The Point Duty Policeman in white coat on duty.

A pre-war trade box for the policemen, it would originally have contained 12 figures but it came with 6. It is very rare to find the figures in such a good condition as these are.

The "Printed in England" notice on the end of the box has obviously been an afterthought as it has been applied using a rubber stamp.

Dave. A very nice and hard to find acquisition. Indeed, policemen white as snow with a shiny badge on the helmet. Congratulations. It's already hard to find a photo of such a 42c trade box, let alone to find the real one. With such a scarce item it will be also very difficult to find it complete with all 12 in it.

I kept the photo below of a 42c and 42d trade box in my archives because I was looking for evidence at the time that the 42c and 42d were actually sold separately in a trade box. In my photo the code number A 2117 is in a different place. These items were first announced in the advertisement in MM of June 1936. My picture is of MM July 1936.

Best wishes, Jan Oldenhuis.

The one that I bought was the first one I had ever seen. The nice thing is that these items do appear from time to time. I doubt I will ever be able to fill the box.

Few trade boxes survived with untouched complete contents without damage. After all, the function of the trade box is of course to offer the retailer the opportunity to sell items individually and the box only served as a shipping and storage function for the retailer.

It was up to the retailer what he wanted to do with the trade box. He could of course also sell it with the complete contents to a customer, but I think those are exceptions. I can't imagine someone giving 12 policemen to their child at once. I can also not find a price in catalogues for, for example, a complete set of 42c policemen in a (trade) box.

The trade boxes are real leftovers, which fortunately have ended up in the hands of customers and later on collectors and keep the history of the types of Dinky Toys boxes alive. Many trade boxes were later supplemented by owners to a complete content.

These are my own thoughts on this and other ideas are of course welcome.

Jan Oldenhuis