Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2022 i Collectors Gazette

NEWS AUCTION REVIEW Toys from Down Under Interest in old toys in the Antipodes continues unabated. At the last Trains, Planes and Automobiles auction, a Corgi 503 Chipperfields Circus Giraffe Transporter with two giraffes found a new home, despite a few small scratches and stains. In a very good box with packing insert, it achieved $110. Dinky Toys did well too: a trade box of six Tyre Racks with Tyres might not have been the most exciting multiple, but billed as excellent in a very good box, it was finally knocked down for $500. The Dinky Hall's Distemper Advertisement set, containing two figures carrying an advertising banner, bore a few chips to the paintwork on the figures, and a little wear to the banner. Boxed, it settled on $480. On to…

NEW RELEASES THIS MONTH CORGI TRIUMPH TR6 Price: £32.99 Scale: 1/43 Release: out now The third colour release from Corgi’s wonderful new TR6 tooling and it’s another superb replica, with splendid finish throughout and fabulous wheels www.corgi.co.uk OXFORD DIECAST LEYLAND ROYAL TIGER - MEXBOROUGH & SWINTON Price: £18.95 Scale: 1/76 Release: out now Superbly decorated in the bright leaf green and cream of the Mexborough & Swinton Traction Co. Ltd., Oxford’s latest version of its Tiger is stunning. www.oxforddiecast.co.uk CONRAD LIEBHERR L 566 XPOWER Price: 99.60€ Scale: 1/50 Release: out now Shovel and arm height adjustable, rear carriage with motor insert, numerous accessories fitted, with many prototypical detail prints. www.conrad-modelle.de SCHUCO MERCEDES UNIMOG 401 Price: £14.99 Scale: 1/18 Release: out now The latest edition of Schuco’s wellengineered and detailed Unimog…

AUCTION REVIEW Bargains at Ryedale sale Ryedale Auctioneers doesn’t special ise in toys – but that said, it had an interesting selection available in its December sale, tucked away amongst the Chanel advertising memorabilia, stamps, coins, weapons and obsolete firearms. Sometimes it pays to take a look at non-specialist sales… A Penguin Naval Pinnace model clockwork powered model boat was a steal at £22 for one lucky bidder-and it had its box. A quantity of German pre-war tinplate O gauge wagons and tinplate buffers, seven items in all, was picked up for £45 whilst a boxed wooden Tri-ang fort was knocked down for £12. What was unusual was that the box accompanied the model – quite a rarity, all these years on. For railway devotees (those of the real thing)…

START COLLECTING Reference preference The catalogue bug, explained by Alwyn Brice Working on the premise that everyone collects something, it will probably come as no surprise to learn that catalogues are not only in demand, but also seem to be appreciating in value. What, then, is the attraction of these ephemeral publications which, rather like glossy magazines and periodicals, were probably binned when they had outlasted their usefulness? Take a trawl around the online auction sites and you’ll see why. Weekly or monthly magazines from the 1960s and 1970s are getting harder and harder to find – and it’s much the same with toy catalogues. WHY COLLECT? The toy catalogue is a fascinating genre for many reasons. If you are a completist and you know that you will never, ever,…

AT THE MOVIES Famous Faces: SPIDER-MAN Remembering collectables that found fame through the silver screen. The adventures of Batman, Superman, Spider-Man, etc on television and the big screen have endeared themselves to their fans worldwide since the golden age of the 1960s, through the ‘70s and onto the present day. Bruce Wayne’s alter-ego Batman is undoubtedly on top of the pile, followed closely by Superman and Spider-Man. But with Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse currently showing in cinemas, we thought it was the web swinger’s time to shine, while the Caped Crusader broods in the Batcave for once. Toys based on the fantastic fighters of crime are very popular and extremely collectable, particularly the vintage items. There is a very healthy amount of Bat-merchandise, for example, but not so much for Spidey.…

