In the following years I collected many Corgi toy models, preferring the flashy commercial and TV hero models without giving the early standards much of a glance, I was a member of the local Stamp club and my stamp collection grew rapidly and when my Dad bought a record player my pocket and paper round money went on records, many I have to this day, but the Corgi cars remained in a box for many years until I sold the lot to a collector in the 80's.
Many years later I embarked on a renewed diecast hobby project, to build a collection of all the vehicles I had ever owned and driven. Starting with a Morris Minor MM I managed it using old Dinky, Corgi and modern Vanguard models, the collection includes a Hillman Imp, Austin Cambridge, a number of Minis, a Reliant Regal van, Austin Allegro, Cortina MK.IV and right up to my present day Vauxhall Zafira, and a few cars my family owned.
On further investigation I found there were many other avenues to explore including foreign made models, I now have a wide range of British and French cars, vans and many American models of cars which I would have loved-to-have-owned-but- never-did!
Upon my retirement I spread the net wider, and now have basic collections of Corgis and Dinkys up to the late 60's and regular wheels Matchbox cars and vans which is my latest fad. I bought virtually all of them on ebay from as little as £1.00 to £5.00 and £20 for the rarer French Dinkys. The mint condition originals were way out of my price range, but using techniques I learned from several years of restoring I managed to make the most neglected items look like new again, occasionally I was lucky enough to pick up the odd item which was in almost new condition only needing the addition of new tyres and a box, the most difficult was the Corgi Batmobile 267 - nearly a week's work to restore it from a battered relic, now resplendent with fresh paint, all weapons working and a professionally made repro box and plinth.
To my mind it seems if a badly worn or damaged vehicle is crying out to be restored I will restore it! Mint condition originals in their original boxes are going for silly money it seems, it would make more sense to buy the full size road models and restore them...antique paintings get cleaned and restored too very successfully.
I learned how to reproduce all the boxes using commercially available DVD library discs, I even managed to sell quite a few doubles on ebay to help supplement my hobby, with a wealth of research material available and good books like The Great Book of Corgi, History of British Dinky Toys 1934-1964 and Collecting Matchbox Regular Wheels 1953-1969 it wasn't difficult to get the right colours and model numbers.
Work in Progress!
I use spray and enamel paint and pop rivets for base fixing - 1.9mm for Corgi/Dinky (using rivet gun) and 1.5mm for Matchbox (using glue).
