Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2024 i Collectors Gazette

Amongst the highlights at the recent Milestone auction in the US, a sale that encompassed a quantity of the recently-closed Elmer’s Toy Museum contents, was a rare, 12 inch long I Y tinplate friction powered “Romance” motorcycle, known to collectors as the “large blue version.” Depicting a young couple out for a spin, this desirable Japanese confection achieved an astonishing US$25,830. Another I Y production, a 12 inch tin friction Condor Motor Cycle, made US$9,300. Meanwhile, a staggering US$19,065 was the winning bid on a Marusan tinplate friction drive Indian Motor Cycle. For space freaks, the Yonezawa tinplate Atom Jet Racer was truly lovely. This friction-drive model was in working condition, including its engine sound, and huge interest pushed the exotic automobile to US$18,450. Another fiercely contested Japanese tinplate toy…

BRITAINS JOHN DEERE 6R 185 TRACTOR Price: £35.99 Scale: 1/32 Release: out now With working front and rear linkages, steerable wheels and a detachable cab, Britains well-made tractor offers plenty of display options. www.britainsfarmtoys.co.uk OXFORD DIECAST PLYMOUTH SAVOY SEDAN 1959 OKLAHOMA HIGHWAY PATROL Price: £9.95 Scale: 1/87 Release: out now For such a small model, it’s big in detail both inside and out. Whether you collect emergency or American vehicles, you won’t be disappointed with this patrol car. www.oxforddiecast.co.uk HEAVY HAUL REPLICAS MACK RD800 TANDEM AXLE TRACTOR Price: $249.00 Scale: 1/50 Release: out now The standard release Mack RD800 incorporates a short chassis with operational suspension and steering. The cabin doors and bonnet all open. www.heavyhaulreplicas.com More new releases reviewed at ccofgb.co.uk DID YOU KNOW WE ARE MORE THAN JUST…

CORGI MODEL CLUB MERCEDES BENZ 600 PULLMAN Price: £37.99 Scale: 1/52 Release: out now The quality of the paint and trim on this model is superb and for display it looks amazing. A great all-round addition and it’s bound to be a success. www.corgimodelclub.com MINI GT SUBARU IMPREZA WRC97 1997 RALLY SANREMO WINNER #3 Scale: 1/64 Price: £15.00 Release: out now A simply sublime replica of the iconic Scooby Impreza, wearing the livery of the 1997 Sanremo winner. Excellent finish throughout. www.clevelandsdiecast.co.uk…

In this year the summer in the UK was shattered, when four suicide bombers struck London’s transport network, killing 52 people and injuring over 770 others. Three of the blasts happened on the London Underground, on or around 8.50am, in the vicinity of Aldgate, Edgware Road and Russell Square. Al-Qaeda claimed partial responsibility. It was certainly a year of loss: elsewhere, Hurricane Katrina killed 1,836 people in the southern United States while in Europe, the funeral of Pope John Paul II was held in Vatican City. Back in the UK came the rather worrying news that the BNFL nuclear plant at Sellafield had admitted that some 30 kilogrammes of plutonium were unaccounted for. This amount would have been sufficient to make seven atomic bombs… On a more positive note, it…

Christmas cards are arguably one of Britain’s most successful inventions attributed, at least in part, to Prince Albert in the 1840s. The joyous face of Christmas, Father Christmas, is the one children tend to relate to most, just like the toy manufacturers who may just worship him from a different viewpoint. From the earliest days of organised toy production, each month of the calendar must have meant a shift in emphasis, in planning, in manufacture. Why, particularly in the 1930s, is the December Meccano Magazine always the thickest? In a word-advertising. By this time any new items, often slightly larger and more expensive ones, were already in the shops. In the history of our little world, most will be aware that Meccano’s groundbreaking Dinky Supertoys first saw the light of…

