Auto collectibles and paraphernalia...

uplanderguy · December 2011

I like Biscaynes of the '60's better than Bel Airs. They always just put a side strip of stainless smack down the middle of the side of the Bel Air, no matter where the natural feature lines of the car were..

berri · December 2011

This stuff and the blog topic got me to remembering that I used to collect model car promos, those plastic, already put together 1/24 scale ones when I was a kid. Had a couple dozen from the early and mid sixties. No Chevy's, but they included a 61 Pontiac convertible, 62 Buick coupe, 64 Grand Prix and 65 Bonneville convertible. When I got holiday or birthday money I'd go down to the hobby shop and pick one. I think they were two bucks or $2.50 back then. I gave them to some younger cousins when I left home for college and they ended up being used as toys. I'm reminded of that blunder every couple of months when I receive my copy of Collectible Automobile magazine and look at model market values today. Now I've made a few bad stock investments over the years, but on a strictly lost return on investment basis, this was probably the worst decision I ever made! At least the model planes I put together from kits didn't really retain much value, so they didn't repeat the lost potential gains.

fintail · December 2011

I have a few promos in my pile of junk (too lazy for proper pics)

~48 International:

63 Galaxie and 62 T-Bird:

I had a few more in the past, including a 49 Ford, but I sold them when I was younger. Some of the real muscle car promos can bring good money.

fintail · December 2011

Around 1960, Tootsietoy noticed the huge and sudden success of Matchbox cars, and issued some challengers. The crudity of these makes the Matchbox models look like precise miniatures.

The tootsie 60 Caddy:

And the lovely Matchbox Caddy:

berri · December 2011

I had one similar to that 63 Ford XL convertible, but I think it was a bit more beige. Always liked that car for some reason.

berri · December 2011

I got to thinking about the 63 full sized Ford and maybe I'm fond of it because it looks like something Bill Mitchell would have done if he designed a Ford in those days. Clean styling, good looking, but still retaining a bit of that Ford heritage like the big round tail lights. I thought the previous 61 and 62 Ford's were a bit dull in comparison.

fintail · December 2011

When I was a pre-driving teen (early 90s), I wanted a 63 Galaxie XL convertible for my first car. There was a dark red one languishing under a carport a few blocks from my house...I was smitten for some reason, I wanted to rescue that thing, but of course, not for sale. I drove by it years later and the house was empty.

berri · December 2011

I remember a house I used to walk by in high school that had a mid sixties Mercury Marauder fast back. Nice looking car for its time and kind of unique. Then one day it too was gone...kind of like some girls you had a crush on in school and who knows where they are or what they look like today!

fintail · January 2012

I recently got this in the mail - the official AMG calendar, shipped directly from Affalterbach. It's big, about 17"x29" I think, and very high quality. This year is a 45th anniversary theme with Nurburgring scenes and various cars shown each month.

boomchek · January 2012

Very nice, was it free?

fintail · January 2012

Yep. The "Private Lounge" gives a pile of them away each year.

fintail · February 2012

I got this piece of ephemera in the mail this morning, a poster issued by the AMG Private Lounge, which is the MB sanctioned AMG owners group. It's a mosaic of the C63 coupe made up of tiny pictures of invididual members cars - my E55 is among them:

fintail · February 2012

Got another American car Matchbox:

1961 Ford police car, issued in 1963 and made for only 3 years. This is an early model probably made in 1963. It's a decent casting of an odd car:

texases · February 2012

Now you just need a pickup so you can re-enact 'This here's an emergency vehicle, too!' from Andy Griffith...

fintail · February 2012

I was thinking of the Andy Griffith connection, as well as the cop car that lost its rear end in "American Graffiti".

There was also a fire chief car based on the same casting, I don't have that one yet - one went for $120 on ebay today, some collectible markets remain healthy.

lemko · February 2012

I'm surprised Matchbox didn't capitalize on the success of the Andy Griffith Show and make this a Mayberry Sheriff's car.

uplanderguy · February 2012

I like '61 Fords, mostly the Starliner hardtop. I'd never seen this Matchbox before.

fintail · February 2012

Matchbox didn't have any character related tie-ins that I can remember until maybe the late 70s. Corgi was the big 60s character toy maker, with Batman and the rest of the comics later, Green Hornet, James Bond, etc.

