Other U.K. Brands...

[GHOSTHUNTER]

I have recently posted some pictures of the Matchbox 'Regular Wheel' Silver Cloud, model number 44a, it was to do with the grey plastic wheels, but in conversation about those, the silver-grey wheels cropped up and I thought you might like to see a whole model made of the same silver-grey colour plastic! This was made by TUDOR ROSE during the 60's and is made of softer polythene based plastic, but is amazingly close in colour to those silver-grey wheels on the Matchbox models.

It is also a bit bigger, it is 1/18th scale and a precious model in my collection, having searched for one for well over twenty years.

If you would like to see more detailed pictures or learn about this and other TUDOR ROSE models, give me a shout.

GHOSTHUNTER.

[matchboxkiwi]

Ghosthunter,
What brand is the bright yellow rolls?

Cheers Steve
Matchboxkiwi

[GHOSTHUNTER]

This was made by 'MPC', generally called 'Multiple Toymakers' (they were originally called 'Multiple Products Corporation'---MPC) and can have USA or GREAT BRITAIN moulded into their underside, marketed towards the end of the 1960's and just the sort of toy to be found in Christmas crackers and breakfast serials.

GHOSTHUNTER.

[toysnz]

From 1959, when they were first introduced onto the U.K. market, until 1967, the year production ceased, there were just over 200 subjects in the line up of specific vehicles including saloon cars, sports cars, light commercials, and a sprinkling of emergency and passenger carrying vehicles.

GHOSTHUNTER.

Spot On toys were also manufactured in Auckland, New Zealand from the orignal dies that were shipped here after production ceased in the UK.

Ian

[GHOSTHUNTER]

Hello toysnz,

I am not aware of any New Zealand made Rolls-Royce or Bentley models from the 'SPOT-ON' moulds, but if you know better, then please post some details, thanks.

Ghosty.

[Ewan]

Hello toysnz,

I am not aware of any New Zealand made Rolls-Royce or Bentley models from the 'SPOT-ON' moulds, but if you know better, then please post some details, thanks.

Ghosty.

I have a list of some 16 Spot On models which were produced in NZ, doesn't include any RR or Bentleys.

[GHOSTHUNTER]

I thought as much, the only model that came close to being classed as a New Zealand Rolls-Royce was the 'Royal' car, this was actually listed in a flyer type catalogue for New Zealand and actually assigned a number totally different from the U.K. version, but despite this, it was not put into that country, so officially there is not a New Zealand 'Spot-On' Rolls-Royce, and if collectors say they have seen one, it is because they must have seen that catalogue mentioned earlier.

GHOSTHUNTER.

[Martin Avis]

If you look in the 'Link' below, you will see my dedicated site for all makes of Rolls-Royce and Bentley model cars. It is fairly new and is not found by 'Google' etc, so you will be some of the first collectors to create 'Traffic' on the site. Please do comment on anything you see and leave any comments or ideas for improving the site.

Please note...
The site was created at a time the host was upgrading their platform and two versions of the same site exist!!!
The 'Link' below should now take you to the second version of the site, much better, with specific sections on the models we like on our forum.
There may be something of interest to you, so go and have another look.

http://theghostclubuk.webs.com/

Regards,
GHOSTHUNTER.

You have built a very nice looking and useful site, but as long as you use a free website provider you will have problems.

For one thing, Google don't like them so getting ranked is always going to be difficult. I ran searches on 'Ghost Club", "The Ghost Club UK" and "Rolls Royce Models" and none of them found your site in the first 5 pages of Google. But as your link first appeared here three months ago, Google must have found it.

For another, as Nick found on the Lefora platform, you are always going to be hostage to the whims of a third party over whom you have no control. They could change their platform and mess up your site, or go out of business and simply delete everything.

Finally, a site like yours should - if you get ranked by Google - get decent traffic and traffic *should* lead to revenue for you. However, on a free platform you will be very limited in putting monetization on your site, even if the company will allow it at all!

A far better solution is to get your own domain (rollsroycediecast.com is currently available). Currently you can get .com domains from GoDaddy for just £6.99 per year. Don't be tempted to buy any other type of domain other than a .com (or at a pinch .co.uk) because they are mostly a waste of money.

Although GoDaddy also sell hosting it is generally not a particularly good idea to register a domain and host in with the same company (they can hold your to ransom) so a decent alternative for hosting would be the Hostgator Hatchling account at just £2.50 per month.

With those in place you could then set up a WordPress blog on your domain. WordPress will allow you to easily replicate your current website as it is far more than 'just' a blog platform nowadays. And is very easy to use. There are hundreds of 'how to' videos on YouTube that will explain everything you need to know and more!

The benefits, if you follow this route are that you will be in charge of your own site, rather than some faceless third party who does not have your best interests paramount, you'll have a lot more flexibility in what you can do with it and adding advertising at a later date will be very easy. But MOST importantly, Google will love you. I set up a brand new Wordpress site on a brand new domain a few weeks ago. All it had was a headline and one picture (because it is better to put something on a site rather than leave it bare) and still, within 24 hours, that site ranked #3 on Google for the main keyword that was in my site's title!

I hope you'll understand that I'm not meaning to be critical of your site, which is very good, but am offering you the benefit of my years of online experience (I have dozens of websites and have learned a thing or two in my 12 years as a full-time online professional).

Martin

[GHOSTHUNTER]

Dear Martin,

Many thanks for your comments and hints on web sites etc.

Yes, Google does not find free sites like mine and yes it is a problem, but clearly something you have to put up with, with a free site of that nature, you also get locked-out of your own site if you do not keep entering it to do some editing etc within a certain time period (it has already happened to me and was a long winded process getting back-in! I believe it is a sixty day period that you have to keep entering the site to keep it active.

My first concern was to get something on the net where I could work on models from my collection and by having a little web site like the one you have seen, was the first step to maybe getting something more robust and permanent (and reconised by Google etc), and I like the sound of 'RollsRoyceDiecast.com and should investigate this further, thanks for bringing this to my attention.

Nice to see you posting again Martin, I trust you are much better and enjoying the forum again.

Best regards,

GHOSTHUNTER.

[GHOSTHUNTER]

I have added some new images of Corgi, Dinky and Matchbox to my Rolls-Royce model website, click on this link to have a look...http://theghostclubuk.webs.com/
more coming soon.

GHOSTHUNTER.