Greetings everybody,

I have opened this thread to present a profile of what at first seems a rather uninteresting model, but which after research, presents another Dinky 'mystery'!

In around September 1961, Vauxhall Motors Ltd. GB (a division of General Motors) introduced a new model to replace the previous 'Victor' designated the 'F' series, which had been in production since 1957. This car had very strong transatlantic influences with styling similar to some Chevrolet models of the mid-1950's, and had been a radical design departure for Vauxhall - but by 1960 it was looking quite dated (this is a 1959 model with revised grille):

The new car was less radical in appearance and was designated the 'FB' Victor - but initially it retained the 1508cc, 52 BHP 4-cylinder engine of the previous model. One month later in October 1961, Vauxhall added the 'VX 4/90' model - a more powerful and better appointed car which had a twin-carburettor engine enlarged to 1595cc, and producing 71 BHP - quite a sporty car! It took until September 1963 before Vauxhall decided to fit the standard Victor with a de-tuned 1595cc single carburettor engine giving 58.5 BHP. The FB Victor was only in production until September 1964, when it was replaced with the new Victor '101'.

The Dinky Toys model of the FB Victor was announced to the world in the April 1963 issue of the MM, with glowing descriptions of both the real car and the Dinky model: "A Victor for Vauxhall - a Winner for Dinky Toys" - but unusually Dinky had chosen to model the estate car version, which they described as having "The clean line of good design - perhaps the most beautiful ever built!" (in those days in advertising, you could get away with outlandish claims by adding the words 'possibly, perhaps, etc. - i.e. anything unspecific which implied even the remotest chance of truth) and it went on to say that the model was "fully equipped with Dinky Toys special features and it has an opening tailgate, too". The model was priced at 4/11d and seems to have been available until sometime in 1967 - the last reference I have found is on a leaflet printed for the U.S. (reference 72577/3, 1967, but actual date unknown) which introduces the new 'Thunderbirds' models 100 and 101 - the yellow border has outline drawings of many models, including the back half of the Vauxhall with it's tailgate open.

The standard production model was only ever finished in one colour scheme, citrus yellow, and was fitted with windows and a blue plastic interior (a rather incongruous choice?) which had the rear seat-back folded flat to highlight the load-carrying capacity. It had suspension and 'prestomatic' steering which had become standard on most Dinky cars of that period - but the feature which Dinky didn't mention was the self-closing tailgate designed to hit you on the back of the head while you were loading - it doesn't stay fully open by itself! The real car had spiral-coil spring hinges to hold the tailgate open (this was before the invention of gas struts) which fortunately worked well. All models were fitted with the smaller 8mm spun hubs with 1/2" 'engraved' (treaded) black tyres ref. 60036 (50096):

The only variation I can find for the standard production model is the baseplate, which initially was finished in the then-standard black 'Mirror- gloss' precoated steel - on later production this changed to the matt/satin black finish (I think this possibly occurred after the Tri-ang takeover?) and both models are quite common, so are relatively easy to find.
This is the standard production model with the later baseplate:

But now, as Sue Richardson used to say, "everybody loves a good mystery" :-

When you check Ramsay's guide, you find this reference: "U.S. promotional: Maroon Red body, blue interior, spun hubs, Paper labels with Yellow wording 'LIGHTNING FASTENERS LTD.' 'TECHNICAL SERVICES'" and their valuation '£800 to £1000'

So, this begs the question - what is known about this model? So far, my investigations have produced only scant information, which includes just three references to sold models:

1 Christie's auction, 25 September 2001, lot 670, an unboxed model from the Remy-Meeus collection, sold for £999 (including commission at 17.5% of £148.75):

2 Simon Epton's toy price guide 'Dinky Toys' first edition (2009) lists an unboxed model which sold in 2004 for £640 (excluding commission) - no picture, and condition unknown.
NOTE: see the extra information and picture provided by Jacques Du Jardin - sold by Vectis Auctions, 10 November 2004.

3 And of course, Vectis Auctions, 10 December 2008, lot 3130, an unboxed model in poor/fair condition and missing tailgate, sold for £35 (excluding commission) - is this all it was worth ?

So here we have the extremes of their worth!

We now move forward to October 2014, when during my daily browse of new Dinky listings on eBay, I found from a U.K. seller, item 1913 6081 7769 - a maroon coloured boxed model, but without any door labels, and in a somewhat creased box with one side flap detached and worn main flap on one end, but with a large red spot adhered to one picture side-panel. From the pictures the seller had added, the model seemed to be genuine, in good condition and untampered with:

Well, suffice to say that I was fortunate to acquire this model, despite some opposition (from two bidders from the U.K. and one from France, so the seller told me later - was one of them you, Jacques?) and when the model arrived, I was pleased to find it completely original and in mint condition - and on close inspection it was clear that there had been adhesive labels applied on both side doors, as there were traces of an adhesive edge on the model sides (adhesive has a tendency to 'bleed' from under a label edge so leaving a trace behind).

