawless deep mettalic blue paint job Limited to just 504 pieces, contact your preferred Almost Real stockist to make sure you don't miss out

GET ON BOARD A CLASSIC GREYHOUND BUS

WITH

GOLDVARG

NOW available to pre-order, The Goldvarg Collection has an exciting new range of General Motors & Greyhound Bus Company buses in 1/43 diecast Priced at just US$119 00 each, three styles, all wear the famous livery - the GM-PD-4104, GMPD-4106 and GM-PD-4107 Limited edition releases, so visit www goldvargcollection com for more information

WHAT’S

BUMPER PAGES! 7

CORGI'S NEWLY-TOOLED COMMEMORATIVE TYPHOON IS REALLY BIG AND BEAUTIFUL

1/48 scale

AS Br itain prepared to mark the 75th Anniver sar y of the Battle of Br itain in the early summer of 2015, the RAF was deter mined that any tr ibute would be a par ticularly impressive one Under a cloak of relative secrecy, but soon to delight aviation enthusiasts ever ywhere, Eurofighter Typhoon FGR 4 ZK349 emerged from the paint shops at RAF Coningsby, in Lincolnshire, wear ing ver y different markings to the standard g rey scheme wor n by

the rest of the squadron This commemorative tr ibute aircraft was finished in a representation of a 1940 Fighter Command Battle of Br itain scheme and RAF officials proudly announced that it would also be perfor ming a synchro pair display routine with one of the BBMF's Spitfires at several air shows that summer

The markings were a representation of the scheme wor n by Hawker Hur r icane Mk I P3576 of No 249 Squadron, the mount of Flight

Lieutenant James Br indley Nicolson on 16th August 1940, the day on which he would be awarded Fighter Command's only Victor ia Cross of World War II Wear ing the same GN-A fuselage codes as Nicholson's Hur r icane and displaying his per sonal Red Devil emblem under the cockpit canopy, this Typhoon immediately became something of an air show phenomenon and was simply refer red to as "GiNA" by Br itain's ar my of besotted enthusiasts Doing much for RAF public relations and recr uitment number s, this beautiful Typhoon definitely became the most popular individual RAF aircraft of the moder n era

As the latest incar nation of these classic air defence fighter s, the Eurofighter Typhoon is an incredibly capable four thgeneration combat aircraft, and one which is the product

of a collaborative prog ramme between the UK, Ger many Italy and Spain, with the Royal Air Force cur rently having around 150 examples of the aircraft in ser vice An aircraft which is still being continually upg raded, the Typhoon has matured into a tr ue multi-role combat aircraft and one which is likely to be in ser vice for at least another 20 year s, by which time it will have been wear ing the roundel of the Royal Air Force for almost 40 year s

As with all moder n releases in Corg i's Aviation Archive range, an incredible amount of research has gone into this model This is clear to see in the amount of detailing throughout, all finished off with the stunning retrospective liver y perfectly applied Although there is one area that you might have already noticed that is not quite cor rect The cockpit inter ior should be black, not g rey So our sample has been moved to the workbench for a little refettling in due cour se We'll repor t on this in due cour se

But don't let that put you off acquir ing what is a tr uly spectacular piece of miniature eng ineer ing by the design and production teams at Corg i With extra par ts supplied to enable you to display this on the supplied stand with the undercar r iage retracted in 'in flight' mode, or 'wheels down' for static display, there is also

Our team of experts take a look at this month's model releases, including fine handbuilt replicas, scale construction and the latest in farm models.

THIS MONTH'S IN-DEPTH REVIEWS:

8 Corgi's much-anticipated, special-liveried Typhoonnewly tooled at a mighty 1/48 scale.

16 EDITOR'S CHOICE - Another small-scale masterpiece from Tarmac Works in the shape of Toyota's marvellous Supra in GT Le Mans spec

CORGI MODEL CLUB

Customized Chevrolet Corvette Sting Ray SCALE: 1/46 PRICE: £31 99 REF: 337

www corgimodelclub com

The latest vintage Corgi reproduction from the Corgi Model Club and it's another stunner Properly evocative and all correctly replicated We love these!

▲ A familiar sight to those who visited airshows in 2015, GiNA really thrilled the crowds.

IXO

Subaru Legacy RS #21 Rothmans Racing RAC Rally 1991 McRae/Ringer SCALE: 1/18 PRICE: £82 99 REF: 18RMC080B

Wonderful tobacco-ban Rothmans colours are very neatly applied to the great Legacy body shape Excellent wheels and a good level of detail to the interior

some weaponr y supplied for under side mounting

Other features of note are the positionable forward canard wings, the deployable air brake (not shown, but it's the hinged panel on top of the fuselage immediately behind the cockpit that is pushed upwards by a hydraulic ram for landing), and

the interchangeable eng ine exhaust thr ust-vector ing nozzles. The image to the left has the par ts fitted to display the nozzles fully open and the image above shows the tapered nozzles fitted Corg i's fir st large-scale release of the mighty Typhoon is tr uly stunning, especially wear ing this special liver y DC

MINI GT Lancia Stratos HF Stradale Bleu Vincennes SCALE: 1/64 PRICE: £12 59 REF: MGT00411-L

www ayrey co uk

The second release of this Stratos Stradale to go with the red version and it looks just as fabulous, with the rich blue working just as well with those gorgeous gold wheels

IXO

International Harvester DCOF-405 red/white 1959 SCALE: 1/43 PRICE: £37 99 REF: TR130

www.ayrey.co.uk

Ixo's latest truck release is terrific, representing tremendous value With some excellent detail, particularly to the front grille and headlights

New Models

IXO

Ford Escort RS Cosworth #8 Michelin

RAC Rally 1993 Wilson/Thomas

SCALE: 1/18 PRICE: £82 99 REF: 18RMC107

Marvellous large-scale replica of the Escort RS Cosworth in rally trim, wearing the outstanding blue and yellow colours of Michelin Stunning OZ wheels too

MINI GT

Lancia Stratos HF #1 1977 Rallye

Monte Carlo winner

SCALE: 1/64 PRICE: £ REF: MGT00422-L

The second version of the MINI GT Stratos this month and the first release in rallying guise - what a beauty! It's hard to believe that this is 1/64 scale Exquisite

WIKING

Kotte Gerant TSA 30 000 Tanker

SCALE: 1/32 PRICE: €109 95

REF: 077654 - 077656

www wiking de/shop

Available in silver, black and green It has adjustable landing legs, steering axle, suspension, opening control panel, plus replicated transfer hoses and piping

NZG

Hamm HC119i Single Drum Compactor

SCALE: 1/50 PRICE: €69 00

REF: 10421

www shop wirtgen-group com

Fitted with an open style canopy that highlights the very impressive driver’s station Details include articulating chassis and smooth drum

SCHUCO

Case International 1255XL Tractor

SCALE: 1/32 PRICE: €59 99

REF: 450778700

www schuco de

Schuco’s refreshed model now sports the colours and branding adopted during the merger of Case and IH It has a detachable front weight and exhaust

NZG

Hamm HC200i Single Drum

Compactor

SCALE: 1/50 PRICE: €69 00 REF: 10411

www shop wirtgen-group com

Fully-enclosed cabin, with plenty of detail and realism From the articulated frame, rotating wheels with accurate tread and smooth drum to the detailed cabin interior

MATRIX SCALE MODELS

1955 Morris Commercial B.M.C. Racing Support Vehicle

SCALE: 1/43 PRICE: £190 00 REF: MX 512312-011

Wonderfully-detailed model of the 1950s support vehicle, right down to the windscreen rally-support decal Quite a bit of interior detail too www matrixscalemodels com

WIKING

MAN TGS 18 510 4x4 BL Tractor

SCALE: 1/32 PRICE: €129 95

REF: 077650 - 077653

www wiking de/shop

In four colour options, the cabin doors can be opened, the front grille lifts and the cabin tilts to reveal the engine There is a fifth wheel coupling and drawbar hitch

New Models

KAIDO HOUSE X MINI GT

Datsun Kaido 510 Wagon BRE V1

SCALE: 1/64 PRICE: £19 99

REF: KHMG026

The collaboration between Kaido House and MINI GT continues apace, with the first of four fabulous versions of the Datsun 510 this month Top notch

KAIDO HOUSE X MINI GT

Datsun Kaido 510 Wagon BRE V2

SCALE: 1/64 PRICE: £19 99

REF: KHMG027

A variation of the 510 in BRE Datsun colours and it's another great model With opening bonnet, excellent finish and great wheels Fab interior too

KESS

1968 Plymouth Fury Sedan - white

SCALE: 1/43 PRICE: £125 00

REF: KE 43053000

Super model of the Plymouth 4-door sedan with an unusual dark green interior Excellent level of detail, right down to the tiny width indicators on the front wings www kessmodel com

SCHUCO Deutz-Fahr 9340 TTV “Warrior”

Tractor SCALE: 1/32 PRICE: €89 99 REF: 450777800

www schuco de

It’s a detachable Agribumper for this special black edition of Schuco’s Deutz-Fahr tractor The model is wellengineered with many working features

WIKING

Claas Trion 750TT Combine with Convio Flex 1080 Table SCALE: 1/87 PRICE: €36 99 REF: 00 0257 625 0

www claas co uk/sales-finance/dealers

Smart plastic combine with freely rotating tracks, detachable table and hinged cab access steps The unloading auger also folds

CONRAD

Liebherr R940 Demolition Excavator

SCALE: 1/50 PRICE: €199 00

REF: 2222/0

www.liebherr.com/liebherrshop

Another cracking release, with digging and high reach interchangeable booms, cradles and two work tools, plus extending undercarriage and tilting cabin

KESS

1968 Plymouth Fury Sedan - red

SCALE: 1/43 PRICE: £125 00

REF: KE 43053002

Another version of the Plymouth sedan, this time in red with black vinyl-effect roof and matching red interior Very well-detailed of course Limited to 250 www kessmodel com

WIKING

Krampe SB II 30/1070 Conveyor Trailer

SCALE: 1/32 PRICE: €119 95

REF: 077657 - 077659

www.wiking.de/shop

Features an opening tailgate, operational grain door, adjustable landing legs, steering axle and working suspension Available in red, black and grey

KAIDO HOUSE X MINI GT

Datsun 510 Pro Street Advan

SCALE: 1/64 PRICE: £22 99

REF: KHMG032

A slight change for the first Advan-liveried release in that this depicts the 510 saloon The famous red and black livery looks great and those wheels are awesome

KAIDO HOUSE X MINI GT

Datsun 510 Pro Street Advan

SCALE: 1/64 PRICE: £22 99

REF: KHMG033

Back to the 'estate' body shape for the second Advan release Opening bonnet again, of course, plus the usual detailed baseplate

MARGE MODELS

Volvo FH5 with Meiller Hooklift System

SCALE: 1/32 PRICE: €149 95

REF: 2235-03

www margemodels shop

The first rigid truck from MarGe, available in three colours and based on a Renault chassis Containers are available separately Excellent

NZG Vögele Super 2100-5i Tracked Paver

SCALE: 1/50 PRICE: €119 00

REF: 1050

www shop wirtgen-group com

Full-width rear screed, with fold down canopy, detailed engine bay, extending screed, printed control panels and replicated operator area Impressive

USK SCALEMODELS

Fendt 211 Vario Tractor

SCALE: 1/32 PRICE: €90 66

REF: X991021022000

shop fendt com/en

Newly-tooled, largely metal model tractor with many working features and good levels of detailing It has an accurately laid out cab interior

MATRIX SCALE MODELS

1959 Buick Skylark III – XP-75

Pininfarina Concept SCALE: 1/43 PRICE: £95 00 REF: MX 50206-071

www matrixscalemodels com

Great finish and detail, down to the small grilles atop the front wings, and the rear motif Interior is in light blue and, again, very well-detailed

NZG

Vögele Super 1900-5i Tracked Paver

SCALE: 1/50 PRICE: €114 00

REF: 1039

www.shop.wirtgen-group.com

Features extending screed, folding hopper sides, tracked undercarriage, opening engine bay, extending sun screens and detailed operator station

IMC MODELS

Mercedes-Benz Zetros 2-axle Fire

Truck

SCALE: 1/50 PRICE: €159 00 REF: 32-0126

www.imcmodels.eu

Resincast, packed with realistic features, mounted to a display base with protective transparent cover and individually serialised Limited to 200 pieces

New Models

WHITEBOX

1993 Ford Escort RS Cosworth

SCALE: 1/24 PRICE: £35 99

REF: 124130

Awesome larger-scale replica of the mighty Escort RS Cosworth The paintwork has a wonderful slight shade of green about it and looks amazing

IXO

1969 Škoda Octavia Combi

SCALE: 1/43 PRICE: £29 99

REF: CLC431

Wonderful replica of this marvellous vintage Škoda in rare Combi bodystyle

An absolute beauty, perfectly finished in a deep darker red

IXO

Skoda 130 L #21 Rallye Bohemia 1988

P Sibera/P Gross

SCALE: 1/43 PRICE: £47 99 REF: RAC408C

Wearing the evocative works rally colour scheme, perfectly applied, the giant-killing 130 always makes for a great replicawhich this most certainly is

WIKING

Krampe Half-Pipe Tandem Axle Trailer

SCALE: 1/87 PRICE: £18 25

REF: 038819

Wiking’s black edition trailer has a floating drawbar, opening tailgate and a fixed length ram for holding the body in the tipped position

USK SCALEMODELS

Fendt 211V Vario Tractor

SCALE: 1/32 PRICE: €80 57

REF: X991021024000

shop fendt com/en

Well-engineered, first edition model has good levels of detailing, working linkages front and rear, opening bonnet, rear window and cab doors

MATRIX SCALE MODELS

1965 Radford Mini de Ville

Paul McCartney

SCALE: 1/32 PRICE: £95 00 REF: MXMM 430031

www matrixscalemodels com

With open sunroof and well-detailed interior in dark grey Comes with a neat scale bass guitar as an extra tie-in to the great man Fabulous replica

NZG

Liebherr R9600 Hydraulic Excavator

SCALE: 1/50 PRICE: €548 00

REF: 1050

Packed with detail and realism Folding main and emergency ladders, detailed upper deck and cabin, digging equipment movement and replicated hydraulic lines www.liebherr.com/liebherrshop

WSI MODELS

Palfinger PK 165 002 TEC7 Knuckle

Boom Crane with Jib

SCALE: 1/50 PRICE: €158 00 REF: 04-2139

www.wsi-models.com

Featuring aluminium boom sections, fully-moveable crane, detachable fly jib, fully-operational outrigger setup and cable reel winch Available on four chassis brands

New Models

LE MANS SUPRA BY TARMAC WORKS TAKES THE WIN

LE MANS was going through an interesting phase in the mid-'90s In a bid to attract big automotive manuf acturer s back to the race, the organiser s were tr ying to move away from the era of expensive prototype racer s and usher in a raft of GTs that were more akin to road-going car s.

One such manuf acturer, which had already heavily

invested in the prototype era, and had come so close to winning the Le Mans 24 Hour s in 1994, was Toyota Its new Supra GT had made its debut in the All-Japan Grand Tour ing Car Championship (JGTC), the forer unner to the presentday Super GT ser ies, at the beg inning of the 1995 season For Le Mans that year, a sole example was entered under the SARD racing banner, a specialist

Toyota tuning company that had plenty of Le Mans pedig ree, but make no mistake, this was a f actor y-suppor ted team After a reasonable fir st half of the race, niggly problems halted the car's prog ress up the leader board, but it did finish the race, albeit in 14th place overall It was a real beauty to behold and sounded g reat (yes, I was there!), so this f abulous little model by premium 1/64 manuf acturer,

Tar mac Works, was a musthave for me

The execution of the Supra GT's meaty stance is really well captured and the detailing is excellent, as is the application of the g raphics But what really sold it for me was the simple box with Le Mans elements to it I hope Tar mac Works br ing out the 1996 ver sion in due cour se too. DC

▲ The box was a real clincher for me Simple in its execution, but that evocative backdrop and the classic Le Mans blue and yellow kerbing really make a huge difference.

▲ The meaty look of the reworked Supra GT racing version is beautifully captured here

UK DISTRIBUTOR FOR:

HISTORIC GRAND PRIX SERIES IN 1/64 SCALE

Avec frites

With the new releases from Solido for 2023 already lining up, Stephen Paul Hardy chooses from the menu that was served up as 2022 came to a close.

In addition to its roll out of new tooling representing classic and popular subjects, Solido has cer tainly boosted its ever strengthening position in the diecast market with some focused themes These include its new range of consistently well-detailed and inter national, eclectic range of 1/43 model car s, and a continuation of the concer ted effor t to release authentically-detailed and liver ied 1/18 models in its ‘Compétition’ range

CLASSIC CITROËNS

W h e n t h i n k i n g a b o u t q u i n t e s s e n t i a l l y F re n c h a u t o m o b i l e s , t h e c l a s s i c C i t ro ë n Ty p e H Y va n i s i nva r i a bl y o n e o f t h e i m a g e s t h a t s p r i n g s t o m i n d N o t s u r p r i s i n g l y, S o l i d o h a s a l re a d y re l e a s e d n o l e s s t h a n s i x t e e n ve r s i o n s o f i t s 1 / 1 8 d i e c a s t t a ke o n t h e t h e m e I n a d d i t i o n t o t h e o bv i o u s c h a n g e s o f l ive r i e s , t h e t o o l i n g s h ave b e e n re g u l a r l y c h a n g e d t o i n c o r p o r a t e s eve r a l va r i a t i o n s o f o p e n i n g f e a t u re s , i n c l u d i n g f ro n t d o o r s , e n g i n e h o o d a n d re a r h a t c h . C o m m e n d a bl y, t h i s l a t e s t ve r s i o n b r i n g s u s a n o t h e r re t o o l t o re p re s e n t a ve r y f a m i l i a r i m a g e o f t h e H Y, w i t h o p e n a bl e s e r ve r y h a t c h t o t h e L H S o f t h e b o d y wo r k , w i t h a s l i d i n g s i d e d o o r t o t h e R H S, a s Ty p e H Y F r i t e r i e C h ' t i B i l o u t e - 1 9 6 9 ( S 1 8 0 4 8 1 7 ) R e s p l e n d e n t i n i t s re d a n d w h i t e p a i n t wo r k , a n d c o m p l e t e w i t h d e t a i l e d s e r ve r y i n t e r i o r, t h i s ve r s i o n i s a s e n t i c i n g a s t h e f r i e s t h a t i t c re a t e s a h u n g e r f o r

▲ Synergy and contrast - even though they are both in red

C o m p a n i o n C i t ro ë n re l e a s e s b r i n g u s a n o t h e r n ew t o o l i n g , t h i s t i m e o f a n o t h e r e ff e c t ive l y u n i q u e i m a g e f ro m t h e 1 9 7 0 s , w i t h t h e v i r t u a l l y i n d e s t r u c t i bl e, p l a s t i c - b o d i e d , 2 C V- d e r ive d M e h a r i S o l i d o ’ s fi r s t t wo ve r s i o n s re p re s e n t t h e M e h a r i M k 1 - 1 9 6 9 i n O r a n g e K i r g h i z ( S 1 8 0 8 2 0 1 ) , w i t h t a r p ro o f , a n d f u l l y o p e n i n Ve r t M o n t a n a ( S 1 8 0 8 2 0 2 ) B e i n g s u c h a n o p e nb o d i e d ve h i c l e, t h e d e l i g h t i n t h e m o d e l s i s g a i n e d a s mu c h f ro m t h e ve r y a c c e s s i bl e i n t e r i o r s a s t h e e x t e r i o r s T h e f o l d a bl e w i n d s c re e n i s j u s t t h e c h e r r y o n t h e i c i n g o n t h e s e d e l i g h t f u l , evo c a t ive n ew re l e a s e s

ICONIC ITALIANS

▲ Solido’s 1/18 ‘Compétition’ series brings with it vibrant

T h e D e l t a H F I n t e g r a l e w i t h i t s 4 W D, mu c hm o d i fi e d b o d y wo r k a n d e x t e n s ive re - e n g i n e e r i n g o f G i o r g i o G u i g a ro ’ s o r i g i n a l d e s i g n , b a s e d o n F i a t R i t m o c o m p o n e n t s , l e d L a n c i a i n t o a n i n c re d i bl y - s u c c e s s f u l r a l l y p rog r a m m e S o l i d o ’ s m o s t re c e n t t a ke s o n i t i s a 1 9 9 1 s t re e t ve r s i o n , i n R o s s o C o r s a ( S 1 8 0 7 8 0 1 ) , a n d a r a l l y ve r s i o n o f C S a i n z / L M oya # 3 A c ro p o l i s R a l l y

