Hornby Dinky Toys and Meccano Magazine

In 1999 my wife and I moved to Paris, France for a year.  Since I was removed from my standard collecting categories, I took the opportunity to look at some new areas that were readily available in town.  (Yes...one can find American comics in Paris, but there are only a few shops, and the pickings are slim and expensive).

While attending an auction at the Hotel des Ventes on rue Druout, I ended up buying some toys.  Thus began my education on French toys...and especially French Dinky toys.  

Dinky toys were made by the English toy company Hornby, the company that created Meccano erector sets and Hornby trains.  The toys were made in Britain and France, but each factory made cars that appealed to the kids of the country they were in...so they are really two distinct lines of cars.  A brief search on the internet will give you more than you probably want to know on the history of Hornby and Dinky Toys...there is a fanatical and dedicated collector community for these cars in Europe (mostly older men who played with them as children).  But these cars stand on more than nostalgia.  They are very well made and well crafted toys.  

That aside...this magazine I am featuring today is one of the publications put out by the French factory at Bobigny.  It was mostly made up of real life engineering stories, science future (this issue has an article on going to the Moon or Mars), and other articles that would appeal to the technically minded kid of the time.  On the cover is a picture of the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter...one of my favorite aircraft.  The feature article inside is on the state of military aviation at the time.  On the back, a couple of classic Dinky cars...a racing Ferrari and the Chrysler "New Yorker".  Both of these toys are very collectible today.

I bought quite a few of these toys in my adventures at the Druout auction house.  At the time, I sold most of them on eBay to American collectors..since eBay was fairly new and did not have a French site.  American collectors did not have ready access to these toys at the time, so I was able to fill a need and learn a bunch about the hobby at the same time.

Looking back into my archives in appears I sold one of those Ferraris, a French Dinky 23J, in February of 2000 (with the box, no less).  It wasn't in perfect shape...but still really cool!  Writing this post has brought back some great memories...it was a bunch of fun hunting these things down and learning their history.  I will post some pictures in the future of the cars I kept.

Until next time...