Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2023 i Collectors Gazette

The Danny James collection hit some record prices at Vectis recently, especially the models in the Matchbox category. A Superfast 9c Ford Escort 2000 preproduction trial in red with light amber windows and a dark tan base made £2,817; it came with a Type K box. The Superfast 12d Citroen CX Estate didn’t hang about, either; again, a pre-production example in metallic emerald green with a black plastic tailgate, clear windows and a dark yellow interior, its base had not been zinc plated. With an L type box, it was bid to £2,327. As for the Superfast 67b Ford Capri Hot Rocker, this was a Brazilian issue and finished in pink with clear windows, an ivory interior and a bare metal base. Billed as Excellent Plus (with just a couple…

The highly successful 44th Midlands Model Engineering Exhibition took place during October at the Warwickshire Event Centre, with thousands of visitors in attendance. The Society of Model and Experimental Engineers and Model Engineer/Model Engineers Workshop celebrated their 125th joint anniversary at the exhibition. There were also a number of other special attractions this year including a lecture rogramme, special exhibit displays and the reintroduction of live demonstrations. The exhibition showcased hundreds of fascinating models in competition and display classes and on the club and society display stands. The winner of the overall best model in the exhibition, and the Chris Deith Memorial Trophy, was Mike Sayers with his 1927 Delage 15.S.8 GP engine. Model Engineering clubs and societies were well represented with some 30 stands with hundreds of quality exhibits…

GREENLIGHT COLLECTIBLES 1948 FORD DE LUXE CONVERTIBLE – “GREASED LIGHTNIN“ Price: £7.99 Scale: 1/64 Release: out now Pure feel good nostalgia packaged in 1/64 scale, this an excellent casting from Greenlight Collectibles that is on target with accuracy in detail. www.greenlightcollectibles.com SOLIDO BEETLE BAJA 1975 Scale: 1/18 Price: £49.00 Release: out now The “Baja Bugs” are Volkswagen Beetles that have been modified to participate in off-road races in North America and Mexico. A spectacular replica! www.solido.com…

In the gloomy ex-railway town of Beastleigh, there lived a mean-spirited toy train collector by the name of Ebenezer Scrooge. He was a tall, gaunt man with a long, pointed nose and a perpetual scowl etched on his face. His once-grand mansion had become a cold, dark place filled with shelves upon shelves of toy trains, each one meticulously displayed but devoid of joy. Ebenezer Scrooge's obsession with toy trains had consumed him, driving away friends and family alike. He cared for nothing and no one except for his prized possessions. He was known throughout the town as ‘The Trainmaster’, a title he wore with a perverse sense of pride. On a bitter Christmas Eve, as Scrooge was counting his trains, he heard the faint sound of bells outside his…

If you are a child of the 1940s, 50s and 60s you may have been lucky enough to have played with the new construction toy sets of the day: Bayko - whose building bricks and parts were made from the first fully synthetic plastic, known as Bakelite. The first sets in the 1930s were called Bayko Light, a play on the work Bakelite. Bakelite was invented in 1907 by Belgian chemist and entrepreneur, Leo Hendrik Baekeland (1863-1944) and patented by him in 1909. It soon found many uses including billiard balls, radios, telephones, ornaments and eventually in 1933, as a new construction toy. Bayko Light Construction Sets were the brainchild of English engineer, and former WWI Royal Navy wireless operator, Charles Bird Plimpton (1894-1948). These new construction sets came about…

Excalibur’s last event featured a good number of lots of miniature figurines from the Aeroart, King & Country and Del Prado companies. A group of beautifully painted Aeroart diecast mounted Crusaders soldiers, comprising G128, 231 and G168 produced by Grudsky/Grenada Studios raised £200, while other lots containing Greek and Roman figures sold for between £130 and £170. A Corgi Ecurie Ecosse car transporter gift set with its (correct) complement of three racing cars wasn’t mint but was very presentable nonetheless: this sold for £250. Bond devotees didn’t miss out, either. It took a bid of £220 to secure the Danbury Mint 1/24 scale limited edition 22 carat gold plated James Bond Aston Martin DB5. This was complete with a removable roof panel, display case, stand and certificate, but missing its…

MINI GT NISSAN SILVIA - ROCKET BUNNY Price: £12.99 Scale: 1/46 Release: out now Nissan’s attractive Silvia looks even more so in Rocket Bunny guise, featuring some lovely detail and a stunning paint job with subtle, yet superb, graphics. www.clevelandsdiecast.co.uk CORGI MODEL CLUB LOTUS ELAN S2 Price: £32,99 Scale: 1/42 Release: out now In a striking metallic blue, with a boot decal emblazoned with Esso’s popular ‘I’ve Got a Tiger in my Tank’ advertising slogan. www.corgimodelclub.com AUTO WORLD 1972 FORD MUSTANG MACH 1 Price: £95.00 Scale: 1/18 Release: out now More Auto World ‘American Muscle’ that demonstrates glorious precision in body, interior and working features. A masterclass in affordable scale diecast. www.autoworld.com DID YOU KNOW WE ARE MORE THAN JUST A MAGAZINE? www.ccofgb.co.uk www.twitter.com/CollectorClubGB www.facebook.com/CollectorsClubOfGreatBritain/ www.instagram.com/ccofgb www.youtube.com/CollectorsClubofGB More new releases re…

Sadly I never owned a Raleigh Chopper myself, but I do remember riding the brilliant orange ones the kids next door had for Christmas in 1971. Our neighbours were fruit and vegetable wholesalers and always had a good bit of cash to splash on their lucky offspring. I made do with my old green Raleigh Superbe handed down to me by my uncle Jack… Nothing flash about that! Nobody on our cobbled street had ever seen such a weird looking bike as the Chopper. I often wonder what Raleigh founder Frank Bowden would have thought of the ‘Chopper’? Bowden was a pioneer of the British cycle industry, although his personal introduction to cycling at the age of twenty eight was not for purposes of pleasure. Bowden returned to England from…

