Dinky Toys

[petal]

History of Dinky Toys

In the early 1950's a Dinky Toy craze hit the United Kingdom and it seemed that all boys (and some adults) had collections. Their dual role as toy and model had no peers at the time. Most of the models were in a scale of approximately 1:48, which blended in with O scale railway sets, but many buses and lorries (trucks) were scaled down further so that they were around 4 inches long. Larger models (Dinky Super Toys) were not scaled down, and started to have more action features. Notable favourites are the Coles Mobile Crane and the Horse Box (with opening doors). In 1954, the Dinky line was reorganized: cars were now sold in individual boxes, and there were no series of models differentiated by a letter. A separate line of models were also made in France. Both English and French Dinky Toys were exported to the Netherlands, Belgium (where the craze also existed) and other European countries, as well as the United States, where they were much less popular.

In 1956 the Mettoy company started a rival line of models under the Corgi brand name. The Corgi toys all had windows, and then started having new features such as plastic interiors and suspension. The competition meant that Dinky Toys had to progress quickly with new ideas and introduced opening doors and boots (trunks), detailed engines, fingertip steering, etc. A third company "Spot-on", owned by Tri-ang, a division of Lines Brothers also competed and their gimmick was to keep accurately to one scale, 1:42, although they never managed to sell as many units as Corgi and Dinky.
In the mid-1960s Corgi led the way with cars tied to TV shows and films (notably James Bond'sAston Martin). Dinky struggled to keep up, introducing models from Gerry Anderson's Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and Joe 90sci-fi series between 1965 and 1968, but the market was healthy and both companies continually upgraded their ranges. Additionally there was competition from Matchbox, who made a popular line of smaller scale vehicles at about 40-60% of the price but also including veteran and vintage vehicles (Models of Yesteryear) which forced Dinky to try this idea too. It was abandoned after a few models. In 1963 Tri-ang took over the parent Meccano company (which included Hornby trains as well as Meccano itself). As Dinky was more popular than Spot-On, Dinky continued, although a few cars originally meant for Spot-On were made in Hong Kong and marketed as Dinky. However from this point Dinky used the 1:42 scale for many of the English made cars and trucks, although the French factory stuck to the more common 1:43 scale, which was already popular in Europe.
In the late 1960s a new competitor entered the U.K. model car market. This was Hot Wheels from U.S. toymaker Mattel Their low-friction axles gave them play value that Dinky and the other major British brands including Corgi and Matchbox could not match. Each manufacturer responded with its own version of this innovation. Dinky's name for its wheel/axle assembly was "Speedwheels". Dinky was still building some wonderful models, with all doors opening, Speedwheels, high quality metallic paint, and sparkling headlights. However, these models were expensive to manufacture and the price could only be kept down if the quantities were high. Then the bubble burst. Changing fashions and international competition — particularly from companies, such as Mattel, producing in lower-wage countries — meant that the Dinky range of models contracted. French Dinky stopped production in 1972 (some were later made in Spain) and English Dinky limped through the 1970s before closing — Lines Bros itself had collapsed in 1971. Similar fates met their competitors at Matchbox and Corgi. Thus ended the dominant era of British-made die-cast toy models.
The Dinky trade-name was a valuable one and changed hands many times before ending up as part of Matchbox International Ltd in the late '80s. This seemed to be a logical and perhaps synergistic development, uniting two of the most valuable and venerated names in the British and the world die-cast model car market under one roof. Matchbox began issuing model cars of the 1950s through the the "Dinky Collection" in the 1970s, but these were models intentionally designed for adult collectors, not toys, and are not as robust or heavy as the "real" Dinky cars. Nevertheless, the models were attractive, and honoured the tradition of the Dinky name in terms of both quality and size/scale. The Dinky name became a major contributor to the themed series offered by Matchbox sub-unit Matchbox Collectibles Inc. Matchbox itself was bought by Mattel in 1997. Mattel has shown little interest in or understanding of the Dinky brand, preferring nowadays to rebadge normal Matchbox models as Dinky for some editions of their models in certain markets. No new "dedicated" Dinky castings have been created in the Mattel era since Matchbox Collectibles was shut down in 2000.

[nanna]

Oh I remember them well Mary, Meccano was my first job after leaving school. After working in the main post room for 6 months I was transferred to the 'Magazine Dept' where we dealt with Dinky club member's young and old and a magazine was sent out, hundred's of em, packed and posted by myself on a daily basis (I was the junior of the dept) until I was made redundant in early 1964. Most of my family worked for Meccano (being only 5/10 mins walk from our homes) both maternal and paternal.Those were the day's, when the only time you left a job was by being sacked or made redundant, not like it is now, swapping and changing.