Indholdsfortegnelse for September 2025 i Collectors Gazette

Excalibur Auctions is excited to present one of only 30 known examples in existence of the original Hulk stretch figure from 1979. It was produced by the renowned toy-maker Denys Fisher (1918-2002) and comes directly from its original owner, who begged his mother for one as a child. She knew someone who worked for Denys Fisher and was able to purchase one of the first ever off the production line and on its original packaging it bears a hand-written ‘number one’ on the flap of its box. This exceptionally rare figure has been treasured for almost 50 years and is therefore in ‘mint’ condition, having been kept upright and out of the light all these years. The packaging, in a vibrant yellow, has not faded and the original chalk dust…

OTTOMOBILE RENAULT 12 TS BREAK Scale: 1:18 Price: €69.90 Ref: OTT 1139 OttOmobile’s replication of Renault’s 12 Break is a well-detailed tribute to the small estate, featuring accurate details, authentic and charming touches. www.otto-models.com/en MATRIX MODELS SUNBEAM TIGER 260 Scale: 1:18 Price: £206.99 Ref: CML204-3 This 1:18 scale Sunbeam Tiger impresses with outstanding detail, from chrome accents to accurate badging and interior simplicity. www.oxforddiecast.co.uk TARMAC WORKS LEXUS LS400 CHAMPAGNE BEIGE METALLIC Scale: 1:64 Price: £12.99 Ref: T64G-082-GO A model that captures luxury legacy with extremely strong detailing www.ixomodels.com DID YOU KNOW WE ARE MORE THAN JUST A MAGAZINE? www.ccofgb.co.uk www.twitter.com/CollectorClubGB www.facebook.com/CollectorsClubOfGreatBritain/ www.instagram.com/ccofgb www.youtube.com/CollectorsClubofGB More new releases reiewed at ccofgb.co.uk…

Bachmann Europe Plc has unveiled four new 1:76 scale AEC Routemaster RML buses as part of its popular EFE Road range of diecast collectables. The announcement was made at the Wythall Busfest event at the British Motor Museum at Gaydon, Warwickshire. The standard Routemaster bus was an undoubted success story for London Transport (LT), and its integral construction had helped keep LT at the forefront of new bus innovation. However, by the end of the 1950s, questions were being asked by the wider bus industry about whether a 64 seat double decker was commercially viable long-term, especially as the economics of bus operation became more challenging. Greater capacity was being called for. In 1961 LT ordered 24 new Routemasters, which would have an increased capacity of 72 seats. Like the…

This month we look at two very different models, the ERF Lorry, and the Forward Control Jeep. So far in this series, we have seen that it is not unusual for a casting to be used as many as five or six times, creating a different vehicle on each occasion. Changes were made to colour schemes, and models were transformed with the addition of transfers, stickers and plastic figures. ERF LORRY The first of the ERF lorry castings appeared in February 1958. Corgi released the ERF Platform Lorry 44G as model No 457. It was issued in 1/56 scale, and had a light to mid-blue cab and chassis, with a dark blue platform rear. As with all the early releases, this lorry had no interior or suspension but did have…

I guess that it’s inevitable, given the terrific output of toys over the decades, that some will slip through the net when it comes to identification. These days, when everything has CE markings, bar codes and health and safety warnings, it’s all very different. But go back a few years, and the situation was one that saw some manufacturers produce toys bereft of clues to their origins. For this article I’ve dug up three more curios, although one, the first, will be vaguely familiar to regular readers. OPEN THE BOX What’s extremely helpful about Bilbax aluminium vehicles (two types, namely a Sports Car and a Racing Car are out there) is that they came boxed. And therein (literally) lies the problem. If you read the first part in this series,…

Hi folks. Having been a collector since the age of six or seven years old I have so many happy memories to look back on. I cut my teeth collecting things like bubble gum cards, marbles, coins and old sweet wrappers, the latter of which we stuck in albums with glue made from flour and water. This, as you might imagine, was often a very messy business but it seemed to work as in those days it was a case of making do. I remember some of those old sweet wrappers having a bird on them that looked a lot like a swallow to me? It was called Bluebird Toffee though and came in all sorts of different flavours. We always got a tin of Bluebird toffees in our Christmas…

Wallis & Wallis’ summer auction provided a feast of collectables, of especial interest to railway fans. One lovely lot (and not a tank!) was the Roco HO scale SNCF class 050B 0-10-0 tender and locomotive. Without a running number, and finished in dark green livery with red lining, it sold for £40. Three other (larger) Roco locomotives made £60-70 each. Wrenn cemented its position in the collectability stakes, though, with a BR 4-6-2 Merchant Navy Class locomotive and tender representing the Clan Line. In orange lined Brunswick Green, this example raised £150. For the vintage collector, the cased pair of Bing clockwork tinplate sets were a real draw: the prewar 00 gauge clockwork tinplate table railways smaller set contained a green 2-4-0 locomotive lined in yellow LNER with 3 carriages,…

Vectis certainly attracts some interesting toys. In a recent sale there was an Airfix Redskin Bow and Arrow set; I doubt very many Gazette readers have ever seen an example of this toy. Dating from the 1960s, the bow and arrows were mounted on a card and aside from some wear on the arrows’ rubber tips, the set was very good indeed. Top bid was £660. Then there was the Mackintosh Toffee tin, this example in the shape of an aeroplane. Marked H. X-3771 De Luxe Air Line, there was some spidering to the paint noted, along with surface wear and tarnishing throughout. A really unusual lot, it sold for £1,345. From the Britains Air-craft Series was a rare Set No. 434, the Royal Air Force Monoplane. Boxed, and dating…