▲ and authentically-detailed delights on a regular basis

1 9 9 3 ( S 1 8 0 7 8 0 2 ) T h e f o r m e r i s o n e o f t h o s e m o d e l s t h a t I j u s t c o u l d n ’t t a ke my eye s o ff d u r i n g t h e p h o t o s h o o t , t h a n k s t o i t s c a p t iva t i n g c h a r i s m a , e n t i c i n g fi n i s h a n d d e t a i l i n g T h e l a t t e r i s o n e o f t h i s m o n t h ’ s t wo p e r f e c t e x a m p l e s o f w hy S o l i d o ’ s ‘ C o m p é t i t i o n ’ r a n g e i s s o j u s t s u c c e s s f u l f o r s i m i l a r re a s o n s

B M W H A R TG E S T Y L E

A s w i t h t h e A c ro p o l i s R a l l y L a n c i a D e l t a H F

I n t e g r a l e, t h i s B M W E 3 0 M 3 G r A o f I C a r l s s o n / P C a r l s s o n # 3 f ro m t h e 1 9 9 0 A DAC R a l l y D e u t s c h l a n d ( S 1 8 0 1 5 1 4 ) i s s o n i c e l y m o d e l l e d a n d eye - c a t c h i n g l y d i s t i n c t ive t h a t , f o r m e, i t i s o n e o f t h e h i g h l i g h t s o f re c e n t ‘ C o m p é t i t i o n ’ re l e a s e s

SUPERB 1/43S

Solido’s excellent 1/43 new releases just keep coming, and recent additions to the range include two ver y neatly-modelled French subjects and one from Ger many Fir st up is the (still) ver y pleasingly styled Peugeot 306 S16 - 1994 in Blue Metallic (S4311401) and Gold Metallic (S4311402) Then a styling of an era in the for m of the Citroën CX GTI Turbo II - 1990 in Grey Metallic (S4311701) and Red Metallic (S4311702) And finally another subject that I know is going to be ver y much welcomed by Volkswagen f ans – the Golf Rallye 1989 in Tor nado Red (S4311301) and Blue Pearl (S4311302). Each of these releases continues that consistent level of good detailing and finish that has become a hallmark of this ser ies throughout 2022, with perhaps the Gold Metallic Peugeot 306 standing out as the most visually attractive of the g roup It was however only just pipped to the post as my f avour ite of month by the two models in stunning red - the 1/43 Golf Rallye and 1/18 Lancia Delta HF Integ rale

SYNERGY AND CONTRAST

Arguably both car s have a lot in common being iterative developments of the or ig inal designs culminating in powerful 4WD that tur ned domestic hatchbacks into ser iously competitive rally car s In addition to their transmission, dr ive and power plants both had extensive, specially developed, sets of body panels and unique specification upg rades Admittedly the Lancia Delta HF Integ rale ultimately became the f ar more successful competition car of the pair but the Golf Rallye with its Syncro dr ivetrain marked a highpoint in the development of the second generation Golf range A generation that thanks to many of its late ser ies ver sions is considered by many VW f ans as still the most desirable out of the eight generations of Golf development

In common with many of its 1/43 range stablemates, the Golf car r ies a lot of authentic, small details, including good representation of the unique front styling and the era-indicative ‘bee sting’ radio aer ial The small detail that really appealed to me are the Golf Rallye number plates that totally capture the style used by VW in sales brochure images

As for the 1/18 Lancia Delta HF Integ rale, that red finish – so classically associated with Italian automobiles – makes a superb colour choice to highlight the detailing as well as showing off the widened arch body panels to good advantage when viewed from front and rear three-quar ter view points

All in all, a g roup of releases that engendered a lot of energy use to the extent that I am feeling quite hung r y for a ser ving of fr ites and pass the mayonnaise as well please DC

▲ The latest batch of very collectable 1/43 diecasts from Solido

Fab Fords

Stephen Paul Hardy turns the spotlight on two ‘heavyweights’ from GT Spirit.

Make no mistake, in compar ison with most of GT Spir it’s car-based 1/18 models, this pair is both heavy to hold and big

FORD F-150 ‘RAPTOR’(GT377)

This latest ‘Raptor’ Edition supplements GT Spir it’s previously-released F-150 line-up of ver sions in white (GT195) & black (GT781), and Shelby ‘Super Snake’ ver sions in blue (GT262) and white (GT824)

With its V6 450hp eng ine, and substantial suspension set-up, the Ford F-150 Raptor is, in all respects, an all-ter rain SUV, and is a var iant of the ser ies that has been one of the biggest selling automotive ranges in the United States for decades

As I have already mentioned, for a 1/18 model it really is heavy With its abundance of ver y finelydetailed satin black tr im over orange-red paintwork, it makes a str iking display piece

FORD BRONCO ‘BADLANDS’ (GT858)

Preceded by two closed top ver sions – the two-door Fir st edition/Area 511 (GT 359) and four-door (GT360) – this third offer ing from GT Spir it of the ‘Badlands’ Edition, with opened top, comes in colourful metallic Cyber Orange paintwork.

Although only 60% the length of its companion ‘Raptor’, it is, never theless, also a ver y heavy model With its similarly-applied satin black tr im over the distinctive paintwork, it is also a str iking display piece

From a collector s point of view, both models share a host of attr ibutes The paintwork is fl awless and the black tr im is clean, cr isp and dense, with well-

▲ This genuinely refreshing pair of fab Fords deliver an alternative take on ‘automotive exotica’ compared with GT Spirit’s more usual car-based subjects

▲ Heavy to hold 1/18 resincasts they may be, but the detailing is very fine to the point of some of it being minute

defined edges Wheel arch extensions, lower side tr ims, r unning board steps, pick-up bed sur rounds, bumper s and underbody are all perfectly defined and textured These accolades apply equally to the predominantly black, yet still ver y visibly accessible, inter ior of the ‘Badlands’.

▲ ... and particularly evident in the modelling of light clusters, badging and bumper areas

Consistent with GT Spir it’s attention to fine detail, the wheels, lights, badg ing – some of which is minute – is all so well-modelled that it stands up to exacting scr utiny under close-up photog raphy Chunky, real-life ‘boys toys’ they may be, but this pair of f ab Fords make genuinely refreshing alter native takes on ‘automotive exotica’ for the display cabinet DC

Friendly

Corgi Vanguards Cortina Mk5

David Lynn reviews the new tooling and compares it with the previously-released Mk4 and Ixo's Taunus TC3.

Corg i’s new Vanguards-branded Cor tina Mk5 range marks the 60th anniver sar y of the or ig inal Consul Cor tina Mk1 in September 1962, with the debut liver y (No VA15001, cur iously repeating the catalogue number of a Tr umans Beer Thames Trader from Lledo’s pre-Corg i era) depicting the last ever UK-made Cor tina, a r un-out edition 1 6 Cr usader Now released, the model can be assessed to see whether it lives up to the hype

This is the fir st ever Cor tina Mk5 in mainstream diecast, although Ixo/Altaya offer an identical twin Taunus TC3 in both retail or par twork editions My sporadic ser ies of Cor tina ar ticles in this magazine has frequently highlighted the unfilled Mk5 gap, but strongly cautioned against tr ying to bodge a Mk5 from a Mk4 casting due to a myr iad of differences, which are individually barely noticeable, but cumulatively would produce something which would just not look r ight

Corg i’s prog ress bulletins recounted how a full LiDAR (Laser Imag ing, Detection And Rang ing)

▲ Vanguards' new silver Cortina Mk5 Crusader proudly sitting in front of four Ixo/Altaya Taunus TC3s - (left to right) blue 2 0 “Brillant” (the German Crusader equivalent), Israeli police partwork (LHD but badged as Cortina), Ixo retail silver-green

1.6 GL (the best detailed livery), and the Greek partwork red

2 0GL with inexplicable RHD interior

3D scan was taken of this actual car, GHK 1Y built on 22 July 1982 and preser ved in Ford’s Her itage Collection The result should therefore be a brand new and pinpoint accurate casting, and with my r ivet-counter’s head fully calibrated, the detailed differences from the Mk4 can be explored

The Mk4 ar r ived in October 1976, a few months after its Taunus TC2 twin The largely Ger mandeveloped design was mechanically similar to its predecessor s, but replaced bulbous shapes with straightened edges, fl atter surf acing, a large air y cabin, and recur r ing rectangular ity for key elements such as the g r ille, headlights, and bumper s The result was successful, with 1 1 million Mk4s and TC2s sold in its 3-year life

Ford’s customar y, mid-life f ace-lift ar r ived in September 1979 as the Cor tina ’80 - although ever yone called it Mk5 - and Taunus TC3, instantly recognisable from the new bladed g r ille and larger front and rear lights However, this extravagant revamp involved reconfigur ing ever y body panel and consumed £50m (about £250m today) with

re-tooling costs Key objectives were a tauter appearance, with increased window areas g iving a fuller cabin and shar per body edg ing

Peak roof height remained similar but a fl attened top removed the previous slight doming allowing taller door frames and side windows and slightly steeper front and rear screen angles, the rear screen received shar p upper cor ner s, a lower beltline along the side window base increased window depth, and overall glass area increased by 6% The vents on the now taller rear pillar s were enlarged and g iven a black emphasis, which resumed around the window outlines, the central bonnet feature line was removed to leave a fl at main por tion, and larger black bumper s and mir ror s were integ rated into the front door window cor ner s Alongside other smaller tweaks, the result was significantly fresher

The Vanguards Mk4 casting, VA119xx, has now produced 18 liver ies since 2012, including one A/B ver sion and an unreleased number (VA11909)

I’ve always felt that this collection looks slightly off-kilter, because the shallow front pillar angle

seems to push the roof too f ar back and squashes the cabin However, other shape elements were well executed, including components for precise ver sion differentiation and some skilfully executed liver ies Placing the Mk5 alongside the Mk4 - using the colour-matched VA11902 (the uncredited 2 0S from The Sweeney) - Corg i has successfully incor porated all the full-size differences outlined above, and this genuinely appear s to be a fully new casting and not a disguised re-hash Other hints include the body edg ing along the wing tops seeming much shar per and more distinct outlines for items such as door s, bonnet, boot and fuel cap The overall impression is therefore much cr isper My bugbear about the windscreen pillar angle and squashed cabin is no longer apparent, and this glistening liver y has gorgeously fine pinstr ipes, the small Daily Express-der ived Cr usader rear logo, a radio aer ial stub on the front wing, a revised front valance, inset door handles, paler seat panels, wood veneer door cappings, and better wheel definition A completely new baseplate, with unexpectedly different mechanical outlines, provides an improved exhaust with silencer The only g r ipe is that mine has small paint r uns and flecking

The only previous MkV 1/43 scale diecast was Ixo’s TC3 range, with ten ver sions since 2010, mostly covered dur ing previous Cor tina instalments, including some abysmal par tworks The most convincing is the initial retail silverg reen 1 6GL (CLC203) with French plates and yellow headlights, but detailing of lights, bumper s and similar elements is clumsier Other s include a Cor tina-badged LHD Israeli police par twork, a dull metallic blue Whitebox 2 0GL “Br illant” mislabelled as TC2, but was the Cr usader’s Ger man equivalent with reduced red pinstr iping, and a red Greek par twork 2 0GL This, bizar rely, has RHD inter ior - never used on any TC3s - but LHD wiper s and Taunus boot badg ing

To conclude, Corg i has created an excellent model, which accurately depicts the myr iad of Mk5 differences, its launch liver y is superb, and fur ther releases can be eagerly anticipated Corg i has, in f act, just announced the second Mk5 liver y for release in Spr ing 2023 as VA15002, a plain 1982 Mk5 1 6GL in Cardinal Red with EVS 781Y plates (see page 25). DC

Ford’s customary, mid-life facelift arrived in September 1979 as the Cortina ’80 - although everyone called it Mk5 - and Taunus TC3, instantly recognisable from the new bladed grille and larger front and rear lights.

New from Corgi for 2023

It has become something of an early year tradition for Corg i f ans that the star t of the new year is accompanied by the reveal of the latest model range. This year, that date was again 10th Januar y

As of last year, Corg i had changed its new range launch for mat to be three announcements/range launches each year, with the models unveiled in each cover ing four monthly release blocks With this new catalogue cover ing Januar y to Apr il, we think we can safely assume that this will be the case until fur ther notice, as it worked ver y well last year Corg i's intention with this strategy is that, bar r ing unforeseen production or shipping difficulties, all the models announced in each respective range have a realistic chance of being released dur ing the per iod covered by the catalogue in which they appear

Ador ning the front cover this time, is the next release of the f abulous 1/72 scale Avro Lancaster, one of four new Aviation

VANGUARDS

Archive models, the most hotly-anticipated of which is the newlytooled two-seat Spitfire The biggest number of new releases comes into the Vanguards range, with a pair of stunning new Ford toolings in the shape of the Transit Custom and Ranger Raptor (the latter being this issue's cover star).

The final piece of new tooling comes in the shape of the For mula E Gen3 racing car It's a ser ies that is really gather ing momentum now and this is to be hopefully one of many releases of these car s

Also teased in the catalogue, for future release, are images of the Ford Capr i Mk2 and Mustang Mk6, plus Ger r y Ander son's Sting ray, from the TV ser ies of the same name (celebrating its 60th anniver sar y this year) and Corg i's largest James Bond 007 model in the shape of the Q Glider as seen in N o T i m e To D i e DC

A new catalogue from Corgi is always eagerly awaited. With this latest publication, the new model releases for the next four months are here.

FUTURE MODEL RELEASES

ORIGINAL OMNIBUS

Ford XR Collection

Caetano Levante - East Yorkshire

REF: OM46411 SCALE: 1/76

£46 99

Feltham Tram - London Transport

POP CULTURE

Spring 2023 PRICE: £36 99

Formula E Gen3 - Championship Livery REF: CC58001 SCALE: 1/43

AVIATION ARCHIVE

£57 99

Bristol Beaufort Mk 1, 217 Sqn RAF, ‘Admiral Hipper’ Attack

REF: AA28902

SCALE: 1/72

DUE: Spring 2023

PRICE: £84 99

Avro Lancaster BIII Special, AJ-T, 'T-Tommy', 617 Sqn RAF, Operation Chastise

REF: AA32628

SCALE: 1/72

DUE: Spring 2023

PRICE: £184 99

£14 99

Supermarine Spitfire T 9 TE308 'Grey Nurse', Biggin Hill Heritage

Hangar

REF: AA29201

SCALE: 1/72

DUE:Spring 2023

PRICE: £59 99

Junkers Ju-52/3M Air Ambulance, Stalingrad

Evacuation

REF: AA36911

SCALE: 1/72

DUE: late Winter 20222023

PRICE: £159 99

The very last of its kind

Lancia’s Rally 037 was the fir st car eng ineered and built for the f amous (and inf amous) Group B era, in the World Rally Championship However, it did not follow the lines of Audi’s quattro, as it had neither four-wheel-dr ive nor a turbocharged eng ine The Lancia team, and it’s racing ar m, Abar th, chose to follow another path, in the early eighties. A small and light mid-eng ined, two-seater spor tscar was the quickest solution Abar th could take to break Audi’s domination Based on Lancia’s Beta Montecarlo mid-eng ined spor tscar, Abar th developed the SE037 especially for rallying The only thing traditional about this car was the f act it had rear-wheel dr ive From a 2 0-litre supercharged eng ine, which used a Roots-type compressor instead of a turbo to

avoid turbo-lag, to double damper s per wheel in the rear axle, Lancia’s Rally 037 had a lot going for it It was light and ag ile, perfect for tar mac events, however, Abar th also gave it enough strength to be competitive on rougher ter rain and the exper ienced Lancia Mar tini Racing team did the rest Impeccable organisation and an unusually shar p sense of strategy compensated for the lack of four-wheel dr ive, from 1982 to 1986

In the fir st par t of this stor y, we looked at the early days of SE037, from exper imental car to the fir st completed chassis, built by Dallara in 1980 We also looked into the manuf actur ing of the mandator y 200 road car s, so the Rally 037 could be homologated under Group B r ules We saw the technical differences to the Evo 1 rally ver sion,

It’s 40 years since Lancia’s Rally 037 took its Rallye Monte Carlo win and the marque’s fourth WRC title. In part 2, Francisco Mota focuses on the final stages of development of the last sportscar ever to win a world rally event.

ready to race from the 1st August 1982, exactly four months after the street ver sion

At a time when the major ity of rally car s were based on standard models, Lancia was one of the last to choose a spor tscar to go rallying at the highest level, star ting in the second half of 1982 That year saw the team extensively developing it’s rally weapon, using the Fiat Group’s testing f acilities and also Italian and WRC rallies, so they could push the design forward and get more perfor mance from the or ig inal concept

The Pininf ar ina-styled coupé made a name for itself from the moment the street ver sion was unveiled at the 1982 Tur in Motor show The following year, the fir st full season Lancia rallied the 037, the new car found immediate success

Newly crowned dr iver’s champion, Walter Röhrl was hired for 1983 and would play a vital role in the team’s results The Ger man won the fir st round, the Monte Carlo, the fir st win for 037 and the third for Röhrl in the event, all with different car s The team had decided to concentrate its effor ts on the manuf acturer’s title, so it entered only eight selected events, from a total of twelve in the calendar, leaving out the pair of rallies valid only for the dr iver’s title The team also skipped the Saf ar i, because the car wasn’t strong enough yet and the RAC, for the simple reason that, by then, it had already won the title Audi competed in all 12 events, however, Lancia won the Tour de Cor se and Sanremo with Alén, plus the Acropolis and New Zealand, with Röhrl Audi won the other three events and lost the manuf acturer’s title by two points Röhrl only lost the title to Mikkola because he decided not to r un in all events

UPGRADED FOR 1984

The Lancia Rally 037 Evo 1 was the last ever rearwheel dr ive car to win the WRC manuf acturer’s title, exactly 40 year s ago However, the team knew it needed a four-wheel dr ive car, if it wanted to keep on winning Such a car was scheduled for the end of the 1985 season only, until then, the 037 had to be upg raded Enter the 037 Evo 2 for 1984, boasting numerous improvements

The most obvious difference was the rear bumper suppression Due to its shape, it tended to fill with mud and debr is on loose surf aces and, without it, access to the eng ine in ser vice areas was much easier for the mechanics No more hitting their heads on the open rear body More significant changes were made to the four-cylinder eng ine Capacity went up from 1,995 to 2,111 cc, allowing maximum declared power to raise from 270 to 320 hp There were other changes to the eng ine to get this extra 50 hp, namely the maximum pressure from the supercharged went up from 0 7 to 1 0 bar A lot more modifications were introduced in all areas, not least suspension, damper s and str uctural strengthening, with the aim of taking the best possible profit from the one main advantage of 037 – its relatively low weight Compared with the Audi Quattro, Lancia’s 037 was a healthy 300 kg lighter and had a much lower center of g ravity, g iving it better stability and ag ility The development of a Saf ar i-specific ver sion was concluded, featur ing g reater g round clearance, different coils and shock absorber s, fur ther reinforcements, bull-bar s front and rear, detuned eng ine and more detail changes, like an extra spare wheel on the roof and searchlights

THE END OF THE ROAD

The 1984 season was not as glor ious as the previous one, with a single victor y when Markku Alén and Mikki Biasion took a 1-2 in the tar mac Tour de Cor se rally There were also several podium finishes and a significant four th place on the Saf ar i

Henr i Toivonen was the new dr iver in the team, replacing Röhrl, who had left to join his home countr y team, Audi Peugeot’s 205 T16 debuted in the WRC and made life even more difficult for the rear wheel-dr ive 037 Audi won the manuf acturer’s title, while Stig Blomqvist g rabbed the dr iver’s crown with the quattro For 1985, Lancia and Abar th concentrated on developing the new 4WD machine, the Delta S4, and did not enter all WRC events The season was tainted by the f atal accident of Lancia Mar tini works dr iver Attilio Bettega in the Tour de Cor se The 037 finished its career on a somewhat lower note There were no wins this season – the best result was Biasion’s second place in Por tugal, followed by Alén’s third place in Finland’s 1000 Lakes Rally and Toivonen’s same result in Sanremo In 1986, the Delta S4 was the new Lancia Mar tini works car, however, the 037 was taken out of retirement for the Saf ar i rally, as the S4 was not considered tough enough for the Afr ican endurance rally Alén took the 037 to an honourable third place and definitely closed this chapter in Lancia’s rally histor y In the end, the Lancia Rally 037 won six events in the WRC, between 1982 and 1986, and a manuf acturer’s title The car also won the European Rally Championship in 1983, 1984 and 1985 In total, the 037 won 274 rallies all around Europe

