Desert Island Diecasts
Imagine you’re stranded on a remote island and had only taken a handful of your collection favourites on that fateful trip, which five would you want it to be? Paul Spek is this month’s castaway hero.
Ihave selected these five models from the top of my mind. Because if I can't remember my favourite models, what's the point of collecting? On the other hand, if you would ask me next week, I just might select five others!
LION CARS DAF DAFFODIL 31
First my Lion Cars DAF Daffodil 31 springs to mind. It is a 1/43rd scale model of the car I used to have as a classic, and in which my brother and I took part in the most fantastic classic car events. It's a simple but quite accurate miniature. It's as Dutch as can be - as you know DAF is a Dutch car and truck brand, and Lion Cars is a Dutch model car manufacturer. Lion Cars made all DAF cars in the 1960s and '70s. I repainted it in the colours of my real pride and joy, and put it on Stilauto-wheels, exactly like my car had.
DINKY COLLECTION MINI COOPER
Second favourite is the Mini Cooper from Dinky Collection (1/43). It has all the detail it needs to represent the real car and nothing more. Although the model is from the eighties, it is detailed just like the Lion Car of twenty years earlier. Like the Daffodil, it's nostalgic in its simplicity, and it even feels and sounds very pleasant when you pick it up and hold it in your hand. It is strong and simple enough to withstand rough handling - and I have about fifteen examples anyway. I like it so much.
POLISTIL FIAT 126
The third model is my Polistil Fiat 126. The 1/24 scale model is as cute as the real thing. It's a bit of a shame the wheels are so wide, but from the side they do look good. As a good toy car should, it has lots of play value, with opening doors, boot and (rear) engine cover. Although I'm no fan of green, in this instance the realistic shade goes very well with the tan interior.
LION CARS DAF 1900-2100
The fourth diecast miniature I would take to a desert island is the Lion Cars DAF 1900-2100 or 'kantelcabine' (tilt cabin). The lines of the cabin of the real thing are so pure and simple, a kid could draw it in eight straight lines and two curved ones. Lion Cars made a great, lean and faithful reproduction of it in
1/50th scale. I usually don't care much about the load department of trucks (takes up a lot of cabinet space), so when I restored this example, I put on the simplest of beds on the chassis. I painted the truck a pale shade of blue and it works very well with the little detail and finesse of this miniature, and the white roof and canopy.
BRITAINS MASSEY-FERGUSON 45 TRACTOR
The fifth model would be the Corgi Toys Lions of Longleat set of a Land Rover Pick-up and lions, lions den and chunks of meat. No, although it's a childhood birthday present and I love it, there's a lot of plastic and this is about diecast. I'd take Corgi's Burlingham Seagull bus. No, no, no! It would be the MasseyFerguson tractor from Britains in 1/32nd scale. The hours I played with it, looked at it and combined it with all sorts of farm implements - it started a new sub-collection.
Oh, it's five already. Shame, I've got so many favourite model cars, that I could go on and make hundreds of Top 5s. But if I really had to move to a desert island, I would take my shoeboxes of Dinky, Corgi and Lion Cars wrecks, and some paint and brushes. Then I could pass the time building a fine new collection!
For the 1969 Lesney Matchbox range, No 8 Ford Mustang was kept as a Regular Wheels. By the time the 1970 catalogue arrived, this had been updated with Superfast wheels. This would only last for a year, though - replaced by a modified version, renamed Wild Dragster, from 1971. De Tomaso Pantera stepped in from 1975 and, for the final Lesney year in 1982, No 8 would become the very popular Rover 3500.
FORD MUSTANG
Catalogue: 1970
Box Styles: F, G
Ford's Mustang is a very hard release to find in anything approaching reasonable condition today - and you have to pay a heavy price to secure one as a result. This is a combination of two main factors - the scarcity of these having only been a Superfast for one year, and the fact that most of these got raced hard back in the day, no doubt influenced by Steve McQueen's antics in the film Bullitt.
The white regular wheels release from which this model was developed featured the flick steering, controlled by a short lever that protruded from one side of the body casting. As the baseplate had to be modified for the Superfast wheels, this feature was lost.
Only a small production run of these was produced with narrow wheels, making these the hardest to find of all. Produced in both white and the new orangey-red, these were quickly upgraded to be amongst the first Superfast to get the new fat wheels, but these are still hard to get hold of, even more so with a decent box.