In a recent discussion with a colleague, I learned that our sense of smell is one of the most powerful stimuli for evoking memory in the brain. It’s a fascinating area of research that leaves us with more questions than answers. So, it comes as a bit of a surprise that the sense smell has largely been downplayed as a factor for us in hunting out our childhood playthings. Personally, I can always remember the smell of the brand-new Action Man coming out of its box. It was a heady mix of rubber, glue and crisp new clothes. That new smell was a big part of the ritual, albeit one that would quickly fade once the dog had carried it around the garden a few times. New Star Wars figures…

Aviation took a prominent part in the last British Toy Auction sale. Its recent auction featured a number of Corgi Dragon Wings, namely a F-14A Tomcat U.S Navy VF-111 'Sundowners', a Heinkel He 111H-3, a Boeing Vertol Chinook HC.1 No 18 Squadron RAF and a B-25J Mitchell: the four models raised £260 plus premium. Elsewhere, from Hobby Master, Corgi and IXO was a selection of five boxed diecast models. These included a Corgi DH Mosquito B IV, a Heinkel He 162A Salamander by IXO; and a HA0125 Hobby Master MIG-21 SMT Hump Back Soviet Air Force jet. This aviation lot made £130. From toymaker Mattel came a lot including Barbie and a Pedigree Sindy. This group of vintage dolls comprised a 1968 New Look Sindy with platinum hair, a 1976…

Wessex Auction Rooms’ two day sale featured over 170 lots of railway-centric collectables, with all the usual suspects present. Buyers could choose from Tri-ang Hornby, Bachmann, Trix and even Lone*Star. Gauges included the ever-popular OO but others were also available. One stand-out lot was the USA Trains G scale EMD F3 Pennsylvania 9679 diesel locomotive and Pennsylvania 9680 Power Car; included was an Aristo Craft G scale Norfolk Southern 555774 caboose, a Turnigy 5X remote control and two lots of bagged USA Trains figure sets. The selection raised £240. One oddity was the boxed Ever Ready OO gauge Electric Train Set which was dry battery operated. Based on an Underground train, the set made £48. Over 20 lots were devoted to steam toys: a Stuart Turner Sun racing engine, plus…

News has reached us from British Heritage Models of two new Matrix models coming soon. The famous British cars, about to hit the paddock, are the 1953 Daimler DE36 ‘Green Goddess’, and the 1980 Aston Martin Bulldog. The 20-foot-long green Daimler prototype, built for Daimler chairman, Sir Bernard Docker, was the costliest vehicle at the 1948 Earls Court show. At £7,001 (or nearly £250,000 today) it was probably the most expensive car on sale anywhere in the world too. The unique Bulldog, styled by William Towns, was a British one-off concept vehicle produced by Aston Martin, in 1979. Initially, a production run of 15–25 cars was planned, but the project was deemed too costly, and only one was built. Both models will be available from British Heritage Models (www.britishheritagemodels.co.uk) or…

It was a year to remind mankind of the dangers surrounding the advances in technology, for April witnessed the world’s worst nuclear disaster, when the fourth reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded, immediately killing 31 people. Many more would suffer from the effects of widespread radiation. Tragedy wasn’t confined to Russia, though, for in the US the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded just 73 seconds after it lifted off from Cape Canaveral. All seven crew members perished in the incident. Famous names in the news? In April, Clint Eastwood took a break from acting and was elected mayor of Carmel, in California. The same month saw Desmond Tutu appointed as the Anglican Archbishop of Capetown. Usain Bolt was born. And George Alan O’Dowd, also known as Boy George, was…

For most children of the 1950s and 1960s, the products of Meccano Limited would have been high up on their list of requests to Santa Claus. The days of post-war austerity might have been over, but toys were still comparatively expensive items and many youngsters would only have their wishes granted on birthdays or at Christmas. Toy shops encouraged customers to join ‘Christmas clubs’, the idea being to save up gradually, especially for the more expensive items like Meccano sets, Hornby Dublo train sets or Dinky gift sets. Meccano could even supply shops with a card on which instalments could be recorded – though the reverse side carried dire warnings that ‘your choice of goods cannot be altered’ and ‘money cannot be refunded’. During the sixties, though, Meccano Limited found…

We all know that Star Wars is a collecting juggernaut. The equivalent of an earthquake that continues to send shockwaves throughout the collecting community. Over the past decade, its seismic auction results have toppled the great towers of diecast, the safe haven of model railways and continues to level auctioneers with astronomical prices. With the new Star Wars spinoffs hitting cinemas all the time, we’re reminded once again of its massive social impact. Pretty much everywhere you look throughout December, it’s likely you’ll be greeted by the shadow of the notorious Death Star. However, Star Wars wasn’t always such a sure fire success and some of the previous spin-offs weren’t quite as slick. After the release of Return of the Jedi in 1983, it seemed like George Lucas’ money train…

Hi folks! Despite the winter now thrusting it’s way towards us at a rapid pace I still managed to pull in a couple of very good away days recently. Trips to the sun soaked Malvern flea market followed by a final trip of the year to York racecourse for the always excellent Saturday car boot sale. These are both big events with plenty of stalls to go at and I wasn’t disappointed with a host of nice little finds being bagged at both venues. The sun had barely risen in York when I dropped on a Matchbox classic which sent my mind racing back towards the early 1970s. It was a Superfast SF-1 Speed Set, fully complete and in a nice clean box which the seller informed me was freshly…