SCALE MODELS

We star t our hunt for Rally 037 scale models with a pair of diecasts from Kyosho The Mar tini car was dr iven by Toivonen in the 1985 Monte Carlo, were he finished 6th, beaten by three Peugeot 205 T16 and a pair of Audi Spor t Quattro The Totipliver ied car finished second in Por tugal, dr iven by Biasion Both models have opening rear decks, affording g reat views of the excellent replication

▲

of the long itudinal 2 0-litre, four-cylinder eng ine There are many small details to study, from piping to damper s and much more The model itself is ver y close to the real thing, in ter ms of both propor tions, shapes and details Front g r ille and headlamps are par ticularly well rendered, while Mar tini and Totip liver ies are carefully applied to the body The roof aer ial comes separately supplied for easy assembly Kyosho launched these models some 15 year s ago,

but they’ve stood the test of time ver y well For the next set of three models, we go for the model maker that has made the best 1/43 scale replica of Lancia Rally 037, which clearly is HPI Racing These are diecasts made with the utmost attention to detail, perfect shapes and propor tions Put one of those next to per iod pictures of the real car, and it is close to impossible to find significant f ails HPI Racing made several ver sions and the

fir st one we ’ re picking represents the 1986 Saf ar i car, the ver y last time the 037 raced in the WRC Alén drove the Mar tini car to third place, behind the pair of Toyota Celica TCT that dominated the Saf ar i from 1984 to 1986 Both the red car and white car are Code 3 models, based on the same set of HPI Racing par ts, and they are replicas of the pair of chase car s Lancia entered in the event as quick ser vice car s, racing behind the works car s They all look g reat with the raised suspension, six extra spotlights, bull-bar s at the front and rear, plus extra spare wheel on the roof and wide front and rear mud-fl aps, just like the real car s

DIFFERENT COLOURS

In the second tr io, we stay with HPI Racing for more colour and style Alén drove the Mar tini car to a magnificent second place in Finland’s g ravel 1000 Lakes Rally The liver y keeps the usual color s, but local adver tising laws implied any reference to alcoholic dr inks had to be removed The blue car, sponsored by Chardonnet and Total was dr iven by Jean-Claude Andr uet in the Tour de Cor se Rally, where he finished sixth in a car entered by the French Lancia impor ter The third car, sponsored by Totip, finished third in the 1985 Sanremo mixed surf ace rally, with Mikki Biasion at the wheel Apar t from perfect paint jobs and decaling, each model features different details, according to the real car s The blue car with French license plates has the traditional yellow headlamps, and on the Totip car, two of those have white cover s with adver tising and the Mar tini car is featured in night ver sion, complete with the extra four spotlights The absence of the rear bumper on the Evo 2 and the glass window in the rear, made all the mechanical par ts easy to see and HPI Racing g ives us an excellent eng ine bay to enjoy

The next pair features Code 3s made from different base models The Bastos-sponsored car is Patr ick Snijer s E2, as raced in Rally Lana, a leg of ERC It is based on Ixo’s Rally Specs model, where some details have been changed, as well as applying a sheet of Car tog raph decals There’s a new spotlight pod supplied by Equipe Tron, plus six realistic lamps Rear mud fl aps were also changed for thinner plastic items and a new roof aer ial was fitted The model features tar mac wheels, wider at the rear than the front

The same professional modeller made this and the Rothmans-liver ied Code 3 This one is based on an HPI Racing model, so fewer modifications were needed, apar t from applying the appropr iate decals sheet The model is a real stunner, replicating the gorgeous machine that Salvador Ser via drove to third place in the 1985 ERC Rally Costa Brava, where Lancia scored a 1-2-3-4 result.

To end this 'Lancia Rally 037 at 40' stor y, we have a pair of recently-released diecast models by Ixo The model maker revamped the set of par ts that it had been using for a while and launched a few new references We’ve selected the Bastossponsored car, as dr iven by Patr ick Snijer s at

the 1984 Ypres rally, where he finished four th, a result that helped him win the Belg ian rally championship that year The West-sponsored Lancia was dr iven by Carlo Capone in Rally Antibes, finishing fir st on his way to become 1984’s European Rally Champion The models are identical, except for the Bastos and West liver ies, two of the best ever to be painted on a 037 Overall shape and propor tions are good, there are fine details like the headlamps and front g r ille, a realistic tall roof aer ial and reasonable wheel r ims, if a little out of scale The mechanicals are well represented, consider ing this is not an expensive diecast, and the rear mud fl aps have been improved

Let’s hope Ixo will release other missing liver ies, like 'Eminence'”, 'Olio Fiat' and other s that raced in per iod, so the Lancia Rally 037 collection is bolstered by a few more examples This was a car that was meant to be an inter im solution while Lancia readied its 4WD machine, however, it conquered more than was expected It’s 1983 fight against the might of the Audi quattro had something of David against Goliath about it, and is one of the best chapter s in Lancia’s r ich WRC stor y DC

France's family favourite

John Harrison takes a look at Renault’s fabulous 4 and shares his

Shor tly after World War II, two of the major French car manuf acturers, Citroën and Renault, introduced new small cars Citroën introduced the basic 2CV in 1948, which was par ticularly geared to meet the needs of French f ar mers and cope with rough roads, whereas the Renault introduced its 4CV in 1947, a rear-eng ined car that could be descr ibed as a four-door smaller version of the Volkswagen Beetle, it was a much more conventional car, more suited for ordinar y roads than f ar m tracks When Renault decided to replace the 4CV in 1961, it opted for a car more akin to the Citroën 2CV, with torsion-bar suspension suited for some off-road use plus it was, in some ways, of more basic design The suspension on both the Renault 4 and the Citroën 2CV g ives them a nose-down stance The Renault 4 was one of the first hatchback cars to provide a significant load capacity, especially with the rear seat folded down

Although only the Renault 4 was available on the Br itish market, in France the car came in two for ms – the Renault 3 and Renault 4 The 3 had a 603cc eng ine and the 4 a 747cc one This put the 3 in the 3CV taxation class and the 4 in the 4CV – “CV” stands for “chevaux-vapeur” which literally means “steam horses” and which broadly equates with

horsepower. The 3 was more basic in other ways – a more direct competitor to the Citroën 2CV Both the 3 and 4 were initially four-light vehicles, i e having two main windows on each side, though the third window was an optional extra on the 4 The 3 had a shor t production life, being discontinued in 1962 and from this time on all 4s became six-light cars

Initially, the 4 was available with a 747cc eng ine when introduced in 1961, but in 1963 it was also available, in some versions, with a 845cc eng ine from the Renault Dauphine In 1978 the 4GTL became available with the 1,108cc eng ine from the Renault

collection of miniature replicas. In this first instalment, he delves into the history of the car and some models in 1/43 scale.

▲ From left to right, two French Dinky models, terracotta red then light blue, then the French Dinky

8 and, in 1986, a smaller version of this eng ine, with 956cc capacity, replaced the then standard 845cc eng ine The car or ig inally had a three-speed gearbox which, when W h i c h ? magazine road-tested the car, was descr ibed as “high, low and r idiculously low”

From 1968, the car had a four-speed box, albeit in a zigzag patter n with second and third gears opposite each other It was only changed to the conventional “H” patter n in 1973 All gearboxes had a gear lever working on a ‘push/pull’ basis Instead of being floor mounted, the gear lever came out of the dashboard

The gearbox was mounted in front of the eng ine, so the lever was connected to a rod that stretched across the top of the eng ine and which linked to another going down behind the radiator to the gearbox One quirk of the torsion bar suspension design is that the wheelbase on the left side of the car is about two inches (five centimetres) longer than on the left!

Though the car ’ s basic shape did not change dur ing production, the most obvious changes made over the years were to the front Basically, the g r ille g rew bigger and became plastic There were several changes and they would take time to catalogue, but the significant one was made in 1974 when the

▲ Another angle with which to compare the mainstream French Dinky with its Junior range counterpart The lack of glazing and an interior being the two most obvious deficiences.

g r ille sur round incor porated the headlights and became vir tually full-width Some years ago,Vitesse introduced a range of 1/43 scale models of the car ’ s different guises Collecting all of those would enable you to see how the model changed over the years

The Renault 4 was manuf actured as a hatchback, a van (refer red to as the Fourgonnette) and a pickup tr uck There were a number of limited edition ver sions of the hatchback and, in 1978, the GTL was introduced with an 1,108cc eng ine geared for economy, with distinctive g rey plastic str ips along the bottom of the door s. The Sinpar company conver ted Renault 4s to four-wheel dr ive It also designed a jeep-like four-wheel dr ive militar y ver sion Renault then commissioned Sinpar to produce a front-wheel dr ive, topless ver sion, which was sold as the Plein Air (fresh air) aimed at the beach buggy market, but this did not prove popular and only 563 examples were produced

The Renault 4 was a ver y successful car It was manuf actured in 27 different countr ies as well as in France and, in total, over 8,000,000 examples were produced At one time it had the distinction of coming third in total worldwide production figures for any car after the Volkswagen Beetle and the Ford Model T, but the Lada has now pushed it into four th place Manuf acture in France ceased in 1992, but continued in Morocco and Slovenia until 1994 Renault replaced the 4 with the Twingo, which initially was not manuf actured in RHD for m so not available in Br itain This was a ver y different car from the 4 so not a direct replacement

Moving on from the real car to the models, I will mainly be wr iting about contemporar y toys rather than more recent collectors’ models, though I have thrown in a few of the latter which I consider to be par ticularly interesting In this first par t, I will look at the 1/43 scale models of the saloon/hatchback, followed by models of the saloon/hatchback in other scales in par t 2, then van models (par t 3) and finally models of versions of the 4 with other bodies (par t 4) Unless I say otherwise, assume models have windows, though in some instances not all the windows on a par ticular model are “glazed” to help little fingers open the relevant doors

FRENCH DINKY TOYS JUNIOR (FRANCE)

In 1962, Dinky in France introduced a Junior range intended to compete with some of its competitors’ lower-pr iced offer ings They were basic versions of some of the cars already in its range These did not have ‘windows’, inter iors or opening features As well as the Renault 4, the range compr ised a Peugeot 404, a Panhard PL17, a Renault 8, a Simca 1000, a Citroën 2CV and an Opel Kadett The Renault 4 was g reyg reen in colour. These models were not par ticularly successful and are rarer than their ‘fully-fitted’ equivalents The range was discontinued in 1969

FRENCH DINKY TOYS (FRANCE/SPAIN)

This model was introduced in 1961, so clearly is the first version of the Renault 4 Following close cooperation between the Renault and Dinky

design teams, both the real car and the model were introduced on 5 October 1961 Renault had been impressed with the earlier Dinky Dauphine model and this cooperation was the outcome The common colour s are light blue and ter racotta with a prominent silver str ipe, but there is also a rarer orange ver sion In addition there is also a yellow post office car with a wings symbol on the front door s and blanked out rear side windows, a red Par is fire br igade ver sion with emblems on the front door s and a radio aer ial and bell on the roof , and an orange “Dépannage Autoroutes” (road rescue) ver sion with “AUTOROUTES” on the front door s and an aer ial on the roof . Only the ter racotta ver sion was sold in Br itain, in 1962 and 1963 The model has an inter ior, steer ing (activated by pressing down on the appropr iate side of the car) and independent suspension The inter ior even incor porates the rails which were on the back of the real car ’ s rear seats French Dinky models of this era were good quality and this is not an exception The mould was subsequently updated to provide the later, wider g r ille and this ver sion comes in a darker blue made for French Dinky by Auto Pilen in Spain Most of the French Dinky models have been copied by

▲ The Elf/Gitanes version of the Tomica Dandy model demonstrating its opening doors and rear tailgate. Note the cases 'loaded' in the boot, but also that the rear door does not raise up to the prototypical height

1 Front three-quarter view, again with the doors open Not shown is that the bonnet tilts forward too, revealing a basic, but pleasing interpretation of the engine bay.

▲ French Dinky versus Tomica Dandy Note the author’s Dinky model has been embellished by a previous owner with stickers from a Corgi Accessory Pack.

▲ Head to head, the Tomica Dandy model and the terracotta French Dinky example. Note the Tomica version emulates the nose-down stance of the actual car.

Atlas in recent year s The French Dinky Renault 4 Sinpar 4x4, a jeep ver sion of the Renault 4, will be descr ibed in the last par t of this ser ies dealing with special bodied Renault 4s

TOMICA DANDY (JAPAN)

This is a nice model of the Renault 4TL It does, however, seem slightly too wide to me and the radiator g r ille somehow seems to heighten that impression It is one of the later ver sions of the Renault 4 with the wider g r ille Opening features are the bonnet, front door s and rear door The rear door does not open to a full height, but opening it reveals a pile of neatly stacked suitcases. There are four var iations – a plain white one and a blue one with a white bonnet, and the white one is also available with Air France and Aéropor t de Par is (Par is Air por t) tampo-pr inted adver tisements, The blue with a white bonnet ver sion comes as a For mula 1 suppor t vehicle with Elf (a petrol brand) and Gitanes (a cigarette brand) adver tising Perhaps, sur pr isingly, though motor ists in Japan dr ive on the left, the steer ing wheel of this model is on the left Interestingly the wr iting on the base is in Latin scr ipt, not Japanese DC

Ad m i t i t , yo u ’ re s i n g i n g i t i n yo u r h e a d a l re a d y ! B u t , c a n yo u b e l i eve i t ’ s t h e 6 0 t h a n n ive r s a r y o f S u m m e r H o l i d ay t h i s ye a r ? T h e fi l m p re m i e re d i n L o n d o n o n 1 0 t h Ja nu a r y 1 9 6 3 ( 6 0 ye a r s t o t h e d ay a s I a m t y p i n g t h i s ! ) , b e f o re g o i n g o n g e n e r a l re l e a s e o n 1 8 t h Fe b r u a r y I t wa s t h e n o r m b a c k t h e n f o r i t t o t h e n t a ke a w h i l e t o g o ove r s e a s , a n d t h i s fi l m wa s n o e x c e p t i o n , fi n a l l y p re m i e r i n g i n t h e U S A ove r a ye a r l a t e r, o n 1 2 t h M a rc h 1 9 6 4 T h e p l o t wa s a s i m p l e o n e – D o n ( C l i ff R i c h a rd ) a n d f r i e n d s C y r i l , S t eve a n d E d w i n a re bu s m e c h a n i c s a t t h e L o n d o n Tr a n s p o r t bu s wo r k s i n A l d e n h a m , H e r t f o rd s h i re D u r i n g a m i s e r a bl y we t B r i t i s h s u m m e r l u n c h b re a k , D o n a r r ive s , h av i n g p e r s u a d e d L o n d o n Tr a n s p o r t t o l e n d h i m a n d h i s f r i e n d s a n A E C R e g e n t I I I RT d o u bl ed e c ke r bu s . T h ey c o nve r t t h e bu s i n t o a h o l i d ay c a r ava n , w h i c h t h ey a re t o d r ive a c ro s s c o n t i n e n t a l E u ro p e, i n t e n d i n g t o re a c h t h e S o u t h o f F r a n c e O n t h e way, t h ey a re j o i n e d by a g ro u p o f yo u n g wo m e n a n d t h e d e s t i n a t i o n c h a n g e s t o A t h e n s , i n G re e c e

T H E R E A L B U S E S T h re e a c t u a l L o n d o n bu s e s we re u s e d i n t h e fi l m i n g , p o s i n g a s bu s nu m b e r RT 1 8 8 1 a n d fi t t e d w i t h t h e f a ke nu m b e r p l a t e W L B 9 9 1 T h e bu s e s

- 1 9 4 9 L o n d o n Tr a n s p o r t A E C R e g e n t I I I RT s - we re i n f a c t RT 2 3 0 5 ( o r i g i n a l nu m b e r p l a t e

K G U 3 3 4 ) , RT 2 3 6 6 ( K G U 3 9 5 ) , a n d RT 4 3 2 6 ( N L E 9 9 0 ) I n t e re s t i n g l y, a re a l bu s h a d p rev i o u s l y b e e n g ive n t h e fl e e t nu m b e r RT 1 8 8 1 by L o n d o n Tr a n s p o r t , w i t h t h e nu m b e r p l a t e L L U 7 6 7

A CO M M E M O R AT I V E M O D E L

Fo r t h e 5 0 t h a n n ive r s a r y, i n 2 0 1 3 , R i c h m o n d Toy s re l e a s e d a r a t h e r c u t e l i t t l e 1 / 7 2 s c a l e d i e c a s t i n a s p l e n d i d , c o m m e m o r a t ive b ox , f e a t u r i n g i m a g e s

We’re all going on a...

▲ The bus is a basic, but very appealing replica, and features period advertising and destination blinds

▲ One of the promotional posters used at the time of the film’s release in the US

a n d g r a p h i c s f ro m t h e m ov i e ( t h a n k s t o i t b e i n g a n o ffi c i a l l y l i c e n s e d p ro d u c t ) I t a l s o f e a t u re d t h e c o r re c t , p e r i o d a d ve r t i s i n g o n t h e s i d e s o f t h e bu s a n d t h e d e s t i n a t i o n bl i n d s , a s m o d i fi e d by o u r b a n d o f h a p py c a m p e r s i n t h e fi l m T h e o n l y n o n - a u t h e n t i c g r a p h i c s we re t h e re p l a c e m e n t o f t h e g o l d e n “ L O N D O N

▲ Richmond Toys' 50th anniversary model, released in 2013, comes in a wonderful box, covered with scenes and graphics from the film

T R A N S P O RT ” o n t h e l owe r d e c k s i d e s , b e l ow t h e w i n d ow s , w i t h “ 5 0 T H A N N I V E R S A RY ” , a l b e i t i n a s i m i l a r s t y l e I t ’ s a f a b l i t t l e m o d e l a n d I ’ ve ow n e d i t f o r t e n ye a r s n ow, ke e p i n g i t w i t h i n t h e b ox f o r d i s p l ay, b e c a u s e t h e a r t wo r k i s s o c h e e r y DC

Never lost for things to talk about, Rick Wilson shares another selection from his collection.

Alfa Romeo 4C Coupé and Spider models

David Lynn extends his collection of the stylish Italian beauty.

