The Genesis of the Dinky Toy

The Dinky Toys range originated as a small collection of numbered Hornby cast metal railway accessory pieces that had previously been sold under the "Meccano"/"Hornby Modelled Miniatures" names.

Dinky's first appearance in the Hornby Book of Trains is in the 1934/35 edition, which has a two-page spread, "Meccano Dinky Toys (add realism)", which co-opted the existing "people and animal" sets starting with Meccano Dinky Toys No.1 (Station Staff), and included small metal cast trains and vehicles that had originally appeared as "Hornby Modelled Miniatures", as well as new cars, vans and buses.

Numbering

The original numbering system stayed with the scheme devised for the staff and passengers sets, where a group of models shared the same number (so that they could be sold as a set), with individual pieces saalso having a letter suffix so that they could be bought individually - the "Farmyard Animals" set was Dinky Toys No.2, but the set's "pig" was also available individually as No. 2c.

Dinky persisted with this scheme for a while, but it eventually became obvious that the original grouping system was too unwieldy and embarked on a complete renumbering of the range, with each item assigned its own independent number. This reflected the facts that customers were buying pieces individually, that initial logical assigned groupings and sets tended to break down as the range expanded, and that with some groups that continued expanding, there simply weren't enough letters of the alphabet.

Since one of the selling points of the Dinky range was its sheer size, the renumbering also made it easier for Meccano Ltd to demonstrate just how many Dinky models they made - the 1934/35 HBoT lists eleven variants on the No.28 Delivery Van with different liveries (28a though 28m), plus the 22d Meccano van.

The number of items in the range expanded rapidly after their initial introduction. The 34/35 HBoT says "150 Varieties / ask your dealer for a complete illustrated price list of Meccano Dinky Toys", whereas by the 1935 "Book of Hornby Trains and Meccano Products" the two-page spread on "Meccano Dinky Toys" had acquired a recognisable "Dinky Toys" logo and the tagline had become "200 Varieties / A fascinating collecting hobby".

Collection vs construction

By this point, Dinky Toys had their own identity and were no longer considered just as add-on accessories for model railways.

Dinky toys added a third variation on the Meccano Ltd. theme of an expandable range that could be continually added to: Meccano had let users build models and upgrade their construction sets with accessory packs and add-ons, and Hornby Trains had originally been "constructional", until it had become clear that owners were less interested in building and rebuilding individual locos and accessories, and more interested in buying ready-made items to build a layout.

With the Dinky range, this trend went one step further - the company realised that buyers were happy to build a collection of their favourite Dinky models without needing any physical connection between the pieces. Dinky collectors didn't need to buy "road" packs or buildings to make their hobby worthwhile, the small size and robust construction of the cars meant that owners were happy playing with the cars on the floor, on the arm of a sofa, or (all too often) in a sandpit - the traditional mortal enemy of a Dinky Toy, where many a Dinky vehicle met its end.