Matchbox , Dinky, Corgi, Triang Hornby

[hugh1]

I'd post this to Ho as well but, You Know, kant.;-)

Back in the day, 1960 to 1970 all the great stuff seamed to come from England.

Now if you show up at at a model train shop with a triang hornby unit they look at you like your from mars. They had great rusty steel tracks that made the great clickity clack, no painting the rails brown required.;-)
They even smelled like real loco`s, kind of an oil and electric type of smell.

Crazy couplers!

Anyhow if you were a really good boy and you didn't leave your dinky's out in the dirt, and if you didn't throw the boxes away, they'd be worth 60 - 120 dollars. Of course you'd need all of that to pay for all of the therapy you are now receiving but anyway.

Was this just a Canadian thing eh ,canad-er or did you have these pre hotwheels things in the states as well.

There is a huge after market secondary market for these items. the Coke truck and the BP tow truck for example.

[alco539]

I was big into Matchbox, at one time maybe a hundred or so. I guess some are still buried in the back yard of my childhood home. I still have a few in the old Matchbox carry case, along with some original Hot Wheels "Red Stripes". Who knew they were collectible back then. Regards Charley.

[catt]

I remember the Dinky Toys they were actually diecast models.I still have a few of the Dinky Hudsons (car was a 53 or 54) Incredible detail for the time (1956).There were other American cars in the line.

I remember the early Matchbox The models of prototype vehicles were very well detailed.I have the Dodge dump truck and tow truck.I also have the Ford tow truck.There were several issues of these with the earliest ones having seperate grilles and front bumpers,and they were 1/87th or close enough to fit right in.

There was store here thaty sold the Dinky line and they usually got a large share of my paper route money.Those Hudsons are the only Dinkys I have left.

[douggosha]

I'm sad because you guys didn't mention Lone Star Treble-O-Lectric.

English through and through.



Doug

[bnsfjefe]

My dad got up into Canada quite a bit so I had a decent collection of Corgi and Dinky cars and trucks. Had some really rare one like the radar truck and the Proteous Bluebird.
Ironically, I sold the whole lot in my 30's to help finance my getting into N scale trains.

[KIM]

I had some Dinky. They were sturdy little things, and usually became lost before they were worn out. For those of us in the states, there were the cereal box cars. Some of those were very close to HO scale. I remember how excited I was to pull one from the box, and thought that they were wonderful. If I saw one now, I'd probably split my sides laughing.

[alco539]

I remembered the Matchbox originals were made by Lesney in England. Later ones were made in Hong Kong. They would produce a certain number of runs of a vehicle type and then destory the molds, so they really would become a collectors's item. My favorite Matchbox was the "Bulldozer" with it's rubber tracks. I think it was modeled after a D7 Cat. I moved a lot of dirt with it. I still have it, minus the tracks and the blade. Charley.

[umtrrauthor]

My dad still has some of the 1960s Matchbox cars and trucks on his HO Scale layout. Despite his kids' attempts to play with them... I always thought they were cool.

Boxes are long gone, I'm sure. And so much for that collector value.

[rhpd42002]

I had an extensive accumulation of Matchbox and Hotwheels with a few other odds & ends thrown in. I might have a half dozen or so of them left. No boxes, some repainted, some needing paint.
I gave away the majority of my stuff around 1996 to a kid I thought could use some cars & trucks to play with.

Oddly, a couple years ago, I taught that "kid" in our Community College's, Basic Law Enforcement Training program...... DARN, I think I might be gettin old(er)!!!

[markj]

I have always been a fan of diecast cars. I have all of my late 1960's era Matchbox and some of my Hot Wheels from when I was a kid - maybe 60 or 70 combined. All resting nicely in the cases that I stored them in. Unfortunately I did not save the little paper box they came home from the store in...... Oh well, the cars are still in good shape.

I also have about 15 or 20 Kenner Star Wars action figures - again taken out of their blister packs and stored in a really cool Star Wars carrying case. These date back to the late 1970's. Had I known NOT TO OPEN THE BLISTER PACKS

I take them out every few years or so, show them to my kids and then put them back into storage.

[eja]

I still have lots of Dinky cars, trucks, army vehicles, airplanes .... only problem is most of the rubber (?) tyers have deteriorated badly and are no longer usable. Anyone know anything about available replacements ?

[alco539]

You might find some industrial O rings of the correct size, eja. I don't know what the original color of the Dinky tires may have been, never had Dinkys, I assume black. If their not, O rings come in few other colors too. Hardware and Big box stores have some, bearing suppliers such as Applied Industrial, have or can get just about any size. MSC industrial and McMaster-Carr (cheaper) have millions, they would be good for a bulk purchase. They will sell to anyone that has "green" money". Lots of great stuff on their sites, like small screws, taps, 0-80, etc.. The O ring tires would have smooth treads, and don't look much like real tires, but what the hay, they're the closest you'll find ready to go. I guess you could mold some of your own. More info. than you ever wanted to know. Regards Charley.

[kentuckysouthernrwy]

I had a neighbor as a kid that had an aunt that used to buy them some of the nice Military Dinky toys, I always was quite fond of the tank carrier lowboy semi truck with the fold up ramps. At that time the RH drive was not an issue.

I have a few Dinky's now including a really well done 1965-6 Cadillac ambulance and a same era Pontiac ambulance that I repainted.

Smaller Matchbox vehicles have appeared on my layout at times.

[douggosha]

I actually had some Matchbox cars back in the sixties too. In the Lesney boxes. My favorite was the VW bus which, I'm sure, was the favorite of many Matchbox collectors.

I don't know whatever became of them.

Doug