Dinky Atlantean Masquerading as London DM

[Tito]

Thanks Ghosty.

[Tito]

New arrival awaiting attention. It's a Zylmex DMS and, as far as toys go, pretty close reproduction of the real thing. I was first introduced to the Zylmex on my first trip to London in 1978. They were sold as souvenirs and I purchased four of them. I packed them away somewhere and I guess I will find them someday. The pictured version was purchased on Ebay. It needs new doors. Guess it was operating in a hot climate and the doors were removed. Also needs some body work (note the crack by the front door well. Very similar to the real ones). The stickers look good. So maybe some touch up paint instead of a full repaint. Enjoy.

Tito

[Fred7A]

Nice work on the yellow Matchbox Londoner - it should look very good with Yellow Pages adverts.

I do like the Zylmex DMS, just the front end could have been a bit better. Strangely, at least some of the boxes referred to the bus as a Routemaster. I had one where a previous owner had clearly not been too impressed by this, as they had deliberately obliterated the word "Routemaster" on the box.

[Tito]

Thanks Fred. Routemaster fans are very touchy. Here is the DMS body separated from its chassis. Ironically, in the toy world it's easier to separate a DMS body from its chassis than doing the same with an RM. In the real world, London Transport found it uneconomical to do so with the DMS. For the RM it was relatively easy and there was a whole bus overhaul works built around that principle. In the toy world, trying to take a Corgi RM 468 apart is near impossible I have found, whereas the Zylmex has one pin holding it together and the Matchbox "Londoner" has just two rivets.

[GHOSTHUNTER]

Zylmex did in fact make a Routemaster and was marketed in the box refered to by ''Fred7A''. When they were making the DMS it was put in the samr box and simply painted over the ROUTEMASTER name. Every example I have seen has had this done so sorry Jason it was not done by a previous owner, it was done at the factory!

ZYLMEX Routemaster in original box.


ZYLMEX DMS in original (defaced) box.


Ghosthunter.

[Fred7A]

Thanks for that info, Ghosty! However, this just adds to the mystery, as the sides and rear of the box show the DMS and not a Routemaster! It even mentions the working door on the back panel, which obviously wouldn't apply to the Routemaster.

The top of the rear panel has been removed, but on the standard Zylmex box this had the description "Routemaster DMS588". Very confusing! What does the Routemaster have on the sides and rear of its box?

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Tito, your DMS looks great on that hoist! What will you do about the doors?

[Tito]

Hi All:

The Zylmex DMS originally had double folding doors. The Matchbox version only had folding doors in the middle exit. The sliding doors I am not too crazy about, but I do own one, which is stored goodness knows where. I am planning to use clear plastic with door panels painted on it to replace the doors. I don't think I am going to find replacement. Also the door mechanism is missing.

Such fun.

[Tito]

Stickers test. Looks like I'll need a paper cutter. Hands unsteady on scissors.

Tito

[Fred7A]

Nice work, it will look great when you've straightened those edges on the stickers.

Your photos show the nice panel detailing which Matchbox included on the casting. EFE have a habit of leaving off parts of this panel detail, which can slightly detract from their models.

[Fred7A]

How are the buses coming along, Tito? I haven't been online much lately, but I have brought out some old projects which need a bit some finishing work. Some of these were tucked away a long time ago and then forgotten about, so it's good to be getting them done at last. Sorry the picture isn't great! These are all London Transport or London Country, but there is still a nice variety of liveries. The majority are Routemasters, with several RTs and a lone STL which is the only Corgi in the group - all the rest are EFEs.

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