Category:Dinky Kits

1971 saw the appearance of Dinky Toys Kits, with some of the existing diecast range being reinvented as unpainted sets of parts, sold on bubble-packed cards, initially with a small vial of paint.

1976

Although the kits were more expensive to produce than plastic kits (and were priced accordingly), the kits would have been a comparatively easy way for the company to try to sell into the hobbyist/modelmaker/model shop market, without having to make a serious investment in new designs or production machinery.

Painting

The issue of paintwork is a difficut one for the Dinky Kits collector, as a completed kit will often not be finished to a professional standard – some of what appear to be badly-repainted Dinky Toys on the second-hand market (for certain models) will actually be home-painted Dinky Kits.

Aesthetically, some of the range do look fairly pleasant as bare unpainted metal, which "ticks the boxes" for authenticity, and also show off the fact that a piece is a kit rather than a production-line toy. However, while the road cars (like the Rolls-Royce) might look quite nice as "weathered looking" bare metal, an unpainted double-decker bus just tends to look odd.

1976 range:

Dinky Kits

• 1001 – Rolls Royce Phantom
• 1004 – Ford Escort
• 1006 – Ford Mexico
• 1008 – Mercedes Benz 600
• 1014 – Beach Buggy
• 1017 – Routemaster Bus
• 1018 – Atlantean Bus
• 1023 – Single Decker Bus
• 1029 – Ford Tipper Truck
• 1030 – Landrover Breakdown Crane
• 1040 – Sea King Helicopter
• 1042 – Spitfire MkII
• 1050 – Motor Patrol Boat

Dinky Military Kits:

• 1032 – Army Land Rover
• 1033 – USA Jeep
• 1034 – Mobile Gun
• 1035 – Striker Anti-Tank Vehicle
• 1036 – Leopard Tank
• 1037 – Chieftan Tank
• 1038 – Scorpion Tank

1976 catalogue: Dinky Military Kits

External links

• Vintage British Diecast Forum: Dinky Toys Action Kits (vbd3.co.uk)
• Dinky Toys Kits (binnsroad.co.uk)