When I were a nipper growing up in the early 60s, there were three important things. Trains, Beatles, and pirate radio. The trains were made in England by Meccano, Tri-ang, Graham Farish and sometimes Trix. The Beatles were made in Liverpool by some divine force. The pirate radio was British, while playing a lot of American music. But the device hanging off my bike’s handlebars, playing said pirate radio, bore the legend ‘Made in Japan’. This was just the start of an awesome run of products from Japan. First there was Honda with their small scooters, followed by stunning motorbikes and cars. Then there was Sony. OMG! Their products were unreal, years ahead of anyone else’s. They made reel to reel domestic tape recorders which could double track! Their portable…

Over 50 rare and antique games are on display covering a time period from Victorian to modern day. Thegamesformpartofa private collection that has been assembled over the years. The range is extensive – everything from a madcap drinking game, to cranked machines and a game created by composer Andrew Lloyd Webber. It is believed to be the largest exhibition of its kind that has ever been shown in public. All aspects of gaming are covered in the exhibition from dice to vibrating mats. It is also interactive – many of the games can be played while visiting the museum, offering the opportunity to try out games that are no longer available or are rarely seen such as Totopoly. This was one of the most popular horse racing board games of…

As a child I loved pop up books. There was something almost magical in the way those illustrations rose up from a flat page into a 3-dimensional, stand-up model of a scene from the story. It might be a fairytale, a classic story, animals in the zoo or clowns teetering on a high wire, those pop-up pictures all added to the excitement of reading the book. Pop-up books have been around a long time. No one really knows for certain when or where the first one was created, althoughh historians have unearthed a manuscript for an astrologicall book written by a Catalan mystic, author and poet named Ramon Llull in 1306. He made a revolving disc called a volvelle. Likewise, the 13th century Benedictine Monk, Mathew Paris (c.1200-1259) also used…

Part Two of the SAS Glorious Trains sale focussed, predictably, on the various miniature gauges, along with sundry other “liberated” railway memorabilia. Hornby, Bassett-Lowke, 7mm Finescale, Marklin, Aster, Bing and American O gauge were all covered, with 624 lots in total going under the hammer. A rebuilt, boxed Hornby O gauge Princess Elizabeth 4-6-2 and tender sold well at £360; this was an electric version. Whilst there was plenty of choice for the devotee, it was the bigger scales that attracted the high bids. Sale highlight had to be the impressive 5 inch gauge 2-8-0 locomotive and tender of the Great Northern Railway, lined green, and representing class 01 with the nickname of “Tangos”. This was bid to £4,800 – and yes, it came with the all-important boiler certificate. On…

A ction Man appeared briefly at British Toy Auctions’ last sale, to wit a boxed Hasbro/Modellers Loft Action Man 40th Anniversary, AM023 Nostalgic Collection item, containing a boxed Action Man Adventurer with free gift and a boxed Action Man Explorer Base Camp set. The set was presumed to be in mint condition and was bid to £130 plus commission. A Pokemon Mewtwo v Mew Trading Card Holder containing approximately 63 Pokemon cards, including Ancient Movie Mew Promo; Mewtwo #3 Movie Promo; Kangaskhan 5/64 Jungle Holo; Charizard Base 4/104 Holo, Ancient Mew and similar was another sign of the times in terms of collectors’ items. Cards were fair to very good condition and they made £1,000. A Topps Pokemon TV Animation Edition Album, containing in excess of 160 Pokemon TV Animation…

At different times over the past six decades the three best-known names in the British diecast industry - Dinky, Matchbox and Corgi - have all secured permission to make toy and model versions of the vehicles, rockets and other craft which featured in Gerry Anderson’s Thunderbirds series, first screened by ITV in September 1965. Corgi’s massive success with the James Bond Aston Martin was quickly followed up by other film and TV spin-offs such as the Batmobile and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. car and Corgi naturally thought that Lady Penelope’s ‘FAB 1’ Rolls-Royce from Thunderbirds would be an ideal subject. But rival Dinky got there first and their model, complete with firing rockets and figures of Lady Penelope and her chauffeur Parker, was released in 1966 and went on to…

We pick up from part one in last month’s issue at the dawn of the 1970s, the previous decade having given birth to a plethora of classic military H0/00 plastic kits many of which focused on AFV’s and military vehicles from World War Two (WW2). 1970 saw the issue of the 8th Airfix catalogue and what a mouth-watering array of moulded polystyrene gems it contained. The first Airfix military AFV kit of the new decade saw the release of the Leopard 1 Battle Tank, the first all-German tank to be built since WW2. It entered service in 1965 and was ordered by over a dozen European forces. The Leopard was followed by an all-time Airfix favourite in the shape of the RAF Refuelling Set which came as a pleasant surprise…

As usual, a variety of models and makes of vehicles have been considered in order to qualify for the heady status of Camper Van. Clearly, the early VW Campers such as the ‘splitties’ and the early ‘bays’ would be at the top of the list. Needless to say, of all the model manufacturers, it is Matchbox that has to take first prize for their impressive array of VW Camper Vans. Matchbox released the Volkswagen 15cwt Van as model No MB34a, in 1957. This vehicle had an all-blue body with a yellow logo: ‘Matchbox International Express’ along the sides – the contrasting colours make this model quite distinctive. It was issued with a variety of wheel types, and these all have different values. The metal wheel type is now valued at…

A few years back I acquired a Nomura Mechanized robot, the classic ‘Robby’ the robot toy from the 1950s. Materially he was in pretty good shape but once the batteries went in, the lights came on, but no one was at home so’s to speak. He didn’t walk and nothing else worked. Now, while I’ve restored a fair few old toys in my time, I’ve always steered clear the battery-operated toys. For this one though and given the value of the robot I thought I’d go on a few relevant UK web sites to see if there were any professionals who would undertake the work to get him started again. After all you only want to have to take it apart once. The response I received was a little lacklustre…