What's in the Van? - 23rd February 2023

Stay at Home Week

Well, as you can see, the answer is nothing.......

For the last three weeks I've been boldly setting out across Southern England bringing back the booty from the long distance deals I've been doing. This week was a bit different. Firstly there was a nice collection of 1980s vintage Dinky, Corgi & Matchbox Superfast right here in Abingdon and rather go through the lists and photos process I just popped round to the seller's house, about half a mile away. No dice though, we could not agree a price, sadly. I really wanted them too!

However that does not mean nothing new has come in to Global HQ at Kingston Bagpuize this week, not all the new stock turns up in the van. If you have been reading these blogs you may remember in the first edition I picked up a collection of buses near Gloucester from Ieuan. This week a pal of the his, Ronald, decided that he and his wife would have a nice day out in the Cotswolds and on the way he brought his collection to me, which I bought. More 1:76 scale buses in lovely condition

Dovers Hill, Gloucestershire

Mark got in touch from Clitheroe in Lancashire and we did a long distance deal by phone and email for part of his Corgi modern trucks collection. It was just not enough to be worth the trip so Justine, our Little Wheels Admin, organised a courier and we got the trucks here that way - they are in stunning condition and already starting to appear on the web store.

Little Wheels Museum

So, as I don't have an interesting trip to describe, I thought I'd write about the Little Wheels Museum.

Click on the image to visit the Museum

The Little Wheels Museum is a website which I have been writing for the best part of the last 20 years. It began when I was a private collector, before I started to trade in models. My initial collection was about Corgi Toys from the Mettoy years, 1956 to 1983. Shortly after I started collecting I discovered The Great Book of Corgi by Marcel von Cleemput, a wonderful book which describes year by year all the Corgi Toys releases. I decided to re-create it on line with my own text and pictures of Corgi Toys from my own collection. It is about 90% complete.

Click on the image to visit the Great Book of Corgi section

It is also why I began trading in diecasts. I didn't have the money or the space for the hundreds of toys needed to complete this work, so once a Corgi was photographed and added to the museum it went right back on Ebay to make room for more and to provide a bit of cash for the next one.

When I sold my last business in 2011 I was casting about for the next project and decided to start Little Wheels, in my garage with my son Phil who was leaving school at the time. After a year we moved into a business unit and in the summer of 2022 moved into our current, much larger unit.

Click the image to visit the Vanguards section of the museum

Along the way I was amassing a large database of information about all sorts and brands of model vehicles and a huge file of photos (2 million at the last count). So I decided to use this data and the pictures to expand the museum and, initially, to bring Corgi up to date.

Once I had laid down the structure of Corgi Classics cars, trucks, buses, vans, planes etc I moved on to Dinky Toys and Matchbox in all its forms.

Of course there had to be a section on Vanguards, which has recently had a complete makeover. I've also added a section on part-works which just scratches the surface of what is out there James Bond, Batmobilia, Tractors, Fire Engines etc

The latest addition is a section on TV, movies and celebrities, to which I found myself adding a section on World Leaders. My next plan is to move on to Italy - basing the new section around Brumm, Bang, Box and Best.

Of course it remains work in progress and updating it is a mammoth task - there are about 10,000 pages.

Click the image to visit the TV & Movies section

Why not come inside and spend some time wandering around the corridors of the Museum? Click this link to visit: The Little Wheels museum.

What's in the Van? - Home

2nd February 2023 - Gloucester & Hereford

9th February 2023 - Nottinghamshire & Lincolnshire

16th February 2023 - Devon & Dorset