I hope my comments will not sound too obvious but here would be my tips:

If you are restoring do not worry too much about the paint finish or the tyres, with practice the paint is easy to replicate and replacement tyres are available from a number of suppliers. Try to ensure that the basic body is sound and complete. Google will point you in the right direction for suppliers. Also new replacement boxes are readily available and nowadays are of very good quality.

If you are contemplating buying good quality items I would try to stick to a lesser number of really good ones than lots of mediocre ones. I was looking at a collection only this morning which was probably 50 or 60 different Dinky Toys and Supertoys but each one was absolutely mint. It was small on content but high on quality and left a true lasting impression.

Whether you have a theme i.e. Cars, Commercial or Military etc. is down to you. Collect what YOU like rather than what you think other people might like - it is YOUR collection and each collection is unique.

Absolutely most of all ENJOY what you collect, or refurbish. There are lots of ways to spend your time but collecting Dinky Toys is truly rewarding and searching out the one you are really after is great fun.

Dave B
DTCA Editor

Hi Tesh, welcome to the DTCA, and this website, and ... happy collecting!
Kind regards, Jan

Hi Tesh
I'm new to collecting Dinky Toys - but actually it's really for the second time around as I used to have a fair collection (80 items+ all mint boxed) but sold this back in the late'70s/early '80s to buy furniture as I was newly married.

Now time has moved on and I've started again and can again boats a very small collection, but I've start with 261 PO Telehone Engineers Van. This was my first item that I kept rather than played to death!!? So I have started again and already have three additional saloons again all MIB!
I'm not certain I'll have the budget to buy back all those Supertoys I used to have - but we'll see !!?

Philip

Hi Tesh

First of all welcome to the DTCA website, there is a huge amount of information on here and I hope you enjoy it.

Please fire any questions up on here and we will do our very best to help.

Dave

Hi Tesh
I have been collecting Dinky Toys again for the last 20 years and so is my Brother after my Dad found a box of about 180 of our original Dinkies in his loft. We split the models as best we could remembering who owned which. They ranged from the 1940's through to 1970 (I was born in 1948 but had some older cars given to me when I was about 4). Some were still in mint condition with their boxes and the rest were in very good condition with some boxes. Now I visit toy fairs and have added to them over the years and now have almost 200. I love restoring damaged models which have either lost paint or parts. Strip down the model by drilling out the rivets and use a good paint stripper gell to remove old paint. The best paint to use is Halfords car respray in tins and I always use a primer to seal the casting before glossing-remembering to use several light coats to avoid thickly covering the fine detail and to keep the finish as thin as possible. Good colour matches can usually be found. It's easy to get parts, tyres and windows for Dinkies and I tend to use Steve Flowers Model Supplies Ltd. Look at the web site and you will see a massive catalogue (WWW.model-supplies.co.uk) but there are many other suppliers too.
The DTCA is great for information on all things Dinky. If you get a chance, go to an AGM. I've just been to this years which was held in Gaydon Motor Heritage Museum, a great venue and great people to meet and chat to.
Happy collecting, Ragards Don Bugden.