Model Collector – August 2019

(Barré) #1

unusual in itself, as Morris was a
marque virtually ignored by toy
companies in the pre-war era.
The Goody Toys Morris is
heavily stylised, with a nice
thin-walled crisp casting. The
construction is an amalgam
of Dinky Toys, Tootsietoy and
Manoil practices of the time.
The wheels are, arguably, a little
too small, but the overall effect
is one of real period charm.
How rare is this model?
Well, In the past 35 years of
collecting I’ve only seen a
handful of examples come up
for sale. Its scarcity, however,
is not reflected by its current
market value and until more
information comes to light it
will probably continue to be
consider no more than
a delightful little curio.


Copies
If you love a good mystery then
collecting lead vehicles, petrol
pumps and figures is definitely
the route to take. Aside from
their immense charm, they can
be quite inexpensive to acquire
and, furthermore, they enliven
a display of diecast or tinplate
models like nothing else.
As a source of reference,
Norman Joplin’s lead figure
book, is invaluable, being
comprehensive enough for
research but not always
conclusive enough to
}spoil the fun.
I also make no apologies


for including a railway item
here; it could have been an oil
cabinet or a road sign. Any way,
many railway layouts feature
vehicles and that’s my excuse!
The Johillco figure of the little
girl is well known and dates
from the late 1920s/early
1930s. A common sight on
platforms at the time, she sits
atop her trunk, complete with
bag and bucket, ready to take
the train to the seaside. The
trunk is brown and there is
some nice detailing touched
in too. The copy (shown to
the right) however is a crude
execution, typical of the
backstreet casting outfits that
flourished in Britain up until
the 1950s. It also dispenses
with some of the luggage
for some reason, maybe in a
nod to austerity? On its own
it seems an odd item to have
copied, so I suspect it was
part of a larger range or set.
Petrol pumps, figures and
signage were all similarly
cribbed from other
manufacturers. It’s known
that some of these copies
were also copied, sometimes
making it impossible to know

who was copying who!
Getting back to the girl on
the trunk, who made her and
when? This one could keep
you occupied for some time!

Friday afternoon specials
We’re on safer ground this
time, but it’s a conundrum
nonetheless... Dinky Toys’
American cars of the late 1950s
were superb models; two-tone
paint schemes, windows, spun
hubs, white tyres and silver
detailing made them very
‘cool’ indeed. Amongst these
was No. 178 Plymouth Plaza,
produced from 1959 to 1963.
It always sported spun hubs
and never featured an interior.
As per Dinky policy, the casting
was expected to earn its keep
and so in 1960 the Plaza was
transformed into an American
taxi. This was achieved by
the addition of a plastic roof
sign, spring suspension and
vac formed interior moulding.
This clocked up lots
more sales and outlasted
its non-commercial

stablemate by three years.
Now, I’ve stated that in
privately owned car guise this
model had never boasted an
interior – that is apart from
the one in the shot shown here!
This appears to have been put
together by a production line
perfectionist, bearing in mind
the interior was an additional
component and not simply
a short cut. It also features
the spring suspension
usually found on the taxi cab.
I think the cream interior
would probably have worked
better with the two-tone blue
exterior paint scheme, but
maybe that’s being a tad
pedantic. I’d still love to
know the story of how it
came about, though!

The original Johillco lead
figurine (right) alongside a
somewhat cruder copy (left).

august 2019 | http://www.modelcollector.com 39

Bet you’ve never seen an example
of Dinky Toys No. 178 Plymouth
Plaza fitted with an interior and spring
suspension before! Was this, we
wonder, an experimental factory
sample produced prior to these
features being included on the
taxi cab version, or perhaps the
result of a production line worker
taking it upon his/herself to make
a couple of improvements?

Many years ago, now, collector and
toy historian Robert Newson pointed
out, in a published in Model Collector,
that there were distinct similarities
between this Goody Toys’ Morris and
the Timpo Toys’ Streamlined Saloon.
We still, however, know very little
about this long obsolete British brand.
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