Late in 2019, Alfa Romeo quietly ceased production of its exquisite 4C Coupé and Spider duo, leaving unsold stock around the world to tr ickle out over the following months and, after recent cancellations of mid-range GTV and exotic 8C successor projects, br ing a sad end to the tradition of almost a century of glamorous sports cars Another indication of Fiat’s cor porate intentions occur red earlier in the decade when Alfa’s collaboration with Mazda to develop a budget MX5-based roadster was hijacked to become the revived Fiat and Abarth 124 Spiders, apparently under the pretext that no Alfa could ever be made in Japan This iconic brand’s prospects are now dependent on family saloons (Giulia and the recently retired Giulietta), incongruous SUVs (Stelvio and the repeatedly delayed Tonale) and the tokenistic rebranding of an unsuccessful For mula One team There were also ominous rumours that Alfa would be sold off in a rationalisation exercise following the

▲ My 4C quintet (left to right): Spark red production Coupé, Looksmart white Launch Edition Coupé, TSM yellow production Spider, Panini red production Coupé, TSM white production Spider

Stellantis mega-merger of FCA (Fiat-Chrysler) and PSA (Peugeot etc)

The steady tr ivialisation of such a f amous her itage is depressing, par ticularly in light of how its similarlychar ismatic stablemate brand of Lancia has been reduced to invisibility outside Italy This ar ticle is therefore a br ief tr ibute to the enigmatic 4C, a design which was simultaneously gorgeous and fr ustrating, but provided some ver y desirable miniatures It picks up from my previous account (August 2016 issue) of two superb high-end Coupé models, which at that point represented the range of 1/43 options available Dealing br iefly with the fr ustrations of the full-size car, it was launched as a concept Coupé in 2011 to a rapturous response, and entered production in 2013 at Maserati’s Modena f actor y, with the Spider appear ing in 2015 Despite many awards such as the "Most Beautiful Car of the Year 2013" at the 29th Inter national Automobile Festival in France, its mechanicals were woefully underdeveloped – a

memorable comment in Autocar wondered how Alf a managed to make such a mess of the 4C and descr ibed the Spider as “ one of the most incompetent spor ts cars that I’ve ever dr iven” Alf a never addressed this mismatch of expectation nor attempted to broaden the range with enhanced versions apar t from a few superficial tr im editions Some hardcore Quadr ifoglio prototypes were built but kept under wraps, and the range was allowed to wither away instead of reaching its potential Br itish sales in 2018 of only 24 across both versions is a damning verdict This loss of oppor tunity was probably also affected by the largely unsympathetic range of available colours, which basically compr ised black, g rey, white or two reds, plus uniquely for the Spider a yellow option A couple of ver y limited r un-out editions added a silver Competizione coupé and the Spider Italia in a gorgeous Misano Blue Metallic, but where were the vibrant g reens, oranges or other blues, for instance, which might have really accentuated the allur ing styling? This inevitably constrains the scope of model offer ings, as the selection is quickly exhausted before colours become repetitive

The 4C has been extensively modelled across many scales, but a fur ther fr ustration lies in wait for 1/43 collectors with, until recently, the available selection being limited to expensive non-mainstream brands

none of the usual mid-range names, such as Minichamps, Ixo, Norev or Vitesse, went near the 4C Six years ago, a couple of oppor tunistic bargains provided my two coupés, with a red resin in 2013 production tr im from Spark (S3893, also released as a twin S3894 in gloss white) and a pearlescent white 2013 Launch Edition by Looksmar t (LS418A) – the latter in par ticular would nor mally be way beyond my reach, but was also used as a dealership promotional by Alf a Romeo, which released a batch at less stratospher ic pr ices At that point, it seemed likely that, despite announcements by Tr ueScale Miniatures of a range of Spiders, my 4C adventure would cease However as the accompanying pictures show, the previous duo has expanded into a quintet, with the

ar r ival of two Spiders and another red Coupé TSM eventually released four versions of the Spider, in red, yellow and two white alter natives, and some detailed untangling is needed to explain their differences and provide pointers to the best choices among them All four have 10-spoke alloys, instead of the 5-hole design from the coupés and simpler projector-style headlights, and a wealth of carefully applied detail for attr ibutes such as the extensive use of carbon-fibre for mir rors, spoilers and so on These are excellently executed models, well up to the expected standards of TSM’s reputation and premium pr icing

Both illustrated examples are descr ibed as 2016 models, so are therefore production liver ies TSM430141 in Matte White has red seats, silver wheels, white mir rors on black stems, a white rear spoiler with CHMSL, twin widely-spaced exhausts with chrome tips, a black lower side vent, and Alf a logos on the headrests TSM164383 in Giallo Prototipo yellow – which confusingly is the name of the colour, not a descr iption of the car as a preproduction concept – has the Nero Edizione package where all br ightwork and tr im is finished in black To my eyes, at least, while the yellow is the best colour among this 4C selection, the black contrast is too distracting and replaces subtlety with overwhelming starkness The white Spider breaks up this contrast with a scatter ing of var iously coloured elements, so is actually rather more satisfying to look at, and enables the finesse of the cockpit to be better appreciated I have only seen the other two liver ies onscreen – both descr ibed as 2014 Spider Concepts with TSM154313 in Rosso (gloss red) and TSM154314 in Bianco (gloss white) – but each appears likely to be similarly overwhelmed by the black contrast, although perhaps less jar r ingly for the red scheme, and the white scheme has brown seat and headrest edg ing which prevents the inter ior being an unrelenting dungeon In ter ms of detailing, the Rosso model seems pretty much identical to the yellow liver y, despite being labelled 2014 Concept However the

Bianco Concept has small differences – there is no lower side vent which was unique to the production Spider and fitted only on the LHD dr iver side, and the exhausts are centrally paired under the rear number plate instead of being widely separated, so is likely to match the pre-production show car spec from initial unveilings in 2014

So, for anyone contemplating any of this TSM quar tet, whether or not my comments have the same impact, the recommendation is to choose carefully between the per mutations to avoid any nagg ing feeling that the model is not quite as entrancing as it could be Maybe one day I’ll be brave enough to test my theor ies by unscrewing the base plates and swapping bits over to see if a yellow Spider with silver wheels and red seats g ives the most satisfying combination, but the r isks of something going wrong when tinker ing with such expensive models seems too high.

My final ar r ival, at long last, provides an affordable route into 4C ownership in this scale, thanks to a par twork edition sold in Br itain under Panini branding for Centaur i This red coupé is #44 in the Supercar Collection and was released in Apr il 2020 for £11 99 plus postage It is a straightforward diecast in a blister pack with display case, plinth and accompanying pamphlet, and while it is inevitably less detailed than the premium models, is more than welcome Depicting a nor mal 2013 production coupé in a slightly fl at shade of Competizione Red with

the black Nero Edizione package, its only real fl aw is the wheels in deeply dull g rey with exaggerated Pirelli P-Zero logos, which look clumsy and cheap

The same model was released in a 2019 Italian Fabr ibranded par twork for Centaur i as #35 with silver wheels and no tyre logos and onscreen looks better, although it does not have the carbonfibre detailing applied to the Br itish issue There is also a third version of what I think is the same casting released as a budget Motor max Super Wheels toy, which has only ver y basic detailing and is probably not wor th pursuing

With the 4C now officially defunct, the chances of fur ther models are probably minimal - its time has been and gone, although if TSM want to close the book on this enigma with a final release of the Spider Italia edition in that gorgeous shimmer ing blue, it could perhaps become the ultimate best liver y among all those issued. As a par ting verdict, the 4C was a stunning aesthetic achievement and despite many niggles which are unavoidably inher ited by its miniature counter par ts, the models are similarly exquisite For me the solid simple colours such as gloss red and white work best at this scale, preferably with some inter r uptions to dilute the over power ing black tr im packages As almost ever y 1/43 buying option involves a substantial outlay, careful prepurchase consideration is essential to ensure whichever model fully delivers its anticipated quota of enjoyment DC

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The Hot Wheels Years: 1999

Star ting in 1995, Hot Wheels began naming its new models as ‘Fir st Editions’ and initially twelve or ig inal items were introduced ever y year – meaning that new castings were released at the rate of one a month However, this didn’t last long, as to celebrate its 30th anniver sar y in 1998 there were 40 new models produced In 1999, this was cut down to 26 Fir st Editions, but in subsequent year s the new items could range from 36 to 52, hitting a peak in 2004 when 100 vehicles were issued

The 26 new models for 1999 were a mixed lot, and an interesting cross-section of vehicle types What was most notable about the 1999 models was how well-made and solid they were, par ticularly in compar ison with more recent effor ts – nearly all of them had diecast bodies and bases, and detailed inter ior s. Several were issued in more than one colour

1936 CORD

The fir st of the new models this year was a 1936 Cord, based on a Cord 810 Westchester, a four door sedan with a streamlined boot and a non-

supercharged V8 eng ine The Cord 810 had a ver y distinctive look, with an angular, louvred bonnet and no r unning boards 1936 Cord was a ver y accurate model, with a one-piece diecast body that incor porated the bonnet and front wings It was initially painted a ver y nice shade of metallic burgundy, and had a chrome plastic base that incor porated the front and rear bumper s The inter ior was in pur ple plastic It was later produced in black and metallic g reen, and was retired in 2005

'99 MUSTANG

A new model of the ever-popular Ford Mustang was introduced this year It differed from the existing 1996 Mustang GT in that it was a coupe rather than a conver tible The model had a one-piece diecast body, black plastic base, tan inter ior and clear windows Early ver sions were painted metallic blue, although this was changed to metallic pur ple dur ing the fir st r un The 35th anniver sar y decals were tampo pr inted on the front fender s, being Mustang logos inside a wreath It proved to be a ver y durable model, appear ing in numerous liver ies, and was still in production as late as 2018

Mike Pigott continues his series on the Hot Wheels annual new releases. This time we go back over 20 years to look at the new castings from 1999.

1938 PHANTOM CORSAIR

Sur pr isingly, a second 1930s Ar t Deco classic was introduced in 1999 – the 1938 Phantom Corsair The Corsair was an early concept car, and was designed by Rust Heinz, an heir to the Heinz Foods empire Based on a Cord 810 chassis, the Corsair shared its front wheel dr ive and low stance, but had a futur istic design with enclosed wheels and a streamlined profile The model accurately captures the Corsair’s aerodynamic shape The one-piece diecast body is painted gloss black, which is accurate to the or ig inal, although this was changed to dark metallic blue later in 1999 The unpainted metal base includes the large front and rear bumpers, while the inter ior is g rey and the windows are clear Later issues were produced in metallic pur ple and burgundy, as well as some less realistic liver ies, although the casting had a f airly shor t life, being withdrawn in 2003

1970 CHEVELLE SS

The only classic muscle car released this year was the legendar y 1970 Chevelle SS, a mid-sized Chevrolet coupe with a massive 7 4 litre eng ine The Hot Wheels model was ver y accurate, with a bonnet bulge and jacked-up rear wheels It was fitted with a heavy plated-metal base, which included the g r ille and bumpers. A ver y popular model, 1970 Chevelle SS is still in production, most recently appear ing in the 2023 Fast and Fur ious 5-pack However, later issues are ‘dumbed down’ and have a plastic base

OLDS AURORA GT3 / GTS-1

Introduced in 1994, General Motor s developed a tubular-bodied silhouette racing ver sion of the Aurora with non-standard coupe bodywork Hot

Wheels sponsored one, so naturally a model was introduced to the mainline This appeared in three different liver ies and had two different names dur ing the cour se of 1999

The first version was based on the sponsored racer

painted white, with metallic blue sides and rear, #11 racing numbers, Hot Wheels logos and var ious sponsor decal The base and rear spoiler were in black plastic This version was marked “Olds Aurora GT3” on the base and packag ing

It was reissued in red with a black spoiler and a gener ic Hot Wheels liver y, with #1 on the roof . This was later changed to metallic silver-g rey with a red spoiler These examples now had ‘Olds Aurora GTS-1' on the base and packag ing Olds Aurora was reissued infrequently over the year s and was last produced in 2012

MONTE CARLO INTIMIDATOR / CONCEPT CAR

The Chevrolet Monte Carlo was a full-size luxur y coupe produced throughout the 1970s and '80s, and revived in the mid 1990s The Monte Carlo dominated NASCAR racing in the late '90s, so in 1998, Chevrolet introduced a racing-styled concept car called the Monte Carlo 'Intimidator'

The Intimidator was fitted with a V6 eng ine, front air dam, side skir ts, roll cage, racing wheels and racing style seats It was painted br ight red with silver spoiler and skir ts Hot Wheels added this to the range in 1999, and it initially had ‘Monte Carlo Intimidator’ on the base and packag ing

However, it tur ned out that Chevrolet did not have the r ights to the ‘Intimidator’ name As a result, Hot Wheels had to change the name of the model to ‘Monte Carlo Concept Car’, so the base eng raving and packag ing were modified The model was painted in the cor rect colours of red body and silver diecast base, which extended to the door sills The inter ior was in g rey plastic and the windows had a smoked tint Later examples were in a less-accurate shade of dark metallic red

PONTIAC RAGEOUS

Another concept car, introduced by General Motors in 1997 It had a sleek spor ts car profile, and was fitted with a 5 7 litre V8 eng ine However, it was a ver y versatile car and, unusually for a spor ty muscle car, had var iable inter ior space for car r ying people and cargo It had concealed rear ‘suicide’ doors, and a hatchback with a drop-down tailgate

The Hot Wheels ver sion had a diecast body painted in an accurate shade of metallic red, with logos on the front door s The top half was made of translucent smoked-g rey plastic, with the roof and rear deck painted black The base was black plastic, the inter ior was g rey, and the wheels were threespoked mags that were quite similar to those on the real car In 2000, it was reissued in metallic blue, and it was produced in several other colour schemes until it was withdrawn in 2009

SEMI-FAST

Hot Wheels’ first model of a European-style racing tr uck Although a gener ic design, it appeared to be

based on a Mercedes-Benz This was the only model in 1999 to have a plastic body The base was diecast and included the lower g r ille The bodywork was plastic and incor porated the skir ting and lower par t of the cab, while the upper cab was a separate par t and included a roof spoiler Initially, it was coloured all red with black and yellow str ipes, although this was changed to black lower body with red cab In 2000, it was recoloured in blue and white with the same decals It was released in a few other racing liver ies, but had a f airly shor t life in the range, until 2004

TEE’D OFF

Although bizar re, Tee’d Off was cer tainly or ig inal – it was a hot rod golf car t! A well-made model, it had a pearlescent white body with a matching plastic roof with the logo of 'Miller Countr y Club' pr inted on the top Mounted behind the seats was a massive chrome eng ine topped by a big air cleaner Later in 1999, the colour scheme was changed to dark metallic blue with a white inter ior Sur pr isingly, Tee’d Off proved to be a ver y popular model, and was reissued many times before it was withdrawn in 2007

PORSCHE 911 GT3 CUP

Although it looks similar to a standard Porsche 911, the GT3 Cup is a high-powered homologation special produced to compete in the FIA GT3 Cup racing ser ies The Hot Wheels model was painted silver, and could be found with the rear spoiler in either black or yellow The inter ior was red, and the base was black plastic The glazing was blue tinted, and incor porated the headlights A second run was produced in metallic pur ple with a black spoiler A popular model, the most recent version was issued in 2020

FIAT 500C

Only the second Fiat to be modelled by Hot Wheels, this was a little Fiat 500 conver ted into a drag racer

The name of this model was incor rect as it was not a Fiat 500C, which was a post-war car, but a 1936 500A ‘Topolino’. However, it was a fun model with a diecast body painted metallic pur ple, and a diecast base which incor porated the centrally-mounted seat

The protr uding eng ine, side pipes and windscreen were made from chrome plastic It was reissued many times and was withdrawn in 2014

TRACK T

Track T appears to be a souped-up Ford Model T

roadster with an extended, streamlined front end and open wheels without fenders Although a small model, it had a ver y high diecast content The body was initially painted black with fl ame decals on the bonnet top A tan plastic tonneau cover was attached, and this included the dash and steer ing wheel Track T appeared in numerous liver ies before its final issue in 2013

POPCYCLE

The name Popcycle is a play on 'Popsicle', the Amer ican word for ice lolly, although there doesn't seem to be any ice cream connection It is a strange, asymmetr ical machine with an enor mous plated eng ine taking up the whole of one side The other side has a cockpit situated on a front overhang, with a covered platfor m behind Mounted on this platfor m is a 1970s 'Chopper' pushbike, completely enclosed by a translucent box, which also for ms the canopy over the cockpit

Popcycle was first issued with a pur ple body and orange-tinted windows, with the eng ine and bicycle being chrome-plated The unpainted diecast base included the air intakes and dr iver's seat Popcycle was issued infrequently before being retired in 2009, and later issues were renamed 'Motor Psycho'

PHAETON

Phaeton is another classic custom which, like Track T, looks to be based on a real hot rod It appears to be a ver y heavily modified Ford Model A Phaeton The model features a long bonnet with a pointed, sloping g r ille, open front wheels and no rear overhang The body is painted an extremely attractive shade of metallic aqua, with gold and silver pinstr ipes Phaeton was another popular model, and appeared in dozens of different liver ies before being withdrawn in 2014

SCREAMIN' HAULER

Another bizar re creation, Screamin' Hauler is a weird open-cab hot rod pick-up tr uck It has ver y nar row bodywork, with a single-seat cab and a rather slim load bed The diecast body is painted pur ple, and the bare metal base includes the seat and rear exhausts Screamin' Hauler was re-released only a few times before being retired in 2009

FORD GT40

One of the most f amous racing cars of all time, the Ford GT40 was developed by Ford in 1964 to take on Fer rar i at Le Mans The model of the Ford GT40 is an extremely detailed casting, with wing mir rors, fuel fillers and the distinctive door shut lines It was first produced in an authentic-looking dark blue

liver y with white str ipes It has been issued in a huge number of liver ies, including some ver y accurate ones, and its most recent release was in 2021

JEEPSTER

The Jeepster was a 1998 concept car, a cross between a spor ts car and an off-roader The Hot Wheels model is ver y accurate, and was issued in the cor rect colour scheme of red with black and silver tr im The body and base were both diecast, with a black plastic component in-between which made up the inter ior, bumpers and wheel arches. Jeepster was issued in a few different versions before being withdrawn in 2008

TURBOLENCE

Turbolence is a representation of a 1950s land speed record car It accurately captures the look of this type of vehicle, with its low stance, bulg ing wheel arches, tapered tail, and streamlined f air ing behind the offset cockpit The body was painted gloss black with a gold '1' racing number on the nose and 'Dayla Special' in scr ipt on either side of the eng ine The thick base was bare metal After appear ing in a few less convincing liver ies, it was phased out of the range in 2008

PIKES PEAK TACOMA

This model is based on the winner of the 1998 Pikes Peak Inter national Hill Climb, a g r uelling race through steep and winding trails in Colorado The Hot Wheels model was initially finished in the authentic yellow and white liver y of the real tr uck, with 'Pennzoil' sponsorship decals The diecast body included the angular rear spoiler, while the fl at base was black plastic A later release was in a red Toyota liver y with yellow inter ior and cover Pikes Peak Tacoma was last produced in 2012

SHADOW MK IIA

Shadow Racing Cars was an Amer ican racing team that competed in the Can-Am Challenge Cup in Nor th Amer ica dur ing the early 1970s After the demise of Can-Am racing, the Shadow team relocated to the UK and changed to For mula 1 racing The Shadow Mk IIA is quite a f amous car, although it was not hugely successful in Can-Am The body was well detailed, captur ing the sloping nose and angular lines, and was painted in the cor rect gloss black with racing number '101' and sponsor decals The rear eng ine was diecast and incor porated

The 26 new models for 1999 were a mixed lot, and an interesting cross-section of vehicle types. What was most notable about the 1999 models was how wellmade and solid they were, particularly in comparison with more recent efforts...

the spoiler, which car r ied 'SHADOW' letter ing It was later produced in six less realistic liver ies before it was discontinued in 2009

360 MODENA

Naturally, Hot Wheels included a model of the latest Fer rar i, which in 1999 was the 360 Modena It was named after the hometown of Enzo Fer rar i, and featured cur vaceous coupe body styling and an aluminium chassis The first release was in a track liver y, painted white with red GT str ipes along the nose, '360' racing numbers on the doors, and black wheel hubs The second version was a more standard looking Fer rar i, in red with a modest 'prancing horse' badge on the nose, and chrome wheels Unsur pr isingly, this proved to be a popular model and appeared in numerous colour schemes before it was withdrawn in 2008

'56 FORD

The vaguely-named '56 Ford was actually a g reat model of a souped-up 1956 Ford F-100 panel van The diecast body was painted light silver-blue and had 'Ford Genuine Par ts' decals on each side It featured a non-standard forward hinged bonnet, also diecast, and a g rey plastic base An enor mously popular model, '56 Ford was produced in countless liver ies and was par ticularly popular as a promotional item, and is still cur rently available, although the tilting bonnet is now sealed

CHRYSLER PRONTO

The Chr ysler Pronto was a 1998 'retro style' concept car A coupe with a roll-back f abr ic top, it echoed the shape of a classic hot rod Although the Pronto did not make it into production, it evolved into the Chr ysler PT Cr uiser, a successful retro-style car that was available in conver tible and station wagon models. The Hot Wheels replica had a one-piece diecast body painted pearlescent yellow, with the sliding top touched up in black In 2000, it was produced in pur ple, and was reissued infrequently until 2016

BABY BOOMER

Probably the silliest item this year, Baby Boomer is a baby's pram conver ted into a dragster The thick,

unpainted metal base also for ms the pusher handles and a ladder bar, with a chrome plastic eng ine and separate g rey air scoops mounted on top The pram body is mounted at the rear, and is painted blue with fl ame tampos Comical details include a rattle for a steer ing wheel and a pair of feeding bottles on the front spoiler Baby Boomer was only reissued a few times before being retired in 2006.

PORSCHE 911 GT1-98

A second racing Por sche 911 was also introduced this year, but was substantially different to the 911 GT3 Cup The Por sche 911 GT1 was launched in 1996 to compete in inter national GT racing The improved model for the 1998 racing season, the 911 GT1-98, looked even less like a 911, and more like a spor ts prototype racer The diecast body included all details including door shut lines, roof air intake and flowing wings The black plastic base incor porated the rear spoiler, and the black inter ior moulding included the exhaust pipes Fir st Editions were finished in a realistic white liver y with orange and magenta flowing str ipe decals. In 2000 it was reissued in pur ple with red and white decals Por sche GT1-98 was recoloured infrequently and was last seen in 2010

MERCEDES CLK-LM

Like the Por sche 911GT1-98, the Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR was developed to compete in GT racing Although it took some styling cues from the Mercedes CLK road car, it was a ver y different animal with carbon-fibre bodywork A cer tain number had to be produced for homologation pur poses, so a street ver sion was also released After perfor ming well on the track, a modified ver sion, called the CLK LM, was designed for endurance racing. The Hot Wheels model is another detailed casting showing the distinctive Mercedes-Benz g r ille, cooling vents, roof air intake, gullwing door outlines and two-level rear spoiler Sur pr isingly, despite its racing pedig ree, it is finished in a street liver y of silver with no decals Only three other ver sions were produced It was never produced in a racing liver ypossibly for licensing reasons - and was discontinued after only four year s DC

The Standard Vanguard in miniature

Andrew Ralston details the models of this wonderful classic car.

