Indholdsfortegnelse for December 2025 i Diecast Collector

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C&T Auctioneers recently handled the Jeremy Brewer toy soldier auction; plenty of lead figures from Britains, along with allied manufacturers’ output, went under the hammer; in all, there were 380 lots. Typical of the sought-after collectables was a Taylor & Barrett boxed Air Raid Precautions and Fire Service set, circa 1940, with an auxiliary Fire Service tender with ladder, trailer, pump and hoses. There were three firemen in gasmasks, who were accompanied by a six piece ARP Decontamination squad with hose, two fire engines with ladders, a wheeled extending escape ladder and ten firemen. A superb lot, with original utility boxes, this made £520. A 1950s boxed set of railway station figures, (actually set 830), by Timpo was seemingly shop fresh, with the contents still on their strings: this sold for…

DOLLS and teddy bears dominated recently at one of SAS’s auctions – in all, just under 700 lots comprising cuddly toys, dolls’ house furniture and dolls went under the hammer. For those present, it was a modest affair in terms of many of the prices realised. Numerous lots sold for between £20-60, such is the nature of this market sector – typical, perhaps, was the boxed Sindy Sunshine doll dating from 1982. Clothes comprised, in total, just a one-piece swimsuit – she made £20. More serious was the Merrythought Bingie Guardsman teddy bear; yes, a bear in a bearskin, who had clearly been through the wars and who sold for £150. Steiff remains very collectable as a brand but prices vary enormously: a 1930s Steiff Teddy Baby bear made £240…

The 1:43 scale models you can see in these pages are detailed replicas of real cars. This is not a collection of colour/livery variations made up by the imagination of a model maker to add a little more profit from the same set of parts. As extravagant as it may look, a customer can really order a new Porsche 911 Dakar painted just like the scale models launched by Porsche dealers and made by Minimax that we have here. It may look like a marketing trick only, to catch the attention of the ultra-rich who fancy exclusive products like this, no matter what it costs. But it is a little more than that. We can start by the price of a standard 911 Dakar without any special livery or optional…

SAAB SONETT III Production: 1973-77 Catalogue: 1973-77 Box Styles: I Saab Sonett III was the first Swedish car in the range, and was based on a limited-production sports coupé with pop-up headlights and a large glass hatchback. The Matchbox version was not a bad representation of the real thing, although the realism wasn’t helped by the colour choice of metallic mid-blue, with yellow interior and bonnet bulge, and a non-matching light blue plastic hatch. The base is bare metal and the glazing is amber. There were no variations except for a very short run of white Sonetts made right at the end of production in 1977 for a multi-pack. Although these still had blue hatches, few were made and are considered among the rarest of Superfast models. AIRPORT COACH Production:…

Back in April 2013, Barney Brown took a leap of faith. Having worked for barristers as their accountant for over 23 years, he asked himself, “Can I leave my safe and secure 9-5 job and create a business which I am in control of and look forward to every day?” Encouraged by his father, Rod, whom Barney calls “his biggest supporter,” he took a deep breath, left his well-salaried job, accepted an early pension, and launched a website in September 2013, specialising in vintage collectable toys. Yet, it didn’t quite work out that way. The initial aim of selling an eclectic mix of diecast models and trains to Scalextric and Hot Wheels quickly changed to one very specialist and highly niche field: early plastic figures, primarily produced by Herald and…

Hi folks. There are some toys that you simply never can stop buying and despite some deliberation I found it hard to resist handing over a fiver for a playworn Matchbox King-Size No.1 Weatherill Hydraulic front loader, despite already having quite a few of them in my collection, all in varying degrees of preservation and restoration! This is a toy that takes me right back to my childhood being a baby boomer kid born in the 1950s. I played for hours upon hours with these miniature excavators, loading my Foden dumper trucks with sand and gravel. Rather surprisingly, I have never managed to acquire a nice mint and boxed version of this toy and would still love to find one someday (never give up hope, as they say). Apparently, the…

He may have been, by his own admission, tight lipped about AutoCult’s plans for 2025 in our “Fireside conversation” (Diecast Collector December 2024 issue) but Thomas Roschmann had also let slip, with a wink and a smile, in that conversation how AutoCult’s forward planning is scheduled. So, all we had to do was wait patiently for that tenth birthday party to find out more. 10 YEARS OF AUTOCULT (2015 – 2025) As the AutoCult Team eloquently explained recently: ” This year we are celebrating 10 years of AutoCult. The Tatra T805, which went on its “grand tour” in 1953, perfectly embodies the AutoCult brand and thus stands for our extraordinary range with unique stories behind each vehicle. True to our brand and company name, we have made it our goal…

