O is for Old Crocks

It's funny isn't it, the human experience, I get the impression from pieces in the media, that today, young adults hanker nostalgically for the era of the Ford Escort, Capri and Cortina, an era which to me, is only the other day, but which historically was thirty or forty years ago, as far back, indeed, as the old Jalopies and Charabancs of the 1920's and '30's were from the 1950/60's? In other words there's a reason why 'Old Fashioned Cars' were everywhere (clothes, place mats and coasters, mugs, tiles, prints, books, even movies), when I was a little kid, but are, relatively, nowhere now.

 

It's a complicated thing about generational groups I'm not erudite enough to explain here, but is explained in David Sheppard's book on the rocker/biker-oriented youth club he ran as a young priest, in which a generational gap was explained to him, by someone from the Salvation Army - I think?* Being, that we move through existence in tranches, each tranche being a clump of one age-group with older hangers-back and younger hangers-on.

 

*A book I know I've read, but can find nothing about on Google!

 

Which is both a complicated and vaguely deep intro' to this morning's post, which grew out of some follow-up images from Brian Berke, and a few scans I already had on the PC, along with a couple of shots I took, and which we'll meander through now, as I'm just going to load them as they are in the folder, and weave some blurb round them!

 

The range of Charbens Old Crocks, at its fullest extent, from the 1960 catalogue, and including the mini-military ones we have seen some of here in the past as show-table shelfies, I think? Not particularly rare, but hard to find in good condition, due to both play wear and metal fatigue.

 

No. 2, the 1905 Spyker, which came in recently with a mixed lot, can't remember when/where, but it was here to be shot in 2019. This is about average for how you find them, paint is shot to bits, the metal body is starting to suffer from the alloy equivalent of lead disease, but the wheels are still OK, and nothing's broken-off yet!

 

Also from 2019, and I don't know why I photographed them separately, aught to have all been together at the time, I think they have since joined my older sample, which is very cracked, and with lots of broken wheels, but these obviously came in at some point, and seem to have been shot a couple of hours before the Spyker? I must have been sorting or something?

Brain Burke's Spyker is an almost minter! Passenegrs from Merten? Sent as part of a follow-up to a couple of posts back in the autumn of last year (https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2025/12/f-is-for-follow-up-earlier-today.html), you can see how, fresh in the shop, these were attractive and colourful, as well as being affordable. Brian was 'crewing' his up for a project to model the early days of the Wisbech and Upwell Tramway, but the project fell by the wayside.

 

Given they never really had a scale, they go quite well with HO- or OO-gauge railways, but then, I well remember helping Simon College, of Mattingley move an Austin chassis (7 or 10?) around, and the footprint of these old cars was not much greater than a Willys Jeep's!

 

Four more of the Charbens originals, also from Brian and also cleaner than mine! They have had replacement steering wheels, which improves the look and lines no end, but rather crowds the cockpit!

 

These are 1960's (?) Japanese knock-offs (with their own people?), and are - frankly - more colourful, albeit a bit thin or narrow in the wheelbase? Brian states "It would seem they were popular with HO railroad modelers as I found them as ex-layout models at shows. Interestingly they don't seem to have the metal fatigue of Charbens."

 

Charbens on the right for comparison, also a cleaner version of the 1903 Standard than mine, I'm not sure which is better, the Japanese lack of steering wheels, or the Charbens originals, like small nails!

These are from an undated Charbens catalogue, but as a smaller range, presumably predating the 1960 catalogue seen above? And pre- 'Old Crocks'.

 

Further to those previous posts, Brian also sent a couple of shots of a mint Dublo Dinky original and Aussie copy of the same from Wizard;

 

"As you may remember I drove an old retired London Taxi, an Austin FX3 when an art student. When I started my train layout I wanted lots of taxi models for my 1950's London. A prewar Austin was made by DG and I added other cars from their range as until the '10 year MOT test' started the streets were full of prewar Austin 7's. Once they were tested for, steering, brakes and lights they vanished off the streets within a year.

Wizard models in Australia were made by someone who had been a British Railways signalman who emigrated. He made an Austin FX3 that used the body die that Hornby Dublo had sent to either Australia or NZ to make the Dublo Dinkys there. The body was one piece and he created a new cast base."

 

Brian's photo-shoot seems to have been triggered by his running of a childhood survivor, the three-rail Hornby Silver King, streamlined, it's been with him for over 70 years and is still running. I have a later two-rail Duchess of Sutherland in maroon as my treasured steam-era Loco.

L is for Look What I Saw!

Driving out to Alresford for a drop this evening, I saw signs for 'Ride with Thomas' and 'Steam Spectacular' on the road between Farnham and Alresford, and assumed it was something to do with the Watercress Line.

 

Then, while at the customer's house, a gurt' weezin' and a'puffin' was occurring behind their house, and I said "That Thomas is a noisy chap isn't he?", and she said it's not Thomas, it's Nigel Gresley, you should to talk to my husband about it!

 

Anyway, I got on with my route, only to find the road over the line was closed, so taking it as a sign, I parked up at the barrier, ran up to the bridge and managed to get these . . .  

 

 . . . somewhere in all that, which is mostly coal-smoke, not steam, is Sir Nigel Gresley, one of the few remaining streamlined biggies from the height of the steam era! And it was a still evening, after the storm of the last 48-hours, so it (the smoke) wasn't clearing, and while I had to get on, I knew I was 20-minutes ahead on my route (it's all computer and satellite driven these days), so I formed a quick plan, and shot-off to one of my favourite tea-break spots, more in hope than anticipation, and started to clean my windows, which I'd already told the internal camera needed doing - you need an excuse to stop, off schedule! When I heard them . . .

