Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2024 i Collectors Gazette

Milestone’s January auction results crossed the US$1m threshold. Featuring 723 lots, key subjects were robots, space toys, motorcycles and Japanese tin toys. The auction’s top lot was something of a dark horse: an all-original and complete Exelo (Japan) battery-operated Mars Explorer space car that had been estimated at a very respectable US$12,000-15,000. In the event it ended up selling for an amazing US$42,120. Looking a bit like a 1950s/60s car of the future and manned by two astronaut passengers, the two-tone green tin vehicle was emblazoned with MARS on its sides and came with its complete and colourful pictorial box depicting a Martian landscape. As predicted, the topselling robot in the sale was a fantastic 10 inch Yonezawa Japanese wind-up Diamond Planet Robot, a very rare variation of the largest…

An impressive model railway with 131 locomotives, dozens of vintage passenger carriages, 80 goods wagons and two breakdown cranes went to auction at the beginning of January. It took more than 50 years for Ted Kenny, a railway enthusiast from York, to build up the collection with many of the locomotives having not been run for decades, or even longer. Mr Kenny was just a schoolboy when he got his first train set as a Christmas present in the late 1940s. The train set comprised just a locomotive, and a play worn small circle of track, but it triggered his passion for model railways that would last a lifetime. Among the most valuable individual lots to go under the hammer were two large 0 gauge locomotives made by Ace Trains…

Vectis’ special diecast sale did its vendor proud, showing that there is no slowing down within the marketplace. Here, Corgi stole the limelight, with a No.225 Austin Seven Mini. This was the rare promotional issue for "Jensens" paints in red with a lemon interior. Including leaflet, it sold for a remarkable £1,470. Corgi’s Monkeemobile, with red body and white roof, was near mint but was rendered highly desirable because of the detachable header card and collectors club folded leaflet. It was contested to £1,225. The superb "Rocket Age" gift set also aroused much interest. With RAF Land Rover and Bloodhound Guided Missile, launching ramp, airfield scanners and staff car, it was all there, with leaflets and in a good box. Much sought after by small boys on its appearance, this…

What a strange start to the year! Being on the Hattons email list, as any selfrespecting model railway reporter would be, it was just another ‘important update’. Like everyone else, I did a double take when I opened it. “It is with immense sadness that we share news of the upcoming closure of Hattons Model Railways, an institution in the hobby since 1946.” To say that Hattons was an institution is no understatement. Their dense, close-typed double page adverts have been in all the model railway magazines as long as we can remember. They made a telephone directory look uncluttered. Being just up the road from Meccano, Hattons were particularly noted for holding vast amounts of the unsold Hornby-Dublo stock after Meccano went bust in 1964. It was kind of…

A few years back, chocolate biscuit brand Rocky commissioned some research about what it took to make the perfect summer. Unsurprisingly, the first and foremost factor suggested were long, hot days. This month’s year had just that: the driest and hottest summer on record for 350 years, no less. Everyone recalls the hosepipe bans, the illegality of car washing and the day after day of heat. Pure bliss! Less blissful were the hurricane force winds that bustled across Britain in January, killing over 20 people and causing much damage to buildings and infrastructure. If you need some more hints, this same year was a pivotal time for Africa, when Rhodesia’s white government, bowing to pressure, agreed to a handover and majority rule within two years. Technology triumphed this year: the…

My sister and I thrived on I-SPY spotter books when we were kids. They became part of everyday life and were great on railway journeys to the seaside and long summer walks in the countryside… even more fun when you joined the I-SPY Tribe! The inventor of I-SPY books and first leader of the I-SPY tribe was a man called Charles Warrell, born in Farmborough, Somerset, in April 1889. Prior to launching I-SPY spotter books Warrell had published a short series of small pocket sized books under the banner The Warrell Way. The first of these publications was printed in 1946 by R. Milward & Sons Ltd of Leen Gate, Nottingham and was called You Can’t Go Wrong. This booklet was designed to teach people etiquette and included information on…

Hi folks! One of my best finds so far this year has to be a lovely old postcard showing an Edwardian confectioner and tobacconist shop with two ladies, who I assume to be the proprietors, proudly posing for the camera in the shop doorway. The great thing about this card is the amazing array of sweets and chocolates displayed in the windows and the marvelous way it’s all laid out. The art of window display was clearly the key to healthy sales in those bygone times. Looking into these windows with a magnifying glass it seems that Cadbury’s and Fry’s were the dominant forces in the confectionery world at this time. I was more than happy to hand over a fiver for this fantastic slice of social history. Another very…

CORGI MODEL CLUB CHEVROLET FIRE CHIEF Price: £32.99 Scale: 1/50 Release: out now The most noticeable aspect of Corgi’s second Impala casting was its split diecast body - this allowed the two halves to be painted separately. www.corgimodelclub.com UNIVERSAL HOBBIES CLAAS ARION 550 ST V TRACTOR Price: £68.00 Scale: 1/32 Release: out now It’s a new front linkage, a restyled bonnet, new decals and chrome exhaust Ul:)L for 1ur this Lllll:) updated upucueu Arion flrlUH 550 tractor in metallic seed green Limited to 1000 models. www.claas.co.uk/sales-finance/dealers FUNKO POP! STAR WARS: THE MANDALORIAN GROGU WITH ANZELLAN DROIDSMITH - Price: £16.00 Release: out now In need of some droid repairs? Stop by Nevarro™ and visit Pop! Grogu™ with Droid Smith! Collect this exclusive duo as the next bounty in your The Mandalorian™…

