Thanks chaps. It’s contagious, memories from other members, sparking memories in others, I hope it runs a bit too. Critter, I had the Dinky Merlin, but it was in the form of a kit that you had to put together yourself. It came complete with a phile of green paint, and decals for a company called ‘London Country’ I can well remember that I was unable to get the opening doors sorted. thank goodness for dads eh? Apparently, there was a range of these Dinky kits, saved Meccano in Liverpool putting together I guess.

My first encounter with saving up for a toy, was around ’66 or ’67. Our local newsagent, who was a Dinky agent, had a Dinky Supertoys ABC TV Control lorry, and I so wanted that. it was 10/6 which was a lot of money back then. My Dad unbeknown to me at the time, had arranged for the vehicle to be put aside. I was convinced it had been sold, but Dad assured me that there would probably more coming. After what seemed like an eternity of lawn mowing, washing up, keeping my own room tidy etc, I finally went to the shop with him, and picked it up. It even came complete with a die cast TV camera, and a plastic camera man!

Neil.

Who can remember the large pin boards hanging over the kit shelves, in Woolies, they were always festooned with built up examples of the Airfix kits, bagged or boxed beneath. Could never get mine to look like them!

That would be cool to see a pic, when you have the time.

At last. Hopefully, if that Gulfstream at Mildenhall, is really waiting for him, it will soon be winging its way westward, complete with its human cargo, suitably caged of course.

Cheers Steve, just the kind of reply I was hoping to see. I still have that Routemaster, and the dear little ‘Clippy’ still waits on its rear platform, for the passengers who will never come:(

About 20 years ago, like you, I embarked on a quest for the favourite toys from my childhood. Being as I had a good job in aviation, with a decent salary, I could afford to do so. By and large I was able to secure a good many of them, but some of the prices on the others got very silly, so I called it day. I was a great Gerry Anderson fan, and I also liked Lost in Space, remember that? As a kid, all I wanted was a model of their Jupiter 2 space ship. An American friend found one for me, about 40 years after me watching the series:)

Back in ’87 ’88, I began collecting models of ‘Eastern Bloc’ cars. I had travelled extensively in Eastern Europe, in the course of my work. My first car on passing my test was a car called a Wartburg Knight. It cost the princely sum of £899 on the road. It had a 2 stroke engine, nothing could catch you away from the lights, but the advantage quickly disappeared after that. I owned Ladas, Skodas, and a Polish made copy of the Fiat 125, it was called strangely enough Polski Fiat. Of all the cars from the east that I owned, it was by far the worst. The others however, were all totally reliable. I built up quite an extensive number of models, around 100 or so, and they were a mixture of scales, some were plastic, others die cast. Either way, they had to have been made in the east, to qualify for inclusion. The best die casts came from the USSR, especially the big black Zil and Chaika limos. I sold the entire collection to one man a few years ago, happily, for a lot more than I paid to buy them.

I have been collecting the large scale ‘travel agent’ type airliner models since ’75. I have 72 of them at the last count, and that is still my current field of collecting.

About 18 months ago! I managed to track down a great model of my favourite Star Wars craft, The Imperial Shuttle Tyderium. It was a pre coloured ‘snap tight’ kit by Revell. I was a child again. My little nephew really wanted it, so he got that one, and I spent another 6 months finding another. That same little nephew got my entire collection of Lego some time back, boy, I loved those bricks! The thing is, he’s beginning to show an unnerving level of interest in those plane models;)

Very nice pics. Really like the ANA777. More anytime please:)

Some eye catchers there! The An148 is so reminiscent of the Bae 146.