-295 Atlas Kenebrake Bus (1960-65)

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Mon, 07/11/2016 - 16:55

fodenway

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-295 Atlas Kenebrake Bus (1960-65)

I have just been going back through some of my old magazines, and came across an intriguing article in the March 2001 issue (number 150) of Model Auto Review. According to Geoff Mason, the writer concerned, Dinky Toys number 295, the Standard Atlas Kenebrake minibus was also issued in a third variation besides the grey/blue and all-blue varieties with which we are familiar. This was, and I quote - "There also appears to have been a SILVER version with "Butlin's Holiday Camp Special" on the sides. This was issued between 1968 and 1969 and was originally priced at 7/11 (39 pence)".

Where did this information come from? If it existed, was it only sold in Butlin's Gift Shops? Has anyone seen one (or does anyone own one)?

For the information of non-UK residents, Butlin's was a chain of all-inclusive holiday camps set up by entrepreneur Billy Butlin, later Sir Billy, at various coastal resorts in Britain after the war, many of them in former Army bases. They offered low-priced, fun-filled breaks for working-class families in Britains' austere post-war years, later going further up-market as circumstances changed.

Tue, 03/30/2021 - 10:10

dinkycollect

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More than two years after Kevin's post (it's never too late) I think that the Butlin's Holiday Camp bus is a mistake as the Dinky stoped to be made in 1964, then it was certainly not re-issued from 1968 until 1969. Who ever mentioned this promotionnal must have been mistaken for an other bus, for example the Atlantean Yellow Pages bus which has the same reference 295 as the Atlas Kenebrake or even an other manufacturer such as Corgi ...

The reason I have comme to visit this page is because I have found a variation for this model. There are variations for almost every Dinky Toys. The second type of base plates for this Atlas bus has the name KENEX engraved, the early models did not show this name. This makes me wander if the name was added at the request of KENEX to make it a promotionnal model. Also which is the rarest model ?

Thu, 12/19/2019 - 17:24

fodenway

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Thanks for your observation - I hadn't noticed this before. I have both colour versions, but neither has "Kenex" on the baseplate. I did a quick 'survey' of Kenebrakes for sale on Ebay, and found the with/without proportion to almost equal across both colour variants, although the all-blue one is a scarcer model than blue/grey. I have to agree with your comments on the supposed "Butlins" version, I believe the author of the article is confusing the Corgi "Holiday Camp Special" Commer minibus (number 508) which was released in July 1968 and deleted in 1969, although this was orange and white, rather than silver, and had no mention of Butlins. The Dinky Atlantean in silver was not released until the Queens' Silver Jubilee in 1977.

Tue, 03/30/2021 - 09:31

Jan Oldenhuis

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I discovered a gross error in the production time of this model when reading this topic. This should not be 1963-1969, but 1960-1965 and that is quite a big time difference !! Model 295 was introduced in Meccano Magazine in May 1960 and appeared in all catalogues from 1960-1965, but no more pictured in 1965. It had disappeared from the catalogues since 1966. I think this error was taken from Patrick Trench's Dinky Toys Compendium 4a and Ramsay's guide also makes the same mistake. It was the first closed vehicle fitted with interior.

There are 2 people who can fix this mistake: 1. The one who created the topic and that's Kevin. 2. The webmaster, but I don't know who that is currently. I hope Kevin is reading this as he can recover this error very easily.

Kind regards, Jan Oldenhuis 30 March 2021.