Commercial genius, showman, man of vision, egotist, autocrat – just a few of the descr iptions that have been applied to Sir John Black (1895-1965) who, for a twenty year per iod before and after World War II, ran the Standard Motor Company Whether they admired or feared him, all who worked with this f ascinating and complex figure would have ag reed that one of his most impor tant and f ar-reaching business decisions was that Standard should follow a ‘ one model’ policy in the postwar year s, with all the company ’ s effor ts being channelled into a single new car – the Vanguard The significance of this has been well-summar ised by motor ing histor ian Graham Robson, who points out that “this was to be one of those occasions, rare in the Br itish motor industr y of the per iod, when the product was new from end-to-end” It was, adds Robson, “ a colossal gamble” - but one which paid off handsomely

The stor y goes that John Black called in his stylist, Walter Belg rove, and told him to go to the Amer ican embassy in London and come back with some photos and drawings of the Plymouth car s parked outside, as Black thought the Plymouth was the best-looking US car around Belg rove was less than keen on designing a car copied from an Amer ican one, but he had to do as he was told The end result was cer tainly str iking, though inevitably, the attempt to replicate the shape of the Plymouth on a much smaller wheelbase produced a look that some thought rather dumpy Even when, after 1953, the car was restyled with a more conventional ‘notchback’ rear end, it still looked ver y upr ight But none of this stopped the Vanguard being a big seller, par ticularly in the all-impor tant expor t markets, and combined sales of Phase I and Phase II models over a ten year production r un amounted to 270,000 units The Vanguard was then replaced by the more moder n-looking Phase III model and var iations of this shape remained on sale until production of Standard car s ceased in 1963 Standard had taken

▲ 1948 Standard Vanguard advert shows the car in an oldeworlde English rural setting, but at the time it was only available to overseas customers. "Made in Britain Designed for the World" ran the slogan

over the ailing Tr iumph fir m in 1945 and, from 1959, the company was known as Standard-Tr iumph

VANGUARD PHASE I MODELS (1947-53)

Being one of the fir st tr uly new Br itish post-war car s, it was not sur pr ising that the fir st-generation Vanguard attracted the attention of the three biggest Br itish toy companies: Meccano, Mettoy and Lines Brother s (Tr i-ang)

• Dinky Toys

▲ Familiar to every Dinky collector, the distinctive curved shape of the Standard Vanguard Phase I. Photo: Vectis Auctions

Of these, the Dinky, as so often, is the most f amiliar one to collector s It was introduced in an adver tisement in the November 1948 Meccano Magazine and was descr ibed in more detail the following month, and consider ing the car was fir st shown in public at the Br ussels Motor Show in Febr uar y 1948, it can be assumed that Meccano and Standard had been working closely behind the scenes to get the model prepared – a relationship that would g row still closer over the coming year s, allowing Dinky to br ing out a model of the Tr iumph Herald on the same day as the real one

Numbered as 40E in the 40 ser ies of post-war saloon car s, the Dinky Vanguard, at fir st, had open rear wheel arches, like the real car and, following the prototype, these were duly covered in after 1950 The model was supplied in trade boxes of six until it acquired an individual yellow box around the time of the 1954 renumber ing exercise, when it was designated as 153 The Dinky was last illustrated in the 1958 catalogue, though it wasn’t for mally deleted until 1960 Over the year s, numerous books and ar ticles have chronicled the relatively minor baseplate and boot lid var iations that occur red and a convenient summar y of all the casting, base, colour and packag ing changes can be found at https://diecastgems.com/dinky-40-ser ies153-standard-vanguard/ Usual colour s are beige, blue or, later, cream, but maroon and dark blue are much harder to find A maroon example, in less than mint condition, fetched £340 (plus commission) at a Vectis auction in 2022

• Mettoy

Rivalr y between Meccano Limited and Mettoy was at its most intense after the ar r ival of Corg i in 1956, but, some year s before that, the two companies were already competing against each other with their inter pretations of the Standard Vanguard Dinky car s, of cour se, were made to a classic and well-established patter n of diecast body and tinplate base, but, in the late for ties, Mettoy was still making lithog raphed tin toys These were beg inning to look rather dated, and there were increasing safety concer ns about the shar p edges, so Mettoy began exper imenting with different body sizes, raw mater ials and methods of propulsion, almost as if it was searching for the best for mat before finally deciding to concentrate on a diecast range designed to take on Dinky head-on

This exper imental phase resulted in a number of different Mettoy Standard Vanguards in the 195054 per iod According to the 1950 catalogue, the ‘Mechanical Car – Standard Vanguard’ (as it was officially called) came in both three-inch (No 502) and four-inch (No 602) lengths, both fitted with clockwork motor s and steerable wheels No 603 was a more elaborate ver sion of the four-inch car with ‘ rever sing bumper action’ The forward-andrever se Vanguard was also scaled up to five-inch size (No 703). The 1951 catalogue says that the “ car r uns forward as back bumper s bump

and backwards

▲ Trade box of six Dinky Vanguards showing the early version (No 40E) with uncovered rear wheels Photo: Vectis Auctions

as front bumper s bump”, conjur ing up a picture of the car shooting across the floor until it hits a skir ting board or table leg and changes direction

something that usually led to the frag ile bumper s breaking A fur ther problem is that the chassis was moulded in plastic of a type which tends to war p, a common issue with plastic toys of this era

▲ Largest Mettoy is eight inches long, with plastic body and tinplate interior Photo: Vectis Auctions

The range was fur ther expanded by producing the smaller three-inch Vanguard with plastic body as a police car (No 510), a taxi in yellow with roof rack (511) and a fire chief ’ s car (512) with a ladder fitted to its roof , making it look a bit like Dinky’s old Streamlined Fire Eng ine fir st seen in 1936. The four-inch ver sion came in plastic too, either with a flywheel motor or in a ver y basic ver sion without motor or baseplate – nothing more than a body shell with the axles clipped on Mettoy found a use for this well into the 1960s, even though it was based on a real car withdrawn in 1953 A trade catalogue for 1965 shows that the model was still available as par t of a ser vice station set along with an Austin breakdown lor r y

▲ Rare maroon colour on the Dinky Photo: Vectis Auctions

There are always sur pr ise discover ies to be made in the world of vintage toys and, in the December 2014 sale held by Vectis Auctions, yet another Vanguard from Mettoy tur ned up This one was eight inches long, with plastic body and clockwork mechanism, packed in a ver y colourful picture box It sold for only £35 (plus commission) – surely a bargain for someone, as ver y few collector s knew it existed

▲ Five inch Mettoy mechanical Vanguard

It might seem that Mettoy went over the top with so many Vanguards, but this made economic sense as the same technical drawings could be scaled up or down as required Incidentally, at least one or ig inal brass master for the Mettoy Vanguard has sur vived and has recently been offered for sale for several thousand pounds

• Tr i-ang Minic

Though mostly associated with large outdoor toys like pedal car s, dolls’ prams, tr icycles and heavy duty pressed steel tr ucks, Lines Brother s (Tr i-ang) also produced many different ranges of tinplate, plastic and diecast toy car s In 1935, Lines introduced the Minic tinplate clockwork-powered ser ies, but, when production resumed after 1945, these vehicles looked old-f ashioned Plastic was increasingly used in the toy industr y, enabling the compound cur ves of postwar-styled car s to be moulded more accurately Also, plastic was ideal for clockwork and fr iction-powered

▲ As late as 1965, Mettoy was still offering the plastic Phase I Vanguard with a breakdown truck as part of a service station set

1 View from underneath showing friction and freewheeling versions.

2 Minic Vanguard slightly elongates the shape of the original.

car s: if they were lighter, they’d go f aster

Tr i-ang’s fir st plastic car s appeared as early as 1947 under the Penguin name, the fir st being a Maserati racing car powered by a simple wind-up elastic band mechanism Buyer s were initially a bit suspicious of this new mater ial and catalogues refer red to toys with ‘moulded bodies’ rather than using the word ‘plastic’ Soon a new range of Minic ‘Push and Go’ car s was launched, based on the new post-war models that were star ting to be seen on Br itish roads like the Hillman Minx, Austin Devon and Standard Vanguard, many of which also appeared in diecast for m as Dinky Toys

▲ Minic 'Push and Go' Vanguard pick-up – an unusual choice of subject.

▲ Phase II Vanguard of 1953 adopted a more conventional 'three-box' layout.

The Minic Phase I Vanguard makes an interesting compar ison with Dinky’s metal ver sion of the same car Both have open rear wheel arches, though the Dinky later had these covered in Whereas the Dinky has bumper s and g r ille painted in silver, the Minic has a separate tinplate radiator and headlamp sur rounds, while the bumper s are par t of the tinplate chassis which also incor porates a flywheel fr iction mechanism The box modestly says that “the Minic clockwork powered model is cor rect in ever y detail and a perfect replica of this f amous car ” In reality, the shape isn’t all that accurate – the Minic is about half an inch longer than the Dinky, making it seem more elegant than the real thing

A more unusual Minic Vanguard is a pick-up, powered (if that is the r ight word) by a feeble flywheel mechanism This 3 75 inch plastic toy is as simple as they come, but sales appear to have been disappointing for this budget ‘Push

and Go’ ser ies as in 1955 the Meccano Magazine announced “huge pr ice reductions” to just one shilling (5p) apiece Never theless, the pick-up was a welcome choice, though Tr i-ang missed the oppor tunity to include it in its elaborate ‘Push and Go’ RAF Presentation set, for the RAF really did use Vanguard pick-ups

VANGUARD PHASE II MODELS (1953-55)

Compared to the Phase I Vanguard, models of the restyled post-1953 car are much thinner on the g round By then, the Vanguard was six year s old and, as many other new car s had appeared on the market dur ing that per iod, toymaker s under standably prefer red to choose all-new shapes One exception was the River Ser ies, a small range made by a London diecasting fir m called Jordan and Lewden Most of these were non-prototypical tr ucks, but a few car s of circa 1953 vintage were made, of which two were Vanguards – a saloon and estate Slightly bigger and chunkier than a Dinky, these exist with or without fr iction motor s and were sprayed all-over with no g r ille or bumper detail Though extremely difficult to find mint and boxed, many River Ser ies models do sur vive in restorable condition

In the mid-1960s some River Ser ies dies were shipped to Kibbutz Kf ar Hanassi, near Haif a in Israel, where they were reissued under the Gamda name, but the Vanguard saloon was not one of these Gamda did, however, upg rade the estate car by fitting it with window glazing and g iving it a new finish as an ambulance in white in the liver y of Magen David, Israel’s emergency medical and

ambulance ser vice, founded in 1930 as a voluntar y association in Tel Aviv - an indication of the f act that this range was aimed purely at the local Israeli toy market The ambulance decals can either be in red or blue Gamda dispensed with the fr iction motor s fitted to the or ig inal issues and blanked off the space for the mechanism under neath, as well as replacing the words “Made in England” by “Made in Israel”, so there is no danger of confusing a River Ser ies with a Gamda Like all Gamdas, this model is now extremely rare.

Another diecast Vanguard estate comes from the 1950s Micro Models range, made in Australia and New Zealand The tooling sur vived and there have been subsequent reissues in limited quantities, but the or ig inals are of cour se much harder to find

Even more obscure is a fr iction-powered Phase II saloon, with plastic body made in Budapest At 4 5 inches in length, this is slightly bigger than the River Ser ies and the rotund lines of the Vanguard are rendered in a more angular manner, the only attempt at detail being the headlamps which are represented by brass-finished circles a bit like old-f ashioned paper f astener s This model comes as an ambulance and police car and with a bit of imag ination the sound of the fr iction motor can be taken to represent a wailing siren

The maker s seem reluctant to identify themselves, but the countr y of or ig in is confir med by some ver sions in white with sticker s reading ‘Mentöszolgalat’ (the national Hungar ian Ambulance Ser vice) on the sides or in dark blue with ‘Rendör ség’ (Police) markings These would be for sale on the home market whereas those with

English markings and box descr iptions would be for expor t The box of the car pictured g ives no clue to its or ig ins either, except for the word “Foreign” in small pr int on the end fl ap But this is a toy that was in production for a long time and some earlier box styles do identify the maker as Lemezar ugyár of Budapest, which was active between the 1950s and 1990s

Other per mutations of the Lemezar ugyár include a pr imitive for m of electr ic propulsion allowing the Vanguard to travel along a tinplate track and an assembly set consisting of one chassis and three plastic bodyshells – two different coloured saloons and a van The van was really a pick-up with a separate rear section and this also exists in the for m of a breakdown crane and a fire eng ine, both having a vague resemblance to a Vanguard.

Finally, there’s a tiny (just two inches long) plastic Phase II saloon by MPC (Multiple Products) of the USA, par t of a set of 100 ‘Car s of All Nations’ which also contained some other interesting Br itish subjects like the Ford Prefect and Tr iumph Mayflower

VANGUARD PHASE III MODELS (1955-63)

• Corg i

When Corg is ar r ived in 1956, they had the advantage over Dinky that they were based on the most up-to-date car s on the road, while Dinky Toys, like the Austin Devon, Tr iumph 1800 or Riley, were star ting to look dated So, too, with the Vanguard – while Dinky was still offer ing a Phase I, Corg i

brought out the new Phase III saloon in 1957 This was the fir st Corg i car (No 207) in two-tone colour s (a ver y pale g rey with red roof) and it seems that the f actor y had some difficulty with the masking as the colour division was changed so that the red covered only the roof and did not extend down the window pillar s This was produced until 1962 and, following Corg i’s early custom, also came with a fr iction mechanism (No 207M) though, in this for m, the model only lasted until 1959 It is usually found in a light yellow finish Between 1958 and 1962, the same casting was used for an RAF Staff Car in g rey with RAF markings, also supplied in the shor t-lived ‘Rocket Age’ Gift Set of 1959/60

•

This was the era when it was common practice for Hong Kong plastic toy maker s to make copies of Br itish diecast car s These toys were cheap to produce, as labour costs were low, while their maker s had the advantage of ready access to the UK market thanks to Hong Kong’s status as a Br itish crown colony, which lasted until 1997 Generally, these plastic toys were scaled up from the diecast or ig inals, so it is quite unusual to find a Vanguard which, at 3 75 inches in length is similar in size to the Corg i diecast which inspired it The colourful box car r ies

▲ Oxford Vanguard in RAF guise Lord Tedder (18901967), chairman of the Standard Motor Company between 1956 and 1960, had previously been Chief of the Air Staff – in other words, head of the RAF – which may explain why the RAF used Standard vehicles.

no maker’s name, but the model came in trade packs of twelve pieces marked ‘Irene Ser ies’ along with an Austin Cambr idge which, again, is similar to the Corg i

Just to complicate things, a similar but not identical Hong Kong plastic ver sion of the Vanguard has also been found in a different box, marked ‘Packing Case Ser ies’ and designed to resemble a wooden expor t crate This was distr ibuted by Lincoln Inter national, a New Zealand-based f amily toy business which had a significant presence on the Br itish toy market, adver tising on television in the early sixties and maintaining offices not only in London but in Hong Kong where the company sourced its plastic toys

Tr i-ang made a small model of a Vanguard III estate car in plastic, available in a constr uction set called ‘Minic Minikit’ of six clip-together models Though these are ver y simple toys around 2 5 inches in length with solid windows, they again reveal Tr iang ’ s talent for seeking out unusual subjects Other s in the set include an Ar mstrong Siddeley and a Ford 100E Escor t estate car An even simpler plastic toy, representing the Ensign saloon (a kind of budget pr ice Vanguard), was g iven away in 1958 as par t of a cereal offer with Shredded Wheat Cubs

• Later issues

The Phase III Vanguard underwent var ious modifications before production of Standard car s ceased in 1963, but the Vanguard Spor tsman (1956), Ensign (1957), f ace-lifted Vanguard Vignale (1959) or the final incar nation, the 1960 Vanguard Six, did not attract the interest of mainstream toymaker s There is thus a long gap before any more Standard models appeared and, when they did, they took the for m of white metal handbuilts aimed at adult collector s These will only be touched on lightly here, as there are other Diecast Collector contr ibutor s who are the exper ts in this field

By f ar the most significant figure in this connection is Pete Kenna who, in the cour se of a long career as a patter n and toolmaker, has provided

master s for well-known white metal brands such as Wester n, Crossway, Pathfinder and many other s, in addition to his own brand, Kenna Models Standard Vanguards are his speciality and he has modelled not only the saloons but pick-ups, vans, a racing car transpor ter, special-bodied ambulances and even the little-known Imper ia conver tible, the prototype of which was constr ucted in small number s in a f actor y in Belg ium which for a time assembled Vanguards under licence These white metal replicas are generally pr iced at £150 upwards and some, such as the van liver ies, were issued in ver y small batches A Phase III Vanguard in twotone colour s is available from Spa Croft models At a lower pr ice bracket, several OO scale Vanguards (and other Standards too) are still available as white metal kits from Dar yle Toney who has taken over the production of earlier tooling by John Day and Rod Parker Full details are available at www.

johndaymodels co uk

Today, diecast maker s like Corg i, Oxford Diecast, Ixo and other s are increasingly explor ing the more

obscure cor ner s of motor ing histor y but, as in real life, Tr iumph car s have attracted f ar more attention than Standards, though the recent resin model of a Standard Pennant from BHM is a welcome exception

Oxford has, as yet, to make a 1/43 scale replica of any Standard car s, but the marque is represented in the smaller OO gauge size with a pre-war Flying Twelve saloon and a Phase I Vanguard issued in black, maroon and pale blue In addition, there were two RAF var iants, one in blue-g rey and another in a sand colour as used on the RAF base in Nicosia, Cypr us A similarly-sized Phase I comes from Base Toys (also seen in Bachmann boxes as railway layout accessor ies) with open rear wheel arches and, sur pr isingly, a single-piece windscreen.

CONCLUSION

What emerges from this sur vey is that the Phase I Vanguard is well-ser ved in miniature for m, whereas the Phase II and Phase III have attracted less attention, so there remain oppor tunities for diecast or resin manuf acturer s to fill several gaps For example, how about a 1956 Vanguard Spor tsman, with its upr ight g r ille and str iking two-tone colour scheme? DC

FURTHER INFORMATION

Graham Robson, The Book of the Standard Motor Company (Veloce Publishing, 2011)

On the internet, https://standardmotorcompanycars blogspot.com/2014/02/standard-motor-companyproduction.html gives a good summary of the evolution of the real Standard Vanguard

CORGI THROUGH THE YEARS

Rick Wilson continues his series of year-by-year articles from the beginning of the brand in 1956. We continue the series with a look at the new models released during the second half of 1965. Photos: Vectis Auctions

Picking up from where we left off last month, we now focus on the releases dur ing the second half of 1965, from July to December There were so many superb models made in this per iod, but one stands out in par ticular – the most f amous Corg i of all time was about to make its appearance.