Eventually I will hunt down a copy of the red 61 Ford fire chief car. I've limited my collection in scope, and I don't need a huge amount of models to get to a stopping point - sadly the amount of money required is somewhat inverse to the number of cars.

Dinky had a nice 61 Ford (scale ~ 1:43) and they along with Corgi had a large amount of American cars:

lemko · February 2012

That's a really nice Ford! Where do you find these Dinky cars and what prices can one expect to pay for a nice example like that one! I'm sure they have some Cadillacs and Buicks I would absolutely love.

fintail · February 2012

The Ford is not mine, just a pic from the internet. Most of these cars, boxed, go for maybe $75-150 apiece.

Here are some American cars you might like. Dinky and Corgi had a huge lineup, most of these were available in numerous paint schemes:

And even a fintail:

uplanderguy · February 2012

Thanks for the great postings. The detail and proportions on the 220 looks about the best of all of them.

I have a Corgi Wagonaire camera car, with a cameraman in back. It's a darkish turquoise, not unlike the Matchbox Wagonaire. UPI did buy a bunch of those and there are photos on the 'net of cameramen in the back just as shown in the toy here.

fintail · February 2012

I included the Studebakers on purpose :shades:

I like the various finned Mopars the most, they seem well proportioned and are cool. I think some collectors specialize in those alone. Those diecast firms had a mild fetish for American cars, which in the 50s were far ahead of most Euros, styling wise.

fintail · March 2012

Last week I found a fair deal and bought the other version of the Matchbox 1961 Ford:

berri · March 2012

Those 61 Ford's were so plain compared to the Chevy, but then compared to the Plymouth...

fintail · March 2012

They make me think of the police car losing its rear end in "American Graffiti".

berri · March 2012

I enjoyed that movie from the cars to the music to the DC-6 taking off at the end. The 58 Impala was one of the stars along with the T-Bird. And yeah, Ford's of that era were very common police cars.

lemko · March 2012

Philadelphia tried using Ford Falcons as police cars in the early 1960s. Unfortunately, they weren't durable enough for the task. Here's an unusual survivor:

fintail · March 2012

Those cars must have had many who didn't like them. I remember when my dad brought a Fairlane into the hobby car stable in the 90s, my grandpa heard about it, thought he got a Falcon, and went off about how bad they are.

lemko · March 2012

Seems the PPD quickly went back to full-size cars. Here's a 1968 full-sized PPD cruiser:

Mr_Shiftright · March 2012

The Falcon fire dep't car would be okay for a really slow fire...something smoldering perhaps.

fintail · March 2012

That's more like it, although for late 60s-early 70s police cars, I think mopar.

uplanderguy · March 2012

Two Falcon memories: In '64, my Dad wanted to get rid of our rusty but trusty '56 Chevy Two-Ten 2-door sedan. I can clearly remember going with him and my older sister to the Ford dealer, where Dad was trying to decide about a two-year old Falcon or a two-year old Fairlane. Even at that tender age of six (my sister was 13), we were like, 'Ewww, Falcon!'. Dad bought the Fairlane as it had seat belts (apparently aftermarket) but I don't remember us ever using them! It was the last Ford Dad ever owned, BTW. I also used to really enjoy the TV show "The Wonder Years", as main-character Kevin was supposedly two years older than me. They were at a Ford dealer in '69 in one episode, and the rest of the family saw a red Mustang in the showroom while the music to "2001, A Space Odyssey" played! Hilarious! Then the Dad says to the salesman, "Got any Falcon wagons?" The entire rest of the family mouths in disgust, "Falcon wagon??". They ended up with a Custom 500 4-door sedan.

fintail · March 2012

That was a great show.