TREASURE HUNTING OBSOLETE OZ Our monthly gaze into the weird but wonderful world of collector/dealer Obsolete Oz. Buying and selling since the 1970s, Oz has developed a great knack for unearthing some amazing finds from flea markets, antique fairs, car boot sales, rubbish skips and even the local tip. Hi folks! Well here we are in 2022 hoping that this will be a far better year than the one we’ve just left behind, although the way things have recently developed with the Covid-19 situation we’re clearly not out of the woods yet! I must admit that I’m not the world’s greatest fan of Christmas markets but a small gang of us from the local, led by rail buff Steamy Steve, persuaded me to travel by train to a small Yorkshire…

A Star choice Never one to pass up on a choice Star Wars figurine, Vectis had the pleasure of handling a Princess Leia Bespin example recently. Mint, within a near mint bubble and attached to a good unpunched 30B back card, this particular Palitoy offering carried a reserve of £2,000-3,000. Why so interesting? Well, here was an example of transitional imagery on the card, with only half the princess in view. The image was quickly revised after the initial release, leaving only a few of the semi-portrait cards in circulation. YOUR SUBSCRIPTION, HAVE IT YOUR WAY! SAVE OVER 16% Turn to page 14 to find out more……

NEWS HOBBY NEWS Coventry's own collectable car A Jaguar XJ-Stouring car that qualified for pole position in the 1982 24-hour Spa-Francor champs European Touring Car Championship (ETCC) race – and won the 1984 edition – has been reimagined as a 1/32 scale Scalextric car emblazoned with Coventry City of Culture 2021 livery and will soon be available for keen collectors to buy. It is the first time that this model, made famous by Tom Walkinshaw Racing (TWR) for its appearances at the famous Belgian circuit, has been memorialised in the form of a Scalextric car in an extremely limited run of just 1,000 models. It features a carefully arranged skin design to reflect Coventry City of Culture Trust’s core message: Coventry Moves. A bird’s eye view of the car, originally a…

FOREIGN REPLICAS Matchbox Series: Hong Kong copies Andrew Ralston tells us more. During the 1950s and 1960s it was common practice for manufacturers of plastic goods in Hong Kong to make copies of British diecast toy cars. Many Dinky, Corgi and other subjects received this treatment, generally being scaled up to larger dimensions and fitted with a friction-drive motor. The smaller Matchbox 1-75 series vehicles were copied too, but in this case the copies tended to be similar in size to the originals. This article examines a selection of these, and considers why it is often difficult to identify who made them. One of the best-known Hong Kong makers of plastic toys which can be identified is Blue Box, founded in 1952 by Peter Chan Pui. His most successful toy…

YOUR COLLECTION ebuys From collectables of the future to old favourites, eBay always manages to produce some amazing finds… and even more amazing prices! Item: Marvel Legends Spiderman: Far From Home Action Figure. Condition: Mint condition, had only been used for display Sold for: £1560 (14 bids) Item: Matchbox Lesney Superfast 1-75 Series No.12 Landrover Condition: rare blue version in F1 type box, model was very near mint Sold for: £1353 (33 bids) Item: Scalextric 007 James Bond set Condition: well used, some cars show signs of damage and were in need of rebuilding Sold for: £321 (11 bids) Item: Pre-War Dinky 28M Type 1 Wakefield Castrol van Condition: very good original example from 1934, original transfers, no repainting Sold for: £645 (17 bids) Item: LEGO Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles…

IN-DEPTH Toy Stories Ed Karswell keeps an eye out for Action Man… I’m probably not going to win many friends amongst the Palitoy crowd, but I shall state it here that I hated the Eagle Eyes Action Man when they came out and if I’m honest, I still do. To put things into perspective we need to rewind back to that long, hot summer of 1976. I was 8 years old and very much into Action Man. I won’t bore you with an inventory but let’s just say my mission to get my booklet full of 21 stars and receive my ‘free’ Action Man by return post was well under way. For the uninitiated, depending on retail value, Action Man packaging carried star tokens that could be cut out and stuck…

