Vintage toy cars
The popular hobby of collecting old toys shows no sign of abating, whether it's collectors looking for toys they remember from their youth, or younger collectors hunting down rare items from an era that pre-dates themselves but is of interest.
Any branch of collecting contains many sub-categories within it. Postcard collectors may search for subjects relating to a particular period, or subject matter. Enthusiasts that collect vinyl discs will probably focus their collecting habit on one particular type of record, perhaps old 78s or more recent 33s, and the field of toy collecting is no different. For every type of toy there will be someone somewhere keenly looking for the next piece to add to their own collection, whether it be Barbie dolls or Action Man / GI Joe figures. And exactly the same lines are drawn across the toy car collecting world. Most diehard car collectors try and restrict their search to a particular type of toy car (diecast, tinplate, plastic or remote control for instance), or subject (eg ambulance, racing car, police car, fire engines etc) or maybe all models produced by a certain company, such as Dinky, Corgi, Schuco or Matchbox.
If you have very deep pockets then this kind of focus becomes less of an issue, but with the values of rarer toys going through the stratosphere, it is often the only realistic way to build a collection by focusing on one particular make or genre.
In this section of oldclassiccar I plan to feature photographs and information on a wide variety of toy types, some dating to recent times (eg 1970s and 1980s), and older examples dating right back to the 1920s and before.
If you have photographs of older models or toys that don't yet feature on these pages, by all means email them over and I'll feature them here, ideally with a few words about the toy and who made it. For now I'm focusing on examples built years ago, rather than modern reproductions or re-issues.
You can email me via the contact page on the main Old Classic Car website. If you are interested in all things vintage and classic motoring related, please have a look around the oldclassiccar site before you leave.
Powered model cars
Older children and adults, who perhaps felt that they'd outgrown small toy cars, may well have looked to tether racing for their next hobby. Home-builders would construct amazing scale model racing cars, often from scratch, powered by small diesel engines and go racing with them. Some years ago I found an example built in the late 1940s, or early 1950s, based on plans found in a contemporary model-builders book. That car is described below.
Toy and model-building magazines
Alongside production of some great toys and models, there used to be some fascinating model-making magazines on the market that are also well worth hunting down now, some of which will feature here.
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Post-war issues of Hobbies Weekly, a model-maker's publication with designs for ride-on cars, garages, and even a flying car.
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A look back at classic Meccano Magazines from the 1950s.
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Read about the Model Cars magazine from 1965
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Other motoring-related toys
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