Here's the big Ford:

In the earliest episodes, the dad had this 63 Impala:

And Wayne's Corvair:

lemko · March 2012

That green 1969 Galaxie looks exactly like a car my cousin Steve owned back in the day!

berri · March 2012

I always thought Wonder Years was a great show too. Well written and kind of reminded you of life in middle class suburbia back then. Another TV show that has a great variety of vehicles, but they are mid fifties, is the old Highway Patrol series with Broderick Crawford. Actually, very well written for their time as well.

uplanderguy · March 2012

I loved Wonder Years...in fact its finale was excellent but was completely overshadowed by the 'Cheers' finale, which I thought stunk.

The only thing about "Wonder Years' is that they played very loose with accuracy....showing a '68 Dodge Polara wagon and repeatedly calling it a '61, playing music that hadn't been recorded yet at the time of that episode, etc. Don't they think people notice that stuff? That said, I always enjoyed it. A family dynamic (at least the Mom and Dad) not unlike my very own back then!

berri · March 2012

Yeah, a lot of movies and TV shows do that too. I always liked the cars on the street in "Leave It To Beaver" and 'Beverly Hillbillies' because I kind of like some of the old Mopars (although the first year of 'Beaver" was Fords) While Andy Griffith always had a Ford, that show showed a lot of different makes as well in the street scenes (and Aunt Bea was a Studebaker fan in real life, right?). I thought the worst finale was "Seinfeld". The Johnny Cochran lawyer would have got them off on some outrageous technicality.

fintail · March 2012

I remember what bugged me about "Wonder Years" is that you could see modern cars in the background, like a block or two away from the main location. I guess that's what you get for not filming on a back lot.

The Seinfeld finale was terrible, what a way to go.

fintail · April 2012

Found another desired car, this time not an American model, but still a nice piece of workmanship:

This model with grey wheels/tires and early release box, is from 1962. Amazingly delicate casting in the wheels and pillars, with pretty paint too - they don't make em like this anymore.

uplanderguy · April 2012

Very, very nice...both the Matchbox and the real thing.

fintail · May 2012

Well-used toy Cougar brings almost as much money as a well-used real Cougar

texases · May 2012

I'm sorry... :-O !!! This must be the 'Hummel' effect, rare = valuable, I guess...

fintail · May 2012

Some Matchbox collectors are fanatical. I was expecting the Cougar to bring more, actually

Some toy cars are worth more than their real life counterparts

Mr_Shiftright · May 2012

What's doubly bizarre is that this model is expensive not because it is rare in itself but because it's in a rare color. Is this for real? I can't imagine someone spending that much for a production glitch.

fintail · May 2012

For toys like this, variations are the rarity, primarily paint and wheels. A normal yellow mint in box version of that car would be lucky to hit 1% of the value of the red car.

Mr_Shiftright · May 2012

this sounds like the tulip bubble all over again. One day, a group of people are going to wake up, point to that little yellow toy, and say: "Wait a minute, this isn't worth $10,000!"

And suddenly, it won't be.

fintail · May 2012

Actually, I suspect that car was worth more 20 years ago than now - the internet redefined the market for most collectors, bringing once unknown items out of closets and attics for the world to see. All it takes is two fanatics.

Mr_Shiftright · May 2012

True--for something this esoteric--something that has no inherent value--you need a very trained and knowledgable audience. If it were a real car, or a work of art, well at least that would always be there no matter what anyone thought...but with this, if the audience grows gray and goes away, I don't see the next generation taking this up, at least not at these prices.

I suppose it's like comic books--but I think comic books have a much wider fan base...dunno...

texases · May 2012

I'f I'm spending $900 on a car model, it's going to be one of those super-detailed ones, or maybe three of them...

fintail · May 2012

That will eventually be the undoing of the market - when the boomers start kicking off. I don't see many under 40 collecting 50s-60s era toy cars. The next generations won't have the nostalgia nor the disposable income. But, they aren't too old yet, so there will be a few decades of stable prices for vintage diecast.

I think the fan base might be larger than comic books, as it is global - people collect the toys in Asia, Europe, and the Americas. I don't see it acting like modern baseball cards, which are worthless now.

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