Category Archives: Memorabilia

Building the Old American Service Station

By John F. Quilter

Text and photographs copyright of the Author(s) unless otherwise stated.

A while back I learned from MAR Online of a fellow in Switzerland who has produced a set of eight PDF files in colour that can be printed and assembled into a 1:43 scale old time garage.   Never passing up a modelling challenge, I contacted the editor of MAR Online who contacted the Swiss producer and within a day or two I had my eight PDF files on my laptop.  Not wanting to print these with MY printer, I emailed them to the local UPS store and delivered to them 8 sheets of white thick cardstock paper. 

All the instructions printed on the sheets were in German but Google Translate figured that out for me.  I wanted this item to be a bit more robust than just thick paper so acquired from Hobby Lobby a 3/16th inch adhesive backed foam poster board and mounted each section of the structure on this material.  I was pleased with the result.  The ‘kit’ includes the fuel pumps,  the oil barrels, the tire sign,  and the service ramps.   I cut out the garage door and used clear packing tape for hinges so it can be opened or closed.

Recently a fellow in Oregon saw my built Arena kit of a 1952 Chrysler Saratoga club coupe model in a Mopar club magazine, and wanted one just like I built, but in a blue colour replicating a car in his past.  So since he had the Arena kit from Italy,  but not the skills to build it, I offered to do that for him and the car in the foreground is the result.   Also shown on the service ramps is a 1935 Ford coupe with the hood open, and a 1936 Plymouth sedan being fuelled and waiting in line, a 1950 Dodge woody.  

Photographs of my completed garage are below:


We welcome your comments and questions.   Please go to our Model Auto Review Facebook page or email the Editors at maronlineeditor at gmail.com.

A British Card Garage Model (Updated)

By Hugo Speiss

Text and photographs copyright of the Author(s) unless otherwise stated.

Editor’s Note: We have technical issues with the previously availbale PDF file. Lots of pink areas appeared somehow after files transferred to MAR Online which were not there when tested by Hugo. Hugo has re-issued this as a series of seven PDF files rather than as a single file and the pink has vanished thankfully. We are re-issuing this article with the corrections made below.


Here is another of my card garage models, this time it is for a British scene using the Dinky petrol pumps shown in the photographs below, though I also include some more modern pumps to make in card in the pdf below.

The photographs shown below are of my test build.



The PDF files needed to build the model may be downloaded using the widget below. You will need seven sheets of A4 sized paper/thick card to print it on. If printing on paper this will need to be stuck onto stiff card before building the model.



Editor’s Note: you may either click on the download buttons above (NB does not appear on some mobile phones) which will probably download the file directly to your downloads area or click on the file name (which does appear on my mobile phone) which will probably open the PDF in your browser or PDF software which will allow you to download it to a selected folder on your system. It is impossible to write instructions for every computer environment but it should fit in with however downloads normally work on your system! Please note that the files have been scanned by Norton Security and found to be ‘clean’ but you may wish to scan it again yourself, once you have downloaded it, for extra security.


MAR Online would like to thank Hugo for making this available at no cost to our readers. If you build it we would love to feature your displays showing off some of your collection on it.


We welcome your comments and questions.   Please go to our Model Auto Review Facebook page or email the Editors at maronlineeditor at gmail.com.

Model Display (Corrected)

By Hugo Speiss

Text and photographs copyright of the Author(s) unless otherwise stated.

Hello fellow model car collectors.

I am a pensioner from Switzerland and as a hobby I create model car garages for Dinky Toys and other cars from my collection. The photos show as an example my Old American Service Station with cars and gas pumps from Dinky Toys Atlas.


If other readers would like to build the garage please contact the editor (maronlineeditor@gmail.com [corrected]) with your email address and he will pass the message on to me. It is not too complex and so is also suitable for older children to build. The model is in pdf format and suitable for home printing. NB the print includes the basic garage items and you will need to supply the cars, figures, and pumps to complete the scene!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!


We welcome your comments and questions.   Please go to our Model Auto Review Facebook page or email the Editors at maronlineeditor at gmail.com.

Brendan’s Give Away

By Brendan Leach

Text and photographs copyright of the Author(s) unless otherwise stated.

Over recent years I have accumulated a few model car catalogues. I would not use the word “collected”, since that implies a greater degree of planning and structure than I have applied!

When I finally get round to tidying-up and redecorating the spare bedroom (Yes – These jobs come to all of us!) I decided that these catalogues have simply got to go.

There is nothing particularly old or rare or valuable in these catalogues, but rather than put them in the recycling bin, I think there may be other MAR Online readers who would like them?

I do not want any payment, – just cost of post and packing will be OK.