Travel back to the late 1960s and early 1970s – it was the pinnacle of diecast production and all the big companies were vying for the same space on the shelves of retailers. Each manufacturer searched for that unique selling point and when Mattel unveiled its Hot Wheels range, in 1968, complete with its own bespoke track system, it had found the leap all the others had been looking for. Suddenly, track systems were all the rage – Matchbox’s Superfast, Lone Star’s Flyway and Corgi’s Rockets systems being two examples of big names jumping on the bandwagon as quickly as they could, so as not to lose too much ground in the sales race. Somebody at Texaco obviously thought it was a great idea too and, for 1970, its petrol…

Hi folks! As yet another year draws to an end, we can look back on 2023 as having been a year when life got back to some sort of normality following the destruction caused by Covid. Whilst there has been a lot of positivity, I am still in shock over the sad loss of the Peterborough Showground fair, at which I had so much fun and bought so many bargains over the years. Just recently I have been shocked yet again by the very sad news that we have seen the end of the Great Dorset Steam Fair. I have been going to Dorset for more than 30 years and looked forward to it every August. The Autojumble and collectors’ market there was legendary, especially in the early days. I…

The last Wallis & Wallis sale featured Corgi Whizzwheels: are they the next big thing? A number of models went under the hammer, virtually all finding new homes. Of note was the rare 3-litre V6 Ford Capri (No.311), an early fluorescent orange example with black interior. This made £170, while a Ford Cortina GXL 'Graham Hill' example, in maize yellow with red interior, raised £130. The sale also featured many railway modelling lots, with a particular emphasis on the smaller N gauge. Makers Tomix and Kato were well represented, as were Micro Ace: prices were quite firm, with a top bid of £110 recorded on several Kato lots (including an eight piece Eurostar set, complete with its case), whilst £215 secured a large quantity of Grafar N gauge locomotives, rolling…

Warwick and Warwick’s recent event was enlivened by multiple bidding options, including online, limit bids, auto bids and telephone bids. The Corgi section traditionally attracts many buyers, and this sale proved to be no exception. One lot included a range of diecast vehicles, generally excellent, in very good to excellent plus boxes: a 420 Ford Thames Airborne Caravan, a 438 Land Rover, a 465 Commer Pick-Up Truck and a 1131 Carrimore Detachable Axle Machinery Carrier came with an estimate of £100 but sold for £120. A Chrysler Imperial Convertible (remember the advert promising a mystery gift in the boot?) raised £130, while a Chitty Chitty Bang Bang sold for £110. Finally, a curvaceous Mercedes-Benz 300SL Open Roadster with a blue body, yellow interior and sporting racing number 7 was knocked…

What do Henry Ford, the prolific farm toy collector Peter Wade-Martins, and a little girl called Pippa Hughes have in common? The answer: they all feature in the new ‘Model Farming’ gallery in the Museum of English Rural Life (The MERL), at the University of Reading. ‘Model Farming’ at The MERL is the first public UK museum gallery devoted to farm toys. Visitors will be able to see over 150 carefully selected toys from an incredible collection of over 2500 items that was generously donated to the museum in 2019 by the collector, Peter Wade-Martins. The displays use farm toys, alongside scale models and other artefacts, photos, and imagery to reveal the fascinating story of agricultural mechanisation. The gallery was officially opened by the Vice-Chancellor of the University, Professor Robert…

Have you ever wondered why beefburgers are called ‘hamburgers’ when they’re made from beef, not ham? Don’t worry, I’ve just looked it up so you don’t have to. According to McDonald’s, and if anyone knows, they should, the term 'hamburger' comes from Hamburg in Germany, where a minced beef style dish was first created. Other sources are more specific; it was introduced by the Tartars and morphed from steak tartare. But wait! Convenient though this answer may be, it could be fake news. Checking deeper into academic sources, it appears that although a hamburger is definitely a native of Hamburg, there is no certain evidence linking them to a minced beef patty, other than Hamburg being a major port of departure for German immigrants to the United States. It looks…

