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hoort's picture
hoort
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DTCA MemberNetherlands

Dinky and Nicky Toys

Hi all,

Perhaps there has been a thread or article in the passed on this subject, but I have not been able to find it. Before the introduction of the name Nicky Toys by S. Kumar and Co in India, the same company made Dinky Toys under license for a short period. Due to the poor quality of these Dinky Toys, the license was withdrawn and the production continued under the new name.
All Nicky Toys are scarce, but the Indian made Dinky Toys are rare. I only have one boxed example which is shown here alongside the Nicky version. Both carry the original Dinky number 184. In the second picture the baseplates are shown. One with Dinky Toys lettering and one without.
Does anyone else have Indian made Dinky Toys?

Kind regards,
Rob

hoort's picture
hoort
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DTCA MemberNetherlands

The baseplates.

Dinkinius's picture
Dinkinius
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AustraliaDTCA Member

Hello Rob

The only example I have is the Nicky Toys 194 Bentley. Like your models, it too retains the original Dinky Toys sales number of 194. Notice the presence of the rather crude, but effective cardboard ring to protect the windscreen/windshield.

An original Indian Dinky Toys 194 in a dark shade of grey appeared on eBay about 12 years ago. At that time I was not interested, and it went for a low sum. Now I wish I had done my homework better, although in those days, the wealth of information on Dinky Toys in general was rather limited, unlike these days.

Kind regards

Bruce

dinkycollect's picture
dinkycollect
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DTCA MemberFrance


Dinky Toys box with Nicky stickers.

What happened with Nicky Toys is I think a bit different from what Rob wrote.

When the Speke factory closed, Meccano had bought modern casting machines installed at Binns road and the dies used at speke could not be fitted to those new machines.

So casting machines, dies and every part remaining in store were sold to S. Kumar of Calcuta. The marque used in India was always Nicky Toys but as some Dinky Toys base plates and boxes were available the toys were sold as Dinky Toys. When Meccano noticed the poor quality, they asked Kumar to stop using the name Dinky and NICKY stickers were applied to the boxes. When the stock ran out Kumar had new boxes printed with his own art work and very low quality card.

There are all sorts of variations of base plates, wheels and boxes.

The part of the die for the front of the Herald must have been lost somewhere as Nicky's Herald has always four headlights. The same applies to the Daimler which does not seem to have been issued in India.

Nicky also made a Rolls-Royce tourer, a Volkswagen 1500 Police car, the Mercedes 220 as police car and taxi, these are specific to Nicky had have never been made by Meccano.

There is no end to the list of colours. Kumar probably bought left over from other jobs or even other companies.

I have the same Bentley as Bruce and also the Howitzer.

starni999
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DTCA MemberUK

Fascinating! How long were these in production for? Was there any sort of agreement after the sale of the dies?I presume they weren't allowed to sell them in any of Meccano's main markets?
Chris Warr.

dinkycollect's picture
dinkycollect
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DTCA MemberFrance

It seems that after India the dies went to Australia but there is no sign of them been used there.

hoort's picture
hoort
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DTCA MemberNetherlands

Hello Jacques,

Based on what I know sofar, I do not think Kumar of India bought or used English made Dinky Toys boxes. I have never seen, either on a picture or holding in my hands, an Indan made Dinky Toys in another box than an Indian made Dinky Toys box.
The Indian made Dinky Toys boxes all have completely different box art work than any British made Dinky Toys boxes. (Not like the South African Dinky Toys boxes which only had text changes, requiring one color change in the printing process) The picture on all Indian made Dinky Toys boxes is different and so is the white back ground, as seen on my box and on the Vanwall box shown by you. There never was a British made Dinky Toys box for the 184 Mercedes or the 239 Vanwall with this picture or background. Also there is only one picture side on the Indian made Dinky Toys boxes, whereas British made boxes of the era always have two picture sides (or no picture at all.)
Furthermore my Dinky Toys box clearly shows that Kumar is a licensed manufacturer and registered user of the Dinky Toys brand. This disappeared on the Nicky Toys box. I am sure that when you have a picture of the opposite side of the box you showed, it will be the same as mine. Of course Kumar could have been bending the thruth by mentioning the license on the box, but that seems unlikely.

Of course I stand corrected, if a boxed model or other proof comes up to show that Kumar did use British made boxes or did not have a license.
Hence my question on the start of this thread for other Indian made Dinky Toys.

In the picture my two Mercedes boxes are shown. The side opposite the picture side.

Kind regards,

Rob

dinkycollect's picture
dinkycollect
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DTCA MemberFrance

Rob,

Of course you are right, I have been mistaken by the stickers on the boxes and I will correct that on the CD.

Jacques.

hoort's picture
hoort
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DTCA MemberNetherlands

Jacques,

I am glad I was able to contribute to the CD!

Kind regards,
Rob

Townie54's picture
Townie54
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A Nicky Toys Bentley in maroon with cast wheels. The interior has been painted in after market. Bentley 194 on the base and of course fingertip steering.

hoort's picture
hoort
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DTCA MemberNetherlands

Hi all,

Luck has been on my side in finding another Indian made Dinky Toys on eBay, from an Indian seller.
It is the the 735 Gloster Javelin with its very flimsy but still complete Dinky Toys box. The model is marked Dinky Toys and painted in grey and very dark grey, almost black camouflage. The English made Gloster Javelin is in grey and green camouflage.

Kind regards,
Rob

dinkycollect's picture
dinkycollect
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DTCA MemberFrance

This post from Chris is to test how to transfer a post.

A NICKY TOYS version of the civilian  Mighty Antar Tank Transporter, without transformer but complete with box, was recently sold on eBay for £365. According to the seller he bought it in a toy shop in Delhi in 1982. Here are a few photos from the eBay page but more can be seen by searching for item 151903274687.

Chris

Transferring the text is easy, just copy and paste.

The large pictures can not be grabbed by click and drag so they must be copied to your computer by "copy screen" and then re-loaded to the new thread.

There may be an other way to do the same but this way works very well except that for an unknown reason, the pictures do not enlarge when one clicks on them.

Nicky Toys may require a sub forum with a post for each model rather than a single messy post for all the Nicky models.
 
Jacques (#100)
 

goodss01
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DTCA Member

It is my understanding that the Wayne School bus and perhaps the Wayne Continental Coach were among the castings that were sent to India.  However, I have never seen Nicky Toy versions of these models  turn up anywhere.

Does anyone know if the Wayne bus was ever produced in India?  Thank you.

Townie54's picture
Townie54
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Seeing the 194 article in April 21 mag with a Nicky Toys Bentley, thought I should reawaken this thread. My metallic red, with quite good cast wheels version appeared here in 2014. I acquired it in 1983, and recall a metallic blue version available then too. It has the plain base Bentley S2 194.