Precious gems
John Hope, proprietor of Ruby Toys, sadly passed away recently. Rick Wilson had the pleasure of meeting John a few years ago and remembers his exquisite range of models.
A busy diorama that sets the perfect scene for our tribute.
At the beginning of 2013, Ruby Toys announced its first range of models and, just as the second wave was being released at the end of that year, I had the immense pleasure of travelling the relatively short distance down the A1 to meet John and find out more. Since then, John's Ruby Toys had gained a strong following and we had another meeting planned for when Covid restrictions would allow us to. Sadly that was not to be, as he passed away suddenly, on 17th August 2020.
Back in December 2013, I set off down the A1 and exited at the appropriate junction for Little Wymondley. As I turned off the country lane and onto the driveway leading to The Priory, I had a feeling I was about to experience something very special. The house itself is the stuff of dreams, and the grounds and outbuildings are substantial. Tucked away in one of these buildings was the wonderful enterprise of Ruby Toys.
John’s delightful range of vintage Dinky-style ‘what-ifs’ captured the imagination of many collectors. Our condolences go out to his family and friends. His friendliness, warmth and vision will be very sadly missed.
A collector of Dinky Toys for many years, John also produced Code 3 designs for his own collection. John soon found that there were many prototypes of commercial vehicles from the 1940s and 1950s that Dinky didn’t produce, but would make interesting models in a Dinky Toys style. He was sure that some of these in model form would also have an appeal to other collectors, particularly those for whom mint and boxed Dinkys are now unaffordable. So, Ruby
Toys was born. John’s vision was to make models available to fellow collectors as a range of diecasts of some of those commercial vehicles that, in the 1940s and '50s, were a common sight on Britain’s roads, but were never modelled by any of the diecast toymakers of the period.
The name reflects the fact that, when considering a name for his new venture, John and his wife had just celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary, plus he considered the models to be “little gems”. Another tie to the ruby theme is that the reference numbering is in the forties too. The first model (an Albion van) was numbered 41 and the original aim was to finish on number 50, but demand was clearly there because, at the time of his death, the No 51 Fordson had recently been released.
Each casting could be released in a variety of liveries (the number of these would vary) and, in turn, each of these liveries was limited – initially to fifteen, although some exceptions were made, such as the Lyons livery of No 43 Dennis Van that stretched to 30 as pre-order indications were higher. Each different casting would vary in price, dependent on the complexity of the tooling and the resulting casting, ranging from £57.50 to £110.00, but each model is definitely worth every penny, thanks to John’s attention to detail and insistence on quality in every area. Packaged in Ruby Toys' distinctive and evocative packaging, of John’s design, this really has built into a collection to treasure – exactly what John wanted it to be.
At a scale of roughly 1/50, John was producing absolutely marvellous models, and built up quite a worldwide fan club very quickly. I remember John explaining that one collector in particular, who resides in Australia, had already commissioned 31 different one-off variants of the Albion van, proving that Ruby Toys truly has international appeal. It’s easy to see why.
One of our regular contributors, David Busfield, is a big fan of John’s work: “I was very sad to hear about the untimely passing of John Hope earlier this year. Two, or three, years ago John visited me at my house and we had some quality time together discussing both Ruby and Dinky Toys. I can only describe him as an absolute gentleman who will be sadly missed. I have been buying Ruby Toys since their inception and have an example of most of them, I own nine in total. They sit in a prominent position in my main display cabinet and are representative of John's superb skills. The models that John made are of the highest possible quality and he definitely deserves praise for his vision and expertise.” An absolute gentleman he was, indeed – perfectly put, David.
Having had a conversation recently with John’s son, Jay, I can confirm that there are a few models left for sale – and there are even thoughts of a couple of continuation castings being produced that had been in John’s development plans.