VBD2 is closed. Please go to https://vbd3.co.uk instead.

That UN version is interesting. I see that it's identified as late production (because it has plastic wheels, which makes perfect sense) but, if it's a late version, why don't the seats have holes in them? Earlier versions had holes, so what happened to them? Did Dinky retool the model for no driver/passengers (as a cost-saving exercise), or were the personnel locating holes added to the casting as a separate manufacturing operation?
Also interesting to note that the white appears to be oversprayed on normal-release green.

As an Austin Champ model it was made available from 1954 to 1970 by which time plastic was being used more and more in the production of Dinky Toys and an overall program to reduce the number of small components used due to children having a tendancy to remove these from models and somehow decide to put them in their mouth!!

The UN version was only exported to Germany and is late enough in production to be the driverless example. I do not know if they were painted white over the usual dark army green but the green you can see inside the front mud gaurd is put there on purpose by Dinky as they attempt to paint the top surface in dark green.

Repaints exist of these but mostly feature a driver so are not correct but genuine examples are highly sought after and good condition examples can command a high price!

Ghosthunter.

I did not think to look in the catalogues as late as 1970, but the Austin Champ is still there:





Not in the UN livery was this in the German catalogue? I guess the military vehicles had a much longer replacement cycle than there civilian equivalents.

A few more variations:

Rolls Royce Silver Cloud 158











Volkswagen 1500 144













Austin London Taxi 284 and 241

Although relatively common and larger scale than most Dinkys I think this model is interesting as it illustrates the cost cutting measures towards the end of production. The original 1972 model features number plates, boot mouldings (dropped for the Silver Jubilee transfer), jeweled headlights, painted front indicators and translucent taxi sign. The translucent taxi sign remained for the Silver Jubilee model, but all these features had gone on the final production version.

French / Spanish Dinky / Pilen Citroen CX 1455/513

















VW Beetle deluxe Sedan / Saloon 129











Two variations for the base plate were used:



Ford Escort 168

.....still some more variations on this one to find (dark blue, speedwheels etc.)









I guess the model number was deleted from the base when the Police version came out:

I have these two both with the harder to find black interior.



Ghosthunter.

Thanks, the dark blue metallic version in good condition is quite hard to find and I am still on the look out for one of these.

Ford 40-RV 132

The run out turquoise model is still to be found, and only the earliest "D" red example has the engine finished in two colours. I am sure there are some other interior colour variations on this model as well?

















Rolls Royce Silver Cloud MkIII 127

Hopefully I have arranged these in chronological order (left to right). I understand this model has more variations than virtually any other, these seem mainly to be around base plate (design, colour, finish), interior colour (orange, blue, white), and body colour. I have also seen pictures of very late production red models with Zodiac style wheels. I am not sure if differences in the gold colours are actually variations or just how they came out on the day, although the later gold models are generally in a much brighter shade. I think Dinky had problems with the gold paint as I have yet to find an example without some paint defects or shading differences.

Great display of Silver Cloud III models Bako.

I currently have...
3 Turquoise examples.
10 Gold-Copper examples.
4 Red examples.

Due to the way these are stored away, I can not bring all of them to the forum but have managed to retrieve one box which fortunately includes three models I consider to be the hardest versions to find!



Gold with white seats, red with bright blue base and red with last wheel design.

Then there are three distinct shades of gold and this is dificult to show on electronic screens, so some members will and some won't see the differences!



These are dark, light and darker golds.


I also have this strange thing!


Very dark gold-Copper, no glazing and...

The mounts for securing the model to the plastic plynth have pins inside, no other examples has these, not even any of my beater Cloud III models!

Here is another picture of a gold with white seats example.


Here are more pictures of the last version issued with those rare wheel rims.








Ghosthunter.

I would still like to find an example of the the very last production variant you have have shown, red with gloss black base and patterned hubs to complete my collection, but they don't come up very often.

From memory, as a lot of my collection is stored away at the moment, I only have 2 examples with base plates that have pins in the middle of the box retaining holes. One is a 152 RR Phantom V and the other is the 110 Aston DB5 shown previously in this post. I think they were only made like this 1965/66 when the plastic boxes were first introduced.

The variation in gold shading is interesting, this seems far more apparent in the earlier models than the later versions which seem to have a consistent brighter gold colour. I am not sure whether this was ever intentional or was down to problems mixing the paint when the gold version first appeared.