PAUL MADE THE COVER!

I just got an update from Diecast Collector Magazine – the cover and contents of the February 2025 issue (I know, it is still 2024, but magazine publication is weird).

I have two articles in this issue – two pages on Star Car Monster Trucks, and one on the Wonder Woman Invisible Jet. Plus I made the cover. So I am a very happy owl!

Paul

Auckland

NZ

THE TEAMSTERZ SHARK LAUNCHER TOY

Here is something I found in a regular toy shop. A toy car launcher, for shooting Hot Wheels-sized models across the floor, in the shape of a very large shark.

The manufacturer is a British company called HTI Group, which was founded in 1952. The TeamsterZ is a range of die-cast and plastic vehicles, playsets, and track sets. The toys themselves are Made in China.

This one features the head of a shark, and comes with a single car. It comes in an open-fronted cardboard box, with the car held in a very thin clear plastic bubble.

The mouth of the Shark Launcher contains a flat plate, which is pushed back until it locks in to place. The car is placed against the plate, and the upper half of the head is pressed down. The plate is released, and propels the car across the floor.

I found two versions of the Shark Launcher. A dark grey and white version, with a black hot rod. The second is medium blue and white, and has an orange single-seater with silver-grey plastic parts. The back of the box shows a version of this with the upper wing in orange plastic.

The back of the box shows other TeamsterZ models, including a dinosaur-head launcher. I do not know if this is the full range.

The launchers are white plastic, with the painted upper surface colouring and black eyes. The internal mechanism, the complete upper jaw, and the two sets of lower teeth, are all a deep cream 'tooth colour', with painted deep pink gums.

Paul Adams from New Zealand

POPPING INTO PONTEFRACT

 A recent visit to the 'Etsy' shop in Pontefract with a mate was interesting. Despite not purchasing anything I always enjoy checking out the various cabinets and shelves there.

This was a great selection of old TV die-casts. The battered FAB1 was £24, too dear for me. The Black Beauty was £12. I wuz tempted but the Bank Manager clamped my wallet!

High up in the Gods lurked this boxed Hood figure. I assume its from the 1990's revival.

Over the road in the old courts this big thingy on the yellow table caught my eye. New to me, its a plastic Fisher Price muscle car that opens up revealing a sort of Adventure People driver. Neat. Anyone know it?

All in all I found the prices too high today. I need car boot prices!

Brains' New Ride

Late Night Lunar

PUT YOUR FLEET UP

 A rally of recent roadsters I've touched-up, now destined for the car cabinet.

See anything you had as a kid?

Some turned out well and some not, like the white Gruesome, which I painted entirely white to cover up my complete hash at the livery.

The small Matchbox FAB1 was a tester for my shocking pink paint pen, which was a decent colour match. I just need a cheap scrapper Dinky FAB1 now to do up!

The plastic racer in the middle is a Rosenthal Lotus, one of a series of lovely little racing cars they released in the Sixties [covered in my book on JR Toys]. The Lotus is the easiest to find I would say. This one was on a Doncaster second hand market stall in a box of scrappers. I haven't done anything to this one.

THE SHARP KNIGHT

 The other day I picked up a battered Corgi Batmobile in Wetherby for £1.

Straight from the Battle of Arkham it was missing its roof bar, three tyres, one axle, front blisters and the aerial. The rear blisters were falling apart too. It came with two spare tyres but not the correct size. All in all, quite good!

I started by re-colouring the body with a Sharpie pen.

I finagled a new roof bar and patched the rear blisters. I also tried a new technique for the front blisters; cutting out semi-circles of plastic and folding them into position. Tyres: I grabbed a few different ones from the bits box and axles are cocktail sticks. It runs - sort of - but it doesn't need to be perfect for me my cabinet. Time to move on.

Some focused bat work later it was ready for Gotham's grimy streets once more. See what you think Bat-fans.

Before

After

I painted the blisters metallic blue. No longer transparent, it'll do. The aerial is off a clothing price tag. The red light is temporary until I find a smaller better one. The body was re-Sharpied again.

Now where's Alfred and that cup of tea and a ginger nut?

Cas Vegas Crew

 I got this ritzy bundle of Superfast and Lesneys in Cas [aka Castleford] with a few thrown in from the Missus too.

