When I was a kid, growing up back in the 1950s in my home country of England, it seemed that all my friends were into collecting Dinky Toys, diecast model cars, costing about two shillings and six pence.

Every week when I got my 'pocket money' I would rush up to Bakers, the wondrous toy shop in Canterbury Street, Gillingham, sadly LONG since defunct, to buy the latest Dinky Toy. Whether it was a military Dinky, an armored car, a Dinky police car, or even a farm vehicle, they were all eagerly added to my collection, but my greatest pride and joy was collecting Dinky models of American cars, those big-finned gas-guzzlers like the Dodge Royal, the Plymouth Plaza, the Cadillac Eldorado or the Ford Thunderbird.


In the 60s Dinky Toys got a serious rival, the new kids on the block, Corgi Toys, complete with, (gasp!) windows! Dinky Toys soon followed and then innovations followed nearly every month, as the two big boys of the model car industry fought to get the upper hand. We had new features like 'independent suspension', 'interiors' 'GB' stickers, number plates and 'steering'. My friends and I greeted every new invention with glee and not a little awe.

My collection, at its height, was around 450 models, many of them duplicates, as I loved the Studebaker land Cruisers, and the Citroen DS19s, for example, and needed them in several different colors! Most of my collection, to my horror, was destroyed in a flood, but a few prize specimens still sit proudly in a display case in my Californian home, lovingly restored to their original condition.

Of course, there were other diecast model car makers, like Solido, Vanguard, Majorette and the American Tootsie Toys, but Dinky Toys remain my favorite. The Dinky brand disappeared many years ago and are no longer made but this increases the value of those remaining and some rare mint condition models from the 1930s onwards are very valuable, especially if they are in an original mint box. Beware of the boxes though as many are fakes, built because few boxes survive from the heyday of the Dinky. Spare parts are also in demand. High prices are paid for Dinky tires (or tyres as we spell it in England).

Vintage Dinky Toys change hands for some incredible amounts on eBay, and at specialist toy auctions, so take a look in your attic, or the garden shed just in case you still have a mint Dinky sitting there waiting to be re-discovered!