The spreadsheet below shows the catalogues I have and readers of MAR Online interested in any of them may write to the Editor at maronlineeditor@gmail.com making clear which item(s) they are interested in and he will forward the requests to me.

Click on the image above to see it shown larger – you may then adjust the magnification of the sheet in your browser to make it easier to read.


We welcome your comments and questions.   Please go to our Model Auto Review Facebook page or email the Editors at maronlineeditor at gmail.com.

Christmas Toys 1953

By Paul Mayo and Maz Woolley

Text and photographs copyright of the Author(s) unless otherwise stated.

In 1953 The Motor published a Christmas Fair feature with a few pages ‘For The Juniors‘. These make fascinating reading today, though the toys shown were generally products only relatively well off people could afford. This article uses scans of a 67 year old Motor magazine taken by Paul and looks at the items shown. Christmas 1953 was still in the shadow of the Second World War with rationing of meat still in place. Most children would have benefitted from extra sweets in their stockings for Christmas as sweet rationing had ended earlier that year, even if their families could not afford the expensive toys in Motor‘s feature.

Scans from The Motor December 2,1953

Page One

The first item shown is an up-market pedal car with an up to date ‘wingless’ body shape inspired by the contemporary American Fords perhaps. Certainly a lot more features than my Triang pedal car had in the early 1960s!

A few years before the launch of Corgi Toys Mettoy made expensive large tinplate cars sold in the best toyshops. This was made in hard plastic, and is very unlikely to have survived without distortion.

This 1:18 scale Victory model was a definite luxury item at nearly two pounds. At the time an average manual worker earned the equivalent of 9 Pounds and 25 pence a week. Very collectable, and expensive, today they are often missing some of the delicate chrome fitments.

Powered by a Jetex propulsion unit primarily used in flying scale jet aircraft. Pole racing was quite popular at this time as Scalextric was yet to be launched. Again an expensive toy and though it needed no batteries Jetex pellets were needed and were quite expensive items.

An American import here. At over two pounds, and fifty pence definitely destined for well off families. The trailing wire driven car was a trend that was to last for many years. Powered by batteries in the hand set and with limited functions controlled from the hand set. Of course they quickly faded away once cheap Radio Control systems emerged.

Most children in the UK who had remote controlled toys had ones made in Hong Kong in plastic and which were sold by Woolworths and many other stores especially in the run up to Christmas.

MInics were another Triang product and Triang dominated many toy shops with a whole range of toys for both boys and girls. These MInics are collectable today and can be found not just in the UK but also in countries like Australia which imported many Triang Toys.

No maker of this Jeep is identified but it looks like a tin plate item which steers using a remote control which houses a clockwork motor and steering controls. A little cheaper than some of the other toys but still out of reach of many.

German clockwork toys had always sold well in the UK and here one from GAMA is on offer. Again an expensive item at one pound and ten shillings (£1.50). Most children would have made a Tank out of cotton reels and elastic bands as many comics contained instructions for making your own toys.

More lovely and collectable Victory 1:18 scale models. The batteries to power this model cost as much each as some Dinky Toys!

Only a few lucky children would have got this set for Christmas, though many more would have got a Dinky Toy in their stocking. In 1953 there was new competition for Dinky as Matchbox Toys had just been founded.

Even the plastic toy was a costly purchase. Using the sparking mechanism common in ‘space guns’ and other plastic toys this racer was a step up from the cheaper plastic toys which were common on market stalls and in Woolworths. I wonder if any of these have survived to today?

The final panel shows Scalex cars which were a recent introduction to 1:32 scale. Lovely models then and very collectable now. This range was developed later in the 1950s to create Scalextric racing tracks and cars.


My thanks to Paul for providing the scans. Christmas 2021 will offer children and adults a much bigger range of presents at more affordable prices. But the recipients of toys like the ones shown in 1953 must have been just as happy getting them as youngsters of today are with the latest games console or games.


We welcome your comments and questions.   Please go to our Model Auto Review Facebook page or email the Editors at maronlineeditor at gmail.com.

AUTO 100 – The World’s Greatest Postage Stamp Car Collection

By Jerry J. Broz

Text and photographs by, and copyright of, the Author unless otherwise stated.

The Editor recently wrote about the die-cast model of the US Postal Service Delivery Truck.

Auto 100′ the Postage Stamp Car Collection is a valuable addition to any scale die-cast model car collection and can serve as an essential list of manufacturers and models of the available die-cast model cars produced.

To celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the Automobile, a group of six English-speaking nations (Grenada, Nevis,Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent, Bequia & Union Island, and Tuvalu) assembled a collection of official postage stamps featuring cars. This collection is the most comprehensive collection of car stamps ever issued. It commemorates the most important and historic road and race cars ever built, the designers, the racers, and manufacturers from around the world, an was entitled ‘The World’s Greatest Car Collection’.

