O Scale Motor Vehicle Chronicle May 15

If I may add to your list:

Buby "Collector Classics" offered some very nice models in a broad selection of colors and body styles, including top-up convertibles. These included '53 Fords, '54 Mercurys, '56 DeSotos, a '46 Continental, '56 Packards, and others. They currently sell on eBay for about the same price that they sold for new...$35.

Minichamps mainly sells non-US models, but they have a series of excellent models as part of the "Ford 100 Years" series. These models span 1914-64 Ford Motor Company cars, some in various colors. They sell for about $30. on eBay.

Franklin Mint offered 1:43 models that had doors and hoods that opened. Two or three suppliers made them, unfortunatly in various levels of quality (the '55 Chevy convertible at the low end, the '59 Ford retractable hardtop at the high end). Prices can range from $10. to $100. (they were sold mail-order at $62.). I have 12 that I consider very good to excellent.

Really appreciate these snatches of information about the availability of useable

model vehicles.  Some of these brands, even ones that have my restricted years,

I never see for sale.  I don't, for instance, think Yat Ming made vehicles from my

period of interest, but would like to discover who their "most dealers have plenty

in stock" are?  That White Box '36 Buick shows up, but I am not sure whether

Brookin also did that in their Buick series, or not.  Red was not a popular prototype color, as reputed to fade badly in the lacquer years, and cars were often repainted with black enamel, or most often, bought new in darker colors.

Oops!  Had not looked at Yat Ming on the Bay for some time, and realize I have several

of their items, including their excellent pre-WWII American brand fire engines (which

indicate they did their homework).They only have a few other pre-war, and Ford,

vehicles, but post war selection really looks good, with '57 Chevies, two body styles

I saw, in several flavors, and others.  Little over emphasized on open cars, but still

choices for the transition era.  Too bad they stopped producing, and I keep hoping

somebody will buy the bones of Rextoy.

How about doing an article on early ford cars and trucks from the depression era, model a and b to,say about 1939 or 40 let's say prewar.  Jack Tylenda

Not relevant to today's topic (which I'll post on later), but this photo from the opening of the GM Tech Center in 1956 appeared in today's Wall Street Journal. Many of the mid-50's dream cars, with the '56 GM lineup in the background. Note the original turbine-powered Firebird among the show cars. My father worked at the adjacent Chevy Engineering Center, so I got to see all the goodies on family days. I built a plastic model of the two-seat Pontiac at right-center when I was a kid. 

Here are some of my favorite late 40s-early 50s cars.

NEO made the Caddy coupe - I think its a '48 or '49, and the Chevy coupe below.  They are wonderful models and good value for the money, I think.

Brooklin is expensive, yes, and often not the most detailed models (compared to NEO and IXO) but they offer a wider selection of cars from the 30s, 40s and 50s.  This is a '49 or '50 Olds and one of my favorites because it is a rather plain, average type car. 

Far from average is this Brooklin Olds Fiesta - I think a '53.  Olds made only a few hundred of them will special body, engine, etc.  But with the long truck and continentail kit it was irresitible to me.  I think this was Old's first wrap around windshield.

And this Brooklin model of a Dodge Wayfarer from 1950, just so . . . so, plain.  I love it. 

This Buick is Solido I think.  It was red and I repainted it in a more "Buick" color. 

This early '50s sedan is ERTL, but quite good-enough looking. 

I wish there were a greater variety of cars available from the 1930's, and at better prices. Brooklin and Durham have some nice items, but they are too expensive to put a lot of them on the layout. Then you have USA Models, Motor City Design, Conquest, etc. at $250 and up. Neo makes a nice product but not much from the 1930's and only a few from the 1950's. I'd especially like to see some more Chevrolets from 1934 or so, both sedans and coupes. There are plenty of Fords, but not so many Chevys. 

Here are a few die-cast cars from the late 30's through the early 50's. I'll photograph a few more if I get time. 

 A pair of Chevy coupes. Left, a 1941 by Durham; right, a 1937 by Brooklin. I believe the blue car has been upgraded with foil by a previous owner. Note the difference in size. I'm not sure if the '41 was really that much bigger or if there's a disparity in scale.

Rextoys '38 Caddy with a Brooklin Buick (a '36, I think). That Caddy is huge!

'54 Chevy by USA Models. This is very similar to the one my mother had when I was little. I remember sitting in it at railroad crossings, watching steam engines go by on the Grand Trunk Western.

Cadillac convertible by Rextoys, with an odd couple in the back - Italian porn star La Cicciolina and the Pope (probably Pius XII). Rextoys sold this model with Ciccio as the passenger; the other figure came from a 1:43 Popemobile. A previous owner combined the two and I grabbed the Caddy on eBay. 

Lincoln Zephyr by Durham

Lincoln Continental by Universal Hobbies.

'37 Packard sedan by Tin Wizard and a roadster ('34?) by Brooklin.

Two 1940 Packards by Rextoys, one civilian and one Army staff car. 

Some pickups from around 1939-1941. Left to right: Plymouth, Reo, and I'm not sure of the one painted for John Deere. Maybe GMC? You can see part of a '35 Chrysler Airflow taxi at far right.

Thanks to Lee mentioning it, I just paged through Neo, and also IXO on the Bay.  Like

Yat Ming, not much prior to 1941, and there are some few classics rare on the street,

and a number of exotic imports I'll bet are never seen at Hershey.  There are a number,  but not a great number, of '50's-'70's U.S. cars for those interested in that era.  My experience is that none of these three are of much help to me, which means

I have not missed much not searching these.

I ordered 9 Yat Ming cars from ModelTrainStuff at 6 each and 12 shipping. I was so pleased I ordered 11 more, shipping was 13. There mostly in the 50's some earlier and some 60's and 70's.

My one convertible was a '52 Olds Super 88.  Not fondly remembered.  I had a hubcap

stolen off my '60 Impala sitting at a Tenn. gas station.  Never thought those hubcaps

were anything special, but had to cruise junkyards later to replace it.

Richard,

I look forward to the weekend . That's when I get to visit your house to admire diecast.

For a few of us, it's like a window into our younger days, Thank you!