Lone Star Rolls Royce

[GHOSTHUNTER]

Yes Hugh, I can see that working, thank's.

GHOSTHUNTER.

[Fox]

WOW !

One of these days I will certainly catch some. A one with "regular wheels". I didn't do that because of its scale that doesn't feet with no else model i got.

[ritchie]

Here are some of the smaller circa Matchbox size Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud III models.

DSC06508 - Copy.JPG

The first model on the left is an 'IMPY' version, used here for comparisen, the rest are 'FLYERS' versions....

...


GHOSTHUNTER.

Hi Ghosthunter,

Many thanks for your thorough explanation of variations on the Lone Star's Silver Cloud III. This was something I always wondered about. Below are all the Silver Cloud IIIs I collected. I dug them out from my various packing boxes which was not an easy job indeed. I tried to place them following your chronological order. I hope can have some contribution to your variation bible.



The first 5 have 'IMPY' on baseplate, metal wheel rims and jewelled headlamps.
Apart from the window boxes, the Mini Mite boxes stated: Manufactured expressly for S.S. Kresge Co., Detroit, Michigan. I suppose they're for selling in USA.
Note the colour difference on the red seats of the 2 left most silver models.
The 2nd model's canopy was manually painted by a previous owner.



The 6th model has the 'blanked-out' baseplate, steel spring suspension.
The 7th-10th models have 'Flyers' on baseplate, plastic suspension. (<- mistaken on the 7th model, refer to my post below)
The white and blue models has the littte notch on front edge of the baseplate. These 2 have the Hot Foiled wheels.


I don't understand about the flat/angled floor behind the front seats. Could you show an image?

It surprised me for the final price reached for a mint white model recently sold on ebay. White colour must be very rare.

Feel free to let me know if you want detailed info/image on any particular model above.

Cheers,
Ritchie

[GHOSTHUNTER]

Here is a picture I previously posted on the forum...

Floor Designs.JPG (53.44 KiB) Viewed 9047 times

GHOSTHUNTER.

[ritchie]

Here is a picture I previously posted on the forum...

Floor Designs.JPG

GHOSTHUNTER.

Hi Ghosthunter,

Thanks for the picture. Now I see the difference.
My models #1-#5 have the flat floor, while #6-#10 have angled floor.
I also noted models #1-#5 used rivets to fix the baseplate, while screws were used for #6-#10.

And I make a mistake on my post above. It should be:
The 6th model has the 'blanked-out' baseplate, steel spring suspension.
The 7th model has the 'blanked-out' baseplate, plastic suspension.
The 8th-10th models have 'Flyers' on baseplate, plastic suspension.

I also noted something interesting. When turning the car over, the front wheels of model #1-#5 can be turned left and right manually, although the angle is not large. It's sort of like the Auto-Steer function on certain Matchbox RW models. I wonder if it was deliberately designed like this by Lone Star?

From looking at your models, I'm missing at least:
a Red model with 'blanked-out' baseplate, steel spring suspension, but in Beige seat colour;
a Red model with little notch added ahead of the base;
a model in Non-metallic medium Red.

I have duplicates of #6 （also missing window), #7 and #10.
My duplicate of #10 model in blue was from a Lone Star Japanese playset which is worth showing, as below:



Cheers,
Ritchie

[GHOSTHUNTER]

That is a nice hard to find gift set Ritchie, they do a smaller gift set, the 1200, with just Two commercial vehicles included. These sets were designed, printed and models packed in them by the Masudaya Toy Company, Japan's oldest toy company and still in business.

They marketed toys under the 'MODERN TOYS' brand name.

Masudaya Trade Mark.jpg (38.18 KiB) Viewed 9031 times

But also imported and marketed many of the Lone Star 'Flyers' models for the Japanese market. There should be a similar 'Logo' to the one I show above on the corner of your gift set box.

GHOSTHUNTER.

[ritchie]

Here is my collection of 1/50th scale 'LONE-STAR' Rolls-Royce models.

