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Factory Errors (cont...)

fodenway's picture
fodenway
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I have a 199 Austin Mini Countryman with several errors. It has a Morris body which is finished in the pale blue normally found on Austins. In addition to this, the baseplate has one of its marking operations the wrong way round. The patent numbers on the outer edges of the base are stamped in the usual way, but the model name and number is upside down, so that the number now appears on the small hump behind the steering axle instead of being between the back wheels as it should be. I don't have a box, so can't identify its age, but the base is matt black, not shiny.
Kevin.

Dinkinius's picture
Dinkinius
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AustraliaDTCA Member

Kevin - It would be great if you could attach an image of this unusual Austin/Morris. It sounds very similar to my 197 on the previous page.
Kind regards
Bruce (150)
#585

fodenway's picture
fodenway
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Hi Bruce,
I tried to post photos of this model, without success. A message came back that the images were too large: being a bit of a techno-dinosaur, I don't know how to resize them, but I'd be perfectly willing to email them to you for posting,
Kevin.

Dinkinius's picture
Dinkinius
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Evening Kevin - you can reach me at landahoy1athotmaildotcom, and I can insert them so others can see your strange hybrid! ("Landahoy" then the numeral 1.)
Kind regards
Bruce (160)
#587

fodenway's picture
fodenway
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DTCA MemberUK

Hi Bruce,
Email on its way to you...........
Kevin.

Dinkinius's picture
Dinkinius
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AustraliaDTCA Member

BinnerL13 wrote:
"I have a 199 Austin Mini Countryman with several errors. It has a Morris body which is finished in the pale blue normally found on Austins. In addition to this, the baseplate has one of its marking operations the wrong way round. The patent numbers on the outer edges of the base are stamped in the usual way, but the model name and number is upside down, so that the number now appears on the small hump behind the steering axle instead of being between the back wheels as it should be. I don't have a box, so can't identify its age, but the base is matt black, not shiny.
Kevin."

Dinkinius wrote:
"Kevin - It would be great if you could attach an image of this unusual Austin/Morris. It sounds very similar to my 197 on the previous page.
Kind regards
Bruce (150)
#585"

BinnerL13 wrote:
"Hi Bruce,
I tried to post photos of this model, without success. A message came back that the images were too large: being a bit of a techno-dinosaur, I don't know how to resize them, but I'd be perfectly willing to email them to you for posting,
Kevin."

Greetings all

As requested by Kevin, the following images are of his 199 Austin Se7en Countryman.

I am also attaching another image of my 197 Morris Mini-Traveller that has a 199 Austin Se7en Countryman base plate, to enable readers to see exactly what Kevin has in his collection - a base plate that has been stamped incorrectly with the base plate itself having been affixed incorrectly. (Please refer to Kevin's remarks below - only the base plate has been stamped incorrectly!)

With the image on the left, we have a fluorescent orange Austin and on the right, the Morris. Anyone have an Austin with an incorrect base plate?

Kind regards

Bruce (150)
#588

fodenway's picture
fodenway
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DTCA MemberUK

Bruce,
Thanks for posting the photos of my factory error Austin/Morris. I'd like to point out that the base IS fitted the correct way, it's the model description which has been stamped the wrong way around and now reads from the back of the car instead of the front, although the patent numbers have been stamped the correct way, as on your baseplate. By the way, is the front numberplate on your orange version missing, or just bent up?
Kevin.

Dinkinius's picture
Dinkinius
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AustraliaDTCA Member

Kevin

Glad of being some help. From England to Australia and back again, electronically! In the light of day - you are perfectly correct! The base plate has only been stamped the wrong way around! Interesting that the base plates went through one stamping process and then another. (I have inserted a comment in my Post above correcting my comments.)

The orange version has no number plate. The base plate has been cut short as having the rivet so close to the front end, there is no need to have a number plate and most cars and some Supertoys (the Leylands for instance) that have a number plate involves the base plate end passing through an aperture and then bent that also serves as retainer instead of a rivet - cost-saving exercise? I recall reading something about this with the Morris/Austins somewhere!

Kind regards

Bruce (150)
#591

dinkycollect's picture
dinkycollect
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DTCA MemberFrance

Bruce,

Some Minis are known without a front registration plate. Was this deliberate from Meccano or were they brocken ? I have not seen enough without number plate to say that the cutting tools had been modified.

If this was the case, there may be an other reason than cost improvement for deleting the plate, this is because the plate had accessible sharp edges which could hurt the users. The 197 and 199 with front number plate and several other Dinky would not comply with todays safety standards.

