Now I see Why Dinky Toys are so Popular!

Thursday, March 20, 2014
          Snow, rain, and overcast,
        but it's officially sprain today!

Now I See Why Dinky Toys are so Popular

(Charles Gilbert Knows How to Take Photos!)

    I  "discovered" Mr. Charles Gilbert (Charles Gilbert Antiques) on his ebay in 2013, but  somehow I got distracted. This sometimes happens  when I see great toys, and get so excited,  that I lose track of my agenda! Of course, it would help if I had a written agenda somewhere! Yesterday, I came across some beautifully-photographed penny toys, and was going to write to Mr. Charles Gilbert. However, I was perplexed, because his name was familiar, and his style of photography looked very familiar. I searched my ebay mail, and there Charles was! I had got his permission to wrote about Dinky toys and his store, but he wanted me to present him with a "proof" for him to read". This forgetfulness was most embarrassing,  since I hardly forget what I have to do (My wife would disagree when it comes to household chores, laundry washing sorting, etc). So I wrote Charles again (he cpu;ldm;t see me truing 5 shades of embarrassing red), and within a couple of hours, I was "OK to go".

   Charles' photos needed some tweaking,but the excellent focus, camera angles,colour-balance, and many photos for each ebay listing were there.  When I finally added the Charles Gilbert watermark,and the copyright notices, his photos jumped off the page! I moved my chair back from my 27" IMac and the photos were absolutely marvellous. And so now I know why Dinky toys are so popular! I "love" Tootsietoys which are a defunct American die cast toy company,but Dinky toys have always been around and still are.They are now owned by Horny of Great Britain.

   Charles has a vast knowledge of toys, and that makes it easy to provide information about them. Older Dinky toys were made in several places such as France, and Great Britain, and so seeing that Charles had identified his Dinky toys from where they were manufactured was great information.

Please click here to visit Mr. Charles Gilbert's fine ebay store

If you look at the bottom photo, you'll will see the information of the toy.

As well, you can see how the base plate is attached to the body of the toy Jaguar car.

Many of the Dinky toys were made like this.

For today's post, I made my selections based on cars and trucks that are no longer made, and the manufacturers are no longer in existence. As little as 50 years ago, there were many,many more car and truck manufacturers, compared with today. It's nice to be able to see smaller versions of the real thing, especially when the photos are superbly taken.

I liked this truck because of the details, and those milk containers.But what caught my attention was the make of truck - a Studebaker. Of course, I immediately had a question come to mind. What was a Studebaker truck (American made) being manufactured in France?

Meccano was the name of the famous erector sets manufactured in Great Britain. Eventually Meccano bought up the Dinky Company, and that in turn was purchased by Hornby.

Here's another car manufacturer that I don't think is made anymore. 

The Riley was made in Great Britain.

Today's presentation certainly came out well, but I have to give most of the credit to Charles and his photography.  I'll be writing (for sure) more about Charles Gilbert, his store, and of course his fine toys for sale. It's great to be able to write about a toy that is somewhat rarer inNorth America, especially, when you can see so many different views of each toy!

Thanks for dropping by,

and as always, 

have a great part of the day or night, 

wherever you may be.

Stacey

Please feel free to write to me anytime at:

toysearcher@gmail.com