DSC06337.JPG

The first Four models are Silver Cloud II, the rest are Silver Cloud III.
The first Three are Black over light Grey.
The next Two are Black over Dark Grey.
The first Two All Blue models are light mett Blue.
The last Three All Blue models are dark mett Blue.
The first Five models have Black soft rubber tyres.
The next Two All Blue models have hard White Nylon tyres.
The last Three All Blue models have hard Black Nylon tyres.
The first Five models do not have interior seat components.
The first All Blue model has Yellow seats.
The rest of the All Blue models have Tan seats.
The first Five models have 'Chrome' effect plated grille and bumper components.
The first Three All Blue models have bright Silver painted grille and bumper components.
The Fourth All Blue model has bright Silver front component, but plain unpainted Grey plastic rear bumper.
The last All Blue model has both front and rear bumper and grille components in unpainted Grey plastic.
The last Three All Blue models have had the glazing re-tooled to make it a thicker moulding.

Additional to this, baseplate colours are various shades of Grey and dark Oak.

You can see my Second All Blue model has lost it's headlamps and a previous owner has painted the area with Silver paint, don't know why, Silver paint won't cover up the holes!

GHOSTHUNTER.

Thanks for another detailed illustration Ghosthunter. I can now place my Silver Cloud II/III following your chonological order.



Your first description puzzles me. How do you distinguish Silver Cloud II and Silver Cloud III? The baseplate from all my models says II.

From left:
The first one is Black over [Dark Grey?].
The #2-#3 models are light met Blue.
The #4-#6 models are dark met Blue.
The first model have Black soft rubber tyres.
The next Two All Blue models have hard White Nylon tyres.
The last Three All Blue models have hard Black Nylon tyres.
The first model do not have interior seat components.
The first All Blue model has Yellow seats.
The rest of the All Blue models have Tan seats.
The first model have 'Chrome' effect plated grille and bumper components.
The #2-#3 models have bright Silver painted grille and bumper components.
The #4 model has bright Silver front component, but plain unpainted Grey plastic rear bumper.
The #5-#6 models have both front and rear bumper and grille components in unpainted Grey plastic.
Baseplate colour: the first one in dark Oak and the rest in Grey.

And how do you distinguish a thicker glazing? I can't see any difference on mine.

And I wonder what year and time span did these 2 Long Star Rolls-Royce release?

Many Thanks,
Ritchie

[GHOSTHUNTER]

Hello Ritchie, Lone Star made model #1476 as Silver Cloud II in 1962 until 1964. This model was then updated into a Silver Cloud III by the re-tooling of the headlamps moulding to look like the quad units used on Silver Cloud III cars, but they forgot to update the baseplate from II to III, so yes, all the baseplates show it as a Silver Cloud II.

As a Silver Cloud III, the model was made from 1964 until 1967.

The smaller Silver Cloud III DHC model, #22, was made from 1967 until 1979, inclusive of all the 'Impy' and 'Flyers' versions and to answer your earlier queery about the front wheels on the 'Impy' versions, yes, they were designed as a basic form of steerable front wheels.

The thicker glazing component on the last Three versions in my picture have an unusual area along the top of the screen and the side moulding by the 'B' pillar is thicker. If you had Two 'Beater' examples ready for rebuilding. you could remove the glazing mouldings and compare them, but even just by looking dead straight-on at the models you will see the thicker top section of the moulding as it distorts the light passing through it.

Thicker glazing in here.JPG (21.81 KiB) Viewed 9015 times

On the example in this picture the Red arrrows show the areas where you can see the thicker moulding of the glazing component, inside along the top of the windscreen and the section inside by the 'B' pillar.

Glad you are enjoying some of the Rolls-Royce information I have been posting on the forum. Are there any particular models you want me to feature or are you happy to wait for them to appear by themselves through forum members postings.

GHOSTHUNTER

[GHOSTHUNTER]

A new variation Silver Cloud III, #1476 here...https://www.vintagebritishdiecasts.co.u ... 858#p91858

Ghosthunter.