Canberra Model Vehicle Collectors Club March 2011 Meeting

The March meeting of the Canberra Model Vehicle Collectors Club was held last night at its usual venue, the Eastlake Football Club in Kingston. This months theme was 'convertibles'. 

Setting up displays is serious business

Louies Volkswagen convertibles

Very interesting Minichamps 1/43 of a rare Swiss VW custom convertible. The engine cover looks like a bonnet. This was an exquisite model.

I bought along 1/64 Hot Wheels and Matchbox VW 181's or Things. The red one is a Lesney Edition VW 181. I like both these castings. The tan VW was never available locally, and I bought it in the US. 

Clive bought along this extremely interesting rubber model. US made with Auburn as the only ID mark underneath it. Rubber wheels, wire axles. Scale - about 1/24 but I doubt thats exact. This is a one piece rubber model, similar to a slush cast toy car. I did a bit of googling and found this article on Auburn rubber toys. 

Del Prado 1/43's with a Corgi in the centre 

Sam's display. That VW is umm an acquired taste. Sam had a display board, which he arrayed his cars on. Then looked at it, put the cars back in the cases, stacked them in a artistic manner and put his display board away! He had a 1/43 Bugeye Sprite which looked really nice. 

1/43 Corvettes. I forget the maker. 

There was a bit of trading going on last night, a few loose 1/43's, some Matchbox regular wheels and Superfasts, Hot Wheels, Yesteryears. I asked if the blue Matchbox cases were for sale, they weren't...

I sold a trio of Hot Wheels Falcons. The red Falcon is not available in Australia and was imported from the US. It's a nice model, metal base and body, rubber tyres on separate rims, unique paint. The Fimcar book wasn't for sale, I took it with me to show people.

After looking through the diecast treasures, I did buy these three Matchbox cars. The wrecker is in very good condition, its a transitional model - a regular wheel model with superfast wheels. The VW and the Porsche 935 are black Matchbox 1/75's and will fit neatly in my collection. I have almost completed my sub-collection of Matchbox wreckers, only a few to go. I bought these off Sam. I asked him about the garish paint job on the Porsche, and he told me its from a set of Chinese New Year cars, he had the other four cars in the set - but I didn't buy them. 

The meeting was a lot of fun, with discussion on all sorts of subjects tangentially relating to model cars. If you are a model car collector in Canberra, its well worth coming along to the monthly meetings. 

Canberra Model Vehicle Collectors Club - Feb 2011

Im not sure if there was a January meeting, but this was the first Canberra Model Vehicle Collectors Club meeting I have attended this year, and tonights theme was 'colour'.  It was a well attended meeting with over ten people present and lots of discussion about recent diecast bought or seen. 

As well as cars on display, some trading took place and new cars were shown off. I have to remember to take three Hot Wheels falcons to the next meeting. Louie the Volkswagen tragic had a neat Wiking box set with three Volkswagen Beetles, some little plastic people and a round tobacco tin shaped garage, all in a nice presentation box - scale about 1:87. Another person had a lovely 1:43 Dinky Tucker Torpedo.

Hot Wheels 1:64  Plymouth Roadrunner Superbirds and Dodge Daytonas. 

I thought about the theme and selected the Hot Wheels Winged Warriors as I knew they would make a colourful display. This year the winners wont be announced until the end of the year. So I dont know who won Februarys comp.

After my embarrassing displays last year, over the festivus period I created a base to display my diecast efforts on at the CMVCC meeting this year. Its a picture frame with the glass replaced with a sheet of MDF with sandpaper and railroad grass glued to it, and a white line painted between the sandpaper and grass. It's supposed to look like a road with a grass verge. I used the same grass on my diorama of the diecast wrecking yard. Although I thought this would be simple to make, it wasnt. but I am pleased with this result - although I may make a second improved version if I have some spare time.

 Del Prado Ferraris in 1/43

 Red Volkswagen Beetles in a range of scales

 Green Dinkys and Corgis

 Pink Corvettes

This is a Matchbox Corvette!

Discussing important diecast events like a car advertised as 1:43 is really only 1:42!

At this meeting the themes for the rest of the years displays were discussed. The themes I remember are: 

• Non-articulated trucks
• unusual diecast
• diorama
• same car in a range of scales
• less than four wheels
• Australian cars.

Being February, dues were also due. I received a member ship card and a warm feeling. There were several recent diecast magazines to pore over while people chatted, and I also asked dumb questions which were answered well. I learn something new at every meeting. 

The highlight of the evening for me was P76 related - I was given the details of the AFP constable shown standing next to the P76 used as a police car, in the photo used in Hal Moloneys book on the Leyland P76 several years ago. I plan to follow this up. 

The next meeting will be at 7.30 PM on Monday 7 March at the Eastlakes Club in Kingston.

Out of the Garage - Sold on Ebay

I photograph all the models that I sell, and sometimes these little cars look simply amazing. Im trying to be strict about what I sell, whittling the collection down to my core interests - instead of the Magpie ' I like that car' approach I previously held. This hasnt stopped me buying new cars though, especially Hot Wheels and Matchbox. Sometimes I will also buy 'lots' of car if I see one Im after, and sell the rest.

I thought I might post some photos of cars I have sold here, as a way to remember them. I am glad they have found homes where they are appreciated.

Look at that pickle! Beautiful model.

Great colour scheme, and nice for the Yesteryear collector. 

Great graphics. 

Deep glossy black and period advertising. Nice.

Red and blue Unic taxis.

Three pre-war Brumm 1:43 models. Bentleys sold quickly.

Trio of 1:64 Nascar Hot Wheels. Good detail for scale.

Hot wheels insanity. 

Majorette Golf and a caravan, also sold quickly.

LLedo MG racer, beautiful model. Popular, wish I had more to sell!

Matchbox VW ambulance. 

Vivid yellow Matchbox Ford Transit. Lots of watchers, but took awhile to sell. 

Matchbox Corvette. Very nice colour scheme.

Matchbox Porsche. Common model, but nice and crisp.

I was amazed when this sold, but VW's are always popular.

This went quickly as well. Maisto colour scheme. 

I now regret selling these. Trio of Matchbox Vipers.

Maisto Tonka. Hey - its got four wheels...

Matchbox Error cards

They say that more than three of anything is a collection... so I guess I have a small collection of Matchbox error cards. The problem is that apart from the VW 181, I dont really collect these other Matchbox cars, so i have decided to let them go to another persons collection via my Ebay store. 

I find these error cards interesting, and I guess that with the millions of cars that the factories churn out, there has to be a few mistakes made such as these. With the bulk of these cars bought by kids, who dont care about errors, error cards are scarce - especially as the years go by. 

I always keep my eye out for these errors for some reason, and end up buying them. With enough cars in the Capital Diecast Garage, I dont need to start another large sub-collection, so I will let these go. 

Code 3 - Maisto VW Type 3 Wagen - part 1

My friend Glenn and his son have taken this VW Type 3 Wagon to the last two Summernats. Its a nice car, and they have a lot of fun cruising around in it. It was a father and son project, so means a lot to both of them. 

So when i saw a VW Squareback hanging on the shelves of Toys'r'Us I decided to build a tribute to my friend and his son. Im in the 'acquiring parts needed' stage at present. My next post will be on the strip down. And for blog reader Russ - this car is 1:64...