Sebastians Dinky

[Sebastian10]

As far as I know this playworn example is either an early run or even pre production as it has the following

Off white or possibly very pale green/blue interior
No "Estate" wording on the base

There is a much better mint boxed one on eBay https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dinky-141-Va ... SwjqVZCdVV

Mine although playworn, is intact and I think it was a bit of a bargain by comparison

I hope to get the standard deep blue interior one next - at a good deal if possible!

Sebastian

[Fox]

Expensive. But still not sold.

It's not a common model. But I saw some MIB for less than half that price.

Yours is nice.

It's one of my wishlist, wich is plenty of Dinky and Corgi.

[GHOSTHUNTER]

The baseplate without the 'ESTATE' wording was more commonly used for the Ambulance version, model number 278. You will also notice the '141' catalogue number is not displayed, again because of it's use on #278.

You can also then find Ambulance Victor's with the car's baseplate fitted!

Ghosthunter.

[Sebastian10]

Fox

Not really surprised that the Dinky even at the reduced price is still unsold - some of my full size cars from years ago cost much less!

I missed one of these light interior Vauxhalls about 6 years ago for around £70 which was a bit of a bargain - funds just weren't available at the time (due to other unchecked buying of Mettoy plastic models!)

When this playworn unboxed example became available I went for it - it was around 3% of the price of the mint and boxed one shown in the link

Ghosthunter

I hadn't actually noticed the catalogue number 141 was omitted from mine - I don't normally collect Dinkys but I do have a small collection of Mini Dinky models collected about 10 years ago

Can you confirm is my version early run, pre production or just harder to find?

Also do you have any information on the Car Line models made in Hong Kong in the late sixties - these are meant to be based on the Mini Dinkys but with a chromed plastic base and different colour schemes - I have one somewhere packed away - from memory i think it said Car Lines on the base?

Thanks in anticipation

Sebastian

[GHOSTHUNTER]

I would say the Vauxhall Victor estate with the Ambulance baseplate should be claassed as hard to find.

I have heard of 'Car Lines' but can not connect them to Dinky or Mini-Dinky at the moment. Was you thinking of the 'Top Gear' models which are connected to some Mini-Dinky castings.

Tri-Ang 'TOP GEAR' Ferrari 250 LM.jpg (55.49 KiB) Viewed 2438 times

Ghosthunter.

[Sebastian10]

Ghosthunter

I have only heard of Top Gear as a rather loud TV show!

However I recognise your model as a mini Dinky Ferrari with wide wheels - I have one of the standard wheel size missing its engine cover

The Car Lines model I have packed away somewhere is a Ford Corsair 2 door saloon. This is dark red as opposed to the normal yellow or rarer green metallic and also has a red interior but I think the shade of red is more translucent than on the standard models. It seems to be a miniature version of the larger Dinky saloon in red from the same late 1960's era.

I bought it advertised as a Dinky but I knew from the small size it was likely to be a version of the Mini Dinky Corsair - I will see if I can locate it and if so post a photo.

I did read somewhere on the internet about 10 years ago that several of the Mini Dinkys had been issued as Car Line versions but unfortunately I never saved this information

Thanks for the info.

Sebastian

[GHOSTHUNTER]

Sounds very interesting, I hope you can find the Corsair and bring it to the forum as we love the obscure models here!

Ghosthunter.

[Sebastian10]

Ghosthunter

I managed to find the Corsair model. The differences compared to the standard yellow mini dinky are as follows:

Dark red body colour similar to standard Dinky Corsair from the late 60's era

Chrome plated metal base (not plastic as previously thought) that extends into the front grille/headlights/number plate area and the rear boot (trunk) area including number plate

Car * Lines instead of Mini Dinky lettering as the top line of text on the base

Lighter red, more translucent interior

Painted rear lights - orange indicators and bright red stop/tail lights

Engine painted in the same red body colour

Hopefully someone in the forum can provide more information

Sebastian

[GHOSTHUNTER]

Thank's Sebastian, glad you can now show us your Ford Corsair.

Hmm, a Mini-Dinky in all but name. Looking at the baseplate style, it would appear to be from the first (HKI-Hong Kong Industries), batch where the the range name was of slanting or upright script. On the Yellow Corsair the Mini-Dinky name is slanted, usually applied in this way because of the corporate image of the Dinky Toys range with the name on the regular sized models being slanted (Italic).

There are Four ways the name on the baseplates have been cast...
MINI-DINKY, This is upright with Hyphen.
MINI-DINKY, This is slanting to the right with Hyphen.
MINI DINKY, This is slanting to the right, without Hyphen.
MINI DINKY TOYS, This is upright, no Hyphen but with 'TOYS' added.

The Second batch of models have the bright plated baseplates. These are from Zee International ('ZYLMEX'). I don't think your Corsair has anything to do with these later issues.

I have looked in all my Mini-Dinky folders for reference to the 'Car Lines' name but have not found anything, so we must wonder for now, who or where these (presuming other models were made to go with the Corsair!) were destined.

There is a possibility the car lines name was already in use in the intended market (North America and Canada at least), so was changed. The dark Red colour similar to the regular sized Corsair could also indicate this as an early issue. Maybe the very first castings or finished models were painted in the same colours as their larger versions just to see what a miniature range of Dinkies looked like!

A close study and comparison of the Two models could reveal casting differences to establish weather the 'Car Lines' version is a 'Preproduction' or Pre Mini-Dinky model.

I look forward to other members' views on this intriguing model.

Ghosthunter.

[Sebastian10]

Ghosthunter

I did a comparison today between casting of the car lines red corsair and my yellowy/green metallic mini dinky version

The only difference I could find is that the yellowy/green metallic mini dinky has a much more translucent red interior which features an extended length steering column!

However one other point of note is that the mini dinky version is suffering from the usual metal fatique that affects these models including a base that is trying to separate from the body.

I think my other light yellow corsair also suffers from metal fatique as it has a detached bonnet whilst the rest of the body including the base is fine.

BY contrast the car lines version in red seems to be totally free of any fatique and the base is a tight fit.

I will see if I can do a comparion between the yellow version and the car lines version to see if there any differences I have missed the first time around with the yellowy/green metallic version

Sebastian