Miniatures News, October 1973

Recent Dinky Toy miniatures of vehicles include a 1:76-scale Atlantean bus in “Yellow Page’s” livery, this being No. 295 at a recommended UK retail price of 89p while their aircraft series embraces a S.E.P.E.C.A.T. Jaguar in green and blue camouflage with button operated pilot’s ejector mechanism, No.73: price £1.25. The scale is 1:80.

Lesney Products have many new “Matchbox” models and it is good to know of another in their “Models of Yesteryear”, this time a difficult to execute 1934 Riley MPH. Finished in metallic red, this 3 7/8″-long little sports car is to scale of 1:35 and sells here for 60p. The big headlamps, dual wind-tone horns ahead of the radiator, much-louvred bonnet, wire wheels, running boards, “fold-flat” screen and the Mill’s distinctive back mudguards and tail, are well reproduced and the instruments are simulated. The Ref. No. is Y-3. A most interesting new “Matchbox” miniature is No.65, a Saab Sonnet coupe, 2¾” in length, the scale being 1:50, in blue, priced at a modest 17p. It might be thought that no new features could be introduced into the world of such small miniatures but Lesney have a fresh gimmick in the form of a “piston popper” to go with their well-known “Superfast Road Wheels”. However, as the pistons, which move up and down as the model is pushed along, extend in cylinders projecting far above the top of the bonnet of the No. 10 Ford Mustang, this is for the kids, as are some of the other recent Lesney offerings. We try to confine this column to reproductions of full-scale vehicles,

One of those Meccano sports two-seaters of the 1930’s was shown to me at VSCC Madrestield, complete with its original driver — W.B.