Restore or leave alone?

[ottovonskidmark]

Hi all, whilst clearing out some boxes in the attic. I found two old lead toys my grandfather gave me many years ago. One is a Dinky Whitley bomber and the other is I think a Bugatti. They are very tatty and wondered if they are worth restoring or leaving as is.

Many thanks.

[dr_gn]

Personal preference: restore. I’ve got a small collection of Dinky aircraft; IIRC the Whitley is quite rare - might be pre-war with the ‘gliding game’ hole in the fuselage. Mine is a bit rough - the mazak metal is fatigued and the fuselage bent. Opted to leave it unrestored purely because the majority of paint is still there.



Is the car Dinky? Don’t recognise it.

ETA - according to my reference book, all Whitleys were produced 1939 - 41, or 1937 - 41 for the silver version. Early versions had the fuselage hole.

Edited by dr_gn on Wednesday 22 April 14:49

[Red Firecracker]

Car is close to a Dinky 23C Mercedes Benz, but isn't (driver is wrong for the Dinky 23C as well as missing the exhaust detail) so is possibly one of the many slush mould copies produced in the Thirties.

Would be interesting to see a picture of the base.

[ottovonskidmark]

Cheers for the reply,

The Whitley is the Camo version, the car has nothing underneath apart from a “keyhole” shape hole. I thought it was a Bugatti because of its colour.

[Eric Mc]

Could it be a Talbot? Blue was/is the national racing colour applied to all French racing cars, not just Bugattis.

[dr_gn]

Dinky made a Talbot-Lago, but it's not like the O/P's model; I doubt very much theirs is Dinky.

[Jonmx]

Looks similar to a Dinky 23C Mercedes, but a couple of differences on the engine body.

[ottovonskidmark]

Jonmx said:

Looks similar to a Dinky 23C Mercedes, but a couple of differences on the engine body.

Thanks :-) It looks like a Mercedes. Here are some more pics.

[dr_gn]

The wheels on the Dinky version have separate tyres though...yours look like the solid wheels fitted to the smaller Dinky cars and motorbikes.

[W12GT]

I’d leave them as they are, if you restore them and they don’t look right then you will have ruined them!

[Red Firecracker]

Looking more and more like a slush mould/mold/cast copy of a Dinky 23C Mercedes. Normally done in the Thirties, lots of Italian makers were doing it amongst others and actually some can be rarer than the original Dinky version.

If you're lucky, there may be a name on the inside of the casting, but probably not.

[Red Firecracker]

dr_gn said:

The wheels on the Dinky version have separate tyres though...yours look like the solid wheels fitted to the smaller Dinky cars and motorbikes.

The early French Dinky versions had solid wheels in the larger scale.

[ottovonskidmark]

Hmm I’ll take the blame for playing with them. I guess I’ll give them a delicate clean.

[dr_gn]

W12GT said:

I’d leave them as they are, if you restore them and they don’t look right then you will have ruined them!

They don't look right now! Plus, you can always strip the paint and try again. I can't believe they're worth much more than sentimental value in their current condition.

[ottovonskidmark]

Drgn I know what you mean, I may think I leave them as they are for a while. I guess when you said sentimental it stopped me. When you find old things you get into restore mode.

Thanks to all and stay well.

[dr_gn]

ottovonskidmark said:

Drgn I know what you mean, I may think I leave them as they are for a while. I guess when you said sentimental it stopped me. When you find old things you get into restore mode.

Thanks to all and stay well.

Agreed, as soon as you restore them, they wouldn’t be recognisable as your grandfathers things. With my late dads old Dinky toys, we restored some of them together, the rest I’ve left alone.

[Ayahuasca]

I would be tempted to restore, if you are confident of doing a good job. Your grandfather would have played with them when they were in new condition, not when they looked like they do today.

Or hedge your bets - restore the bomber and leave the car.

[mintybiscuit]

dr_gn said:

The wheels on the Dinky version have separate tyres though...yours look like the solid wheels fitted to the smaller Dinky cars and motorbikes.

Do you think that the tyres may be missing ?

[Red Firecracker]

mintybiscuit said:

Do you think that the tyres may be missing ?

Nope, they're copies of early French Dinky wheels.