When the strains of Noddy Holder, ably accompanied by Slade starts blasting out of the radio I’m transported back to the Christmases of my youth. Alongside the seasonal chart rundown, I feel there should be one for toys too, featuring all the past hits… along with the occasional misses. My first real memory of Christmas toys pre-dated even the unwrapping ceremony. I walked in on my parents wrapping up my Fisher Price TV set that played the old favourite ‘Old MacDonald had a farm’. I must have been very young, but the shock of this scene has stayed burned into my psyche forever. The illusion was further dented by a clearly inebriated Santa falling down our stairs and swearing profusely from the dark recesses of our hallway. I think I…

BTA’s last auction saw plenty of small trains on the rostrum. Typical lots included 11 boxed N gauge 'Gresley Teak' passenger coaches from Dapol. Within this lot was a Light Bar and a Buffet. All in lovely condition and boxed, the ensemble raised £140. A boxed group comprising ten N gauge coaches from Graham Farish included a brake composite W21083 in BR chocolate/cream; a 374-825A Stanier 3rd Class brake car in LMS crimson; and a 374-901B BR Mk1 TPO in Post Office Red. Again boxed and mint, these achieved £130. Another lot included a Graham Farish 372-077 Class B1 4-6-0 Op.No.61251 'Oliver Bury' in BR black with late crest, together with a Dapol DCC READY ND-1350SB1 Hall Class 4-6-0 Op.No.5900 'Hinderton Hall' in GWR lined green. All models were mint…

Bachmann Europe have announced the launch of a brand-new product line in their nostalgic Adventures in Plastic (AiP) brand: a new range of officially licensed, ⅙ scale resin figures depicting characters from Gerry Anderson’s classic ‘Supermarionation’ TV shows. The initial releases are two figures from Stingray, which debuted in 1964 and ran for two series. The characters represented are ‘Troy Tempest’, captain of the flagship submarine Stingray and his second in command, communications expert ‘Phones’. The highly detailed, hand painted figures are depicted in their World Aquanaut Security Patrol (WASP) uniforms. Troy and Phones are approximately 12 inches (30cm) tall and come with a numbered certificate and base, and are ready for display. 2024 will see the 60th Anniversary of Stingray, created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and produced by…

I’m sure that most readers of the Collectors Gazette will have seen one of these little creations at swapmeets from time to time. Assuming that you have, then the chances are that it’s the Lockheed Hudson that is sitting on the seller’s table, possibly minus a propeller and most definitely with upturned or droopy wings. Looking a little tired (after all, you’d be too, if you dated from the 1940s), these little harbingers of the plastic revolution are often overlooked - but I’m about to rectify that situation. THE XYLONITE CONNECTION I don’t know what it is about these miniature aircraft but they exert a strange fascination. To trace their history, it’s necessary to go back to the 1930s, when the British Xylonite Company set about diversifying and incorporated three…

Meccano Constructor outfits must have been wonderful toys to receive for Christmas way back in the 1930s, for those boys who were lucky enough to receive them. They were bright and colourful and used many parts that were not available in the normal Meccano range. During the 1920s Britain entered what was to become a golden era of transport, where speed was king and numerous attempts at speed and endurance records prevailed. Fast racing cars, ocean liners, aeroplanes and seaplanes were the things that boys were getting excited about as the 1930s dawned. It was inevitable, therefore, that the design team at Hornby would soon tap into this market. By the late 1920s Meccano sets were beginning to change in an attempt to reflect this bright new age. Dunlop Motor…

This month’s Meet the Club feature is a little different from the models usually collected by enthusiasts. These are a whole lot bigger and a whole lot heavier! So, please can I introduce the Large Model Association (LMA), first formed in 1982. The aim of the LMA was to bring people together who are interested in building and flying large model aircraft. The first meeting took place 40 years ago in the first chairman’s living room. Since then, the LMA has grown to almost 900 members, based mainly in the UK but also with members in other parts of the world. In the early days of the association there was never a limit regarding the size and weight of model. The LMA has always embraced model aircraft of all sizes.…