Hi all,

This is my first Dinky. A French 519 Simca 1000. It was a birthday present in 1968. My father owned a real size Simca 1000 at the time and I sure wanted to have my own small version to play with! It was our family car and it brought the five of us to Germany and Austria on holiday for several years. When you see a Simca 1000 now, you wonder how such a small and basic car brought us all there without any problems! The Simca 1000 was traded in for a Simca 1100, of which I also have the French Dinky in silver, still in its box. In real life the Simca 1100 brought the five of us to Rome and a year later to Athens, a one way trip of more than 3000 km!

Kind regards,
Rob

I really would not know which was my first Dinky, because with an elder and younger brother in the house there were always Dinky Toys and the first one may have arrived at an age on which I could not recall such an event any more. Many of the 1950s Dinky Toys passed my home. Passed, because we played them to pieces, exchanged them with friends, put them on fire an related destructive actions, and my mother was sometimes generously giving them away to others. But they were important and when time proceeded my younger brother and I were more and more careful in playing with them. So the survivors date predominantly from the period 1959-1964. There is still an ownership division, the limit of which goes slightly right from the middle of the childhood Dinky Toys photo below, starting between both BBC vans towards the front. The left side is mine, the other my brother's.

It is obvious that in those years we had a slight preference for French Dinky Toys, which are still the best from the end of the fiftees on, in my opinion.
The Tank Transporter and the Centurion Tank are the oldest survivors, dating from December 1956, a Sinterklaas feast photo which I published more than once.

The collective photo shows the Tank Transporter as a single truck, because at present it stages a special diecast covering diecast plate, found in the factory. In order to restore this omission I offer a separate photo of this (repainted) toy (in the background), in the company of a later bought Tank Transporter.

Kind regards, Jan

Greetings all!

Just found this Thread so decided to throw in my first Dinky Toy, although I cannot recall which came first. They both arrived in 1949, Christmas for one and five days later, my birthday.

The Armstrong Siddley shows slight wear, although this was my favourite Dinky at the time, as it had a windscreen and seats. Neither of my other two brothers had a Dinky that matched this one with its windscreen and seats! No wonder they kept belting me up!!! :laugh: :laugh:

Unfortunately, the 250 Streamline Fire Engine is not the original. I bought it from Vectis in 2011, and I think the bell is a replacement - not sure about the ladder though.

Kind regards

Bruce (150)
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