O Scale Motor Vehicle Chronicle Oct 3

Allow me to add two more high-end car builders: Durham of Canada and Tin Wizard (Danhausen) of Germany. 

Here's a Tin Wizard '37 Packard I picked up on eBay for around 50 bucks. The seller had listed it as brand unknown - the markings on the bottom were almost illegible. The detail on this is way finer than Brooklin, and I have since seen a few Tin Wizard/Danhausen items on the Bay for much, much more money. I don't think there are too many of them around. 

And here's a Durham '41 Chevy coupe next to a '37 by Brooklin. Durham cars normally go for a lot of money but I managed to snag this one at a reasonable price. I'm very impressed with the detail. This one may have extra chrome - I think the seller said it did. Looking at the two cars side by side, I have to wonder if they are really the same scale, or if the prototype '41 was that much bigger than the '37. 

I think this '54 Chevy is by USA Models. It's the only die-cast car I've ever spent more than $100 for. My mother had a '53 in the same color combination when I was a little kid. It's a very, very nice model, much better than you need for a train layout, but I got it for the sentimental value. 

Western Models makes some nice items, and you can occasionally pick one up at a reasonable price. Here's a '34 Airflow I got on eBay last month. I had been looking for a good deal on a '34 with the original waterfall grille; the Rextoys and IXO versions model the '35 with the later style grille. Another interesting thing about Western is that they used to sell some of their models in kit form. I have two - a '59 DeSoto and a Duesenberg Mormon Meteor. The DeSoto can be built either as a hardtop or a top-down convertible. 

Beautiful, as the prototypes that were made of STEEL and made to last!!!!!

Ralph

I agree with you about NEO and Brooklin.  I have several of each, including the two NEO models below, which are both jewels and featured predominately on my layout: the best models there, I think.  I've never seen any models by MOTOR CITY, MINIMARQUE, CONQUEST, MADISON, WESTERN (WMCE) and U.S. MODELS close up, so I don't know, but it is hard to imagine more detail or jewel-like attention to tiny features than these NEOC models have.

I completely forgot about Durham, I even have a couple in my collection. And to that '54 Chevy, it's hard to resist a nostalgic model at any price.

Lee :

American Excellence (NEO) Detail can't be beat at any price. If you're interested in looking at some unusual 1/43? Check out this dealer route66modelcarstore.com

The details are not as well done as American Excellence, but there are some unexpected models.

Great post. I enjoy reading it every week. I've been on a buying frenzy of 1/43 cars lately from EBay. I bought a very nice looking 59 Chev Impala 2dr hardtop, a very pale lavender Franklin Packard Caribbean Convt., a '59 Chrysler 300 that I think is way undersized made by City Cruiser Collection, '56 De Soto by Collectors Classics, '50 Chrysler Town & Country convt. by Franklin, '57 T-Bird by Ertl and a '51 Hudson Hornet by Franklin. All of these cars are decent replicas.

A number of the brands cited above were unknown to me, and I think I am actively

looking for ones I can use.  Of those above, the only one in my era is the Tin Wizard

'37 Packard, which is very similar to the, I think much cheaper, 1940 Packard sedan

produced by Rextoy.  Probably many couldn't tell the difference if looking at the

real cars.  I would want one of those, but there are only so many upscale cars you

can use modeling small towns.  My mother owned a Morocco Red 1954 Chevrolet

210 four door, that I learned to drive on, so I might have to swat my hand to keep

from buying one of those out of period models.  She drove that car on multiple

cross country trips and then passed it down to my brother to use in college.  It is

one "late model" car I will look at in a car show.

My Dad had one of these. Love the 50s models.

I love the '41 Chevy.  That was my first car but it was a two door business model and not the coupe.

Art

Great Stuff Richard!  Look forward to this each week.  I never did hear of some of those model makers like NEO, Western or Tin Wizard.  i do have about 175 vehicle models on the layout, but I don't consider myself a collector.

As to Brooklin, I realize that they are way overpriced for simply background scenery for a train layout.  I also realize that they are not perfectly scale.  I probably have ten of that make and most were picked up at York for around $50 or $60 bucks.  My wife, knowing that I had a special fondness for Nashes found a Brooklin 1935 (the year I was born) Nash Ambassador sedan and probably paid about $125 for it.  Way too much but I have it prominently displayed near the forefront of the layout. 

I do have a question for you guys:  Have any of you found that the tires on Brooklin models tends to deteriorate after time?  On several of my cars, after sitting in one place for a year, sometimes two, the tires tend to stick to the roadway.  In one case the tires were actually "gooey" and need replacement.  I haven't noticed that on any other makes of car models, just Brooklin.

Paul Fischer

Looking through my collection, I found two more European builders whose offerings are priced at the bottom of the upper range, or the top of the middle. Norev is French, and Schuco is German. Schuco is, of course, the maker of the famous wind-up race cars, which bring substantial prices from toy collectors. As far as I know, neither Norev nor Schuco makes much, if anything, in the way of American prototypes. I bought both of these cars for my collection of cars I have owned.

