Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Dinky Toys
Eventually this day had to come - writing about Dinky Toys. It's not that I don't like them, and I can't tell you why I never wrote about them, but I just never did. Maybe it's because I wrote about so many other toy companies, that when I finally came to Dinky Toys, they weren't as interesting, as complex as other toys, or as different from each other.
What I can definitely and definitively say is that the company was and still is successful. As well, collectors the world over are still scouring the globe for that rare and lost Dinky to add to their collections. I came across someone in Montreal who was having a garage sale one day, and so I decided to see what he had to offer. I had already met him over the Net, and so going to his garage sale was going was going to be "just another garage sale"! Of course, this sale and his toys were anything but usual. It turned out he was a collector and was selling off some of his duplicates. His garage was full of Dinky Toys! It's to bad I cleaned up my Microsoft Hotmail account when I thought I had to do that in order to be forced to change to Outlook Express. However, One day, I'll find him again, and write about him!
There's a great Dinky Toy website for those who are interested - www.dinkytoys.ch
The site's owner has documented the Dinky Toy company with a well-written history, and complimented the history with lots of toy photos of many different and what I assume are rare early Dinky Toys. Of course, what I do know about these toys is that having the original box that the toy came in, is a must!
Initially Dinky Toys were not called Dinky toys - they were called Modelled Miniatures. At that time, Frank Hornby of the famous electrical train company had owned them. However, in 1933, the first Dinky Toys came out, and by April 1934, the name of the toys became Dinky Toys. Dinky Toys were produced both in England (Liverpool) and in France (Bobigny).Most of the toys produced at both locations were closely related, sharing models at both factories. However, whenever the toys were in fact different, they were still generically-related through their particular models. The company had to halt production during the WWII years, but eventually continued after the war.
Fast forward to the later 1980's and Mattel eventually bought up the company, integrating the toys into another of their purchases - Matchbox. Matchbox Collectibles was closed down in 2000, and no new "dedicated" Dinky castings have since been created.
* History Sources:
www.dinkytoys.ch
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinky_Toys
You can see from the writing on the boxes where they toys might have been made due to the exclusive English or French writing on the box. As well,notice that on some of the boxes "Meccano" is written. That company was also invented by Frank Hornby, who I mentioned at the beginning. He was famous for his electric toy trains, and his Modelled Miniature company had produced small scale vehicles and accessories to compliment his model railroad company.
I've only presented the earlier versions of Dinky Toys since I like earlier toys produced from 1880-1950) over latter day toys after that time. I will most likely write another post about these toys, as they are very much still in demand even after Mattel stopped producing them. Some toys just were made to be around!
Thanks for dropping by,
and have a great day,
wherever you may be
Stacey
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