Capturing your collection of models and toys on camera can be as rewarding as photographing the real thing, and in many ways it can be even more difficult. Saying that, with the right approach, these small-scale replicas can look strikingly lifelike, showing off their design and detail in ways that can sometimes even make viewers forget they’re looking at a miniature. The key is knowing how to use light, composition, and a few simple techniques to transform an ordinary snapshot into a professional-looking image. Whether you’re contributing an article to a magazine, sharing your collection online, creating artful displays, or simply enjoying the craft of photography, these tips might help you showcase your models at their very best. All I used to take the photos featured on this page was…

A unique shop in the Derbyshire Dales has had an exciting few weeks. Collectors Corner, opened by former Chatsworth art handler Ian Jackson, has recently moved location to a bigger premises. The shop sells rare comics, vintage toys and a lot more rare collectables. After struggling to keep the wonderfully niche store open through lockdown, especially in a quiet village like Cromford, Wirksworth is preparing to be the new location for this collectors’ wonderland. Jackson has previously stated that the lesson he has learnt through this business is that if people are into geeky things, those people are thoughtful and kind. The store currently has a stock of around 10,000 comics alongside toys, models, board games, sci-fi props and so much more. The new location should mean more products can…

COMEDIAN Stephen Merchant has sold his childhood Star Wars collection for more than £5,000 to help raise money for a school in his area. Stephen Merchant, originally from Bristol, co-wrote The Office and Extras with Ricky Gervais. His most recent work was the comedy series The Outlaws. More than 30 lots went under the hammer at Auctioneum Ltd in Bristol earlier this year. The collection was estimated to sell for £300 to £500 but instead fetched over £5,000 for an amazing cause. All the funds went to Ashton Park School, to help build a new outdoor covered space for lessons, activities and events. The lots were in amazing condition and were obviously treasured and loved.…

The Volkswagen campervan story now stretches over an impressive seven decades, during which the successive versions have carved particular niches for themselves in both automotive history and popular lifestyle culture. Over that time, several household names from the coach building and specialist conversion sectors have contributed significantly to the story, but none more than the German firm Westfalia. Using ‘kombi’ typ.2 transporter bodies supplied by Volkswagen, Westfalia delivered a succession of campers into VW’s official model range. By the third generation, now popularly and retrospectively known as the T3, Westfalia introduced an eye-catching “California” version of its contemporary VW camper range in late 1988. A badging theme that continued to be used throughout the era of the T4 and up to a point in the early 2000’s, when Volkswagen introduced…

Let’s rewind to the late 1950s and early 1960s. Out on the real railways, BR was already feeling the squeeze from motor cars, motorways, and the growing glamour of air travel. But in the miniature world of toys and model railways, trains were still kings of the castle. After all, they ticked every box: engineering, design, and, if you were buying electric sets, a hefty price tag too. But into this world of big companies and even bigger ambitions came a plucky little outfit that did things differently. No flashy motors. No complicated wiring. Just good old-fashioned push power. This company was Lone Star, and their idea was so simple it almost felt cheeky: if you skip the expensive stuff, you can make the trains smaller, cheaper, and still a…

If you’ve ever perused a certain Internet auction site, you have no doubt come across job lots. The term ‘job lot’ can encompass anything from three models to an old suitcase crammed to the brim with models. Some are just collectors’ leftovers whilst others are exhumed from lofts or the back of a long-forgotten cupboard. There’s a certain poignancy going through someone else’s childhood chattels. One is looking at literally their last day of action before they were consigned to a dark space and out of sight. They can also reveal their place in history. I bought a job lot a while back which was a mixture of 70’s Matchbox Superfast with some very worn 50’s Dinky toys thrown in. There were also some cereal premiums and a late 60’s…

There’s a lot to consider under the letter T. If you like your models in the smaller gauge, and with more than a passing nod to Japanese output, then Tarmac Works will be right up your street. Majoring in 1/64 scale this enterprise, founded in 2014 in Hong Kong, considers itself a team of car and model car enthusiasts. Its 1/64 range is vast and diverse but the company also acknowledges the market for 1/43. The smaller models are modestly priced and it’s clear that the model runs are not necessarily that big: websites will show you just how many examples have sold out. Race cars, road cars, supercars, rally cars… it’s all available. If you can’t envision a Koenigsegg CC850 or a Pagani Zonda R in your driveway, then…

Every collector has a story. Alan Yuill, from Scotland, shares his story.“As a wee boy, I had my army of hollow-cast British soldiers who fought many a winning battle. However, in what seemed a very short time, I became a real soldier, serving in Cyprus. In those far-off days, you did not have much choice. Many years later, I had to take one of my daughters to get a doll she simply could not live without! Having bought the doll, I noticed a stand selling toy soldiers and could not resist going over for a look. To my surprise, I found myself more interested in the civilian figures than the soldiers, and I made the fateful decision to buy some. That was it — I was to become an ardent…

