Toy, Model & Collectible Replica Cars

fintail

Matchbox was at the top of their game and had a near monopoly on the ca. 1:64 diecast scene from the late 50s til the late 60s. Their larger scale cars were also competitive, and the Yesteryears were a big hit too. There were a few other British makers like Impy etc that tried to break in, and Tootsietoy tried a more detailed small line to compete, but neither were legit threats. But when those fast Hot Wheels hit the market around 1968, the game changed. Matchbox didn't really recover until the 80s, when the products made a jump back into quality.

I remember Majorettes having varying scales too, so they never looked right together. Some cars would be 1:53, others like 1:68. But they made many oddball cars, and that lured me in. The mass market makers didn't make stuff like Ford Transits and Saab 900 5-doors and Volvo wagons etc. Maybe that started to change with models introduced by the late 80s. By 1990 or so, my obsession was quickly waning.

fintail

Are the exposed framework ones expensive? I see some superdetailed models that are pretty pricey.

andys120

, It depends, I paid around $240 for the pair of 917/30 Turbo CanAm cars, it's two odels, one of the Penske Sunoco car "dressed" and another of the bare chassis>



OTOH the 917L with the spectacular Martini&Rossi LeMans markings was about a hundred bucks>

lemko

...for our Mopar fans:

fintail

Corgi made a run of American cars, these are just the tip of the iceberg:









And Dinky had an even wider line of American iron - dozens of models, here are just a couple of their less common later Yank tanks:





All cars pictured are vintage to the time the real cars were new, and are ca. 1:43

fintail

Those prices aren't too bad, for the detail involved. I remember when I first "discovered" 1:18 models in the mid-late 80s, and they were all pretty crude.

andys120

I remember when I first "discovered" 1:18 models in the mid-late 80s, and they were all pretty crude.

They sure were, the only saving grace of those early Buragos and Jouefs was that they could readily be disassembled for super detailing. I still have my Burago 1/18 300SL Roadster which had the right shape so I took it apart and added a bunch of underhood detail. I'll post a photo of it soon.

fintail

I never had a Jouef, but I had a score of Bburagos, especially the 1920s-30s sportscars. Some of those weren't too bad, as the cars themselves are fairly simple. My first was for some odd reason a Rolls Camargue, which was not the best model ever made.

boomchek

I had about 10-15 1:24 Bburagos from Italy. I only have a BMW 635 remaining, and I wish I wouldn't have destroyed the other cars.

I know which Rolls Camargue you were talking about fintail, becvause when my cousing visited me in Italy in the 80s, we bought him one as a gift, and some pieced broke off it as well. It was cream white in color, 1:18 scale, iirc.

lemko

It's not a 1957 model, but a very nice 1959.

lemko

It appears to be a 1961 Cadillac Series 62 four-door hardtop

fintail

All of my Bburagos got destroyed save for a 1:18 Diablo I bought around 1991 or so. They were just too tempting to play with - especially the old time cars with their removable wheels. Lots of fun for the young car freak. I had some cool 1:24 ones too, I remember most a MB 500SEC rally car, a MB190E, a Porsche 959, and some kind of Fiat hatchback. All long gone today.

I think the hood ornament on my Camargue lasted about a day. I remember I saw it in a catalog and had to have that model, for the detailing. It didn't seem bad when I got it, but it is stone age today.

I remember my first non-Matchbox style car too. When I was 5 or 6 my dad let me choose a model car from a gift shop, I guess these would have been 1:24 cars. I chose a BMW sedan, as it had a very detailed interior, including the floor shift - I had a fixation on manual transmission cars with floor shift when I was young. I dont know who the maker was. I want to say the car was painted like a rally car too.

boomchek

From wikipedia.

From what I can remember I had the following 1:24s:
Black Ford Mustang GT cop car (1985)
White BMW 635 (mid 80s) - still have it
I had the Porsche 959 too, I believe it was silver
Silver Rolls Royce Silver Shadow - still have it
Black Golf GTi (cheaper version of Bburago 1:24 scale)
Porsche 924 same as above
Austin Metro hatchback

and a few more I can't remember.

fintail

I swear I have a mirror to the Camargue stored away with junk in my mom's attic.

Shame what happened to them...forced to compete with sweatshop labor, broken down, and then eaten alive by the competition. Globalization :sick:

lemko

...at least for the time. I remember when I was 9 or 10 in the mid 1970s, I spotted some really nice diecast cars at a toy store in the mall called KIDS. My parents would've spelled it KID$ as their prices were quite expensive compare to the discount stores they frequented.

Anyway, they were about 1:43 scale, cost around $32 each, (in 1975 dollars) had jeweled headlights, (I thought they were diamonds to justify the high price) and were obviously made in West Germany as a police car had "Polizei" on the sides. Does anybody know the likely manufacturer of these diecasts? I never found out as when I asked my Dad if he could buy one for me, I instead got a profanity-laced lecture on microeconomics!

fintail

I have no idea what those could have been. Brands like Gama, Schuco, and Siku come to mind, but they shouldn't have cost more than several dollars at that time. The only jeweled light cars that come to mind are the Matchbox-sized "Impy" line and I think a few Corgis had them. That's a serious amount of money for the time - in the 80s a 1:18 Bburago usually cost no more than $20.

fintail

I went to Wilkinson's in Vancouver today - amazing selection of models (and books/magazines). I bought only one - HO scale fintail by Praline. They had the new 1:43 Minichamps 300SE fintail, but it is currently only made in white, and $40+ seemed too much for me. The proprietor was unfamiliar with any diecast models of a W210 E55. However, they had a small selection of vintage diecast, and I think they have a rare Matchbox variant that I don't have in my collection, and I think it might be quite underpriced. Of course I am away from my own collection and reference material, but I might go back tomorrow and see about it.

boomchek

Glad you liked the place. When I become a multi- millionaire I'd buy everything they have in the store. They also have a brochure section in the back cause they have no space for it in the front.

fintail

Yeah, he mentioned brochures...I actually already have those for my cars, not hard to find. I went back and looked at the Matchbox today...one of the rivets was broken, a big no-no when it comes to rare paint variants, so I passed. Price wasn't the biggest bargain either, maybe half of retail, given that the car is genuine.

I'd like to have that magazine library, I'm more impressed by that than modern models.

fintail

Newest small fintail, a Praline HO scale model alongside some much smaller plastic fintails:

boomchek

nice, pretty cool.

fintail

The 70s vintage Matchbox catch my eye anyway. I still have one of my old Lesney M1s, that I got when I was maybe 8 or so.

boomchek

I spotted that yellow M1 as well. I had a silver one.

fintail

Mine is silver too. I just dug it out, here it is as it looks today



One thing I would do to these cars when the silver wheel paint faded off would be to repaint the wheels, as you can see. This car has a lot of miles on it.

boomchek

Cool, brings back memories... i had same one but i think mine had red/orange racing stripes on it as well.

lemko

Here's a picture of an Aurora BMW slot car similar to the one my brother had back in 1980.



Oddly enough, the other car in the racetrack set was a Pontiac Trans Am.

fintail

Mine had a black stripe on the lower body IIRC, but that's probably been worn off for 20 years now.

Just found a pic of what it looked like when new...I remember it now:

fintail

I remember I only had one slot car set when I was growing up. I remember one of the cars was a Ferrari, I forget the other. I don't think that set lasted too long under hard use :blush:

lemko

...I remember:

lemko