What happened to Dinky Toys?

Alex Archbold of Curiosity Inc explains why Dinky Toys fell out of favour and the rise of hot wheels.

[@v8pilot]

With the country banjo I can't make out what you are saying.

[@kathleenrochowiak2248]

v8pilot i

[@benjerry6442]

When I was a kid late 60's early 70's Hot wheels where new but we abused them till they all bust, in months. But our Dinky's and Corgi's kept on going. So when it came to buying we always viewed Corgi as the premium brand for keeps and hot wheels as disposable junk. No one ever traded hot wheels, but Corgi was gold for kids. A 'UFO' TV show missile firing Interceptor could be traded for a bike. That's how revered they were.

[@CuriosityIncorporated]

Thanks Ben!

[@pemlars]

Very interesting, but STOP the music.

[@CuriosityIncorporated]

Thank you for watching, we have toned the music down a bit on the more recent videos.

[@chrisparkes2179]

In the 50s and 60s most working class people didn't own cars, but plenty of them drove trucks, lorries, etc for a living. So the warehouse truck would be a valued toy "I'm driving a truck like dad does". Children wanted to grow up to drive vehicles like that, rather than be pop stars, etc as they did from the 80s onwards. I mean, imagine the difference between using a truck to take your Lego bricks to the building site and use a cement mixer to build a proper Bond villain's shed with, then "fire" your Corgi Bloodhound missile out of it; or popping into your car to go for a game of golf. No contest. Especially for lads who had a sister whose dolls could be buried in concrete out of that mixer (shoved under the flower bed).

[@peezebeuponyou]

To paraphrase the great John Cleese: "Shut that bloody banjo up!"

[@CuriosityIncorporated]

Noted ;)

[@Shipwright1918]

Was surprised to find a whole shelf of boxed Dinkies and early Matchbox at my local model train shop, the owners were surprised I knew what they were.

[@CuriosityIncorporated]

Buy if the price is right!

[@Shipwright1918]

@@CuriosityIncorporated The price was right but my wallet was light, a new locomotive instead was just right. In all seriousness though, I do intend to get a few if they still have them next time I visit.

[@chrisparkes2179]

WHERE?????? Precise map coordinates please! Only kidding. It sounds like a village post office I stumbled across about 5 years ago that had a load of the 007 vehicles Corgi issued in the 1990s.

[@windshear33]

I used to drive one of those lister 3 wheeled trucks at the airport.

[@mrgarrytoo]

No offence but please lose the music !!

[@bradster1708]

I’m waiting for the hill billies and Burt Reynolds to appear.

[@carlowingfield7743]

Run the banjo and piano player over with the Stinky toys.

[@ToyCarCase]

WOW what a great collection you have! So Cool! I love those weird vehicles you have.

[@mikemyers6233]

The music was up a little but still could make out what you're saying. I'm sure you know this. Like watching anything you put on KZbin dealing with old toy cars. Thx for the post. As always.

[@keithfinsley330]

I still love Dinky toys. I still have the first one that I ever owned. (Austin Taxi) My grandma bought it for me when I was about 7 years old.

[@corinnepomroy9313]

Can I watch this somewhere with the loud banjo? Trying to show it to my nephews

[@Brian1952ful]

Good video spoilt by the annoying hillbilly music.

[@CuriosityIncorporated]

We’ve tried to improve since then

[@Mercmad]

Back in the late 50's a family next door to us had a huge train set, one of those things that filled a large room. The boys in family who were about 3 years older than me had the biggest collection of matchbox and dinky cars i have ever seen . Matchbox would release a new car every week or so and sold them for peanuts. So you would go to the local toy shop or newsagent where they had a display of the yellow boxes and you could buy the latest offering. Dinky had a winner when they made models of the Thunderbirds ,after the puppet show on TV. A friend at school had the full set .But into the late 1980's i met a bloke who had bought the toy car collection in New Zealand (which had all of the petrol station models etc etc) and had shipped them to England.He started a shop Called Mint and boxed .I am sure it was he who drove the prices sky high.He would send catalogues all the time for his stock,all beautifully printed with colour pics of the toys for sale . He did something wrong and was closed up,then the prices started falling again ha ha. In the meantime I sold the catalogues I had for a very tidy sum to a car book dealer.

[@CuriosityIncorporated]

+Mercmad that would be a dream to find a collection like that now!

[@415s30]

Do you think some of those random toys were for making model train sets more complete, like a scene at a station? I too have wondered why there are such mundane toys. I lived in Japan and they have tons of little items for dioramas, make the scene realistic, so maybe they played with the big model trains. No idea about a little cement mixer haha, I could see a mixer truck that dumped.

[@Shipwright1918]

Pretty much, yes. Dinky Toys in particular were made by Meccano Ltd., the same firm which made Hornby trains, specifically to go with their O gauge trains and accessories. That's why the original Dinkies were so big, and you saw seemingly random things like the cement mixer and the industrial 3-wheel truck, they were used to add some life and realism to model train layouts. However, they were sold as toys in their own right too, and there were some who bought them without ever going into the trains. Some kids built layouts of just buildings and roads and played with them that way.

[@chrisparkes2179]

@@Shipwright1918 Yeah, those toys weren't mundane back then. "We've got to get this gold (Kit Kat bar) out of the bank vault (cupboard under the stairs). We can use this deceptively fast baggage truck. Oh no, the bank clerk (sister's favourite doll) has seen us and can identify us. Stick her in the getaway Dinky horsebox. Vroooooooom vroooom. We're clear now, what shall we do with the bank clerk? I know, there's a cement mixer there, let's bury her under that motorway (flower bed)" Later "I don't know, but I think I saw the dog burying something under the azalea".

[@janicecaputi2420]

Ditch the music! Too distracting!! Love your videos & family & adventures...😍

[@TheBluehun]

Matchbox were made to compliment model railways, and so were Dinky's.

[@ickleshouse]

2:04 , had same car in gold but had removable wheels

[@markallen3293]

Wasn't there a Hotwheels line of little electric cars called "Sizzlers"? If my memory serves me correctly my uncles used buy us little electric Hotwheels that we charged up and they ran on yellow Hotwheels tracks...

[@CuriosityIncorporated]

Sure was!

[@markallen3293]

Great, my old memories are in good order. HotWheels also had a system where there was foam wheel rotating in a little building that would propel regular HotWheels down the track using friction on each side of the car.

[@markallen3293]

Foam wheels I mean....sorry.

[@CuriosityIncorporated]

We get them every so often

[@blackdog.6398]

We would set up the HO track and set there doing oval race Elimination laps too see who races who , but many hours of fun with friends racing and drinking a Bear , we would race for bottles. We did the larger scale racers called Slot car where you would race on a big track some where in a big room .. We would put slicks on so wide it would nock off other cars ha ha ha . I think it was great fun for every one I wish they would bring it back. Yep 33 Willy’s with cooper racing slicks ,,orange . The Black out.

[@JB-tq1sl]

At least you could lower the music can't hear you

[@CuriosityIncorporated]

I have on newer videos, I couldn’t re edit that one :(

[@prachyaraemonkon3603]

So expensive

[@michaelrzeszuto777]

I moved away from hot wheels when they moved away from California style hot rods, I prefer Matchbox. I'm a year older than hot wheels so I guess that means that I'm just a grouch. Lol

[@Goffic]

Ditch the bloody banjo for God's sake.

[@johngallagher7680]

I own the 66 original batmobile and the Black beauty

[@stevec2940]

Where is your shop?

[@Pinzpilot101]

I see no Spot on Toys...only the richer kids got those

[@kylesoler4139]

both matchbox and dinky have seemed to drop in value at least for the play worn stuff that actually served a purpose. maybe because a lot of people that had them in their youth either own them already, gotten bored of them or they are slowly passing on.

[@CuriosityIncorporated]

+Kyle Soler I started collecting dinky toys In the 1990’s and they were worth more then then they are now!

[@kylesoler4139]

Huh I must of gotten mixed with Corgi. Corgi seems to be the cheaper one of the two when playworn. but at least you have Atlas replicas that you can buy of the most popular Dinky models.

[@chrisparkes2179]

@@CuriosityIncorporated There was a big surge in interest in the 90s when Thunderbirds was repeated in the UK. The popularity made people remember all the other toys they'd had when they were young. I think the prices fell as people acquired the ones they wanted and stopped buying. I worked with a woman who's husband gave a mint Dinky FAB1 to their daughters to okay with. I offered to but it but "Ooh, no, they love throwing it down the garden path".

[@simplyfundamental3362]

Wow!That's awesome!

[@Pauldjreadman]

What’s up with people and music. It’s probably KZbin royality free. I can hear things clearly.

[@Mike-rp8ev]

I like the music and the information on dinky toys 💙

[@CuriosityIncorporated]

Glad you watched this one Mike! One of our first videos :)

[@mula2626]

Please lower the music.

[@pamelaolson5614]

Could barely hear you because of the Banjos.

[@zurdoremi]

turn that music OFF !

[@ToyCarCase]

Nice!

[@odysseuslaertiades1528]

The music spoils the entire video. I couldn't watch it till the end.

[@wrangler71]

Research, research, research.....

[@StanOliver1000]

Shut the music off!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@carlowingfield7743]

Try viewing your videos before you put them online , you know where you can stick your banjo .

[@chrisparkes2179]

Your profile pic gives a reasonable idea of where! Did you choose it specifically for this comment?

[@lanitaorjeraldlewisdillorl2258]

👍👍👍👍👍

[@michaelrzeszuto777]

corgi were cool also, what happened to them.

[@chrisparkes2179]

Corgi are still going after some rough times. They specialise in the collectors market now. They are merged with Hornby trains. Dinky went bankrupt in about 1981-ish. The Official Receivers wanted to get as much money as they could as quickly as possible to pay off the creditors. The factory was sold for it's land value and demolished and the die-cast moulds were sold off for ship's ballast (the factory was in Liverpool, so it was seen as the easiest way to get money). As ship's ballast was jettisoned as the bilges inevitably took on water during a voyage, the moulds now lie scattered across the world's oceans floors. Edit: the name Dinky was used by Meccano (Dinky's parent company) for a while in the 1990s but had no real connection to the original company.

[@Photosyntech]

lose the music!!!

[@davidparkinson188]

Can’t hear you over the inane music i quit

[@CuriosityIncorporated]

Hi David you probably didn’t see my other comments but this was one of our first videos and after posting you can’t go back in and edit the volume... we have been more careful on newer videos

[@BramCollier]

Wowies, that's expensive for those matchbox "Dinky Toys" $40 is waaaay to expensive, I'd say 25ish MAX for that one. And even than... I picked mine up for 15cad

[@CuriosityIncorporated]

that's canadian so about $25 US give or take

[@garybayliss6535]

Take off the music

[@CuriosityIncorporated]

I lowered it on newer videos

[@PhilTrigwell]

WHY the IRRITATING !!!BANJO??????? ..THAT'S LOUDER THAN YOUR VOICE????????

[@CuriosityIncorporated]

Hi Phil this was one of our first videos. We’ve tried to improve since then

[@owenb9370]

Crappy music

[@andrewphillips8341]

Unwatchable, good dam music.

[@keithhawtin571]

If your going to make a video on diecast automobiles please put in more factual content on Dinky Matchbox Corgi Triang ect. And please don't think that Hotwheels are the be all and end all of diecast toys. Sounds like America is the center of the world again. If the Americans didn't make it.....its not worth commenting on correctly. oh and yeah lose the music. A thumbs down from me.

[@CuriosityIncorporated]

I am in Canada, more British then American by far. I’m sorry you took it that way. It’s just my comment on what my customers are buying. I collect corgi myself.

[@philmccole2634]

Stop the annoying bango

[@Pauldjreadman]

Didcast are rare in boxes, ultra rare.