Thanks, Terry, it's one of the many aspects of my miniatures loving hobby. Never a dull moment! Kind regards, Jan
Impressive and not so expensive.
I knew that I had it some where and I found it today. It is the photo of the Meccano show room that Meccano Ltd.
had on Berkely square London in the 1960s.
Photo from the 1960 trade catalogue.
Very nice
Nice.
The darker blue no. 23s Streamlined Racing Car arrived from Italy this morning. It is an early postwar example (1945-1946) with smooth black hubs, silver base plate and fine treaded white tyres. Not perfect but quite nice, a companion to my slightly later (1946-1948) medium blue one. Price: €14,90! Admittedly, the travel of the parcel cost the same amount, but even so, a quite fair bargain. And the journey from Torino took ... 4 days! Kind regards, Jan
great
For those of us whose collecting extends to later Dinky Toys ...
I acquired this Coles crane from an eBay seller because the price was reasonable and I had never had the harder-to-find orange version. It's a little tired in appearance but is certainly displayable and had been played with gently.
This model is packed with play value, and I could not resist operating the crane. And as you can see, this crane is even able to restrain a wild feline. How many Dinkys could make that claim?
Hi Jonathan,
What you have is a second issue Coles Hydra crane, where the pinion drive to the jib quadrant was replaced with a worm gear thus making it impossible for the jib to fall under a heavy load. A nice example.
Vic
Vic -- thank you for this note. A tribute to ongoing product improvement! Of course I knew the cat was tranquilised by the sun and not about to test the crane's strength!
For those of us whose collecting extends to later Dinky Toys ...
I acquired this Coles crane from an eBay seller because the price was reasonable and I had never had the harder-to-find orange version. It's a little tired in appearance but is certainly displayable and had been played with gently.
This model is packed with play value, and I could not resist operating the crane. And as you can see, this crane is even able to restrain a wild feline. How many Dinkys could make that claim?
A Dinky Toy and a book arrived today. That is, one virtually mint blue Standard Vanguard Saloon in one box, and many boxes with 400 books, just delivered by the printer. It is the toy garage book, a former colleague of mine, Dirk Tang, and myself have been working on for over a year, 224 pages, hb. Unfortunately for the international readership ... in Dutch only. It will be launched at the big Namac/Houten swap meet of next 18 February! Kind regards, Jan
Congratulations Jan, but that is sad, many of us will not be able to read it.
I wish you many sales.
Jacques
I had once a much admired O scale Modernist style white garage circa 1960 with rooftop parking and rear ramp, a central office tower with accesses either side and engraved sign and golden ball top, a clock tower with flagpole, side entrances and semi circular side pods topped with gold balls too. It came from my uncle who worked in Liberty’s so presumed purchased at nearby Hamleys - bespoke as my name was on the sign. I have only found similar once or twice on the web for sale and rather dilapidated. You may not have such in your book?
Jan,
Does your book cover the Triang Tower Garages set? I would love to own this amazing item, or at the very least get to see one in person some day.
It is a unique Triang-Dinky crossover item and must date from shortly after Lines Brothers acquired Meccano Ltd. It was supplied with the Dinky Shell and BP pump sets in the box -- presumably unaltered from standard, and retaining their Dinky labels on the bases?
Apart from the inclusion of the Dinky components, this garage is also of interest because the same conical orange roofs for the towers were employed on various castles that Triang produced. (I once owned one of the castles, so could not miss the resemblance.)
As any completeness is unthinkable, we made a random, wide choice of garages: small scale, large scale, paper, wooden, diecast, tinplate, plastic, foldable, kits, fiction, self made, NL, French, German, Danish, Russian, Ukrainian, British, USA etc. etc. Interviews with owners, designers etc. etc. Just to get a fine impression of the field, but completeness - no way! Kind regards, Jan
Some random examples below:
Jon,
Thats a nice Coles Hydra crane find and in vgc too. Your cat doesnt seem to mind at all being hooked by it either. Great photo!