 

 . . . and managed to get these three off! Halfway between Ropley and Bishop's Sutton, on the embankment which runs from Arlesford to the Four Marks hill, I was about a quarter of a mile away, so they're not the best, but they are still awesome beasts!

 

Full steam from both of them, I think the leader might be 506 (30506) LSWR Urie S15 Class, with the 'Gresley behind, and the setting sun (6pm'ish) shining right at them! Apparently, they'll be performing again, this coming weekend;

 

https://watercressline.co.uk/special-days/travel-behind-sir-nigel-gresley/

 

Now, I'm no 'spotting' train-buff, but there are certain things, old tanks, tall ships, steam long-boats, Massey Furguson 135/165's, which are literally living history, and you only fail to be moved if there's something wrong with your soul, so if you're not doing anything next weekend, get your arse to Arlesford!

 

That's it - happenstance! Made a reasonable shift, memorable!

L is for Lots of London Loot - Three IS a Few!

The other half of Peter's August donation, and another eclectic collection of odds and ends, figural and vehicular, structural and peculiar, aqueous and funicular! I know, I shouldn't be allowed!

This was rather ironic, as I'd had one, we may even have seen it here at Small Scale World, if we did I probably mentioned it was incomplete but still eminently playable-with, and would go back to Charity (from whence it came), and which it did . . . now, here's a fully parade-ready example which can go in the collection!

I can't remember if someone ID'd it, or if it's a generic from a big-box action figure play set of the sort you find piled-high in Smyths or B&M, but it's a nice model in a sort of interim M38/Wrangler style, which may be aiming for one of those 1970's Toyota designs?

 

Kinder Barbies, I have had several sets groups of these come in now, more from Peter, some from Charity, probably a couple from Chris, and Brian Carrick may have given me a handful too, the trouble with them is that while, at first glance, the bases look the same, they are all slightly different with specific feet/shoe holes or holds, depending.

And, as you can see, I managed to match-up two before I gave up, not because it was that hard, but because I'd already failed spectacularly to match up a larger sample, last time we looked at them! When they are all together, I'll sit down, make the effort and get them up here, pristine!

 

The earlier sets (covered in Plastic Warrior magazine at the time), had figure specific bases if I recall correctly (they're all in storage again), each base had two figures, or was reused in the series two or something, but there have now been four or five series', and we'll look at them all in an overview one day, with the similar Superhero sets.

Incomplete, but a useful sample, it's one half of an O-gauge level crossing, in tin-plate and die-cast, I don't think it's 'Binns Road' (Hornby), and it doesn't look like Crescent (the other make I'm a bit familiar with, so maybe someone like Chad Valley, or 'Foreign'? I stand to be educated on this one, by someone who actually knows?

A handful of the Supreme/SP Toys 'Silver Knights' a slowly growing sample, which when they are all brought together will have most of the elements now, I think, and hopefully enough weapons and shields to equip that sample properly!

We've seen WOW Eggs before, I think, and there is a mini-season of capsule toy updates in the medium-queue, but I thought a near 54mm (I don't think you count the tail beyond where the feet should be?!!), articulated-waist Mermaid was a bit of fun!

I had a quick root-through the donation box while still at Peter's, but having a train to catch, when I saw these, and realised what they were, just said to Peter, "Ooh, mail-away boxes, I'll save these, to open as a surprise when I get home", which I did!

Rather exquisite, if historically anachronistic, or unrealistic (?) N-gauge train, branded to Nabisco (now Nestle/Kraft)'s Shredded Wheat! Obviously I don't have sections of powered, N-gauge track lying around here, so I can't test it, but I don't need it, as the locomotive is weighted in the engine-compartment, but unpowered. Issued in 1989, the loco' and coaches were manufactured by Graham Farish (Grafar/GF), and the two wagons are different, with one having a guards-compartment.

 

Couple of hours later - "Have you come across a good transport marketing gimmick?" - Well? Have you, readers! Hee-hee, you can almost hear his brain whirling! Except he clearly hasn't got one, always following, never leading!

 

To enhance the above, and the tray of mini/micro-railway samples, were these floor-runners from Dinky, I well remember Mum trying, with the blue Mallard from this set (or was it Matchbox?), to take the wheels off damaged Lone Star Treble-O stock, in order to get it to run on that track!

 

I seem to remember, as a small boy, some of the underground trains still having that crescent-corridor join, to help them go round corners, before someone worked out that distancing them from each other, like surface trains, was easier! But that may be a false memory and I stand to be corrected on that, too!

 

An incomplete, probably Kinder moped and a wooden erzgebirge station building, round-off the odds in this donation.

 

While this could have been kept for Rack Toy Month, but I'm not minded to look that far ahead, given the fluidity of my life at the moment! Many Thanks to Peter, as always, for all this grist to the twin mills of sample-stash and Blog!

S&S is for Scale and Size!

 Can you see what I did there! As well as our regular visits to the canyons of New York, there has been this for . . . about seven or eight years now, I think - the annual Christmas toy-related display by the Fleet & Crookham Local History Group in Fleet library, which this year is all about size/scale of like subjects.

Another 'lazy' post, in that it can be blurb-light, it is what it is! I would add that the FCLHG do other presentations through the year, local development, the medieval period, how the maps change, that kind of thing.

It's getting like we've seen most of it before, hence a different theme every year? I think the Furby's are new this year, they used to be called Gonk's, when I was a lad, and were made by Travellers on old loo-rolls for the fairground-prize trade. They were a good introduction to loss and death, as their little paper faces slowly dog-eared, ripped or even slid off, and eventually damp got to their cores or an adult's foot or arse flattened them!

 

The Exhibition normally comes down in the first or second week of January, so if you're passing, worth a quick visit.