Jacques.
(100)

micromodels's picture
micromodels
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Here is a #168 Humber Hawk without windows. It is a bit hard to photograph, but the spiggot at the centre of the roof to hold the windows has not been spun over. The toy itself is in reasonable condition and there are no signs that the glazing has been 'ripped' out.

PS  I have since seen at least two other Hawks on eBay without glazing but in otherwise good condition, so there must have been a whole batch of them?
Ron F

Dinkinius's picture
Dinkinius
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AustraliaDTCA Member

Thanks Ron for bringing to our attention your unusual Humber Hawk. I always assumed that the plastic glazing for the "windows, had a hole through which the protuberance from the ceiling was slotted, but checking my Humber there does appear to be some sort of "spun over with the spigot.

While scrolling through eBay last night, my first for going through all 10,637 entries (!!) I noticed quite a few auctions that drew my attention.

One such auction was for a 176 Austin A105 shown in the images below.

The front left wheel hub has been mounted incorrectly - the inner is on the outside. Nothing like a Friday afternoon effort, or first thing Monday morning!

This is how the wheel should look like, mounted the correct way! (Although this does show yet another type of spun hub used which is different to the normal spun hub.)

Kind regards

Bruce (150)
#691
4 July 2015

Dinkinius's picture
Dinkinius
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AustraliaDTCA Member

dinkycollect wrote:
"Bruce,

Some Minis are known without a front registration plate. Was this deliberate from Meccano or were they brocken ? I have not seen enough without number plate to say that the cutting tools had been modified.

If this was the case, there may be an other reason than cost improvement for deleting the plate, this is because the plate had accessible sharp edges which could hurt the users. The 197 and 199 with front number plate and several other Dinky would not comply with todays safety standards.

Jacques.
(100)"

Jacques

My apologies for having neglected to answer your above post going back six weeks!

I have only had one mini pass through my hands with it being a 199 Austin Se7en Countryman in fluorescent pink. Unfortunately, I sold this one through auction in the UK several years ago. All I have are the following images to verify that the base plate had not been cut, but was totally original.

Kind regards

Bruce (150)
#695
5 July 2015

micromodels's picture
micromodels
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DTCA Member

Hi Jacques and Bruce,

I was told by that the removal of the front numberplate extension on the base was done for safety reasons. The Morris 1100 (140) had a casting change to protect the projecting baseplate.

Ron F

Dinkinius's picture
Dinkinius
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AustraliaDTCA Member

Hello Ron

Many thanks for reminding me of this change - I had completely forgotten about it, so I checked, and there they were!

The thought comes to mind as to when during the six year production run the change was incorporated.

Kind regards

Bruce (150)
#696
5 July 2015

Richard's picture
Richard
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DTCA MemberFrance

The reason why (have a look on the"New arrival" thread) :

My old one below, has the same wheels on the 4 axles but the new, above, has 2 types of wheels :

2 pairs on the left side : the first and the rear ones (identical to the front Wayne Bus wheels) and the two others are similar to my old Leyland.
On the right side, only one wheel is different.

Friendly yours

Richard

Dinkinius's picture
Dinkinius
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AustraliaDTCA Member

Greetings all!

I saw that this Topic has been rather quiet lately with the last entry having been made on 6 July 2015 by Richard.  In answer to Richard's Post, I too have noticed the occasional differences with large hubs, not forgetting a mix of plastic and grooved metal hubs.

My effort this time is a 134 Triumph Vitesse, originally part of the collection of the well-known Dinky Toys collector and writer for Model Collector magazine, John Kinchen. The person responsible in the factory for spraying the side flash forgot to turn the model around and do the left side!  I guess someone was too busy catching up on the latest goss!

Here is the driver's side, all correct, 

and the passenger's side,

The price on the box is 3/11, a price that was current from the date it was released in February 1964 to June 1966. If I were to have a guess as to when this particular model was still in the factory and still under preparation, I would put the time as sometime from January to February 1964, when the model was new and many workers on the assembly and painting line were not familiar with it.

Bruce H.   (150)

20161102/1029/1403

 

 

 

CaddyEldorado
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DTCA Member

Sorry, not great pics, but at some stage in the production process, I'm assuming,  this Jaguar has been sat on sufficiently heavily to distort the roof.

Embarrassingly, I hadn't noticed until I viewed the photographs.

