Friday, February 10, 2012

A KICK IN THE PANTS

      Well when I got on the internet today and logged onto OLA.COM I went to the chats and I got a wake up call.

      Kornkountrytreasures , who blogs every day and who I issued challenge to in December of 2011 when the "blog a day" for the month of November was over. I challenged her to a blog a day anyway after the November challenge. She took me up on it and has been doing her part, I however let her down.

      I did good during December but it seemed that 2012 brought issues which I used to not blog. I did not mean to not blog I just had hard times finding things to blog about and also finding time while I was listing and listing every day getting ready for my sale.

      I got all wrapped up in m life and did not forget the blog but did not do it every day. Well today I could not think of anything to blog about right off my head but I can think of a lot of things I need to get done and items ready to get mailed out today. No excuses any more.

     So I said I will blog about what a great person Amy is. She has a busy life also BUT she blogs every day, she goes to the chats and looks for people to help with whatever problem they may be having and she does help. People like Amy amaze me. They seem to be so organized and things seem to come easy to them and then I wonder if they ever have a problem and need help themselves. I saw in a chat that Amy could not get her computer to do something with a photo that others had no problem with. I am sure she will figure it out.

      Amy pointed out that there are a number of people who are signed up for the ola team blog and if we all did one a week it would help. As I said before I plan on trying my best to blog each day or at least every other day. Amy you are so right. I saw what it did for our ratings in November 2011 with Fleapirates blog a day challenge.  I think so many of us forgot what that month did for our ratings. We went from the bottom to the top because so many helped and blogged about so many different subjects.

     Krautrock is a newer member but he is doing his part and it makes me feel like I  am letting more down than just Amy. Dirk, thank you for blogging and letting us know about your home country. It is beautiful as are your listings you offer for sale. I fee like I am letting down OLA also and my fellow members.

      So I got my kick in the pants this morning and my wake up call that OLA.COM will only grow and move on up as far as it's members want it to. I want it to grow and move up and am making another commitment to help that happen and asking all who are members of the team blog to please try to find time to help get us back where we were in November.

      Thank you all so much for reading my blog, thanks Amy for kick in the pants, thanks Dirk for blogging and also thanks to Curiocache and Supergranny  for your blogs and comments. I think it helps a lot for bloggers to see the comments that are left also as it means their blog was not done only for them but others like their blogs and shared them and +1 googled them.

     You will see me here again tomorrow and each day to follow as best I can, even if I have to share a clever email or copy and paste an interesting article.

Please leave a comment as they count to me. Be safe, be healthy and be happy

Dinky Toy


I was reading a Meccano Magazine, that I got from Krautrock. The date is June 1961. Wow! Time sure does fly!

I noticed a couple of the toys that were advertised back then. One such toy was the Dinky toy, a die-cast miniature vehicle produced by Meccano Ltd. They were also the makers of the Hornby railway sets, that were named after Frank Hornby.


 Frank Hornby started Meccano Ltd in 1901 to make toy erector sets. Village houses, churches, bridges and a mill with villagers were just some of the early pieces.

Before 1934, Meccano made many types of tin and metal cars, mostly in kit form and in 1933, they made a series of track and railway trackside pieces to complement their O scale (1/45) Hornby Railway model sets. First they were called “Modelled Miniatures” but in April 1934, the Meccano Magazine began calling them Dinky Toys for the first time.

By December 1935, there were around 200 different products, including doll furniture. Vehicles came in packs of 6 and were not available in individual boxes until 1952. Over the years, Meccano Ltd created airplanes, ships, cars, trucks, railway sets and much more.

In 1947, Meccano Ltd introduced a series of model lorries, also 1:48, and called the range Dinky Supertoys. Two of the models produced in this line were the 503 Foden Flat Truck with Tailboard (1947) and the 505 Foden Flat Truck With Chains (1952). Of course, they produced many others, but I wanted to point these two out for a reason, as you will later see.

Meccano Ltd continued making die cast toys, coming up against the Mattel Hot Wheels which entered the UK model car market in 1967. Since the Mattel Hot Wheels had low friction axles, the Dinky Toys came up with other innovative designs such as the Speedwheels, and was the first British company to have all four doors opening and the retractable radio aerials. Each innovation, however, was more expensive to produce and price could only be kept down if they produced sufficiently high quantities. In the face of Mattel’s creations, Dinky Toys was facing an uphill battle.

In November 1979, the original Binns Road factory in Liverpool finally closed its doors. The Dinky tradename changed hands many times before finally ending up part of Matchbox International Ltd in the late 1980’s.

Today, I decided to look for some Dinky Toy’s and lo and behold, I found some!! Just check these out!!

 





Now, all three of these are available from DebsVarietyShop! I was amazed at the great condition they are in. So if you are a collector, you might want to check these out!!

And if you are interested in the Meccano Magazine, various issues, just check out Krautrock’s store!!

As always, check out OLA.com for the best buys, best sellers, and best times!!

And check out our store, KornKountryTreasures!!

Thank you!