Dinky Toys for grandchildren

10 posts / 0 new

Last post

Tue, 04/15/2014 - 00:37

dinkyfan

Offline

Dinky Toys for grandchildren

This past year, I noticed that my 3 local granddaughters, ages 7, 9, and 11, started to express some interest and curiosity about my Dinky collection. Several times I carefully took out one of the models and let them handle and look at it, then let them point out a new favorite to look at. They, of course, are quite amazed at the variety that I have, and even more so when I tell them I was younger than them when I got my first Dinky.
I then thought that maybe I would give them each one of my older, played with Dinky's to have as their own...with no "be careful" warnings coming from me........but then I thought, most of those are pretty badly scratched and not very pretty any more. So I hit on the idea of having another local Dinky collector and restorer, Don Gardner, do some modest restorations for me, to then present to the girls. I decided I wanted them all to have one of the 40 series...one of my personal favorites.
Don lives about 30 minutes away and was up to the challenge, and quickly assembled one each of the Triumph 1800 Saloon, the Riley Saloon, and the Austin Somerset. I then decided that it would be kind of neat to have each one painted to replicate my own nearly mint models.
Don did all of this, going through the whole process of restoring a beat up Dinky, and the results are shown below. We decided to put each one in a acrylic display case, which he also found. Then, as a complete surprise to me, he decided it would be nice to put together a little booklet, showing and telling about the cars and how they were restored. He even included pictures of the actual cars, along with step by step descriptions and photos of his work.........I was astounded to say the least! The booklets are 12 pages long, both sides. I won't bother to show you each page, but did want you to see the front and back cover. He used photos of my own collection as well.
My plan is to give these to the girls when 2 of them have birthdays in May. I am hoping that they will keep and cherish these little gifts from me, and show them to their children some day....a neat way of remembering their grandfather I hope!
Terry

The 3ea 40 series after restoration

The restored Triumph on the display stand

The Triumph inside the display case

All 3 Dinky's in their display cases

The front cover of the Dinky Toys booklet for each girl

The rear cover of the Dinky Toys booklet for each girl

Tue, 04/15/2014 - 08:12

buzzer999

Offline

That is a fabulous idea Terry.

When my eight year old granddaughter Erin saw my new Dinky book last year she wanted to recreate one of the scenes, here is what she came up with:

Dave

Tue, 04/15/2014 - 09:46

buzzer999

Offline

This is a starting grid for a race arranged by my six year old grandson Seth.

I think that Donald Campbell will be fast down the straights in Bluebird but he might struggle in the harpin bends.

Dave

Tue, 04/15/2014 - 20:30

dinkyfan

Offline

Very nice images of your grandchildren arranging the Dinky's, and the smile on their face tells it all! I am also somewhat amused when I look at those old Meccano Dinky displays and see the race tracks, with real GP race cars mixed in with speed record cars like the Thunderbolt. But Meccano seemed to know merchandising quite well, and many times that trounced model accuracy, or in those case, display accuracy. But they are still fond scenes and very Dinky!
Terry

Mon, 06/02/2014 - 03:52

dinkyfan

Offline

Well we had a few birthdays in May, and my 3 local granddaughters received their nicely refurbished Dinky's. I wanted to give each of them a vintage Dinky, re-painted in the same colors as some of my originals....these are shown in an earlier post, and they came out quite nice.
Each of the girls opened up their present at the same time, and below is the result. I just told them that I hoped they would keep these, to some days show their children and tell them of their grandpa's collection of Dinky Toys.
Terry

Tue, 08/05/2014 - 16:38

Dinkinius

Offline

Terry - What a truly great story and a wonderful family! This is one way of keeping the legend alive! I have already given my almost 3-year old grandson my 279 Aveling Barford Diesel Roller and he loves playing with it, calling it "Rolly" from Bob the Builder. Yep, nice that a 44 year old toy is still being played with as it had been intended! And he has also been permitted to handle some of my more precious models - briefly!
Bruce

Tue, 08/05/2014 - 16:40

Dinkinius

Offline

Wed, 08/06/2014 - 04:11

dinkyfan

Offline

Bruce--Yes, it was a pretty neat thing to share with the grandchildren. And we just had a visit from them this week, and one of them mentioned she wanted to see some of my Dinky's, so I asked her which ones she wanted to see. We eventually got out about 4 of them, and she was able to hold each one carefully in her hands. It is for sure fun to see them enjoying them so much, and they also now understand my passion of collecting them.
By the way, years ago when my son was young, he was always asking his mother to open the Dinky cabinet, so he could play with some of them. I never allowed that, telling him they were a collection and not to play with. I always made sure he had his own toys to play with, along with model railroads, so he was not without toys. But he was never anywhere as careful with his possessions, so I knew that in short order my original Dinky's from my childhood would never be the same. When I was younger, my brother asked to play with some of them, and I protested, but my mother insisted I let him. Within one day, he returned my Reconnaissance Car with a bent axle. I showed it to my mother, and she said that was the end of his playing with my Dinky's. I am sure that being that careful is the reason I still have all of my original childhood Dinky's from the 1950's, most still in good condition.
Terry

Sun, 07/16/2017 - 01:58

Dinkinius

Offline

Another budding Dinkyholic! My grandson carefully playing with his Pa's Euclid - his first time to be allowed to handle this precious item! Carefully overseen by his Pa I might add! :laugh:
He already has a play-worn 279 and a slightly chipped boxed Euclid has been earmarked for a future birthday. So, careful nurturing and we have the seed of the future!

Sun, 07/16/2017 - 02:30

#10

Dinkinius

Offline

After two years, and this Topic became buried as well as my last post received no comments! The date in the top right corner of Post #9 is today's as I edited the image by centering it and correcting the line for the last sentence. The Post was actually posted on:

Wed, 08/06/2014 - 1:38

according to my Excel folder, with it having been my 34th Post since I started writing for the old website. (This one is my 1142nd!) Still that Post is the last one without any further activity. Hopefully someone, somewhere has been reading it in the intervening near 3 years!!

However Terry, I wrote in the Dinky Toys Photography Specials topic of the number of Posts you have submitted, give or take 32 of them contained images which through the picture hosting service you used, have been deleted. The same thing has happened with this Topic with seven images now no longer appearing.

Thought I would let you know in case you may wish to resubmit these images for this Topic at least! The message is for you to update your account with photobucket.com to enable 3rd party viewing. I would be inclined to disregard this service, and upload your images direct unless someone more computer literate than I can advise otherwise.

Kind regards old friend

Bruce (150)

20171607/1142/1130