There were two new releases in July, well, technically, one newbie and one that was created by separating out par t of a previously-released g ift set Released in December 1964, Gift Set 31 compr ised the Buick Riviera towing a boat on a trailer But now, that previously unnamed water transpor t now had an identity – it was issued on its own as No 104 Dolphin 20 Cabin Cr uiser on Wincheon Trailer Identical to the g ift set ver sion, in blue and white on a red trailer, this useful companion to many of the road car s already on sale stayed in the range for four year s

August was the domain of a pair of Amer ican car s, in ter ms of the new releases that month No 248 Chevrolet Impala was a reworked ver sion of No 220, with the casting now in two upper and lower halves. It also now featured Glidamatic suspension and was nearly always found in midtan with a white roof No 246 Chr ysler Imper ial was another attractive US automobile Packed with features, ever ything opened – bonnet, both door s and the boot The latter contained a sur pr ise (alluded to by a fl ash panel on the box), which tur ned out to be a set of golf clubs It also

1965 PART 2

came with two figures

Moving onto September, we finally got to see the only new Major ser ies release of 1965, but what a corker it was A brand new Ford H Ser ies cab, which could be tilted forward, affording eng ine access for the supplied mechanic figure, also featured a roof access ladder to either side The trailer, also new, was painted to match the cab unit, but had large, chrome plastic sliding door s, emblazoned with “EXPRESS SERVICE” in red The cab could also be released from the combo and the trailer incor porated a jockey wheel to stand alone in such circumstances Also made available in the same month was a reworked ver sion of the "Vote Corg i" Land Rover, now bear ing alleg iance to Chipperfields Circus in its f amous red and blue colour s

Moving onto October, this was the month that changed Corg i’s for tunes big time Celebrating the success of the latest James Bond blockbuster, G o l d f i n g e r , Corg i hur r iedly reworked its No 218 Aston Mar tin DB4 and claimed it to be a DB5, as dr iven by our hero in the film But any inaccuracies were completely forg iven by all the features incor porated. One button flicked out the front over r ider s and a pair of machine guns, another action popped up a bullet-proof shield at the rear, but the feature that sent ever yone over the edge at Chr istmas in 1965 (and ever since) was the introduction of the flip up roof and ejector seat, complete with a baddie Despite the car being silver in the film, the power s that be decided that

it looked a little drab, almost like bare metal, so the decision was taken to spray the model in gold, as a nod to the film title Complete with a spare baddie (so many would get lost that Corg i even sold spares as a separate item) and James Bond figure in the dr iving seat, sales went through the roof immediately It would be in the range in this guise for four year s before being updated, but in this per iod it sold in excess of 4 million units It would become the second most successful Corg i Toys release ever – to find out the only model to beat it, you only have to wait until the next issue (in f act, I’m sure you already know what it is)

Somewhat over shadowed in October, another incredibly popular model today was also released

– No 474 Musical Wall’s Ice Cream Van

A reworking of No 447, issued only earlier in the year, in March, this new ver sion incor porated a Swiss musical movement, operated by a handle to the rear Given how popular this model is today, incredibly its sales in per iod were relatively poor at less than 150,000

November saw another pair of new releases and, like the Dolphin Cr uiser, in Januar y, one of this month’s was the separation of a trailer from a g ift set No 58 Beast Car r ier was or ig inally the rear half of Gift Set 33, released in Apr il, but now it could be bought on its own to attach to a var iety of towing vehicles November’s other new model was actually a reworking of No

CORGI TOYS JULY TO DECEMBER 1965 RELEASES

321 Mini Cooper, with a new colour scheme (black with a red roof) and wickerwork side panel sticker s affixed

A s C h r i s t m a s f a s t a p p ro a c h e d , D e c e m b e r s aw a

m i x t u re o f t r u e n ew re l e a s e s a n d s eve r a l u p d a t e d m o d e l s o n o ff e r N o 2 5 6 Vo l k swa g e n 1 2 0 0 i n E a s t A f r i c a n S a f a r i Tr i m wa s a n ew ve r s i o n o f C o r g i ’ s p o p u l a r V W 1 2 0 0 ‘ B e e t l e ’ Fe a t u r i n g a ro o f - m o u n t e d s p a re w h e e l , w h i c h a c t u a t e d t h e s t e e r i n g o f t h e f ro n t w h e e l s w h e n t u r n e d , a n d a n o p e n i n g b o n n e t a n d e n g i n e c ove r, p l u s a r h i n o fi g u re wa s i n c l u d e d , a l l m o u n t e d o n a f a bu l o u s l y - a r t wo r ke d d i s p l ay p l i n t h N o 3 2 5

CORGI TOYS JULY TO DECEMBER 1965 RELEASES PRODUCTION COLOURS

Gift Set 32 united No 53 Massey Ferguson Tractor Shovel with No 62 Far m Tipper Trailer with Raves Then no 242 Ghia-Fiat 600 was a yellow repaint of No 240 Fiat Jolly without the canopy No 475 Citroen Corg i Ski Club was basically just the or ig inal No 475 Winter Olymics car (Januar y 1964) with a new bonnet emblem. Two Corg i Majors reworking released this month were No 1140 Mobilgas Petrol Tanker and 1141 Ar ticulated Milk Tanker (or ig inally No 1110 and 1129 respectively) with the new Bedford TK cab unit No 477 Land Rover Breakdown Tr uck had a new plastic yellow tilt, replacing the metal ver sion fitted to No 417 and No 478 Hydraulic Tower Wagon was the FC-150 Forward Control Jeep from Gift Set 14, but without the lamp standard, although it was now fitted with a cab inter ior and Glidamatic suspension

Finally, for December, No 482 Chevrolet Fire Chief was the newly-tooled ‘two halves’ ver sion of the casting, previously No 439 The last change to note for the year, but not enough to war rant a listing in the tables, was the change of adver t labels on No 477 London Double Decker Bus, which now tempted us to buy Outspan oranges

Diecast for the Table Top

TT scale has been around for many decades, but now it’s back and making some serious noise in the world of diecast. Rick Wilson dusts off some old models to help bring it all into focus.

The whole subject of scales and gauges has been more than adequately covered in this magazine recently by Br ian Salter, in his epic 31-par t ser ies And just when we thought we might have things under control, one of the less well-known is brought back into the spotlight – but with good reason

THE HISTORY OF TT

There is more than a little confusion sur rounding this gauge/scale on its own, as there are two accepted ratios that have been used histor ically The new ‘Table Top’ scale (hence the TT moniker) or ig inated in the USA, but is today widespread in Central Europe, and is the second-most popular scale in Central Europe and Russia, after HO, with several manuf acturer s based in countr ies such as Ger many and the Czech Republic TT uses a ratio of 1:120, but Tr i-ang introduced its own take on this in 1957

The loading gauge for Br itish railways is smaller than the rest of the world, meaning that rolling stock

▲ All six new releases by Oxford Diecast in a suitablyscaled diorama environment, with a trio of Corgi’s ‘Rail Legends’ locomotives and 1950s Tri-ang TT accessories.

and locomotives aren’t as big Back in the days of modelling when not ever ything was a tiny as it is today, no power units were suitable to model Br itish lines at the then newly-adopted scale, so Tr i-ang opted for a scale of 3mm to 1 foot (1 foot equals 304 8mm), which works out at 1:101 6, so the locomotives, rolling stock and track were all a little larger than their over seas equivalents

Just to confuse matter s a little fur ther, when Corg i produced its excellent, static ‘Rail Legends’ ser ies of classic Br itish locomotives a few year s back, this was modelled at 1:120 And now the scale has become rather popular in the UK, with both PECO and Hor nby launching products at this scale

TT IN DIECAST

Oxford Diecast's superb brand new range of 1:120 scale vehicles, announced in conjunction with Hor nby's new TT:120 line, are wonderfully-engineered models, made from both diecast and plastic components These six brand new releases have all been modelled by Oxford in its other scales, such as N (1/148) and OO (1/76),

so the company knows that they will be popular with rail enthusiasts The Austin Low Loader has also been released in 1/43 scale (O gauge) – check out the compar ison photo at the top of this page!

AUSTIN LOW LOADER TAXIBLACK (120AT001, £7.45)

This Low Loader fir st appeared in 1934 and became an instant success, due mainly to its ver y attractive pr ice, as well as being ver y reliable Taxi fleets often had their own paint scheme and the Austin LL taxicab appeared in several colour s, but the most popular was black

DENNIS F12 PUMP ESCAPE - LONDON FIRE BRIGADE (120DEN001, £7.95)

Dennis star ted producing the F ser ies of fire eng ines in 1946, with the F12 being the most popular In those days, its constr uction compr ised a wooden frame with an aluminium skin It was used widely throughout the UK

▲ Oxford’s Austin Low Loader Taxi is now available in four differing scales to suit model railways – (left to right) 1:43 (O), 1:76 (OO), 1:120 (TT), 1:148 (N).

▲ Dennis F12 Pump Escape London Fire, Scammell Mechanical Horse GWR and Austin Low Loader Taxi

▲ The three British Railwaysliveried vehicles - Bedford OB Coach, Land Rover Series 2 LWB Hard Top and Morris 1000

LAND ROVER SERIES 2 LWB HARD TOP - BRITISH RAIL (120LAN2001, £7.45)

The Ser ies II Land Rover was manuf actured from 1958 until 1961 Coming in shor t (SWB) and long wheelbases (LWB) with numerous body combinations including fixed roofs, canvas roofs, open tops, station wagons, the fir st release will be ver y popular in early BR liver y

SCAMMELL MECHANICAL HORSE FLAT TRAILER - GWR (120MH003, £7.95)

Scammell fir st introduced its 'Mechanical Hor se' in the UK in 1934 From the late 1920s, railway companies had been searching for a vehicle to replace the hor se-drawn car r iage The mechanical hor se was operated by all the major railways (such as GWR, modelled here)

MORRIS 1000 - BRITISH RAIL (120MM059, £7.45)

The ubiquitous Mor r is 1000 Van makes an appearance in the ver y popular Br itish Railways cr imson and cream colour scheme The Br itish Railways totem features on the sides and front

BEDFORD OB COACH - BRITISH RAIL (120OB001, £7.95)

The Bedford OB Coach chassis was introduced in 1939 Only 73 were built pr ior to World War II, but it reappeared in an unchanged for m at the end of the war Production ran until 1950, dur ing which time over 12,500 were made, making it one of the most popular buses of its type Oxford will no doubt be adding to this line-up on a continuous basis and, in f act, a recent quick exchange with Oxford Diecast’s Manag ing Director, Eloise Davies, confir med this Future models are planned, but details per taining to the vehicle type and liver y have not been confir med yet So, hopefully, there will be more TT news later this year

keep an eye on this and future developments at www.oxforddiecast.co.uk DC

Workbench

Rick Wilson shares his current project progress.

I’ ve been playing around with restor ing old diecasts since my early teens When I star ted a huge par twork project build from Ixo Collections (see opposite page for the latest update), it gave me this idea for this section to br ing you tips as I focus on some other projects along the way too

■ CORGI FIRST PRODUCTION ROUTEMASTER CODE 3

Whilst my other bus project is cur rently on hold until I’ve had a meeting about it at Nuremberg, by way of a sor t of update, I’m revisiting a project from 2016 as the techniques and method are pretty much identical

Corg i had shown its 1/50 scale preproduction model of the fir st production Routemaster early in 2014, but by the end of the year it was cancelled. Given the nomenclature RM8, the real bus was finally put into ser vice in 1975, at my local bus garage in Sidcup, Kent I used to r ide around on this all the time back then, on routes 21 and 229, so I was really looking forward to Corg i’s model to plug the gap in my display between Sun

▲ Sun Star 1/24 scale, project Corgi 1/50 and Oxford Diecast 1/148 versions of RM8 stand proudly together

▲ Stripped and buffed with fine steel wool.

Star’s mighty 1/24 scale ver sion and the diminutive release by Oxford at 1/148

I’d acquired RM8’s sister model, the one of the two that did make it into production in 2014, and set about dismantling it – an easy process requir ing the removal of just two shor t screws on the baseplate and two longer screws for the upper deck Once the baseplate was off , the inter ior components all came out f airly easily, leaving just the upper deck as the body neatly splits in two Removing the two longer screws then allowed me to under take the same process on the upper deck and soon I was down to a stack of par ts that would need ver y little fur ther attention and the two diecast body components The tr iangular AEC badge wasn’t present on the or ig inal prototype g r ille so the par t removed was f ashioned with a modelling knife to remove the tr iangle and the g r ille was added to the spraying pile Also, the front windows were different (no opening sections) so these had to be replaced with plain acetate sheet The str ipping was under taking using my f avoured caustic soda process (please take extra care when using this method, taking all the necessar y precautions) Once dr y and washed clean, the two main body par ts were buffed with ver y fine steel wool, pr imed and then sprayed red, of cour se

The real RM8 is still around thankfully and Phil Willson from the RM8 Club kindly let me get up close and per sonal with the real vehicle at a bus rally in 2015 – I even got to sit in the cab. Phil also provided me with the ar twork that the g roup used to make up the adver tising g raphics for the real bus, so that gave my project a real boost

Having customised the g raphics to fit 1/50 scale using Adobe Photoshop, I pr inted them out on special inkjet decal paper, allowed them to dr y for 24 hour s and then lightly sprayed with two coats of acr ylic var nish, setting aside to dr y for another 24 hour s The reason that I added a red backg round is because I chose the white decal paper There is a clear ver sion available but this is not recommended for placing on strong colour s such as London

Transpor t red

Once ever ything was dr y it was simply a case of reassembling ever ything and adding the decals and, hey presto, one bus that I really wish Corg i had produced and my collection is complete. Although I’m sure a 1/76 scale ver sion would look good in there too DC

■ IXO COLLECTIONS 1/8 SCALE LE MANS 1970 GULF PORSCHE 917

Since my last update in the January issue I’ve now received the next 12 instalments, taking us up to 76 of the 96, so we’re over three-quarters distance now For this update, parts 65 to 76 brought us the first two sections of underfloor, including the nose section with its mounted radiator, and the two, huge inner rear wheel arches, cockpit sides, plus the fuel tank and ancillaries together with the appropriate sections to add to the side of the chassis As you can see from the photos, it is really starting to come together now and it won’t be long until the bodywork is here, together with the other front light bucket

Some of the pipework and tube connectivity is really fiddly and great care is needed, as well as a steady hand But I think you’ll agree that it was worth it The rear deck can be lifted (and supported in place by the already installed prop), so this will all be on display to enjoy when the model is finished

For the main overall photo, I took the liberty of placing the two parts of bodywork that came with the very first pack – the nose panel and the lefthand door – as well as the light bucket supplied so far, just to see how these will look.

To find out more about these incredible diecast kit builds from Ixo Collections, and to order, visit the company’s specific partworks website page at www.ixocollections.com/en/, and the specific page for the 917 can be found at www ixocollections com/en/15-porsche-917kh

Superfast 1969-1982

Rick Wilson charts the evolution of the Matchbox Superfast range during the Lesney years, from 1969 to 1982.

No. 32

Number 32 in the Lesney-era 1-75 Superf ast range began with a Regular Wheels upg rade for a petrol tanker, moving onto a supercar, a piece of militar y equipment and then a constr uction vehicle With some interesting var iation thrown into the mix along the way, var iety is indeed the spice of life this month!

LEYLAND PETROL TANKER

Catalogue: 1970-72

Box Styles: G

Keeping its basic BP liver y for the change to Superf ast, the popular Leyland Petrol Tanker managed to sur vive for a few more year s until finally making way for a new model in the 1973 catalogue The colour s were always thus for the mainstream UK 1-75 releases but this casting has been used for

the occasional event promotional over the year s, plus the blue cab/chassis "ARAL" ver sion is a wellknown Ger man release that still regularly tur ns up It has also found f avour as a convention special too

MASERATI BORA

Catalogue: 1973-77

Box Styles: I

Based on the real mid-eng ined Italian supercar, this was the first Maserati in the Matchbox ser ies. It is painted a metallic magenta colour with a lime g reen chassis, which doesn't do much for it in the realism depar tment, but does look g reat It has a light yellow inter ior, clear windows and opening doors There is a number "8" racing str ipe on the front, although it can also sometimes be found with the "3" decal from Monteverdi Hai, but this is quite a rare model to find Although deleted from the range in 1978,

it was revived in 1979 for the “Two” Packs ser ies It was teamed with Eccles Caravan (replacing Vauxhall Guildsman) in a more realistic colour scheme of metallic gold with an unpainted base, but this is quite a hard one to find, especially in good condition or better, so expect ot pay f airly handsomely for one of these if you do come across an example

FIELD GUN

Catalogue: 1978-80

Box Styles: L

Field Gun was a late addition to the Matchbox militar y division, and a f airly strange choice of subject It was ver y small compared to the rest of the range, and looked more like an accessor y than a complete model The towing ar ms and shield were diecast and painted olive drab, the gun bar rel was in black plastic The bar rel could raise and lower, but

the main action feature was that it could actually fire projectiles A spr ing-loaded plunger at the end of the bar rel could be used to shoot missiles from the muzzle. Perhaps in compensation for being such a small model, Field Gun was mounted on a plastic diorama base, plus this also ser ved to stop the smaller model rattling around in the box

Attached to the diorama were a pair of nicelysculpted soldier s – one car r ying a r ifle and ammo box, the other speaking on a walkie-talkie Four missiles were also included on a removable spr ue, although these were ver y easily lost Field Gun was not a par ticularly popular model and was withdrawn after three year s In f act, militar y models were f alling out of f avour around this time, and all had been withdrawn from the range by 1981

EXCAVATOR

Catalogue: 1981-82

Box Styles: L

Something completely new in the Matchbox line was this model of a Ger man-style tracked excavator It had a g reat deal of play value, with a rotating cab house, plus ar ticulated boom and bucket

Unfor tunately, the crawler tracks did not operate, being just one-piece moulded plastic on either side of the chassis, and the model really just ran along on four concealed wheels, but the play value of all the other moving par ts on this model more than compensated for this f act

It was initially painted a reddy-orange, with a g rey base and black boom However, it was soon changed to yellow with black str ipes and black base, and remained in this colour scheme for many year s, wear ing var ious tampo-pr inted markings from time to time It proved to be one of the consistently best-selling models and remained in the range well beyond Lesney owner ship, into the 2000s, including as one of the ten vehicles that for med the exciting Constr uction Set ser ies in 1992 DC

Desert Island Diecasts

Imagine you’re stranded on a remote island and had only taken a handful of your collection favourites on that fateful trip, which five would you want it to be?

Chawit Chiwarattanaphan, is this month’s castaway hero.

Iam a diecast car collector from Thailand, focusing on the models of classic inter national automobiles in mostly 1/64 and 1/43 scales Having been in Br ighton, East Sussex for just over a year for my Master's, I have gone to toy f air s, shops, museums and car meets and have built up a considerable collection that I will take back to my home countr y and integ rate into my main collection

I quickly became a f an of Diecast Collector and was sure to pick it up monthly from a local bookstore I was ver y inspired to share a stor y about par t of my own collection, in f act, these are some of the ver y few select diecast car s, in roughly 1/64 scales, that I have brought along to the UK to remind me of my collections back home, indeed quite befitting to the Deser t Island Diecasts concept

1977 AMC PACER, BY JOHNNY LIGHTNING

One might call it ugly, but I think of them as unique This 1975 Amer ican fishbowl-like design is a compact car with large rear windows For newer generations, many came to recognise the model as a 1976 AMC Pacer Hatchback was a featured car in the 1992 cult-classics movie Wayne's World

This diecast is a 1977 model year AMC Pacer by Johnny Lightning as a par t of Classic Gold releases in 2008 The model features a tan inter ior, painted tr im lines and detailings with pr inted badges with r ubber tyres, accurate hub caps and slightly tinted windows

Like many diecasts about this size, the manuf acturer has elected to make this casting’s size match with other car s in similar releases I would guess it to be along the line of 1/55

2019 TESLA CYBERTRUCK, BY XCARTOYS

Breaking from my main area of preference of retro and classic car s, this recent model captures my attention, with Tesla's unique styling akin to boxier designs of the 1970s and 1980s I just had to add it to my collection

This diecast model was released in 2020 by Xcar toys (whether it was officially licensed or not is quite dubious) on a tr ue 1/64 scale It cer tainly stands out when compared alongside bigger, tr ue 1/64 diecast releases like Greenlight’s Ford F-150, moder n Amer ican tr ucks and the like

1968 ISUZU 117 COUPÉ, BY TOMICA LIMITED

One might be reminded of the 1966 Fiat Dino by the looks of this model, in f act, it is war ranted

since this car was designed by Giorgetto Giug iaro, who f amously had a hand in designing the DMC Delorean,Volkswagen Kar mann Ghia, Golf Mk1, Lotus Espr it S1, Lancia Delta and many more Thus I have picked this diecast as one of my choices since I am a big f an of his works

This par ticular model is par t of the Tomica

Limited line that was eventually succeeded by the coveted Tomica Limited Vintage and Tomica

Premium lines This casting was released in white in 2002 and is an upg raded remake of an or ig inal Tomica mainline 1/62 casting, released in 1974 The model now features painted headlamps, tail lights, g r ille, indicator s, bumper s, tr ims, pr inted badge with r ubber tyres and accurate hubcaps These features tr uly made the model pop while retaining or ig inal features such as sculpted license plates and opening door s

1974 VOLKSWAGEN GOLF MK 1, BY GREENLIGHT

This is one of Greenlight’s many 1974 Volkswagen Golf Mk 1 / Volkswagen Rabbit that have been released in many colour s, liver ies and editions over the past few year s I have elected to br ing along the ver sion with West Ger man police (Polizei) g reenwhite liver ies, based on its uniqueness among other items within my collections It is not often that I will find a retro European Police diecast car at 1/64 scale, since most of them are more widely-made as Amer ican Police car s or I would have to find one on bigger scales such as 1/43 The model, like most of Greenlight’s recent releases, was cast in tr ue 1/64 scales, with painted and pr inted features, r ubber tyres and accurate hubcaps

1980 TOYOTA LANDCRUISER BY JOHNNY LIGHTNING

Toyota’s J40 ser ies, like the BMC Mini, Citroën 2CV and Volkswagen Beetle, was one of the popular models that were produced around the world for many decades from the year of its or ig inal conception It was manuf actured from 1960 to 1984 (and 2001 in Brazil) I have picked this model because it recalls the time when I visited Califor nia, back in late 2018, when I still spotted quite a few of

WHAT ARE YOUR TOP FIVE DESERT ISLAND DIECASTS?

