Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2022 i Collectors Gazette

Toys, models and railwayana featured in the last Wallis & Wallis sale, this latter category yielding a huge number of railway cap badges, most of British Railways origin, although London Transport got a good look-in also. Brass locomotive work plates and shed plates also attracted much attention, with shed plates achieving £60-80 and the loco plates selling for up to £700. There were plenty of HO/OO scale railway model lots but nothing stood out in particular. There were bargains: some lucky bidder picked up a Wills Finecast brass kit of an LSWR Class T9 Greyhound 4-4-0 in working order for just £50. Equally, a Hornby O gauge electric No 3 4-4-2 tender locomotive for three-rail operation, in GWR lined green, seemed a snip at £100. On to diecasts, which suffered…

Oxford Diecast has announced a new range at a new scale as Oxford TT:120, a range of Diecast Collectables, at an internationally recognised scale of 1/120. The six brand new releases form the first phase for this range and the company will be adding to this on a continuous basis. The models have been produced in conjunction with Hornby TT:120. The first six releases are: Bedford OB Coach -British Rail (120OB001, £7.95), Morris 1000 -British Rail (120MM059, £7.45), Scammell Mechanical Horse Flat Trailer - GWR (120MH003, £7.95), Land Rover Series 2 LWB Hard Top - British Rail (120LAN2001, £7.45), Dennis F12 Pump Escape - London Fire Brigade (120DEN001, £7.95), and Austin Low Loader Taxi -black (120AT001, £7.45). By the time this issue is on sale, the models will be available…

Politoys was a major name in the world of diecast cars in the 1960s but before that the company made a range of plastic cars which, in some ways, might be regarded as the Italian equivalent of the French Norev brand. In the five years between 1960 and 1965 the range grew rapidly to include something like 150 different models which are now very sought-after on the collecting market. The Politoys firm was founded in Milan in the mid-1950s by Eugenio Agrati and Ennio Sala who used to work in an automotive components factory but went into business themselves as they saw the potential of the latest plastic injection-moulding techniques. Their early plastic products included a few toy vehicles in diverse scales, but the first recognisable series of plastic cars…

If you were a child born before 1980 it is almost certain that at some stage of your childhood you played with a toy or two made by Mettoy and its many subsidiaries as the output of this Northampton based toy company was prolific. The man behind the formation of Mettoy was German emigre Phillip Ullman a Jew who left Germany following Hitler’s rise to power. Ullmann was no stranger to the toy industry when he arrived in Britain having 21 years of experience at the Tipp & Co factory in Nuremberg, the toy capital of Germany and home of many renowned makers of tinplate toy vehicles. Ullmann’s initial move to Britain was assisted by Lord Marks of Marks & Spencer’s fame who arranged for a workshop to be established…

Linemar (Japan) “Mickey Mouse Movers” Articulated Removals Van, friction drive tinplate truck has a red cab, black chassis, green/white van body with opening rear doors and locking catch to rear with Mickey Mouse, Minnie, Donald Duck, Daisy, Goofy and Pluto images to van sides together with a “Copyright Walt Disney Productions” to cab roof, some light age related wear and radiator grille and some of the tyres have been repainted otherwise Good Plus. Sold for £130, Vectis, October. Sutcliffe (UK) “The Sea Wolf” Atomic Submarine, tinplate clockwork model is yellow, with painted black fittings but does include the propeller and rudder together with a key, rubber bung and clockwork motor in working order - otherwise Good Plus in a Fair card box with some water staining to lid but does include some…

John Goodwin’s October sale yielded plenty of collectables, as ever, with automobilia featuring strongly in the early lots. A boxed Pioneer radio would have been the perfect accessory for a classic car – it sold for a paltry £5. Just £30 was enough to secure three early AA badges with stamped numbers and £15 was the winning bid on two monochrome photographs of racing drivers Peter Collins and Stirling Moss in action. As for toys, a sextet of Pelham Puppets (of which five were boxed), that included a witch and a horse, realised £35 but only £5 was needed to win the Linka Stonework set with extras, allowing the construction of a lot of walls. Higher stakes were required for the mixed lot that comprised seven sets of Britains Action…

You might be forgiven for thinking that mighty Matchbox had the miniature market sewn up during the 1960s. Lesney’s tiny toys were seemingly everywhere; their quality improved year on year; and the range, that of its famous 1-75, continued to expand as time rolled by. However, there were rivals: Benbros (1951-1965) introduced its Mighty Midgets early on (in 1956), while it would be a full decade before Lone*Star sought to chip away at Lesney’s empire with its Impy vehicles. Neither manufacturer’s end product was as well executed as the all-conquering Lesney, though; but even this manufacturer had to up its game when the brazen Hot Wheels from Mattel sped across the Atlantic and arrived on the toy shelves in 1968. Thus any constructor thinking of entering the pocket money toy…

At the height of the Cold War spies were absolutely everywhere. That chap at your newsagents who spent too long perusing the crisps: SPY. The old lady with the Yorkshire Terrier who sat on the same bench every day in the park: SPY. Your local milkman: SPY! Basically, anyone and everyone was potentially a spy in the 1960s. This paranoia resulted in plenty of spy-related books, films and television programmes. One of the most famous shows from the era was The Man from UNCLE, starring super agents Napoleon Solo (played by Robert Vaughan) and Illya Kuryakin (David McCallum). The show centred around the exploits of UNCLE (United Network Command for Law and Enforcement), an organisation consisting of agents of all nationalities. It’s involved in maintaining political and legal order anywhere…

