About Dinky Toys

Dinky Toys are die-cast miniature model cars and trucks. 

Dinky Toys first appeared in early 1934 when Meccano Ltd of Liverpool introduced a line of "modelled miniatures" under the trade mark 
"Meccano Dinky Toys". The announcement was in the April 1934 issue of Meccano Magazine.

Dinky Toys Pre-War History

In 1931 Meccano Ltd issued a series of railway and trackside accessories to compliment their O scale Hornby Railways model train sets. Six model cars were produced alongside model track workers, passengers, station staff and other trackside accessories. The cars were basic representations and had die-cast metal bodies, tin plate bases and wheels with rubber tyres. By 1934 Frank Hornby, who owned Meccano Ltd, had expanded the range to include die-cast model ships and aeroplanes, and the range was christened 'Meccano Dinky Toys', the first set of 'Dinky Cars' being released in 1934. The set of vehicles was designated No. 22, comprised of six 1:43 scale models and retailed at 4 shillings:

22a Sports Car 
22b Sports Coupe 
22c Motor Truck 
22d Delivery Van (with same chassis and cab as 22c) 
22e Tractor 
22f Tank 

Pre-war Dinky Toys were cast from an impure alloy and today suffer from zinc pest, making good condition survivors rare today. The first model car available individually was numbered 23a which was a sports car based on an early MG, and by December 1935 there were around 200 different products in the Dinky range even including dolls house furniture. The first model cars were generic representations of vehicle types and were available individually from trade packs of 6. Models would not be available in individual boxes until 1952. In 1935 a new series was introduced which featured accurate likenesses of specific vehicles. Series 30 included :

30a Chrysler Airflow Saloon 
30b Rolls-Royce 
30c Daimler 
30d Vauxhall 
The number of commercial vehicles expanded with the addition of Series 28 which included a series of delivery vans. Liveries of well known companies began to decorate these vehicles. Production was halted during the Second World War and the Binns Road factory in Liverpool was given over to the Allied War effort.


Dinky Toys Post-War History

The first significant releases from Dinky Toys after production had resumed in the late 1940s were the 40 series of vehicles, which were all British Saloons. These were the opening chapter of the "golden age" of Dinky Toys and represented far greater accuracy than their pre-war counterparts. They became very popular and today are often considered to be the quintissential Dinky Toys models, heralding a new post-war era. The 40 series cars were manufactured from better quality alloy, meaning that the survival rate is higher and although originally sold from trade packs of six, they were re-coloured in two-tone paintwork and renumbered in 1954 becoming some of the first models sold with their own unique box. The series included:

40a Riley Saloon (1947) 
40b Triumph 1800 (1948) 
40c Jowett Javelin (not issued) 
40d Austin A40 Devon (1949) 
40e Standard Vanguard (1948) 
40f Hillman Minx (1951) 
40g Morris Oxford (1950) 
40h Austin FX3 Taxi (1952) 
40j Austin A40 Somerset (1953) 
By the early 1950s Dinky Toys had become popular in the United Kingdom. Most of the models were in a scale of approximately 1:48, which blended in with O scale railway sets, but many buses and lorries were scaled down further so that they were around 4 inches long. In 1954 the Dinky Toys range was reorganized and cars were now sold in individual boxes and there were no series of models differentiated by a letter, each model having its own unique catalogue number. The Dinky Toys range became more sophisticated throughout the 1950s but due to the lack of any real competition development of the models was perhaps slower than it could have been. That was until July 1956 when Mettoy introduced a rival line of models under the Corgi brand name. The most obvious difference was the addition of clear plastic 'glazing', and the new range was sold with the slogan 'The Ones With Windows'. Once Meccano Ltd had direct competition they were able to respond by updating their Dinky Toys range accordingly and the models from both companies rapidly became more and more sophisticated featuring working suspension, 'fingertip steering' and detailed interiors.

A rival third range of model cars also appeared in 1959 called "Spot-on" which were manufactured in Northern Ireland and produced by Tri-ang, a division of Lines Brothers. This range were kept to one scale, 1:42, and were comparatively more expensive, never managing to sell as many units as Corgi and Dinky. In 1964 Tri-ang took over the parent Meccano company (which included Hornby trains as well as Meccano itself) and since Dinky Toys were more popular than Spot-On, the latter were phased out in 1967, although a few cars originally designed for Spot-On were made in Hong Kong and marketed as Dinky Toys. However from this point Dinky used the 1:42 scale for many of the English made cars and trucks, although the French factory stuck to the more common 1:43 scale, which was already popular in Europe.

In the late 1960s a new competitor entered the U.K. model car market. This was Hot Wheels from U.S. toymaker Mattel. Their low-friction axles gave them play value that Dinky and the other major British brands including Corgi and Matchbox could not match. Each manufacturer responded with its own version of this innovation - Dinky's name for its wheel/axle assembly was "Speedwheels". The company continued to make innovative models, with all four doors opening (a first in British toy cars), retractable radio aerials (another first), Speedwheels, high quality metallic paint, and jewelled headlights. However, these models were expensive to manufacture and the price could only be kept down if the quantities were sufficiently high enough. Changing fashions in the toy industry, international competition and the switch to cheap labour in lower wage countries meant that the British made Dinky Toys days were numbered, and after attempts at simplifying the products as a means of saving costs, the famous Binns Road factory in Liverpool finally closed its doors in November 1979. Corgi Toys managed to struggle on until 1983. Thus ended the dominant era of British-made die-cast toy models.

The Dinky trade-name changed hands many times before ending up as part of Matchbox International Ltd in the late '80s, uniting two of the most valuable and venerated names in the British and world die-cast model car market under one roof. Matchbox began issuing model cars of the 1950s through the 'Dinky Collection' in the late 1980s, but these were models intentionally designed for adult collectors. The models were attractive and honoured the tradition of the Dinky name in terms of both quality and scale, before production stopped after only a few years. The 'Dinky Collection' then became absorbed into the themed series offered by Matchbox Collectibles Inc, owned by US giants Mattel, who have shown little interest in or understanding of the Dinky brand preferring nowadays to rebadge normal Matchbox models as Dinky for some editions of their models in certain markets, or to reissue 1:43 models from the Matchbox era. No new "dedicated" Dinky castings have been created in the Mattel era since Matchbox Collectibles was shut down in 2000.