Fancy having some fun and sharing your choices?

Just email the editor photos of your five choices, together with about 125-150 words on each, including your reasons for choosing, to rick wilson@ warnersgroup co uk

these r unning around

This is a diecast of the 1980s ver sion of the Toyota Landcr uiser BJ-40 in light blue with a white roof , released in 2018 as a Mijo Exclusive along with a counter par t in red The model is a recent retooling with an enclosed cab and hard top, adapted from Johnny Lightning’s previous releases as a soft top or pick-up DC

EDINBURGH VINTAGE TOYS

I BUY and SELL quality Dinky, Corgi, Matchbox, Hornby Dublo and modern diecast (all conditions considered). Top cash prices paid. If you want to ADD to or SELL your COLLECTION please call me or just send me an email.

AUCTION NEWS

CORGI GIFT SETS CAUSE QUITE A STIR AT VECTIS AUCTIONS

DURING t h e S p e c i a li s t D i e c a s t S a le , h e ld a t Ve c ti s A u c ti o n s o n 1 1 t h J a n u a r y, t h e re w e re q u i t e a fe w v e r y d e s i r a b le Co rg i Toys g i f t s e t s u p fo r bi d d i n g W hi l s t t h ey w e re n ’ t co m p le t e ly mi n t , t h ey a re s ti ll i n c re d i b ly s o u g h t a f t e r i t e m s , s o i t w a s v e r y i n t e re s ti n g w a t c hi n g t h e b a t t le t h a t w e n t o n d u r i n g t h ei r m o m e n t i n t h e s p o t li g h t T h re e i n p a r ti c u l a r t h a t c a u g h t t h e eye w e re G S 1 6 E c u r i e E co s s e R a c i n g C a r Tr a n s p o r t e r a n d T h re e R a c i n g C a r s , G S 3 7 L o t u s R a c i n g Te a m a n d G S 4 1 C a r Tr a n s p o r t e r a n d 6 C a r s T h e E c u r i e E co s s e s e t i n c lu d e d t h e E c u r i e E co s s e R a c i n g C a r Tr a n s p o r t e r, o f co u r s e , i n b lu e w i t h ye llo w le t t e r i n g a n d s p u n h u b s , p lu s t h e t h re e r a c i n g c a r s – re d N o 1 5 0 S Va n w a ll , b lu e N o 1 5 1 A L o t u s M a r k E le v e n " L e M a n s " a n d t u rq u oi s e N o 1 5 2 B R M A ll w e re d e s c r i b e d a s b ei n g g o o d p lu s t o exc e lle n t , i n g o o d t o exc e lle n t b oxe s , w i t h p a c k i n g pi e c e s S t a r ti n g w i t h a n e s ti m a t e o f £ 2 4 0 t o £ 2 8 0 , t h e h a m m e r fe e l a t £ 3 4 0 . T h e L o t u s R a c i n g S e t i n c lu d e d a w hi t e " R a c i n g C lu b " Vo l k s w a g e n P i c k - u p , g re e n L o t u s C li m a x Fo r m u l a 1 R a c i n g C a r, g re e n L o t u s E l a n S 2 , ye llo w L o t u s E l a n S 2 H a rd t o p , re d t r ai le r a n d s p a re c h a s s i s , co m p le t e w i t h co n e s i n a b a g I n g o o d p lu s t o exc e lle n t co n d i ti o n , i n a g o o d p lu s t o exc e lle n t p o lys t y re n e t r ay a n d fai r p re s e n t a ti o n b ox , t h e e s ti m a t e o f £ 1 8 0 t o £ 2 2 0 w a s

Keep up with big wins on this popular online auction website - we choose three outstanding performers each month.

q u i c k ly p a s s e d , w i t h t h e a u c ti o n f i ni s hi n g a t £ 2 8 0 Co rg i ’ s c a r t r a n s p o r t e r s e t co m p r i o s e d a Fo rd H S e r i e s A r ti c u l a t e d C a r Tr a n s p o r t e r a n d s i x c a r s - b lu e Fo rd Co n s u l Co r ti n a S u p e r E s t a t e , m e t a lli c b ro n z e H i ll m a n I m p , m e t a lli c m a ro o n R o v e r 2 0 0 0 , b l a c k ‘ w i c ke r w o r k ’ M o r r i s M i ni Co o p e r, p a le b lu e M o r r i s M i ni M i n o r a n d re d B M C M i ni Co o p e r S " R a llye M o n t e C a r lo " W i t h t h e v e hi c le s a ll i n g o o d p lu s t o exc e lle n t co n d i ti o n , i n a fai r t o g o o d p o lys t y re n e t r ay w i t h g o o d p lu s b lu e a n d ye llo w li f t o f f li d b ox , i n t e re s t e d p a r ti e s s o o n p u s h e d p a s t t h e e s ti m a t e o f £ 4 0 0 t o £ 5 0 0 , w i t h t h e w i n ni n g bi d c lo s i n g t h e s a le a t £ 6 2 0 ■

ebay WATCH

DATE: 15th January 2023

TITLE: Corgi Toys Iso Grifo 7 Litre Very Rare Red Spot Wheels Whizzwheels Blue Boxed

SOLD FOR: £411 00

BIDS: 51

A stunning Corgi model featuring the rare red spot wheels, believed to have been used by a Corgi sales rep to show to retailers The design was later changed to the typical plastic Whizzwheels The model is in excellent condition and does not show its age at all, with only some extremely minor paint defects, mainly to the matte black bonnet, which would have been how it came from the factory The box is also in amazing condition

DATE: 15th January 2023

TITLE: Pre war Dinky 36c Vogue Saloon with tinplate driver and footman

SOLD FOR: £645 00

BIDS: 17

The rare early versions of the 36 series with the tinplate figures are some of the most collectable pre-war Dinky toys - but the pink version of the 36c Humber Vogue is quite special The tinplate uniformed chauffeur/footman pair required a 36a or a 36c to be correct The seller came across a pre-war 'slotted chassis' pink Vogue, lacking any figures, so very carefully put them in and re-secured the rear axle

DATE: 1st January 2023

TITLE: Matchbox Superfast No 24 Team Matchbox Texaco Pre-production Trial

SOLD FOR: £315 00

BIDS: 12

Lesney Matchbox Superfast No 24 Team Matchbox with the standard production metallic red body, but with the Texaco label from No 36 Formula 5000 Described by the seller as a pre-production label trial model and near mint, but unboxed Team Matchbox was produced from 1973 to 1978, whereas Formula 5000 was 1975 to 1980 Swapping of labels was commonplace when supplies were short

PriceGuide

▲Hot Wheels (Mattel) Redline

6018 “Heavyweights” Fuel

Tanker, white with “Hot Wheels Racing Fuel” side labels, Hong Kong base, with plastic button/ badge. Excellent on fair to good (still factory sealed) blister card £480, Vectis, December

▲Hot Wheels (Mattel) Redline

6405 Nitty Gritty Kitty, metallic red, white stripes, chrome engine, racing number 4, Hong Kong base, with tinplate button/badge Excellent on good to good plus (factory sealed) blister card £1100, Vectis, December

▲Hot Wheels (Mattel) Redline

6412 Light My Firebird, metallic red, chrome engine, racing number 7, Hong Kong base, with correct tinplate button/badge Near mint on good plus (factory sealed) blister card £480, Vectis, December.

▲Dinky Toys No 660 Thornycroft Mighty Antar Tank Transporter, in military green. Very good in good box with two inner packing pieces £55, British Toy Auctions, January

▲Hot Wheels (Mattel) Redline

6452 “Heavyweights” Cement

Mixer, metallic green, brown plastics with yellow barrel, Hong Kong base, with correct tinplate button/badge Excellent plus on fair (factory sealed) blister card £380, Vectis, December.

▲Hot Wheels (Mattel) Redline

6407 Mustang Boss Hoss, metallic green, black hood, racing number 9, Hong Kong base, with tinplate button/badge Excellent plus on good plus (factory sealed) blister card £3200, Vectis, December.

▲Hot Wheels (Mattel) Redline 6217 “Show-N-Go Series” Beatnik Bandit, metallic red, chrome engine, Hong Kong base, with correct tinplate button/ badge Near mint on good plus to excellent “Show-N-Go” series blister card £1400, Vectis, December

▲Dinky Toys No 641 Army 1 Ton Cargo Truck, in military green Mint in near mint box £50, British Toy Auctions, January

▲Hot Wheels (Mattel) Redline

6218 Custom Eldorado, metallic green, black hood, Hong Kong base, with tinplate button/badge. Good plus on good plus (factory sealed) blister card £660, Vectis, December

▲Hot Wheels (Mattel) Redline

6411 King Kuda, metallic blue, white rear stripe, racing number 6, Hong Kong base, with tinplate button/badge Excellent on good plus (factory sealed) blister card £1100, Vectis, December.

▲Dinky Toys No 697 25-Pounder Field Gun Set, Field Tractor, Trailer and Field Gun, all in military green Near mint in a very good box £60, British Toy Auctions, January

▲Dinky Toys No 643 Army Water Tanker, in military green Mint in near mint box £50, British Toy Auctions, January

▲Dinky Toys No 190 Monteverdi 375L, metallic red Very good in good to very good Perspex case £55, Excalibur Auctions, January.

▲Dinky GS4 Gift Set “Racing Cars”, comprises green #6 Cooper Bristol, red #8 Alfa Romeo, blue #5 Ferrari with yellow nose, pale green #7 HWM and red #9 Maserati Good plus to excellent in good to good plus blue and white-striped lift off lid presentation box £560, Vectis, January

▲Dinky Toys No 697 25-Pounder

Field Gun Set, includes Artillery Tractor, with windows, Ammunition Trailer and Field Gun all finished in military green

Excellent to excellent plus in excellent late issue yellow and red carded box with detailed picture £80, Vectis, January.

▲Corgi Toys GS41

CarTransporter Gift Set, includes Ford Articulated Car Transporter and 6x cars - blue Ford Consul Cortina Super Estate, metallic bronze Hillman Imp, metallic maroon Rover 2000, black ‘wickerwork’ Morris Mini Cooper, pale blue Morris Mini Minor and red BMC Mini Cooper S “Rallye Monte Carlo” Good plus to excellent in fair to good polystyrene tray with good plus blue and yellow lift off lid box £620, Vectis, January.

▲Dinky Toys No 986 Mighty

Antar Low Loader with Propeller

▲Corgi Toys “Co-op” 3-Piece Set, send away offer set (not available in shops) includes Scammell Handyman, Commer Delivery Van and Commer Milk Float, all finished in blue and white with red interior, cast hubs Good plus to excellent in excellent correct plain brown carded box £200, Vectis, January

Load, red unit with grey Supertoys hubs and black treaded tyres, blue driver figure, grey trailer with Supertoys hubs, black platform with brown & gold propeller

Excellent plus in excellent blue & white striped lift off lid box with correct inner packing pieces £160, Vectis, January.

▲Corgi Toys GS23

“Chipperfields Circus” Gift Set, includes Land Rover, Scammell 6-Wheeled Crane, 2x Animal Cages, Bedford TK Giraffe Transporter, with 2x giraffes, and elephant cage on trailer Good to good plus in fair polystyrene tray and lift off lid box with detailed picture £160, Vectis, January

▲Dinky Toys No 163 Bristol 450 Sports Coupe, green body, silver front trim, mid-green ridged hubs with smooth tyres, race number 27 on sides and front. Excellent plus in good plus yellow and red carded picture box £120, Vectis, January

▲Dinky Toys No 156 Rover 75 Saloon, mid-blue and cream, with smooth tyres, silver trim Excellent plus in excellent yellow and red carded picture box with darker blue colour spot £260, Vectis, January

▲Dinky Toys No 156 Saab 96, metallic red, off-white interior, chrome trim and spun hubs with black treaded tyres Excellent plus in good to good plus yellow and red carded box with detailed picture £70, Vectis, January.

▲Dinky Toys No 23a (220)

Racing Car Trade Pack, containing 4 examples all finished in silver, red flashes, race number 4 and ridged hubs with smooth tyres Good plus to excellent in good plus yellow lift off lid trade box £120, Vectis, January

▲Corgi Toys GS16 Gift Set, includes “Ecurie Ecosse” Racing Car Transporter in blue with yellow lettering and spun hubs, plus 3x racing cars – red No 150S Vanwall, blue No 151A Lotus Mark Eleven “Le Mans” and turquoise No 152 BRM, Good plus to excellent in good to excellent boxes, with packing pieces £340, Vectis, January.

▲Dinky Toys No 137 Plymouth

Fury Convertible, blue body, offwhite plastic canopy, red interior, silver trim, spun hubs with treaded tyres Near mint in good plus yellow and red carded picture box. £280, Vectis, January.

▲Dinky Toys No 165 Ford Capri, metallic blue, yellow interior, bare metal base and bumpers, chrome trim, cast hubs. Near mint in good plus to excellent carded picture box £220, Vectis, January

▲Dinky Toys No 23s (222)

Streamlined Racing Car Trade Pack, containing 4 examples finished 2x in green with silver flashes, 1x in silver with blue flashes, 1x in silver with red flashes. Good to good plus in good yellow lift off lid box with original dividers £190, Vectis, January

▲Corgi Toys GS37 Gift Set

“Lotus Racing Team”, includes white “Racing Club” Volkswagen Pick-up, green Lotus Climax Formula 1 Racing Car, green Lotus Elan S2, yellow Lotus Elan S2 Hardtop, red trailer and spare chassis, complete with cones in bag. Good plus to excellent in good plus to excellent polystyrene tray and fair presentation box £280, Vectis, January

▲Dinky Toys No 137 Plymouth

Fury Convertible, light metallic green, light grey plastic hood, offwhite interior, silver trim, chrome spun hubs with white smooth tyres Excellent plus in good plus yellow and red carded picture box £320, Vectis, January

▲Dinky Toys No 191 Dodge Royal Sedan, green body, black side flashes, silver trim, chrome spun hubs with white treaded tyres. Near mint in good plus yellow and red carded picture box with correct colour spot £160, Vectis, January

▲Dinky Toys No 238 Jaguar Type D Racing Car, turquoise, mid-blue interior and ridged hubs with treaded tyres, white driver figure, black front vent Near mint in good plus yellow and red carded picture box. £280, Vectis, January.

▲Corgi Toys GS17 Gift Set, includes red Land Rover 109WB with cream plastic canopy, red Ferrari Racing Car (#36) and yellow trailer Good plus on good plus inner tray in good to good plus outer box £120, Vectis, January.

▲Dinky Toys No 288 Superior

Cadillac Ambulance, “FALCK” issue in red/white, with white interior, blue tinted windows, Speedwheels, plus patient on stretcher Excellent in good plus window box £200, Vectis, January.

▲Corgi Toys No 206 Hillman

Husky Saloon, blue and silver with silver trim, flat spun hubs Near mint in good plus blue carded picture box £260, Vectis, January.

▲Tri-ang Spot On No 116

Caterpillar Tractor/Dozer, yellow, silver blade, black rubber tracks Fair, unboxed £480, Vectis, January

▲Corgi Toys GS31 “Riviera Gift Set “ , includes steel blue Buick Riviera, red trailer, blue/white Dolphin Boat with ‘Captain’ and water skier Excellent to near mint on good plus inner pictorial stand in fair to good outer blue and yellow carded picture box £170, Vectis, January

▲Dinky Toys No 930 Bedford

“Dinky Toys” Pallet Jekta Van, two-tone yellow, Supertoys hubs with black treaded tyres, with windows & 3x plastic yellow pallets Good in good to good plus blue & white-striped lift off lid box £140, Vectis, January.

▲Corgi Toys No 811 “James Bond” Moon Buggy, from the film “Diamonds Are Forever” - in blue, white, red, yellow including solid plastic wheels, with “James Bond” figure Good plus to excellent in fair blue and yellow window box £140, Vectis, January.

▲Dinky Toys No 753 Police

Controlled Crossing, grey, white, black with Policeman figure

Excellent plus in good plus yellow and red carded picture box £220, Vectis, January.

▲Corgi Toys No 1119 HDL

Hovercraft SR-N1, silver, blue, white, with red seats, yellow plastics, chrome rollers Excellent plus in good plus to excellent blue and yellow lift off lid box £110, Vectis, January

▲Corgi Toys GS6 Gift Set

“Racing Club”, includes white “Racing Club” Volkswagen Pickup, red trailer and blue Cooper

Maserati Formula 1 Racing Car with racing number 7 Good in good presentation box £160, Vectis, January.

▲Dinky Toys No 157 BMW 2000

Tilux, white/blue, with red interior, silver trim, cast hubs (batteryoperated issue). Excellent in excellent carded picture box £70, Vectis, January

▲Dinky Toys No Pre-War 52A

“Queen Mary” Liner, white and black, 2x brown masts, 3x red and black funnels, green rollers Good in fair blue lift off lid box with paper label £50, Vectis, January.

▲Crescent Toys No 1284 Mercedes 2.5 litre Racer, silver, black hubs, driver figure, racing number 2 on sides and front Excellent in good to good plus carded picture box £70, Vectis, January

▲Corgi Toys No 151A Lotus Mark

Eleven Le Mans Racing Car, red body, cream seats, silver trim, flat spun hubs, racing number 7 Excellent in good blue and yellow carded picture box £280, Vectis, January.

▲Crescent Toys No 1285 BRM Racing Car, green, silver trim, black wheels and tyres, driver figure, racing number 7 Excellent in good plus to excellent carded picture box £70, Vectis, January

▲Corgi Toys GS12 Gift Set

“Grand Prix Racing”, includes white “Racing Club” Volkswagen Pick-up, white Porsche Carrera 6, red trailer, yellow/white Cooper

Maserati Formula 1 Racing Car, and orange/white Lotus Climax Racing Car, plus mechanic figures and hay bales Good plus in fair polystyrene tray and presentation box £220, Vectis, January

▲Dinky Toys No 138 Hillman Imp, metallic green, red interior, silver trim, chrome spun hubs, with dark brown luggage case. Near mint in good plus to excellent yellow and red presentation window box £50, Vectis, January

▲Corgi Toys No 151A Lotus Mark

Eleven Le Mans Racing Car, blue body, red seats with driver figure, silver trim, flat spun hubs, white, red and black racing number 7. Excellent plus in good blue and yellow carded picture box £160, Vectis, January

▲Crescent Toys No 1286 Ferrari 2.5 litre Racing Car, red, black hubs and tyres, driver figure, silver trim, racing number 5 Excellent in good plus to excellent carded picture box £50, Vectis, January

TOYFAIR TIMES

FAIRS

5 FEBRUARY

• Rayleigh, SRP Toy Fairs, 07739 998012

• Coventry, BP Fairs, 01604 846688 or 07966 527177

• Gateshead, Jim Corr, 07504 035955

9 FEBRUARY

• Theydon Bois, Joe Lock, 07866 641215

12 FEBRUARY

• Oxford, Richard Atkins, 01869347489

• Kempton, RM Toys, 023 9238 1529 or 07957 823507

• Bolton, BP Fairs, 01604 846688 or 07966 527177

18 FEBRUARY

• Exeter Matford, Bulldog Fairs, 07379 578083

19 FEBRUARY

• Doncaster, BP Fairs, 01604 846688 or 07966 527177

21 FEBRUARY

• Elsecar, Newcomen Fairs, 01226 744425

26 FEBRUARY

• Malvern, Bulldog Fairs, 01373 452857 or 07917 125641

• St Ives, J&J Fairs, 01522 880383

28 FEBRUARY

• Oxford, Richard Atkins, 01869347489

5 MARCH

• Worthing, SRP Toy Fairs, 07739 998012

• Lincolnshire, J&J Fairs, 01522 880383

• Walsall, Transtar Promotions, 01922 643385

• Ipswich, Stowmarket Railway Club, 07547 076191

AUCTIONS

2 FEBRUARY

• Stockton-on-Tees, Vectis, 01642 750616

4 FEBRUARY

• Kings Langley, Excalibur Auctions, 02036 330913

8 FEBRUARY

• Stockton-on-Tees, Vectis, 01642 750616

9 FEBRUARY

• Chippenham, Wessex Auction Rooms, 01249 720888

10 FEBRUARY

• Chippenham, Wessex Auction Rooms, 01249 720888

16 FEBRUARY

• Stockton-on-Tees, Vectis, 01642 750616

17 FEBRUARY

• Stockton-on-Tees, Vectis, 01642 750616

• Bury St Edmunds, Lacy Scott & Knight, 01284 748625

22 FEBRUARY

• Stockton-on-Tees, Vectis, 01642 750616

23 FEBRUARY

• Stockton-on-Tees, Vectis, 01642 750616

27 FEBRUARY

• Stockton-on-Tees, Vectis, 01642 750616

28 FEBRUARY

• Stockton-on-Tees, Vectis, 01642 750616

• Newbury, Special Auction Services, 01635 580595

4 MARCH

• Kings Langley, Excalibur Auctions, 02036 330913

To advertise here in the next issue please call Kristina on 01778 392096

TOP VINTAGE MODEL

Johnston Road Sweeper

DTCA Chairman, Michael Driver, picks another vintage favourite by Dinky.