Just like the classic car magazines, doing endless buying guides to MGB’s, the collecting community can also be driven to distraction by the endless reviews of media favourites. The British press are notorious for getting hold of something, wringing the enthusiasm out of it and then moving on to the next ‘big’ thing. As a random example let’s go back a few decades to the launch of the Smurf figurines. Does anybody now remember the rare Smurf Astronaut? Cod-eyed families would pose on the front of The Sun newspaper alongside ‘We’re rich!’ headlines whilst clutching the aforementioned Smurf. Okay so I may have exaggerated but you hopefully get the gist. Next up came the McDonalds Happy Meal toy craze. Toy fairs became infested with the things, much to the consternation…

Hi folks! Well, here I am with my offering for our December issue, pondering on how quickly 2022 passed by? Yes, that long hot summer seemed to go on forever and was very welcome but the autumn passed by so quickly and another year lies just around the corner! It’s always tricky adjusting to the advent of winter and travelling to shows and fairs in the dark always comes as a bit of a shock! Being at shows nice and early often pays off and an early morning trawl around the huge Newark Runway Monday event saw me bag a lovely Lone*Star CUB toy cap gun still with its original holster. I remember having one of these as a kid and fixing it to my belt for a game of…

Milestone’s recent toy auction featured over 700 lots and generated just over US$505,000 worth of business. Typical of the variety was the American National Deluxe Coupe pedal car. Boasting every possible luxury option, including opening doors, sliding windows and a dashboard with simulated gauges, together with interior upholstery and curtains, the 68 inch long car was knocked down for US$66,000. Elsewhere, an all-original Gendron chain-drive Packard pedal car with a steel body and wood radiator, tyres and frame, amazingly still retained its original paint. Against a pre-sale estimate of US$8,000-12,000, it glided to a stop at US$24,000. More than a dozen petrol-powered tether (or round the pole) racers were offered. Notable was the 17 inch long Domo Maserati racer in original condition. Made in Trino, Italy, and exhibiting the Italian…

Clearly, the toy collecting world has not yet got wind of the recession. Vectis’ last couple of sales yielded some eyewatering prices: £2,520 was bid on a Matchbox Regular Wheels 22b Vauxhall Cresta in very pale pink with turquoise side panels, running on 20-tread grey plastic wheels on crimped axles. This was an unrecorded variation. Dinky Fodens come in an array of hues but the first cab diesel 8-wheeled wagon was a scarce US export version, with a red cab and rear body, ridged hubs, a black chassis and herringbone tyres, but with no hook fitted. This boxed gem raised £4,080. A winning bid of £2,880 was logged against the Dinky 503 2nd Cab Foden Flat Truck with tailboard, boasting an orange cab and chassis, yellow flatbed body and Supertoy…

If you ask a normal person to name a famous train, the chances are they'll say ‘The Flying Scotsman’. Prompted further, um, ‘The ‘Rocket’? Which is fair enough. Both trains, or locomotives to be precise, have broken through the veil of indifference to cement themselves into history. It’s interesting that both the names have more to do with aeronautics than the earthbound devices they represent. It’s also significant that adventurous Tri-ang made models of both, whilst staid Hornby-Dublo didn't. Meccano famously eschewed gimmicks and novelty models which characterised Tri-ang. Which might explain why the successor to Tri-ang, through a complex series of mergers and takeovers, is still with us under the guise of ‘Hornby’. Whereas Hornby-Dublo and its parent company Meccano, isn't. THE SCOTSMAN TRAIN Let’s clear up some confusion…

Matchbox Toys originated in 1947 as Lesney Products Ltd. The ‘Lesney’ part of the company name was derived from the names of the founding members, Leslie and Rodney Smith (not related). Jack Odell joined the company soon afterwards, and brought his diecasting skills, which were used to very positive effect. He had become a partner in the business by the time that Rodney Smith quit the company in 1951. It is Odell who takes the credit for the introduction of smaller models - ‘matchbox’ size in fact. So the story goes... this great innovative idea of very small toys apparently began with a rule at Odell’s daughter’s school. Pupils were not allowed to take any toys to school unless they were small enough to fit inside a matchbox. The first…

Item: Kenner Star Wars Return of the Jedi R2-D2 figure Condition: dating from 1983, mint on card, bubble fully sealed Sold for: £1040 (46 bids) Item: Timpo Wild West Series No.278 Indian Hunting Party Condition: very good original figures, showing small creases to outer box Sold for: £215 (22 bids) Item: Lesney Models of Yesteryear No.7 Leyland 4 Ton Van in W & R Jacob Livery Condition: good condition, some marks and tarnishing to paint Sold for: £1949.99 (47 bids) Item: Scalextric Tri-ang 1960s C96 Auto Union Type C racing car Condition: excellent, clean and ran well when tested Sold for: £280 (19 bids) Item: Tri-ang Spot-on Massey Ferguson 65 Tractor Condition: good for its age, steering worked however box missing several end flaps Sold for: £1021 (27 bids) Item:…

MrD Slot Drag Racing club, as the name implies, is all about slot car racing – the vehicles all being dragsters, souped up to reach speeds of 50mph plus in 0.7 of a second. The members meet to race their own dragsters, and when not racing they might be tinkering with motors, painting the bodywork of their cars, or building new models. MrD (the founder of the club) is Steven Dudley of Chelmsford, Essex, a retired Ford mechanic. The club was established in 2011 after Steven was introduced to Slot Drag Racing at the Slot Rally GB in September 2006. He was instantly hooked on this exciting form of racing and has helped organise events and promote the hobby of scale Slot Drag Racing in the UK ever since. “I’ve…