Regards

Mark

dinkyfan's picture
dinkyfan
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DTCA MemberUSA

Bruce--I wonder if yours was made during that era when they had lots of labor unrest? Some of what I read indicated there were lots of problems with much of the workforce, although it also could have been the occasional lapse in QC. And Mark, that is amazing it got through the process without being discovered. Must have been dropped from some height to do that. It also makes you wonder just what Meccano QC was really like during those difficult times; in earlier years it seemed very important.
Best regards, Terry

chris instance
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DTCA Member

Another factory error? Help please, after reading the two part Foden article from Rob I was in heaven. The number of colours of both early and late Fodens was amazing. I did like the 901 wagon with the yellow wheels which got me looking at my collection of models to refurbish. One such was an early 1947/8. build with no tow hook I obtained for £5. at a boot fair last year. These sort of models are stripped and placed in tubs for later work when a number can be worked on together. The top model on page 13 of April 2017 copy of the journal reminded me that I also had this rare example uncovered under various coats of house paint. The original paint was the same red cab and body with a black chassis. The difference with my model was it was fitted with black wheels and not red as depicted. These hubs were fitted with very good 'herringbone tyres' which appeared original and have all been used again. No photos were taken of this model as I had no reason to think it was unusual in any way. I have now restrored it to origonal codition including the black hubs. From memory I can not think of any Foden ever being fitted with black hubs. However, I think I can remember having at least one of the 39 series American cars 1949/50. which had black hubs. If so is it possible that these got fitted when the red ones had run out? Are there any more examples out there?  All my original Dinky Toys got taken to the hospital when I was away at boarding school at the age of ten. I now have a collection of 40 refurbished Fodens all with reproduction boxes and a further 80 original with about 50 their boxes and new boxes for the rest. No.578.

janwerner's picture
janwerner
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DTCA MemberNetherlands

A late Austin Champ, without driver and no trace at all of its possible former presence. A factory flaw or a true variant, a final desparate attempt to reduce costs? Kind regards, Jan W

 

johnnyangel's picture
johnnyangel
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DTCA MemberUSA

Here is one for the "errors" thread showing what Binns Road quality control could be like in the mid-70s. I purchased the van in the centre in 1976 in a British toyshop; it came in a box for the 417 Motorway Services Transit, but as can be seen, they missed out on the stickers, the roof light, and painting the grille and bumpers silver. (The model also has one jewelled headlamp awry and scratches above it. It must have been late on a Friday or early on a Monday!)

On the left is the normal 417 showing what it should have looked like. The only other Transit painted that colour and without a roof light is the "1,000,000 Transit" version, which was released in 1976 though I was unaware of it at the time.

 

janwerner's picture
janwerner
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DTCA MemberNetherlands

Sometimes different kinds of tyres can be found on one model. This may be due to incorrect replacement of tyres. In the case below, the rear wheels and tyres of a Frazer Nash, this is not possible, because the tyres cannot be replaced without visible traces of the replacement. This is an obvious factory error, in the years that both types of tyres were in use in the factory, in this case ca. 1946-1947. 

Fred7A
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DTCA Member

That's a nice tyre error.  I don't have many Dinky Toys this old, and I only have a couple with these treaded tyres.  What was the policy for fitting those treaded tyres?  They seem to appear quite randomly on a range of vehciles in the very early post-war period.  Were these tyres were originally produced for the military range?

The previous post about the Ford Transits is quite old, but I didn't see it previously.  That plain yellow model is intriguing.  As stated, the only Transit of this type produced with no roof light (and therefore no hole in the roof) is the Millionth Transit promotional.  However, that had cast headlights, not jewels.  I like the way that the trouble was taken to fit number plates, despite the complete lack of painted trim.  What is the story behind the VAB logos?

What colour is the interior on these Transits?

johnnyangel's picture
johnnyangel
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DTCA MemberUSA

Fred, V.A.B. was (or is?) a chain of Ford dealers in the Amsterdam area. I don't know whether Meccano Ltd. customised this Transit for them, or dealership staff altered 1,000,000 Transit promo models once they were delivered from Binns Road, but I suspect the former (peeling off stickers would have been pointless when they could just have applied the VAB brand another way).

The V.A.B. Transit has a blue interior, my two normal Motorway Services Transits have red interiors, and the strange unfinished one has a gray interior.

 

janwerner's picture
janwerner
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DTCA MemberNetherlands

Three yellow Market Gardener's Wagons, all of them showing anomalies in the '20' roundel decal's positions.

The first one on the left bears no decal at all, as it was probably meant for export.

The second shows it partly pasted over the grid, resulting in the brittle film breaking off there.

The third one has the transfer pasted 'around the corner', on the side of the body.

The orange one on the right is the only one with the decal positioned as it was meant to be.

Fred7A
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DTCA Member

Thanks for the information on those Transits!

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