In the good old days, when I was young, a local fr iend had a father who worked for the council dr iving what we knew as a gulley emptier We were fascinated when we saw these vehicles emptying the street drains and flushing them with water Luckily, some toy makers produced models of these vehicles and, of course, so did Dinky

Toys

The Dinky Toys model ar r ived in October 1971 as the Johnston Road Sweeper (No 451) finished with an orange cab and metallic green tank The model uses the Dinky Toys Ford D800 chassis and cab, which has a white plastic inter ior, opening doors, full glazing and jewelled headlights Behind the cab is the tank body, which has a plastic swivel suction pipe There is also a short extension pipe which slots into the side of the tank and there are gutter cleaning brushes

In the latest Dinky Toys News of the October 1971 Meccano Magazine, it descr ibes the other features by saying “Believe it or not, these brushes are reproduced on the Dinky – and they really work, operated by means of a small pulley ar rangement dr iven by the rear wheels When the model is pushed along the brushes sweep away the dust” It also says that “The Johnston Road Sweeper is a really tremendous model and should capture a good deal of attention from a wide var iety of collectors”

There is a version in yellow and also one with a metallic blue cab and metallic green tank All these models have silver chassis and radiators The yellow model was also used as a promotional with a label on the tank side for “JOHNSTON” There is also a promotional for “VACU – SWEEP” in yellow, with

▲ Dinky Toys Johnston Road Sweeper (No 451) showing the Vacu-Sweep, the standard model, the uncommon blue cab and the Johnston promotional

▲ October 1971 Meccano Magazine advert, part image

a yellow plastic suction pipe and a silver chassis The first models came in an illustrated card end flap box, with a card inner packing piece, then blister packs and hanging window boxes

▲ Dinky Toys Jumbo Road Sweeper (No 449) in a new livery for the 1980s, but not issued.

FURTHER INFO

The slightly more unusual Dinky Toys commercials are eagerly collected References appear in the DTCA Journal with images and comments If you would like to find out more details or join, then visit the website at www. dtcawebsite com

The model was replaced by another Johnston Road Sweeper (No 449)] in 1977 There is no announcement in the Meccano Magazine, but it is shown in orange and green, in the 1977 Dinky Toys catalogue, and then lime green in the 1980 catalogue Some lime green models have black radiators The models came in hanging window boxes and used the same castings, but now the cab doors do not open It is finished in lime green and has a black chassis An early model has the orange cab with a lime green tank

The model was deleted in 1980 However, a new model was shown in the 1980 Trade Catalogue as No 449 New “Jumbo” Road Sweeper It has a blue cab and a white tank with a handmade logo for the “Jumbo Cleaning Co”, showing an elephant’s head

The company was founded in 1904 as Johnston Brothers and in 1934 it introduced a road surface cleaner vehicle Later in 1960, it produced a truck with suction equipment on the back In 2003 it changed its name to Johnston Sweepers Limited DC

OFF THE BEATEN TRACK

Scuderia Lancia Racing Transporter

Andrew Ralston details another recent release from Officina 942.

Back in November 2021, as regular readers may remember, we examined a recently established range in the model car field from Italy, called Officina 942 The brainchild of Alessandro Sannia, the idea behind the range is to model Italian vehicles of the past, not only f amiliar ones like the Fiat Topolino or 500, but the more obscure products of specialist coachbuilders, such as Car rozzer ia Moretti and Carozzer ia Riva In the mid-1950s there were around twenty such companies active in Italy Made to a scale of 1/76, the Officina models are deliberately simple in style, with solid bodies and no window cut-outs Some are in diecast metal and other in resin

The range has cer tainly found a niche in the market and has expanded rapidly over the last couple of years It has become more adventurous, too, moving beyond small cars to larger tr ucks, buses and trolleybuses Most impressive of all is the ‘Autocar ro Lancia Esatau Car rozzer ia Garavini Assistenza Scuder ia Lancia’ or, in simpler words, the Team Lancia racing car transpor ter

In 1952, Gianni Lancia, son of the company ’ s founder, created a racing team It was br iefly involved in For mula 1, but achieved more success in rallying and did well in events like the Targa Flor io and Mille Miglia Competition cars need to be transpor ted to events, so Lancia decided to build a special vehicle for this pur pose

Although we think of Lancia as a producer of high-perfor mance cars, the company also made commercial vehicles and the Esatau bus and tr uck chassis (produced between 1947 and 1953) was used as the basis for the transpor ter Constr uction was car r ied out by Car rozzer ia Garavini of Tur in, which had or ig inally built luxur y cars before concentrating on buses after World War II Pictures of the real thing show a photog rapher in position in an opening panel above the cab, protected by a handrail, and a rear view reveals the cars could be stacked one above another Officina 942 models are said to be to 1/76 scale, which means the transpor ter must have been a huge beast indeed, as the model is 16 cm in length It is moulded in two halves, white on top and dark blue beneath, with side decals in the for m of a sheet of self-adhesive transparent labels which are easily

MORE INFOMATION

To order this and other Officina models, see the company’s website at www.

officina942 it

For photos of the real vehicle: www italian-carsclub.com/le-site/Lanciaderivati htm

applied. The real vehicle had a good deal of chrome-plating at the front, but excessive detailing is not par t of the Officina style Nor can you roll the model along, as the wheels do not rotate

but, of course, collectors don’t play with their models, do they?

The transpor ter is par t of Officina’s 3000 racing car ser ies, which means there is a model of a 1954 Lancia D50 to go with it This wasn’t a ver y successful car but it was innovative in design and looked distinctive as it had side-mounted ‘pannier’ fuel tanks Along with other Officina Fer rar i and Maserati racing car models, plus an accessor y set of racing bar r iers, an attractive scene can be created Officina is cer tainly a name wor th keeping an eye on, and the Scuder ia Lancia transpor ter might descr ibed as their equivalent of the f amous Corg i Ecur ie Ecosse model. DC

DearEditor…

FABULOUS FIAT COVER MODEL

AWESOME cover on the February issue, I’m glad you decided to invest in a Laudo 850 Coupe I've got the Positano Yellow one and it looks superb, as does the red one In my local Smiths, the trainee assistant had put Diecast Collector in with the classic car mags as he didn't realise it was a model until I pointed it out to him... a compliment to Laudo for realism and you for your photography! I was rearranging my models yesterday and decided to get all my 850 Coupe/Sport Coupe models out for a photo with my Laudo – I forgot there was so many and I’ve just realised that I haven't included the Norev, Ixo partworks and two more Abarth-based Coupes either the red incomplete one to the left is the Politoys 1/43 which I'm in the middle of restoring (with difficulty!) Sorting through my cabinets also got me realising just how many diecasts there are of the 850 Saloon too (rough count 18, including the 1/12 Pocher), but that's another story

ED Glad you liked the cover shot and I’m pleased to hear that the local Smiths assistant was equally appreciative Wow, that is some collection of the 850 Coupe that you have there I absolutely adore my LaudoRacing example and it looks simply stunning alongside the company's 238 that I bought about a year ago. Just wish I had the real thing to go with them, of course.

FURTHER to my letter in the February issue about the mystery Lotus transporters, here is a photo I found on the internet of the really early Team Lotus transporter - there are two others in existence, but the other two are both almost from the same rear three-quarters angle, so no photo shows the front cab portion, and I've never seen any reference to it, in all the books on Lotus history so no idea what chassis was used for the base vehicle. This photo was taken at Silverstone and the other two are in the old outside paddock on the slope at Brands Hatch, by the petrol pumps near the tunnel, if you know that layout Jim Clark is in the photo together with Alan Stacey (I think, from memory) and they are loading or unloading a Lotus 18 Formula Junior, about 1960-61 This is the one that I want to try to replicate using the Dinky race horse box, suitably cut-and-shut modified Photos of the "Team Lotus racing with Ford of Britain" Lotus Cortina transporters are much easier to find online, so I'm sure you've got plenty of source reference material for your project So far on mine, I've used about a ton of modelling putty to fill in the roofline and spent several hours sanding it back! It looks quite good I measured it up as much as possible before I commenced work, to compare it as best as possible to the real thing (without any actual dimensions of course) I reckon the Matchbox model is a bit short but not by much, so I did have thoughts of cutting two up to make a longer one, but the difference was so small, I decide it was probably over ambitious and will leave the wheel base as is. The hardest part now is to get the graphics done - I'll have to make friends with the geniuses at my local print shop!

Andrew

email

ED Ah, right, now I can picture it That is one ambitious project for sure – very best of luck with that I’ve done some more searching, but I can’t come up with anything, not even the photo that you’ve found! There must be someone amongst our readers that can help here, hopefully! They’re a very resourceful and super-talented bunch.

ANOTHER BRM AND CEREAL PACKET GIVEAWAYS

THE BRM article in the January 2023 issue was illuminating, but missed out the Matchbox BRM It wasn't terribly accurate, came in a bizarre colour, had yellow wheels and a driver in the cockpit, but was cute in its own way Luckily, there are plenty of heavily playworn survivors that, with a bit of care, can be turned into half-way decent models in the right colour! My real intent in writing is, sadly, unconnected to diecasts. Instead, I have a query about the small range of plastic kits of Le Mans, etc, cars given away in cereal packets in the early 1970s I recall there being a Lola, a Ferrari, a Porsche, a McLaren and a Matra, but I might have forgotten a couple Even earlier, there were a series of British sports cars given away in cereal packets I wonder if anyone there knows if many of these survive, and if survivors are worth anything? I have a few, among the rarities in my own collection of mostly 1/43 models

ED Ah yes, I vaguely remember that series of cereal kits I’ve just done a little digging and I’m pretty sure it was the range that was given away with packets of Kellogg’s Sugar Smacks in 1973. These were also given away with the Victor comic. The full set of six was as follows: Matra 630, Lola T70, Alfa Romeo Tipo 33, Ferrari 312P, Porsche 908 and McLaren M8B. I’m not sure about the British set, though And thank you for the reminder about the Matchbox BRM – it could be found in red or blue

SOLVING A VEHICLE DISPLAY SITUATION

I was having difficulty thinking how to fit the new set of five Porsche 917 models by Majorette into my existing display, so I purchased a Siku transporter, as shown in the photo, which, although 1/50 scale and not of the same period, seems to work I will now have to add some Porsche decals, etc., to the Merc cab.

Godfrey Smith, email

ED Great idea, Godfrey, and thanks also for the ‘heads up’ about the Majorette 917 set I managed to snaffle one as a result of your email and they are certainly super little models for basically a few pence over £4 each!

WHAT PRICE?

ONE of my favourite features in Diecast Collector is the Price Guide section I must admit that I am often surprised when I see a really high prices paid, for individual models As a collector, I can understand that some people are really intent on obtaining a particular model, especially if it completes a set But some of the prices are amazing However, I have often wondered if some people regard model vehicles as an investment, rather than objects to display Of course, using models for investment purposes is risky if prices fluctuate Perhaps I am overthinking this, but I always feel, if someone pays, say, £2,000 for a model, what is it actually worth when it is taken home? The answer must surely be that perceived value and price realised, can be different things I have six Foden trucks in my Dinky collection and I paid between £80 to £120 for them I have them in a wall mounted display cabinet and I like to look at them and enjoy them I never think about what they might be worth Although my family might So, I am definitely a collector, rather than an investor Don Townshend, Chelmsford

ED Hi Don, you ask an excellent question I'm definitely a collector, but there is always a certain amount of thought about future investment in the back of my mind - although that's mainly to justify the price I'm paying for them - as long as I can largely recoup my costs in the future, when the time comes, that's okay with me What about everyone else?

FURTHER READING FOR COLLECTORS

READING the ‘Dear Ed’ pages from the December issue, I see reader Dennis Atkin needs help with some blue lights Well, I recommend for him to try Layouts4u (www.layouts4u.net). I have restored some emergency vehicles and used some on my railway layout They do come with wires though, so like mine they can be useful to make the lamps flash, worth a try! I am currently restoring a Matchbox Kingsize Merryweather Fire Engine No 15, and contemplating putting in flashing blue lamps and a button battery Roland Oxley, email

ED A great idea, and not a company I’ve come across before I love the crossover between hobbies that can be used in situations like this. As a bit of a railway modeller myself, I will certainly be visiting the website for a couple of layouts planned for the future.

ANSWERING AN EMERGENCY CALL BROOKLIN COLLECTORS CLUB

IN response to your editor’s comments on page 5 of the February 2023 issue of Diecast Collector, I recommend the Brooklin Collectors Club, established for over thirty years, for those interested in collecting white metal models from the Brooklin company, including the associated Lansdowne, Robeddie and a few separate brands that Brooklin has produced models for Members receive a magazine three times a year and the chance to buy a special members only model. The club also has a very active Facebook group supported by the members including some that belong to the North America BCC Shown is the cover of the most recent magazine The choice of 2023 members’ model has not yet been made In past years the October AGM has included a visit to the factory, but for 2023 the position is unclear because Brooklin Models has recently relocated its factory from Bath to Paulton, nr Bristol The Membership Secretary, John Bowyer, can be emailed at johnbowyer bcc@gmail com Ian Artus, email

ED Thanks Ian, exactly the sort of response I was looking for. An excellent place for like-minded collectors to gather If anyone else would like to promote their clubs, please do not hesitate to drop me an email

I was very interested in the two articles about The Models of the Matchbox Annual (by Mike Pigott and Rick Wilson on pages 54 & 55, and 56 & 57 respectively) in the February issue of Diecast Collector This is a book I have too, but it also led me to think of two other books that I have in my collection, these being Mike and the Modelmakers (Matchbox 1970) and All About Cars published by Corgi in 1969 These are two editions well worth looking out for and both very different Mike and the Modelmakers is a beautifullyillustrated book by Miraslav Sasek telling the story of a dad taking his son to the Lesney factory, the story of how Matchbox models came to be and also the Matchbox factory at Lee Conservancy Road We go through all stages from decision, drawing office, toolroom and every stage of production, all in layman's terms There are only a few illustrations of actual Matchbox models, but the final page shows Mike happily swinging a Matchbox collectors box by its handle

Corgi's A l l A b o u t Ca r s , from 1969, is a whole different publication There are lots of varied articles, all with real photographs, many of vehicles that there are Corgi models of. A splendid cutaway drawing of a V8 racing car engine, as used in the Lotus 49B-Cosworth V8 There are also some illustrated strip cartoon series, which feature the likes of the Corgi No 506 Sunbeam Imp Police car and the Police dog handlers Mini van No 448, for example These strip stories have a photos of the actual Corgi models shown along the bottom of the pages There are also cartoons and quizzes for this is a packed 127 page book A useful tail end reference to this book is a list by year of Corgi model releases each year accompanied by a thumbnail line drawing of one that years models. Other photos of actual Corgi models can be found around this book in various subjects All three books are well worthwhile looking out for at toy fairs and swap meets Will Roe, Coventry Diecast Model Club

ED Hi Will, I have both of those books too I had All About Cars as a youngster, so was very happy to be gifted one when I first started as Editor in 2013 An interesting story regarding Mike and the Modelmakers – the "Mike" refers to Michael Karslake, great model designer for Lesney, Corgi and Dinky, and actually depicts his son, Vinnie, who is never actually mentioned. I've met Vinnie (top chap) and helped him find a buyer for his super rare collection of Matchbox prototypes a couple of years ago - this reminds me that I must drop him a line for a catch up!

Jaunty Jalopies

Eureka!

After

As the monthly deadline schedule dictated by the publication cycle would have it, I find myself wr iting this on New Year’s Day 2023 A time of reflection over the past year and an eager year ning for the adventures as yet unknown that the coming twelve months will hold Time for deciding whether or not I am going to make a resolution list this year and allotting diar y space for all that impor tant ‘time out’ space – holidays and events to be attended

Tangled up in all of these thoughts came the subconscious realisation that under pinning all the var ious motivations that dr ive collecting diecast models is, in f act, that essence of adventure The excitement of something rediscovered, or discovered for the first time, and the excitement that something positive – hoped for or unexpected – might just be around the next cor ner In a world beset by too many things to be concer ned and anxious about, the antidoting positivity of excited anticipation is ver y impor tant to our balance of mental well-being

the

It matters not whether that excitement is prompted by adventures of nostalg ia or of adventures new What is impor tant is the stimulus to the chemical balance of our well-being led by the positive messages from our brain generated by that anticipator y excitement of the next adventure

Let us look forward then with cur ious interest to the myr iad of scale models that are likely to emerge dur ing 2023 Some will have been announced ahead of the Nuremberg Toy Fair now happily back in the calendar for personal attendance Some other announcements will be held until the f air and yet more withheld to be regular announcements throughout the year

Through them all, one of the paths of adventure lies before us and I, for one, am cur ious and excited in equal measure to see what 2023 holds in storeboth metaphor ically and literally

As for the other paths of adventure we each choose to follow dur ing the year I hope you take ones that are safe and enjoyably fulfilling for the soul DC

Nuremberg Toy Fair

several previous musings in this column, about

motivations behind collecting scale models, Stephen Paul Hardy has, seemingly, discovered the meaning of life.

Sitting and waiting

I'm not sure when people began to call their sitting room “the lounge” Even “living room ” is rarely used now, more generally useful though it remains If you think about it for more than a few seconds, “sitting room ” sounds slightly daft – a room designed for sitting as though sitting might be considered an activity in itself From this we could believe that Sittingbour ne, in Kent, is an entire town devoted to this pastime

the streets full of couches and ar mchair s, the pavements cosily heated

When I was g rowing up, we had a front room, rarely used except over Chr istmas or when my f ather was inter viewing one of my sister's boyfr iends We also had a back room, where sitting took place There must have been times when these rooms were openly named – a new car pet bought for the sitting room, lined cur tains for the front room, which never became a lounge nor a reception room Now I remember, the back room was known as the dining room

I didn't find myself in a drawing room (or ig inally the “withdrawing” room, with its unfor tunate implications of coitus inter r uptus) until I was for ty, but it was the genuine ar ticle, set on the upper g round floor of a Regency house – tall windows, r ugs on the polished floorboards and leather ar mchair s. My last fl at had been conver ted from someone's drawing room – the per iod fireplace gone and the inter nal window shutter s painted closed

There is something about the position of our settee that often makes me feel that I am in a railway car r iage, waiting for the train to move off - that slight

jolt, then a smooth increase of speed This rather odd illusion must be because the settee stretches along one wall, f acing down the length of the room, with the main window on one's r ight Outside you can see a long, mixed hedge with trees above and then sky, ver y similar to what you can look at from a train window while stationar y at a suburban station Beyond the trees and lower down, there could easily be hundreds of rooftops, roads cr iss-crossing, car s, buses and people Or the seaside with glitter ing waves and a busy beach – seagulls and ice cream The gulls are really there, circling over the invisible fields

Not deliberately, I have often lived close to railways Behind my childhood home was a small branchline where two-car r iage trains passed by with the dir ty black goods trains car r ying coal to the power station I thought these monster s ver y exciting as they belched g rey smoke and g r unted towards the Willow Lane br idge, but what I wanted to see was the recordbreaking Mallard, a vain hope

Early mor ning trains on the distant main line woke me before daylight, with the wor r ying prospect of another school day Still, that was then and this is now From Corg i Toys, ar r iving at a reduced pr ice, the longed-for LNER Mallard

More likely to pull into Platfor m 1, because it just has, is the 1960 Chevrolet ‘El Camino’ Pick-Up Tr uck from Dinky (No 449) – another elusive model, despite an eight-year r un I knew these small treasures would ar r ive eventually After all, I was only sitting here, as Dusty Spr ingfield once sang almost as if she could see into my hear t, "Wishing and Hoping..." DC