Little Wheels News

17 Mar

Featured Car: 1907 Rolls-Roce Silver Ghost, Models of Yesteryear Y-15/1

Posted by Andrew Wood in Matchbox, Models of Yesteryear, Rolls-Royce

This Models of Yesteryear Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost was released by Matchbox in 1960 so you are looking at a model here which is more than 50 years old in great condition in a really nice box.

It is modelled on a car in the Motor Museum at Beaulieu in Hampshire. Worth a trip to see it by the way with Donald Campbell's Bluebird from 1963/4 and lots of other great old cars. Quite a number of them featured in the Models of Yesteryear range in the 60s. We know where the Lesney boys went for their product ideas.

This one is for sale at the Little Wheels on line shop for £12.99 shipped free worldwide. Follow the link: http://bit.ly/1cPDLq5

16 Mar

Nice Old Packard

Posted by Andrew Wood in Matchbox, Models of Yesteryear, Packard

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Packard Landaulet by Matchbox Models of Yesteryear Y-11/2 1964-1972

One of the many nice things about my job is reliving great childhood moments. I was given one of these in about 1964-5 and still remember being awestruck at how shiny it was, that deep, lustrous maroon & black paint. I really liked it then and I still do now.

Matchbox obviously liked it too as they kept it in the range from 1964 to 1972 and unusually for Models of Yesteryear they kept the colour the same throughout. You might see it in cream but that was from a special boxed set of super-detailed models released in 1984 as a one-off called the Connoisseur Collection.

There were some changes during the production run, the steering wheel started out metal and was changed to plastic, the spare wheel holder began with four prongs and later had three and there are also a number of variations to the baseplate casting. You will also see variations in the plating on the floor/firewall casting and the radiator although this was down to breakdowns on the plating machine in the factory rather than deliberate policy. One of the fascinations with Matchbox collecting is the variations caused by chaotic manufacturing.

This is a really nice example, with all the features of an early release, good plating and a D3 type box putting it firmly in the first years of production. Click to open on Little Wheels

12 Mar

Models of Yesteryear - are they coming back?

Posted by Andrew Wood in Collecting as an investment, Diecast models, Fowler, Little Wheels, Models of Yesteryear, Thomas

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There was a period in the 80s & 90s when diecast collectables were very much on trend as an investment as well as a hobby to build value over the years. Old Dinky toys were selling for significant amounts of money, a Foden 8 wheel truck with chains made over £12,000. So lots of people went out and bought new diecasts to put in the loft to mature and become very valuable in 20-30 years or so.

The obvious choice at the time were Matchbox Models of Yesteryear. They were cheap and plentiful and there was a fashion at the time for everything 20s & 30s - remember The Sting, Great Gatsby etc?

So many Models of Yesteryear were carefully salted away that the collector market became over-supplied with very good boxed examples and over the last few years values plummeted. A couple of years ago I was dumping good, boxed items at toy fairs at two for £5.

Towards the end of last year I noticed a change. I'd always done well with the early yellow box MOYs and the much later highly detailed series such as the fire engines and Beers of the World trucks. The problem had been with straw, woodgrain & maroon boxes from the 70s & 80s.

These items have now started to gain some traction, a lot of it coming from Eastern Europe & Russia, although. now it is becoming more general and I'm pleased that these models, for which I've always had a great affection are being appreciated once again. As a child I owned and loved a blue Thomas Flyabout and I still have my battered old Fowler Showman's engine, treasured members of my toy box in the early 60s.

As I was adding more MOYs to the on-line shop this morning I was surprised to see that I had got over 70 of them currently on sale - a year ago this would have been few or none. The woodgrain & straw boxes are still a bit slow but maroon boxes and the 1960s pink & yellow window boxes have really become popular once again.

I'm glad to see a well-deserved return to popularity of an old favourite.