Introduced in 1984 by Stamp Collectors Society of America this collection includes 694 stamps, 61 full-page, full-colour photographs, 60 ‘profiles’ of drivers, designers and manufacturers, a history of the automobile, and a detailed description and specification of every car on the stamps, along with seven pages of Index and six pages of preface, introduction, and history of every car. All 306 pages are stored in a loose leaf, six-ring, black and gold decorated album, provided exclusively to subscribers.

 

The total value of the complete collection, as detailed above, was $563.00 in the 1980s.

The car stamps were available from the Stamp Collectors Society of America until their discontinuation in 1990 and are still available in sets of eight to sixteen stamps or in collections of 130 stamps or less from eBay.

 

Each month the subscribers to the original collection received 24 Stamps, one or two photographs, and one or two profiles with an invoice for $19.50 and with a “Stamp Collectors Society of America” letter announcing the next set of 24 stamps. Each shipment featured additional information about cars, designers,racers, manufacturers, etc. The accompanying letter was addressed to the subscriber and signed by Prescott V. Kelly, President of Stamp Collectors Society of America.


We welcome your comments and questions.   Please go to our Model Auto Review Facebook page or email the Editors at maronlineeditor at gmail.com.

Retromobile 2018: A Photo Essay

By Fabrizio Panico

All photographs by, and copyright of, the Author.

Paris 2018

Paris in the Snow

 

This year neither floods nor snow deterred enthusiasts from queuing at the Retromobile gates: it was as usual a demonstration of the strong interest and appreciation of the public for an event rich in elegance and real wonders, and still unaffected by the “giganticism” now prevailing at Germanic events. It is also free of the vast amount of vehicles bearing “for sale” signs typical of many other shows. But floods and snow were not the only “surprises” of my annual excursion to  Paris: Citroen, Mercedes and Toyota have all abandoned their showrooms on the Champs Elysées after many years presence, leaving only Renault and Peugeot in a place which has long symbolised Parisian motoring. Too bad!!

Many birthday treats: 70 years of Porsche and Honda, of the 2CV and 203. 50 years of the Mehari and 504, and many others especially the 120 years of Renault, celebrated with a magnificent selection from the manufacturer collection and by many exhibitors bringing rare specimens of Billancourt’s production.

Exhibitors also showed many different “mini collections”:

  • The magnificent display of record cars by the Autodrome of Linas-Montlhéry;
  • The many Abarths of the Moll collection;
  • The rarities of the Museum of Beaulieu;
  • Vehicles of the Museum of Compiègne and Club Teuf-Teuf,
  • The collection of the cars of Jean-Pierre Wimille, and;
  • The armoured vehicles of the Museum of Saumur, and many others.

As is usual there were a lot of dealers present. There were also some manufacturers, though this year Mercedes-Benz was absent, and of course the car clubs associated with the brands or specific models. In addition there were also cars entered into the auction of Artcurial.  As ever this was accompanied by sellers of scale models, spare parts and books, accessories and the work of Artists and Craftsmen. An “overdose” for every enthusiast, where almost everyone can find something to satisfy their interest.

An appointment not to be forgotten: The next Retromobile is from the 6th to 10th of February 2019.

I hope you enjoy the photographs below which capture a small part of this marvellous event.

Retromobile 2018
Abarth 500 record Pininfarina 1958
Abarth 500 GT coupe‚ Zagato 1958
Alfa Romeo 2000 Sportiva Bertone 1954
Alfa Romeo 6c1750 GTC coupe‚ Weymann Touring 1931
Alpine A442 LeMans 1978
Alvis TE 21 coupe‚ Graber 1964
Argyll 15 30 HP limousine 1913
Bentley Speed Six drophead coupe‚ Gurney Nutting 1929
Berliet type VRD 19 limousine de luxe 1933
Bugatti type 46
Citroen 2CV kit
Citroen 2CV recor car Barbot 1953
Citroen 2CV Type A prototype 1939
DeDion Bouton 4.5 HP vis-a-vis 1901
Delahaye type D 163 Autobus 1949
Fiat 8V Supersonic Ghia 1953
Lancia Appia coupe‚ Pininfarina 1959
Maratuech tricycle 1922
Mercer Raceabout 1912
Panhard et Levassor type 35CV record car 1934
Peugeot 203 DS Darl’mat record car 1953
Renault Colorale pickup 1952
Renault Juvaquatre coupe‚ 1947
Renault type V limousine Million Guiet 1907
Voisin type C 15 record 1930 Yacco replica 1929
Wimille GT 04 1950

 

Just Browsing

a look at some of the stalls of models and memorabilia


We welcome your comments and questions.   Please go to our Model Auto Review Facebook page or email the Editors at maronlineeditor at gmail.com.