SOME DINKY GERRY ANDERSON PROTOTYPES

Although I've no desire to own one, Dinky toy early prototypes dealing with Gerry Anderson's series are always worth a look, although be wary as things are not always what they seem.

Thunderbitd 2 is a prime example. There's a story that the early solid green ones were found to be a less than popular colour with children. Dinky altered things and made them a metallic green to make them more appealing. That may have worked I don't  know. But the story continued that Gerry, himself visited the Dinky factory and found blue Thunderbird 2's coming off the production line.

He was told that blue was a much more popular colour with kids!

However, examples of those apparent early prototypes have surfaced and the colours used, I have to say are quite bizarre.

While Dinky weren't the best at using the correct TV colours for their models, thank goodness they never stuck to these, although it must be said, apart from people who are prepared to pay mega bucks for them these days, these were never intended for sale to the public.

Thunderbird 2. This love it or hate colour scheme looks hideous to me. The model looks like Dinky's second version and looks like it could be all plastic which would in some way prove it was genuine.However, if the top section is die cast then what's to stop anyone from simply painting a old model this colour. This photo is claimed to be a genuine prototype though, and is credited to John Roney.

Here's a top section as seen on Christies web site.

Here's a banana coloured Spectrum Patrol Car, again it looks plastic to me, it is however a restored battered metal version, resprayed and made to look like a prototype. This is were I begin to wonder how the provenance of a genuine prototype might be proved. 

And finally for now, Ed Straker's Car, seen here in red. Is this a prototype?