Jan,
Your new book looks very impressive, good luck with the orders and sales. Congrats.
Here is a pair of incomplete but still enjoyable tinplate garages that I'll be refurbishing. The 'SUPERIOR' Car Wash and Laundrette still has its parking elevator but is missing the tinplate surround at the top, which shows a clock. The Shell liveried station is missing its second storey altogether.
I'll build a composite tin/board garage, recreating the missing parts as best I can but they'll be fine for display purposes.
Jan -- the book is surely lovely! Naturally, completeness regarding a subject such as model garages would be impossible. But I could not help hoping that you had encountered the amazing Dinky/Triang Tower Garages. The only pictures of this garage I have ever been able to find seem to stem from one single auction, so it must be very rare now ...
We encountered numerous garages, but had to make our choices, fitting within 224 pages.
In the mean time the Standard Vanguard Saloon got the company of the announced grey/black wheels Loudspeaker Van. Nice to collect some easy to find colour variations of this one. Comparing with my other examples the Standard Vanguard shows one more adjustment to the boot side of the die.
Jan, your book looks superb, and probably worth having for the beautiful photos alone. Sadly, I expect the addition of international postage to the UK may make it quite expensive?
I have an incomplete Triang Tower Garage. It's currently packed away, so I will get it out and take a couple of pictures shortly.
I know there are some services through which a digitally produced book can be stored on a website, then printed and bound "on demand" locally. Perhaps this could be a future solution?
I am excited about those potential Tower Garage pictures!!
So am I! I don't know exactly what postage + VAT, etc. outside the EU will add to the price (which is 30 euros). I guess it will at least double.
By the way, this is not a 'printing-on-demand' book. The layout, letterfont, printing, paper and binding are not standard, but done by professionals. The dust cover for the collectors' edition was even printed manually! Kind regards, Jan
Jan,
The "print on demand" services as utlized by my son for his annual photo books do leave the fonts, layout, and images totally under the control of the creator, so there are no visial compromises. He is very critical! What choices they offer for paper and binding, I cannot say. But I'm sure that the results you have obtained by working with your printer are superior.
Cheers,
J
Oh, yes, Jon, the same goes for my printed-on-demand annual Dinky supplements. I am very happy with them! Kind regards, Jan
A couple of new arrivals. Both fairly humble. The Bedford has a number of touch-ins, as acknlowedged by the seller, but I find it displayable, and it is not so easy to find the red one.
Already there is no room anywhere for the Coles Crane, though I did clear out a parking spot for the Bedford. These will be my last new Dinkys until or unless I can find some very small ones I want.
Jon---I love that Bedford in red.....you are quite right....seldom seen.
Terry
Very nice red Bedford Jon and neat to see it in red. The Coles crane is a good find too.
The Bedford appears to have been well loved and the well deserved cosmetic freshening makes it display very well.
Mark
2024 AGM
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Dinky 582/982 Pullmore - Dark Blue Cab/Dark Blue Body
DTCAwebsite upgrade 2023
--33 Mechanical Horse and Five Assorted Trailers
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186 Mercedes 220 SE
186 Mercedes 220 SE
--14a and 400 B.E.V. Electric Truck (1948-60)
--33 Mechanical Horse and Five Assorted Trailers
--25m and 410 Bedford End Tipper (1948-63)
--25m and 410 Bedford End Tipper (1948-63)
Trailer Caravans
Austin Van 470
Meccano Liverpool pricelist French F.A.S. Tarif Exportation 1957
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-274 - A.A. Mini van
Dinky Toys books
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--40h and 254 Austin FX3 Taxi (1952-59)
--40h and 254 Austin FX3 Taxi (1952-59)
-066 Bedford Flat Truck (1957-60)
-066 Bedford Flat Truck (1957-60)
--40h and 254 Austin FX3 Taxi (1952-59)
--40h and 254 Austin FX3 Taxi (1952-59)
--40h and 254 Austin FX3 Taxi (1952-59)