EARLIER in the year MBC announced their third MBC/BCE model, the Dublin Bus Enviro 500 in the yellow and green Transport for Ireland livery. They are moving forward in the project quickly and can now share these images of their Pre-Production samples, which arrived in the UK this week. I’m sure you will agree this model looks excellent and hopefully will be a sell-out success like its sister models. Please be aware this is a sample, and some details are not correct. These will be updated on the production models. MBC will release an Alexander Dennis Enviro 500 operated by Dublin Bus. The livery will be Dublin Bus Transport for Ireland with the presented route as 39A UCD Belfield via N3 Bypass. There will be 1000 units made with the…

ALTHOUGH its late September sale was seen mostly as a train-centred affair, Vectis offered a number of useful Meccano lots, proving that this antique construction toy still has an enthusiastic following. A desirable No.5 outfit in a card box dating from around 1923 (the so-called late nickel period), with an array of nickel, brass parts and gears, found a buyer for £100. Another interesting lot (that sold for £170) comprised an ocean liner style vessel, a single seat racing car and a motor car. The models appeared to have been built using a combination of British and French produced Meccano parts from the pre-war period between 1934 and 1941. A pre-war 1920s No.6 outfit, containing nickel, black and brass components, along with other parts and an instruction booklet, raised £160;…

Matrix Models seem to be having a love affair with British cars at the moment with Rolls Royces, Rovers and Lotus Elans all being recent subjects, and the Mini Beach Car and Reliant Scimitar being scheduled for release this Autumn, plus a 2003-2005 MG ZT-T 260, a 1957-1960 Jensen 541R and a 1995-1996 Jaguar XJS 4.0 Celebration Convertible, both open and closed versions. Also included in the recent programme of releases from Matrix is this lovely model of a 1930s sports roadster, the Aston Martin 15/98. THE HISTORY Manufactured by Robert Bamford and Lionel Martin, the first Aston-Martins (1913) (the hyphen is correct for the period) rapidly established a reputation for high performance and sporting prowess in the immediate post WW1 years. Unfortunately, the management’s concentration on motor sport, whilst…

For this month’s ‘Then and Now’ we are going to take a dive into Vauxhall’s back catalogue and look at one of their big sellers from the late 1980s and early 1990s; the Mk2 Astra GTE. Launched in October 1984, the Mk2 Astra was identical to the Opel Kadett E launched two months earlier in Europe. Visually it was a massive leap forward over the first generation. This slippery shape hid the underpinnings of the earlier car, which were carried forward, really well. The car even won the European Car of the Year Award in 1985. Following the success of the first-generation Astra GTE, Vauxhall launched the Mk2 GTE soon after the introduction of the main range. This initially used the same 1.8 115bhp engine as the Mk1, but was…

I suppose that every reader of this publication will have his or her favourite decade, a decade that sits in the memory by virtue of novelty, personal encounters or simply the background fabric of society. For me, it has to be the sixties, simply because so much happened. It was as if the corked-up bottle of austerity was given a good shake and the stopper eased off. Certainly, for pre-secondary school kids, it was a time of enlightenment. Every school day meant that there were things to catch up on in the playground; fads, games, the latest slang and, of course, collectables. Possessed of very limited pecuniary means, the average child would usually spend his pennies in the local sweetshop, where racks of glass bottles promised all manner of incipient…

If you know a diecast collector or a child taking their first steps into the world of diecast models or an adult rekindling a passion for the hobby, then a Christmas-themed model could be the perfect surprise gift. For hobbyists and toy collectors, Christmas diecast models are another excuse to expand collections with festive-themed cars and accessories. Many toy collectors and enthusiasts in the UK take pride in creating elaborate Christmas layouts, sharing their displays at fairs, exhibitions or online forums. Christmas diecast models are so popular that even Disney has got involved and created a series of diecast models from Disney Pixar Cars. The holiday themed special edition bundle includes Mater wearing a green holiday hat, Lightning McQueen with red and green holiday decorations and a seasonal snowmobile character…

Fond Nucci Roma aircraft HI. I’ve recently acquired a large diecast aluminium aircraft, stamped with Fond Nucci Roma on the base. I’m looking for some help finding information on it, please. It’s large, 93cm x 88cm, and weighs approx. 6-7 kg. I’d love to know if this model is rare, if there is anyone who could help restore it, how much a restoration would cost, and an estimated value as it is. I hoped a reader of the magazine can offer some help or advice. Many thanks. Richard Allsop Wow, that’s quite a find, Richard! You’ll spot details for buyers, auctioneers and valuers in the magazine, and you could also take it along to one of the collectors’ fairs listed inside. If you’re interested in other valuations (as this aircraft…