Vulcans

[johnbeugels]

This week three Vulcans were for sale. Two sold on Ebay. First sold for pounds 476,-, second pounds 908,-. Both without box.
The third Vulcan with box was not sold. Now again on Ebay for pounds 1140,-. so another chance to get one.
It seems they are not getting rarer as last year 9 were for sale only on Ebay. Prices can be very different. My question, is it really the rarest plane Dinky made.
John.

[norri]

perhaps not John. my guess would be the rare issue caravelles, or the first issue Thunderbird 2. and even though i can afford it, at those prices, don't think they're worth it. especially the vulcan. much rather have a cobra 3!

bid away. you'll get not competition from me!

[grwebster]

Interesting question, John.
Regarding the Vulcan:
We have heard that only 500 or so Vulcans were ever made before the aluminum casting process was abandoned. About 20 years ago TPN ran a survey, and Sir George did one on his own. That figure was considered close and still seems to be reasonable today.

All Vulcans that were presentable for sale after manufacturing were boxed and shipped to a limited market, Canada, for sale through the Meccano Dinky Toys' distributor.

There was never any mention of it in Meccano magazine and for years the existence of this toy was unknown, except for unfounded rumors, until the first one finally appeared for sale in the UK. It was sold for a huge some and the hunt began to find others in Canada.

So today they can be found for sale but I doubt all of these are new to market examples but rather ones being resold by collectors who are getting on in age and are reducing their collections.

So is it the rarest? I wonder. Without considering the un-named or un-numbered paint finish variants of castings such as the Atalanta of which there are many but only a few duplicated examples, and disregarding the very hard to find lead cast variants of some prewar aircraft, I would submit that the Atlantic Flying Boat, No. 60x, produced only for a very short period in 1937-9, should qualify for the title.

One reason for this, besides the short production run, was the unfortunate use of an unstable alloy during most of the production that has over time caused the slow distintegration and destruction of some of the few examples left. Complete and intact examples almost never appear for sale either on eBay or auction firms such as Vectis. Generally, it would seem that collectors buy them from other collectors and they never get to market. {It took me many years to find my example and it sits along side my Vulcan.}

So by that judgement alone, it must certainly be the rarest, no?

I might have suggested the Meccano Spitfire as being the rarest Dinky Toy, but then it is not generally considered a toy by Dinky Toys by picky experts as, while it was a production by Dinky Toys of their Spitfire casting, it was not numbered or cataloged for sale, but rather used as a Meccano fund raising program to raise funds to purchase and then donate to the RAF a brand new, full scale Spitfire.

[grwebster]

I am also wondering about Norris' suggestion that the special variants of the1960 French Dinky Toys production of the Caravelle in SAS, Swissair, and Air Algerie liveries could be considered the rarest of the Dinky Toy aircraft. Certainly, the few that are sold on Ebay attain very high prices and I have only seen 3 or 4 in many years come up for sale.
I have no idea how many were produced but we know that they were cataloged and sold as part of the Dinky Toys line, and not just airline give-aways as was thought for many years.
I would personally consider any variant of these to be rarer than the Vulcan, but not rarer than the Atlantic Flying Boat.

[MichaelB]

Fascinating information of which I doubt of none.
However - the Dinky Vulcan has the best story! ...it's a legendary collectors item!

[Cam]

One of the Atlantics just sold on ebay for 802 GBP

Cam

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dinky-Toys-pr ... 7675.l2557