Auto collectibles and paraphernalia...

uplanderguy

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

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

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

berri

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

fintail

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

berri

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

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

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

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

Mr_Shiftright

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

fintail

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

uplanderguy

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

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

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

berri

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

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

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

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

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

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

fintail

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

texases

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

fintail

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.