David,

Very nice, your collection is becoming fabulous.

Did you see my email of this morning about the books ?

You bet I will, Dave!
Jacques, did you see MY email to you of 26 November last year enquiring about the two French Dinky books?
Regards, Jan

Gentleman

You are very knowledgeable about a series of trucks I very much adore and like. I also have a few of them but not nearly enough.

My post this morning is about the string and the comments from Dave about the corrosion on the axle.

I work in the manufacturing business in South Africa. We also came up with similar problems on some of our export items when we tagged them. The string is made from hemp like material. The problem is that it is very acideous and almost immediately react with the material it comes into contact with. When exposed to water or damp the reaction is slow but contineous. I also noticed a model with the string going though the cab. Look at the string again, it is somewhat blackened.To my knowledge this is a sign that some graphite was used on the string as well as that it is not the normal hemp tag line. More of a cotton type string. Remember Hemp is very porous and hidro-scopic.

To be sure that my models will not deteriorate further I would take the hemp string off and replace it with a cotton string. I know you will argue about the originality af the label and string attached. In that case I would simply put the string in a small plastic siplock bag and keep it with the model, but not attached to the model itself. Unfortunately the axle will corrode away in time if left like that.

My penny worth

Dirk Bloem
Potchefstroom
154

Welcome here Dirk, and thank you very much for your expert explanation! Together we will find the answers to the questions raised this way. Perhaps some kind of acid free short piece of straw can carefully be pushed in between the axle and the cord. Nothing so risky, as authenticity is concerned, as separating them, in my opinion. Best regards, Jan

Hello Dirk,

Nice to see you here.

Jan,

I have answered your email privately. A second batch of the book "Dinky Toys les mod

Nothing to add apart from my congratulations, you have added some great toys to your collection.

Kind regards, Stef

Hello Dave.

You have several ways of looking at this.

They have been attached to the toys since the 40s and it has resulted only in minor surface rust

In my opinion these models will be like any other Dinky Toy if you separate model and tag (and one should not think about them getting lost definitely; it would not be the first time that something stupid like that happens). In fact they are not meant or suitable for (permanent and/or attractive) display, they are pieces of historic evidence that should be kept in stable, controlled conditions. There are measures enough to think about when it comes to stabilize or improve conservation while not removing the strings/tags.
By the way, Dave, I presume I have seen these samples before. Are they originally from Peter Golden's collection? Kind regards, Jan

I understand from all this interesting talk that the string damages the axle.

Why not insert an inch of split electric wire insulation on the axle. That will separate the string from the metal, it is very easy to make and can be removed instantly, it will not damage the model in any way.

You can choose black if you want it to be discret or yellow/green to make it evident.

Great finds anyway.

For what it is worth, I happen to agree with you and Jan. Something like that is original only once.... When you start removing anything you risk losIng that originality, and something like those need to be saved as they are as they are historical. I would guess that the little corrosion you see is minimal and not a real threat to the models life.....very nice and glad that you are the custodian!
Terry

Hi Dave

Great list but just to be sure does your Daimlers label not say 1946? It appears to have smooth hubs and the colour reminds me of that slightly lighter leaf green that you see on 1946 issues.

It would be interesting to know if any others are owned within the DTCA member base.

Kind regards, Stfan

Hi Dave

Promise that I am not trying to pick holes, but isn

You're correct Stfan, the source is the Christie's South Kensington auction of 14 September 1995. Then, the collection of Geoff Moorehouse, the first owner, was auctioned with lots of pre-production factory trials, tools etc. etc. Geoff worked in the Meccano factory as a product designer in the 1970s, responsible for the initial design of Dinky Toys.
Another batch of colour trials from a former Meccano factory draughtsman was auctioned on 27 September 1996, also at Christie's. Remy-Meeus must have done some successful shopping on these occasions (as he did for instance at a Phillips auction on 19 April 1989, where he bought possibly all first owner Julien Loffet's wooden prototypes). Kind regards, Jan

Hi Dave, I'm sorry to have apparently caused some confusion. I confirmed the 1995 auction as an important source of these items. The subsequent auctions I mentioned were examples of auctions which also included some of those basic production items of Meccano's, of which so many came onto the market in that period, and which were not necessarily the auctions on which the particular items in question (the labelled colour samples) were sold. Kind regards, Jan

Mok-ups vs colour samples vs pilot lot models.

Michel Viéville was 19 years old whe he joined the drawing department at Bobigny. He gives us some light about the different types of models.

When it was decided to make a new model, the very first thing done was a mock-up often wrongly called a prototype. There are different types of mock ups : the wooden ones and those,made from modified existing models like this 2cv ref 538 with non opening bonnet which was the mock-up for the # 500 with opening bonnet, jewelled headlights and open tilt. These models could be finished in any colour which was available at the time. These models were often sent to the artist who made the drawing for the boxes and the catalogues. This explain why very often the drawings are in a different colour from any of the models sold.

The second stage was to make the master model carved in wood but this is outside the scope of this post.

When the tools had been made, a dozen or so models were cast, painted and assembled; again the colour was what was available on the painting line at the time. The aim of these pre-production models also called pilot lot was to verify that all the parts fit and that the moving parts worked properly. A good example is this yellow Matra 630 which of course could only be issued in French Blue only.

When the first Matra M530 was assembled at Bobigny it was found that there was an interference between the bonnet and the headlights. The Dinky R & D manager called Matra to discus if there was a mistake somewhere. The answer from Matra was that they had not yet opened the bonnet when the headlights were raised; the actual car was modified but it was too late for the Dinky.

The colour samples are different from the mock-ups or the pre-prod models. Only one or two were made with any colour. The British colour samples had identifying labels as discussed widely above but the french ones did not have labels. It is then extremely difficult to say if a model with a veryrare finish is a colour sample or a pre-prod models.