Warwick and Warwick’s latest auction, held towards the end of January, was another very successful sale. The diecast section certainly flew away! Lot 229 was a selection of aircraft, featuring various 1/32, 1/48 and 1/72 scale Corgi Aviation Archive models. Selling for a notable £1,240, against its estimate of £229. A Dinky 513 Guy Flat Truck with Tailboard, 1st cab type, grey cab and flatbed, black chassis, wings and hubs sold for £120 and had an estimate of £100. While lot 348, a Dinky No.952 Vega Major luxury coach with purple sides, blue interior, sold for £110 over an estimate of £100. Lot 358, a Shackleton Foden FG 6-wheel Platform Lorry, finished with a blue body and red wings, grey chassis and fuel tanks, in blue/yellow box and Dyson 8-ton…

We are all aware that from time to time an unusual model will appear and sometimes we are lucky enough to add it to our collection. At one of the larger toy fairs, I came across a Corgi ‘Lions Of Longleat’ Land Rover with a hook. On closer inspection, it was clearly not a repaint and the rivets had not been tampered with. It seemed to be the genuine article. The Land Rover had been given a base identical to the 438 version and as this base has the space and moulding to fit a hook, it had indeed been fitted. I cannot recall any version like this as standard so I assumed that it was either a ‘Friday afternoon’ construction or, due to a shortage of the required bases,…

At about the same time in my life that I was introduced to the delights of diecast, on my third birthday in 1967, a rival for my attentions came onto the scene thanks mainly to the influence of my paternal grandfather, and it had rails. As a result, my two hobbies grew together and a natural result of this was that when my diecast collecting experienced somewhat of a resurgence a decade or so ago, I wanted to do more than just line them up side by side to admire them, displaying them in more of a railway layout scenario. Another influence inherited from my grandfather, an architect by trade in his day, has given me a fascination for building in miniature, either in kit form or built from scratch.…

Corgi #CC99155 1/50 Scania Stobart Limited Edition Set, featuring a unique collection of three famous trucks, curtainside trailer and booklet, certified number 1084 of 3500, boxed. Sold for £25, Sheffield Auction Gallery, January. Vitesse 1/43 scale diecast model Peugeot 106 Roland Garros Paris, limited edition 4046/4500, boxed. Sold for £18, Sheffield Auction Gallery, January. Dinky Supertoys Toys 948 Tractor Trailer McLean, overall good plus, chipping to raised areas to cab especially to hook area, trailer unbroken with all transfers. Sold for £50, Sheffield Auction Gallery, January. Corgi No.497 Man From UNCLE Thrushbuster, blue model, overall excellent and working, complete with Waverly Ring, boxed, outer and insert very good, missing paperwork and packing pieces. Sold for £100, Sheffield Auction Gallery, January. Matchbox Moko Lesney No.74 Mobile Canteen, silver/light blue base, plastic wheels, overall excellent, boxed,…

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It’s generally accepted now that the first Star Wars figures, released in 1978, changed the future of action figure design forever. The figures, scaled around the 3 ¾ inch size of the hero Luke Skywalker, set a standard that the majority of future film, comic and TV figure tie ins would follow thereafter. In 1978, having underestimated demand for the film and merchandise in 1977, rush releasing jigsaws, board games, stationery and the infamous Early Bird Figure Kit for Christmas 1977, the first action figures and vehicles finally hit the shelves. But at the time did Kenner really know that the 3¾” figures would become the phenomena we know today? I think unlikely, because as well as the first 12 small scale action figures, they also ‘hedged their bets’ a…

Ghostbusters has become one of the most iconic film franchises around. The story of four slightly nerdy paranormal investigators that end up saving New York went on to inspire video games, comics, board games, numerous follow-up films and plenty of toys. Now, more than 40 years on since the original film and with Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire due for a cinematic release in March, what better time to look at some classic Ghostbuster collectables released by Kenner throughout the 1980s and 1990s? Before we get onto the toys though, it’s worth noting that Ghostbusters was almost a very different movie. Initially writer and star Dan Aykroyd imagined an adventure starring himself and John Belushi in which the pair would travel through time battling supernatural forces. Set in the future, this first…

I know I’ve said this before but I have run out of space. I don’t know how it happened or why. I can hear a collective sigh going up out there in the ether as the rest of you nod sagely in recognition. It would seem no matter how much of a free reign we have, there is never enough space for our collections. The cabinets get bigger, cupboards fill up and then there’s ‘mission creep’. Forget the Gulf War, this mission creep is far more covert. It starts off with a few models making their way innocently into the living room and ends up with a miniature railway taking friends for joyrides around the garden. The other alternative is stashing. Stashing involves putting things you can’t display away in…

What could be better than messing about on the water, sailing your favourite model boat on a warm summer’s day? Or even a chilly drizzly day? Which is precisely what our featured club this month is all about. Meet The Worcester Model Boat Club (WMBC). The WMBC was founded in 2016 with the aim of forming a model boat club that was for everyone, run by its members for its members. Collectors Gazette spoke to founder member, Alex Willis, who explained that a less than warm welcome had awaited him at a previous model boat club. That inspired him to create a club that was different from what he had experienced. Alex said, “This was the basis behind WBMC and its creation. Something different. The intention and underlying ethos was…