| There is quite a long history of craftsmen building | | | | before individual diecast replicas based on real cars |
| detailed miniature replicas of transport vehicles and | | | | and trucks were produced and sold separately. Dinky |
| machinery, but it wasn't until 1934 that diecast model | | | | Set 30 was based on the Rolls Royce, Set 36A on |
| cars and lorries arrived on the market in any great | | | | the Armstrong Siddely, 36B a Bentley, and 36F was a |
| numbers.At that time the model cars and trucks | | | | Salmon sports car.With the passage of time the |
| weren't regarded as collectable items in their own | | | | quality of detail and reproduction greatly improved. |
| right - they were produced to lend added realism to | | | | The Dinky sets had diecast alloy bodies and tinplate |
| model railways.Since the early 1920s Frank Hornby | | | | radiators and rubber tyres. The later models also |
| had been making increasingly complex train sets. One | | | | came with drivers and passengers. The Armstrong |
| of the sets, Meccano Set No 21, was embellished | | | | Siddely had a footman and chauffeur. Just before the |
| with six diecast models, consisting of a motor truck, | | | | Second World War some superb military models |
| a sports coupe, a delivery van, a sports car, a farm | | | | were produced, including tanks with catterpillar tracks |
| tractor, and an Army tank. These were the first | | | | and rotating turrets.Few models from that era have |
| Dinky models, issued under the "Meccano Modelled | | | | survived in acceptable condition, and examples in |
| Miniatures" label, as Set No. 22.These early diecast | | | | good condition are extremely collectable - pre-war |
| cars were fairly crude by modern standards, being | | | | Dinkies can fetch prices up to $1000 in auction.In the |
| cast from an alloy with high lead content which didn't | | | | 1950s, new production techniques heralded a new era |
| lend itself to a high degree of detail. Also they didn't | | | | in the history of diecast model cars. Lesney, famous |
| attempt to depict genuine vehicles, although the | | | | for their splendid Coronation Coach, and Corgi, ("the |
| sports car bore a resemblance to the S.S.1, a popular | | | | ones with the windows"), entered the market to |
| make of the period and a precursor of the Jaguar.In | | | | provide competition to Dinky.This new generation of |
| terms of scale, they were not very well suited to | | | | diecast vehicles, with finer detail, better running gear, |
| the train sets which they were intended to adorn.It | | | | and better color finish, leads up to the present day, |
| soom became apparent, however, that there was a | | | | where millions of precision diecast replica models are |
| healthy market for such models, and it wasn't long | | | | produced, at quite affordable prices for the collector. |