The Dinky SPV is a bigger ongoing project -  finishing soon as long as the Mysterons leave the postman alone! Some more on this later.

The cars are done though. This time those few finished with my metallic pens resulted in some streaking. They'll do for the cabinet though! See what you think.

Before

After

THE LONG AND SHORT OF IT: MATCHBOX BACKING CARDS

It has been difficult to get Matchbox toys in New Zealand for many years, and Hot Wheels are far more common. Only a few shops carry any, and then only a fraction of the range.

Two of my major sources are The Warehouse chain (a lot like Woolworths once was, before the name became attached only to supermarkets); and the Farmers department stores. For some bizarre reason The Warehouse sell their basic Matchbox models on normal blister cards (like Hot Wheels), but the Farmers sell them in little cardboard boxes, with glued-down end flaps.

In some counties Matchbox models can also be found on short cards, which do not seem to have made it to New Zealand. The actual models are the same, only the packaging is different.

The Morris Minor Saloon first appeared in 2023, but this green version is a 2024 model. There is also a 1956 Morris Minor tourer (convertible), which dates back to 2022.

I have no idea why the packaging varies this way. Hot Wheels do not, although you do get long and short card versions of the same models in different shops.

Paul Adams from New Zealand

A BUNDLE OF OLD SCRAPPERS

 This old mixed bundle of Matchbox scrappers given to me recently by my Missus has kept me busy on the die-cast bench this weekend.

Here's before I got work on them.

Here's after.

It was a lot of fun trying out the different paint pens I have now.

Its always takes a little time to find the right colour.

I tried Sharpie markers, matt and gloss paint pens and metallic paint pens too.

I was pleased with these three as the finish came out really smooth. The Matchbox train took the metallic pen paint especially well.

It was a great mixed bag to do up.

Hmmm. I need more now!

PARKER! STOP DROOLING! YES M'LADY!

 

I saw this old auction online and thought what a great mixed lot!

A JR21 FAB 1 - drool, a plastic Silver Shadow? Rolls Royce - drool, A corgi Major Holmes Wrecker - drool.

That's a lot of drooling!

You too?

LOOEY'S FENDER SHOP: PART 7 - DISPLAY BACKING CARD

Here are the before and after images I was mucking around with.

Looey

Oz Base

Finished display coming very soon!

Looey's Fender Shop Part 5: Now pay attention, 007. This is a DB6, not your DB5.....

After my "rivetting" experience with the UNCLE Piranha (just one rivet!) I was dreading 007's Aston Martin -four tiny rivets driven into 50 year old vacuum metallised styrene!

1) I found the flat topped steel grinder worked much better as it didn't tend to wander off as the ball shape did. Even so, I was left with a few gouges in the plastic that would alert any expert examiners. Levering out the aged plastic with a butter knife was nerve wracking, but in the end the aged plastic stood up to this abuse...

2) After disassembly, I cleaned everything up. I was a bit disappointed that Mr Bond and his missing gunman were unpainted brown plastic, unlike Napoleon and Ilya. So James got a coat of Civil Service grey while his car was resprayed with silver auto lacquer.

3) Here's the bit where the purists shriek and cross me off their Christmas card list. The interior of the film car was black leather which wouldn't show up well at such a small scale. The larger Corgi version had a Crimson interior as did some Huskys, along with a lemon yellow version Ugh! I decided on a grey green interior to show up my driver. Notice the front grille? Half is the original vacuum metallised finish, the other is Green Stuff World Chrome, just to show you how really good it is!

4) Goldfinger's Goon was missing, so I sculpted up one in Kleenclay at about 1/16 scale, scanned it and 3D printed it. The photos on the monitor are eBay replacements and the multicoloured figure is three separate scans merged in my scan program.

5) It turns out the head was a little too large so I "fixed it in post" and went again. I ended up printing a lot of different sized figures to get one that looked right. So some paint in the Corgi style and after the chassis was glued back into place and the hubcaps painted chrome I could call this one done!

"Holy Government Sanctioned Killer, Batman! Whatever's next?"

"Funny. you. should. ask. that, Robin...

What do you think?

Looey

Oz Base