NEWS AUCTION REVIEW Right on track Plenty of trains delighted the punters (or should that be shunters?) at the Wallis & Wallis December auction. Aside from the grouped lots of rolling stock and locos were some lovely larger gauge items. These included a Hornby Series O gauge threerail No.E1E Engine Shed, fitted for electric lighting on a green base (£130) and a companion O gauge tinplate No.E2E threerail, two-track Engine Shed. This was in good condition with some surface wear, and it made £95. A huge £340 was required to secure the Hornby O gauge electric L18 No.4 Southern Railway Schools Class 4-4-0 tender locomotive for three-rail use: it looked magnificent, needless to say. A Hornby Princess Elizabeth also turned up, boxed: this sold for £750. There were plenty of Ace…

NEWS AUCTION REVIEW Memorable memorabilia Greens lade Taylor Hunt’s last collector’s sale covered a wide variety of offerings, ranging from toys through coins and medals to edged weapons, WW2 memorabilia, postcards and stamps to automobilia: truly, there was something for everyone. World War 2 certainly struck a chord with some bidders, for 324 issues of the Commando comic (a publication that seems to have run for decades!) was fought over to finish on £180. A British pair of Kershaw Bino prism No 2 Mk 111 x 6 binoculars were dated 1944 and came with a webbing field case dated 1943: a well-known manufacturer, they sold for just £35; while an assortment of German Third Reich medals was knocked down for £260. The two star lots were actually equine, and not diecast:…

KNOW YOUR HOBBY 10 minute TOY EXPERT! Chad Valley Chad Valley is a name synonymous with all kinds of toys and few companies in the history of toy making can lay claim to have produced such a wide and diverse range of products. At Christmas they called the Chad Valley factory ‘Santa’s Workshop’ with millions of children waking up on Christmas Day to find at least one Chad Valley product in their stocking whether that was a doll or teddy bear, cowboy outfit or jig-saw puzzle, tin toy or a board game of some description… Chad Valley made them all. My memories of Chad Valley Toys include a lovely old Escalado horse racing game passed down to me by my uncle in the late 1950s and a super Chad Valley ‘Give…

YOUR COLLECTION PRICE GUIDE This month we review the latest toy sales at British Toy Auctions, Vectis, Lacy, Scott & Knight and Special Auction Services. Corgi Toys Gift Set 17 Land Rover with Ferrari Racing Car on Trailer, Land Rover with yellow interior, spun hubs, Ferrari with RN36 on yellow trailer. Good in good outer box. Sold for £65, British Toy Auctions, December. Corgi Toys No 486 Kennel Service Wagon Chevrolet Impala, in white and orange, pale blue interior complete with 4 dogs and ‘variview’ dachshund picture which is detached from vehicle. Very good in fair plus card box. Sold for £25, British Toy Auctions, December. Corgi Toys 1st issue No 267 Batmobile, gloss black body, orange ‘Bat’ logo on doors, with gold cast hubs with red ‘Bat’ logos, blue…

OUT & ABOUT Coventry collectables Alwyn Brice dropped by Barry Potter’s fair at Ryton-on-Dunsmore. Agrey, foggy day didn’t deter the faithful in mid-December from driving to this venue. Sited at the Leisure Centre, it’s easily accessed from the motorway system, which has to add to its appeal. Barry was officiating and after suitable festive exchanges, it was down to business. Around 170 tables required reconnoitring and I was surprised to come across one or two familiar faces from my southern swapmeet coverage days. Steve Viccars was one: as ever, he was purveying plenty of plastic. Some bagged groups of Asterix figures were £15 a time (made in Taiwan!) and his Cherilea WW2 infantry set in a window box (albeit lacking the cellophane) looked good value at £30. Not far from…