On the circuits

…of a collection whose quality the seller had praised.

 

Perhaps to encourage my visit. He had started it in the mid-fifties and continued it until the 1980s.

 

There were no color variations at the time; enthusiasts were mainly looking to trace the history of the automobile, its present and its future, what was admired at the motor shows and what would be seen ten or twenty years later on the streets.

 

Indeed, to display his collection, our man had taken the auto show as a source of inspiration. The miniatures were therefore grouped by brand, neatly aligned, like in the aisles of the Grand Palais and later in those of the Porte de Versailles.

 

In keeping with this static exhibition approach, he had removed all the characters from his miniatures. The very ones that give life to the toy. I remember him trying to explain to me that at the show, the cars were static and that it would have been inconsistent to leave a character behind the wheel. But by removing the character that brings the model to life, he had simply altered the object’s primary function: that of a toy.

 

All the convertibles from Solido, but also from Dinky Toys, had lost their figurines! He hadn’t thought to keep them! What’s the point, he replied!

 

In forty years in the business, I’ve encountered similar cases, but generally the collectors had thought to keep the figurines. It only took a few minutes to find the large-format matchbox or the Valda lozenge box where they were stored.

 

I thought of this again when I saw the beautiful 1963 Ford Thunderbird from Dinky Toys France and the Willys missile-launching jeep.

We have another very intriguing model, a Renault 8 Gordini with a helmeted driver, which is normal, and a co-driver, which is less so.

 

This is a “rally” version with a navigator.

 

This model requires some explanation. It was assembled outside the factory, after its closure, using original parts. A few people recovered several spare parts and bodies that had already been painted, and even finished with stencils and decorations. They assembled and riveted them using an original machine that they also recovered on site.

 

This Renault 8 is an original, realistic version that deserves attention. The important thing is for enthusiasts to know what they are buying and at what price.

 

But you have to admit that the presence of the two teammates gives the model some style and is a change from the “Renault 8 Gordini coupe” circuit version.

Let’s stay on the racetrack, but move on to more powerful models.

 

This week we have some Ferrari 275Ps from Mercury.

 

The presence of the helmeted driver seems essential to give a child credibility to a racing car synonymous with power and speed.

 

The driver, with his red, ivory, or pale blue racing suit, adds to the charm of the model. Mercury had the clever idea of ​​offering this car in several colors. At that time, Enzo Ferrari quickly resold his cars to private organizations (Filipinetti) or to his importers (Francorchamps in Belgium, NART North America on the East Coast, etc.).

 

It’s a pleasure to have them on display.

For Dinky Toys, too, a racing car necessarily meant a helmeted driver. On the beautiful Mercedes W25, reference 23 C, for sale this week, it’s molded into the body and painted caramel.

 

It’s a success. The proportions are good, even though this color of suit corresponds to the one seen on British circuits of the time.

 

At Mercedes, the drivers wore white suits…which Märklin has perfectly rendered.

While Meccano created the Dinky Toys branch dedicated to accessories, including automobiles, to bring their train layouts distributed under the Hornby name to life, the Jo Hill Co. and Taylor and Barret companies manufactured miniature automobiles to accompany the figurines, the production of which was their main business.

 

This explains the quality of the figures that accompany their automobile models.

 

This week we have a splendid team from Taylor and Barret, consisting of a mule and a cart, in a typically British shape, loaded with fruits and vegetables.

 

From my first trips across the Channel, I fell in love with these products. I’ve been collecting them for a very long time.

 

Unfortunately, we have few equivalent products in France.

 

In Great Britain, they are so numerous that several beautiful books listing them have been published.

 

Appreciate the fine reproduction of the fruits and vegetables in the two baskets.

Finesse is also the appropriate term for the four firefighters aboard the Rolls-Royce truck, also for sale at Taylor & Barret.

 

They are majestic. The driver has his hands on the steering wheel while the other three sit with their arms at their sides.

 

This truck, less spectacular than the one equipped with a large folding ladder or the one with a removable ladder mounted on wheels, is nevertheless much rarer.

 

This “economical” model, sold for less, was less successful than the other two, which were much more spectacular and more in keeping with the image of a fire truck.

Let’s stay in Great Britain with another, very unique way of representing characters and bringing a model to life.

 

These three models are Brimtoys Pocketoys.

 

Their unique feature is their lithographed sheet metal body. This allows a toy manufacturer to let their imagination run wild on the same model, simply by changing the designs on the walls. The two Bedford “S” models, with their plastic cabins, have a parallelepiped-shaped sheet metal body, with an opening revealing, depending on the lithography used, an ice cream vendor or a mobile grocery store.

 

It’s old-fashioned but charming. The idea was later adopted by Sésame in France.

The third model offered is just before the production timeline; it is made entirely of folded and lithographed sheet metal.

 

Thanks to this technique, Brimtoys was able to reuse the press used to manufacture its moving truck, with its overcab, and create a promotional brewing truck for the mineral water brand “Presta.”

 

Thanks to the masterful use of trompe l’oeil, we forget that it was originally a moving truck. That’s the magic of toys!

At that time, it was impossible for a small company like Birk to inject toys into zamac.

 

The technique was too expensive. It therefore adapted its manufacturing to the materials it mastered: sheet metal for the chassis and lead for the bodies.

 

This, in my opinion, is where the appeal of this brand lies: with limited resources, it was able to offer a range even more varied than that of the company that inspired it, and of high-quality workmanship.

 

It would produce its Graham as a coupe, limousine, van, tow truck, flatbed, dump truck, sweeper, fire engine, and even a coach!

 

The example on offer, a police van with its bars engraved on the walls, is sublime. It is original and in superb condition. Many American enthusiasts have acquired them over the last forty years and restored them…