Although now familiar to generations of children, the industrial
process of die-casting only came into being towards the end of the
First World War. Forcing a molten alloy into a mould under pressure
allowed for precise surface detail and strength. In terms of the
toy makers, among the first to exploit the new technology were the
Dowst brothers of Chicago with the 1920s Tootsietoys range.
Dinky toys began life in 1934 as a Meccano spin-off owned by
Hornby. The first range, designed to add trackside realism to train
sets comprised a tank, a tractor, a sports coupe, a motor truck, a
delivery van and an open sports car, and immediately captured the
public imagination.
By the 1950s they shared the international market with a host of
other factories, notably Matchbox (launched by Lesney in 1952),
Corgi (by Mettoy company in 1956) and Spot-On from Tri-ang whose
vehicles kept accurately to a 1:42 scale. Other frequently
encountered names from the 50s and 60s include Britains, Tekno, CIJ
(Compagnie Industrielle du Jouet), Benbros, Budgie, Crescent,
Solido, Morestone, Mercury, Taylor & Barrett and Hot
Wheels.
By the time the firm finally closed in 1979, Dinky had produced
more than 1000 models and numerous colour variations. The
production at Matchbox was larger still. Enthusiasts know that a
lifetime of collecting would never satisfy the desire to own them
all.
Indeed the range is so massive that collectors tend to narrow
the field and collect either by factory, by period, by vehicle
type, by category - or a combination of these. Nostalgia has a big
part to play. Frequently collectors will simply seek out the toys
they loved as a child and this explains the popularity of the
iconic Corgi TV generation toys or the range of trucks produced
post-1947 as the Dinky Supertoys range.
Serious die-cast obsessives will also pay great attention to the
small casting details, wheel variations and colour schemes that
distinguish a rarity from the standard model. This point is
graphically illustrated in the sometimes arcane market for the
Matchbox Models of Yesteryear. These replicas of vintage and
classic cars introduced by Lesney in 1956 were occasionally
produced in multiple colour variations: there are, for example,
more than 40 different versions of the Duesenberg Model J Town Car
that can range in price from £5 to £5000. Price guides and
catalogues are essential for identification.
Above: The Morris Minor Mostest is among the most desirable
Corgi issues from the late 1960s. Introduced on the market without
management approval, it was removed from the shelves, but not
before more than 400 had sold. The example here, minus its box but
graded G-VG, took £600 at Special Auction Services in October
2011.
Pre-production models or those specifically produced for export
overseas also provide rarities. With regard to Dinkys, these
include issues from the French Dinky factory operating in Bobigny
from 1954 until 1972, others produced in Spain through the 1970s
until the early 1980s and a series of rare models produced under
license in South Africa to avoid local taxes. Additional models
were produced in Hong Kong and in India using old dies. It was a
previously unrecorded van made for the Spanish or South American
company Omnisport, c.1954, that sold for £6400 at Wallis &
Wallis in Lewes, East Sussex in June 2009.
It is more typical for collectors to be obsessive regarding
condition. That so much survives from the golden age of die-cast
toys is a tribute to the engineering and strength of these tiny
models (the French firm Solido once boasted that its toys were
strong enough to double as roller skates) but it has placed a huge
financial premium on those few toys that were never played
with.
A whole collecting vocabulary has grown up around the pursuit of
perfection - the word 'mint' indicates an item with no wear or
defects, while 'mint and boxed' refers to a toy without
imperfections and in its original packaging (from 1954 most Dinky
toys were sold in individual boxes).
A little further down the scale are 'near mint', 'excellent' and
'very good', while the battered example that saw childhood
action is described as 'playworn'.
The terminology is key as only the scarcest models have any
significant value when in poor condition. Typically, paint chips,
damage, and restoration will have a huge impact on price and a
shabby or repainted example will fetch a fraction of another in
pristine condition. In recent years, fuelled by the belief that
near-mint condition vehicles with original boxes have the best
investment potential, packaging has become more and more important.
An original box can be worth as much as the toy itself - more in
the case of the Corgi TV related toys when the colours and
condition of the box and the presence of instructions, plastic
missiles etc, separate the exceptional from the ordinary.
There are condition issues peculiar to certain models. Some of
the earliest Dinkys are susceptible to metal fatigue - a result of
contamination in the alloy that originally contained lead - while
decay to the 'bubble' packaging of some relatively recent Corgi
productions from the 1970s has raised questions about their long
term survival.
There is a definite hierarchy in die-cast collecting. There are
rarities in every field but it is generally the case that the
smaller the factory, the smaller the buying audience. Accordingly,
it is Dinky, Corgi and Matchbox toys (in that order) which dominate
the collecting landscape.
In the 1970s Dinky may have lost market share to the realism of
Corgi or the fun of Hot Wheels, but they have few competitors in
the marketplace today. Dinky toys were very simple (it was only in
response to competition that they introduced windows, opening
doors, detailed engines, steering, etc) but they had a real charm.
The Dinky market started out with collectors from Britain and
Commonwealth countries, but interest is now truly international
with strong buyers in America, Japan and Europe.
That said, it is important to remember that the majority of even
boxed Dinkys can still be bought for under £200 and most surviving
playworn toys are priced between £5 and £50 each. If anything,
today's buyers, who are exposed to the huge scale of the global
market via the internet where so much toy dealing takes place, are
more rather than less choosy about condition.
Accordingly, while a swathe of new investors has entered the
market in recent years, demand continues to wax and wane across the
many niche collecting fields. Upwardly mobile collectors in their
50s and 60s have pushed prices higher for the vehicles they
remember from childhood, particularly the Dinky trucks and
advertising vans from this period such as the maroon 'first series'
Foden chain lorry bid to a record £10,200 at Vectis of
Stockton-on-Tees in 2003.
Prices have undoubtedly softened for some of the earlier toys
that no longer connect so directly with the collecting audience.
Nevertheless, the holy grail of Dinky collecting remains the
pre-War delivery vans advertising commercial brand names. Surviving
'first type' vehicles are rare in any state, but condition, as
always, is key.
This was reinforced in March 2008 when Vectis sold one of only
two known boxed sets of six Type 1 vans bearing nationally
recognised trade names for £30,000, and a one-of-a-kind van bearing
the name W.E. Boyce, a cycle shop on the Archway Road in
Highgate in the 1930s, for a record £17,000.
Prices for pre-War Dinkys had not been close to this level since
1994 when Christie's sold a 1937 Bentall's delivery van
for £11,000.
The New Great Book of Corgi 1956-2010 by Marcel R.Van
Cleemput. ISBN-10: 1904562108
Dinky Toys (Shire Album) by David Cooke. ISBN-10:
0747804273
Diecast Toy Cars of the 1950s and 1960s: The Collector's
Guide by Andrew Ralston. ISBN-10: 1845841808
Follow us on:
