Rare Dinky toy collection fetches £150k at Devon auction (2024)

FAQs

Rare Dinky toy collection fetches £150k at Devon auction? ›

A Dinky toy collection of about 3,500 cars has fetched £150,000 at an auction of "international significance". John Kinchen, from Portsmouth, collected the vehicles for decades before his death last year, with models dating from 1937 to the early 1970s.

Post-war Dinky toys are still valuable but it depends on their condition and rarity. The most sought-after date from the pre-1970s, including French models, early commercial vehicles and TV-related models for shows like Thunderbirds, which tend to fetch a good price in Dinky toys auctions.

Dinky Toys was the brand name for a range of die-cast zamak zinc alloy scale model vehicles, traffic lights, and road signs produced by British toy company Meccano Ltd. They were made in England from 1934 to 1979, at a factory in Binns Road in Liverpool.

Mattel issued the Matchbox / Dinky collection of larger, beautifully crafted collector editions of vintage cars like the Model-T European classics.

The first Dinky Toys cars came on the market in December of 1933, but they were not called Dinky Toys until April of 1934. Until then they where Modelled Miniatures, sold under the name of their original manufacturers, the Frank Hornby firm best known for its electric trains.

Today, Dinky Toys are extremely valuable, and can be viewed as a solid investment option. The most valuable Dinky Toys are the pre-war versions, made in the early days of the company. They are especially valuable if they are still in their original boxes.

However properly restored models are affordable by comparison but only if they are restored to a very high standard will they remain a good investment for the future.

There's model-car collecting, and then there's people like Ron van der Hoort. Over the span of 35 years, give or take a few months, he put together what is believed to be one of the largest Dinky Toys collections in the world – and it's about to cross the auction block soon.

However, as early examples of Dinky Toys made from a lead-based casting, they had a much sharper definition than later alloy castings, which dent and deteriorate.

What is the oldest toy company still in business? ›

Frederick August Otto Schwarz dreamed of a marvelous bountiful emporium full of extraordinary, one-of-a-kind toys from all over the world. In 1862 that dream became a reality and FAO Schwarz has been capturing the imaginations of countless generations since.

Dinky was a British toy manufacturer that was popular in the 1960s and 70s, and the term “dinky car” became synonymous with toy cars in Canada around that time. This is similar to how “Matchbox car” became synonymous with toy cars in the US in the early 90s.

The most notable toy store bankruptcy was Toys 'R' Us Inc.'s Chapter 11 filing Sept. 18, 2017. The company was strapped with about $5 billion in debt and faced tough competition from huge retailers, such as Amazon (AMZN) , Walmart (WMT) , Target (TGT) .

1-75 based Dinky Toys

The acquistion of the Dinky trademark was announced by Matchbox Toys in 1987. To protect the trademark, six models from the Matchbox 1-75 range were soon released by Matchbox in Dinky branded bubble packs.

Dinky Toys Scale Model Cars | Dinky Toys | Dinky Toys Model Cars. This model size is in between the 1:43 and 1:64 scale. What makes us unique? Model Car World offers the UK's best choice of diecast model cars, viewed in our unique model car garage setting.

Objects with human and animal forms that may have been toys have been found in deposits from ancient Sumer dating to 2600 bce. The earliest-known written historical mention of a toy comes from about 500 bce in a Greek reference to yo-yos made from wood, metal, or painted terra-cotta.

Jeff Koons' Rabbit. This toy sold at auction for a whopping $91.1 million, making it the most expensive toy in the world.

Availability: If a car was produced in limited numbers, it tends to be worth more. This is because less cars are available so its rarity increases its potential value. Makes, model, drivers or sponsors which are highly sought after may also be worth more because they are difficult to obtain.