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In 1979, one of the greatest names in the history of toy cars, Dinky Toys, was looking a little unstable in the marketplace. The reasons leading up to this can be seen in any number of the large toy or model companies, bad management decisions, underfunding and the wrong product development. During 1980-81 it looked as if Dinky could be re-launched from a new, smaller company, with products sourced from outside the U.K., this was more of a way to keep the name alive as it was such a well known brand and carried such status.

By the mid-80's, nothing came of any plans to revive the Dinky brand and it looked as if it was to simply fade away, AIRFIX, the then owner of the brand, had no other similar product in their inventory to merge the Dinky brand into, but was reluctant to sell it to any other parties, so for several years until 1987, it did not exist in any form.

The event in 1987, was the purchase of the Dinky brand by a major player in the toy and model car industry, UNIVERSAL TOYS and it was passed into the hands of "Matchbox" also owned by Universal.

At the 1988, Earls Court toy fair, a special announcement on the "Matchbox" stand, was that they will be re-introducing a range of Dinky branded model cars, in metal, in 1/43rd scale and at an affordable price point.

By the end of 1988, the first all new 'DINKY TOYS' in seven years, were once again on sale in the U.K., via Harrods in London. They are packaged in strong all round 'window' boxes with a back-wall diorama, with the model screwed to a card plynth. They are being marketed as...The Dinky Collection...for around £4.95 each.
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I do not personally collect these models and I am not an expert on these models, but I have always wanted to record them for posterity and give them some reconition in model car media.

I will also post pictures of examples from the range and the first picture is of model number 1, DY-01, the Jaguar 'E' type roadster. This was made in Macau from 1988-90, when production switched to China.

1988, made in Macau.

1988, made in Macau.

1988, made in China.

1988, made in Macau.

I realy liked their modelchoises on the European cars and vans but when they went to American cars later on I was not that enthousiastic. To many already make a 1959 Cadillac and 1957 Belair.

marcel

matchboxmarcel wrote:I realy liked their modelchoises on the European cars and vans but when they went to American cars later on I was not that enthousiastic. To many already make a 1959 Cadillac and 1957 Belair.

marcel

Hello matchboxmarcel, thank's for replying to this article.
The chance of the old Dinky name coming back onto the retail markets was too good to miss, but what subject matter would be chosen, must have gone round the companies boardroom in circles, "do we make British cars, Euro cars, or Foreign cars" etc, etc,
in the end they obviously decided on everything, including some American cars.

The range was clearly aimed at catching as many collectors as possible with little regard to the true meaning and objectives of those original 'DINKY TOYS', but, as that's all water under the bridge now, we should just thank the powers that be, that the 'DINKY' name made a comeback, with a fairly full range of subjects and at an affordable price.

I don't collect these models myself, except for the Bentley R-Type 'Continental', but I understand they are still popular with today's collectors and prices at toy fairs are similar to their original price when new, so that should make it quite easy to collect all of them all.

I will run through the rest of the range, finishing with model number DY-36 and welcome any other comments from forum members along the way.

Thank's again matchboxmarcel, nice to hear from you,

Regards,
GHOSTHUNTER.

Ghostbuster,
Another good thread started by you.
Like you I followed the series from the side line. I was already collecting to much to include them in my collection.
It's sad now to see these wonderful models for sale at swapmeets here in New Zealand for a fraction of there original price. They seem to have gone the way the yesteryears went some years back.
I may be wrong here as this isn't a strong suit of mine, but understood Universal bought the brand and on buying it had a certain time to reuse the name for some reason, so had to package up 6 or so 1-75 models in Dinky packaging before the main series you show could be released.

Cheers Steve
Matchboxkiwi

Thank you very much matchboxkiwi, I am pleased you are enjoying this article.

Yes indeed, the Dinky name was used on six 'Matchbox 1-75' type models, mounted on bright red blister card packaging and was a clever way to secure the 'Brand', sadly they are not highly praised by all collectors today, but are interesting and quite important in the overall 'timeline' of Dinky Toys.

Hopefully these little models will find there way onto the forum a little later.

Thank's again matchboxkiwi, best regards,
GHOSTHUNTER.

1988, made in Macau.