Here is a Peugeot 304 S by Norev. Nicely done. I had one of these in Nairobi in the mid-70's and I drove it all over Kenya and northern Tanzania on safari. My car was silver; one of these days I hope to have time to repaint this one. Despite Peugeot's lousy reputation in the U.S., Peugeots were very popular in East Africa, where they had a good support infrastructure. The 304 S was a rally model. A friend of mine wanted me to enter it in the East African Safari rally, with him as co-driver. I politely declined, not wanting to put my daily transportation at risk in that notoriously destructive event. The fact that he had been a DNF in his one previous entry in the Safari was not reassuring. 

And here's an Opel Calibra by Schuco. The Calibra was rated by Car and Driver as one of the "Ten Best Cars You Can't Buy in the U.S." I had one in this same metallic black in Finland in the early 90's. It was a great little car, with a 2-liter DOHC engine. It handled beautifully and was fast enough for Finnish freeways. Mine had all-wheel drive, which made it all but unstoppable in the winter. My only regret was that I bought mine six months before the turbo came out. 

And finally, here's a Schuco wind-up racer. 

Yes, the tires on Brooklin cars are kind of sticky. I roll the ones on my layout once a week or so to keep them from getting stuck in one spot. 

I have a couple of these.  Wonderful, fun toys!

Fisch I only saw Brooklin tire melt once when the car was in a plastic display box and the seller thought it was glued to the base.

What kind of surface are the Brooklins on?

I mentioned in last weeks thread about Neo/AE tire melt and 3 cars over $100.00 each with ruined tires.

Bob

Great Posts Richard, I follow it every week.

Sad to say most of my collection has been packed away since my move 8 years ago but since I've discovered this thread, I'm thinking it's time to start bringing them out. 

Some other models of American cars that were available when I was collecting are:

Elegance (France): very detailed and very pricey Cadillacs including 1950 Series 80 limos and hearses

Equipe Tron: Sweet 1950 Old 88

Great American Dream Machines: Concept cars including 1939 Buick Y Job, 1955 Lincoln Futura and 1951 Chrysler K-310

Madison Models: 1957 Chrysler 300C

Minimarque: 1953 Packard Caribbean
Precision Miniatures: 1953 Lincoln Capri

Zaugg: 1951 Chevy Nomad

Most premium maker model cars had runs of only 100-250 units worldwide and were basically hand-made. Brooklin and Western were not among them.

2 of my favorite Western Models are the 1959 Buick Electra HT and the 1958 Plymouth Belvedere.

Some of these models will make to my layout when I build it. In the meantime, Ill keep reading about your great models on this post. Thank you.

Jay

The tires will flatten after after being displayed for q while, and sometimes they will react with the painted roadway. to alleviate this I set them on a flat black block keeping the weight off the tires

I have 4 Motor City, 2 Western, 1 Conquest, and 8 Brooklins (most of the Brooklins "detailed" by someone else). But I have to say, the American Excellence by NEO models I have meet or exceed these, but at a much lower price. On the other hand, all of the discontinued Motor City cars I have are going on eBay for much more than I paid for them new.

I see Brooklin has snuck another couple of models past me, that I could use, of

plain Jane sedans once seen on streets in their time, vs. exotic classics, ....a 1937 Supercharged Graham, and a 1939 Nash.  Unfortunately, these, like recent 1930's Pontiac, Olds, and Buick models, are about $130 (each, not by the dozen).  I just paged through dozens of internet auction pages of 1/43rd, and found none of the model brands mentioned above to have much if anything in the pre-WWII era, except for exotic, often open, cars.

That Graham intrigues me, and I almost pulled the trigger on it - if I find it somewhere at a bit of a discount . . . .  Most of the Brooklin I am buying now are 1935-1941.  They are expensive but you simply can't find non-exotics from that period too many places.

While I see train shows listed on here (and I always wonder...."If I went to a train

show yay many miles away, would I find anything interesting and different, or is it

going to be the same picked over stuff in the local ones?".  However, on one trip

to the Wheaton train show, I discovered a die cast auto show elsewhere in the Chicago

area, and showed up for that.  I am not getting any lit in that advertises these kinds

of shows (I remember that the Chicaog show had some resin pre-WWII auto models

I have not seen since), so I would like to know how I can hear about these auto shows?

I would try Googling various combinations of toy auto show, model auto show, etc. Also there are collector organizations that hold their own shows. We have one all-purpose toy show here in Tucson every year that has some vendors selling die-cast cars. Unfortunately, the vast majority of what is on offer is Hot Wheels, but I have picked up a few good vehicles for my layout - mostly military and construction equipment for flatcar loads. 

This weekend 10/10 & 10/11 ...9-2 PM there's the Toledo Collector's Toy Fair

@ Tam-O Shanter

    7060 Sylvania AV

    Sylvania, OH

There will be several 1:43 car dealers.

Bob

Log on to "Forum43". They sometimes have shows listed (Chicago is THE show for upscale ($$$$) 1:43 car models). This is a nice, helpful group...however, only about 3 of us are also into trains.