Needless to say, I immediately contacted the seller in Great Yarmouth, who told me that he had bought it from a local junk shop, not knowing anything about toys - but realised as soon as he had listed it on eBay that there must be something special about it from the flurry of bids he received. I asked him if there had been any paper labels on the model or in the box, but regretfully the answer was 'No'.

However, with the two pictures I had found on the internet as a guide, I started experimenting with Microsoft Word to see if I could find a matching font (typeface - two actually, as the top line 'LIGHTNING FASTENERS LTD.' is in italic and different from the lower line 'TECHNICAL SERVICE' - not 'SERVICES' as quoted by Ramsay's - and after a day or two of experimentation, I managed to produce a reasonable copy of the label text as a black-on-white print, to the correct dimensions. However, I couldn't produce a good enough colour copy, so trundled off to our local 'Officeworks' with my project. Four days later I received a phone call so went back to inspect their efforts, with much trepidation about how much this would cost. Even though I had supplied a PMS colour swatch as a guide to the required colours (anybody here remember the Pantone Matching System as used in colour printing?) they hadn't matched the colours very well, so I spent the next half-hour with them and ended up with five A4 sheets each with a slightly different maroon background, but a good match for the yellow lettering colour. And here is the result, with the repro labels applied to the model:

And the cost? well, as we all know, if you want something like this done, ask a teenager! And not only was the young lady who helped me extremely adept at understanding my requirements and translating them into print, she must have taken pity on me and charged just 80c a sheet x5, plus 10% GST - a total of $4.40 !

Here is a picture of the underside of the model, original and unmolested :

All I can now add are the results of my research on this model:

1 LIGHTNING FASTENERS LTD.

Searching the internet I have found just two pertinent references to companies with this name, both of whom were 'zipper' manufacturers for the clothing industry, and both of whom were in existence in 1965 :

A A Canadian company - Lightning Fastener Co. Limited - from St Catharines, Ontario, in business since the 1920's.

B A British company - Lightning Fasteners Ltd. - from Birmingham, also in business since the 1920's (they later became part of the giant ICI group, which sold their majority shareholding in L.F.Ltd to a German company in 1965).

However, I can find no reference to a U.S. company of this name.

2 THE DINKY PROMOTIONAL MODEL

Armed with the above findings, I started to wonder :

A Where did Ramsay 's get the idea that this model was a 'U.S. promotional' ?

B Although I can find no reference to a U.S. company, why would a U.S. or Canadian company want a promotional model of a British car? Especially as the Dinky range at that time included the 193 Rambler Cross-Country Station Wagon, surely a much more appropriate and familiar vehicle for this market?

C Would it not have been more likely that the British company in Birmingham would have been the company for whom a promotional model of a current British car was considered ?

D Did the production of a quantity of promotional models actually proceed? One would expect that a few samples would have been produced for evaluation, but if the commission was agreed, surely more than the four examples found so far would have surfaced by now (e.g. the 'Job's Dairy' promos. of the NCB Electric Dairy Van, which although just over 1000 were made and delivered to Job's Dairy in Feltham, were not distributed at the time, nevertheless were discovered quite some years ago) ?

E If the commission for a quantity of these promotional models had gone ahead, would it not have been more likely that the door decoration would have been made as transfers or by Tampo-printing (as per the Job's Dairy vans), rather than paper stickers which I feel were printed for the sample models only, but would not have had the desired quality appearance for a special promotional model ?

SUMMARY

My opinion is that:

1 Only a few samples of this would-be promotional model were produced in late 1963 or early 1964 (as two of the four are known to have the early Gloss baseplate, and probably the other two if we could see pictures of them).

2 They were decorated with printed paper labels cheaply produced and good enough for sample models;

3 The commission did not proceed.

To produce a few castings painted maroon would have been easy enough, as the colour is the same as that used on the 195 Jaguar 3.4, so a few 141 castings could have been added to the paint line during a production run of maroon 195 castings.

Although my model box has a large red sticker which is different from the usual 'colour dots' applied to model box flaps at the time, I tend to think that the large sticker was factory-applied to show that the box contained a maroon sample, and was segregated from normal yellow model stock for delivery to the intended customer, whoever that might have been.

So - it seems that we have another unsolved Dinky mystery! Whatever the truth of the matter is, I am pleased to have been able to acquire an example of this mysterious variation and to include it on the DTCA Forum for the benefit of all, rather than for it to disappear without trace for many years.

As always, any further information or opinions are welcomed - and if any reader has one of the other examples, or knows where they are, please let us know!

Regards,

Adrian Nash (141)