No. 701 The Massive Dinky Toys Shetland

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No. 701 The Massive Dinky Toys Shetland

Postby grwebster » Mon May 09, 2011 1:47 pm

The Dinky Toys choice of a new postwar flying boat casting had some logic in that the British Empire had been serviced by flying boats since the 1930s and Dinky made many toys of these different aircraft. So for a very short time in 1947 a huge toy of the Short Bros. Shetland joined Dinky Toys Empire, Atlantic, Four Engine Flying Boat, and Singapore seaplanes. It was a dismal failure, both the actual aircraft which was never put into production and the Dinky Toys version which was rapidly withdrawn.
The Dinky Shetland was released as catalog number 701 by October 1947 as the first ‘SUPERTOYS’ in a simple cardboard box design with a red and white label illustrating the aircraft. It was marked 'DINKY SUPERTOYS - SHETLAND - MADE IN ENGLAND - MECCANO LTD' without the number. It carried the same registration letters as the Short Bros. prototype, G– AGVD, and was finished in all silver with a blued cockpit area. Some later versions were produced without cockpit bluing. The Shetland lacked any type of a roller hidden in the hull for playability. Because of this or perhaps due to its massive weight of over a half a pound, or the actual aircraft's failure to attract airiine interest and media coverage, the toy was not a success. It is not an easy model to find today. It can even be found in the collections of the most ‘hard core’ prewar Dinky aircraft collectors who have made an exception in their tight prewar focus for this unusual toy.
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Re: The Massive Dinky Toys Shetland

Postby MichaelB » Mon May 09, 2011 9:42 pm

So, what's the wingspan?
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Re: The Massive Dinky Toys Shetland

Postby grwebster » Tue May 10, 2011 5:02 am

Wing span : 9 3/4" (24.76mm.)
Length : 6 3/4" (17.14mm.)
1/194 scale.
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Re: The Massive Dinky Toys Shetland

Postby Aeronaut » Tue May 10, 2011 6:16 pm

grwebster wrote:Wing span : 9 3/4" (24.76mm.)
Length : 6 3/4" (17.14mm.)
1/194 scale.

Still a bit confused by metric units GR? These mm should be cm :mrgreen: !
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Re: The Massive Dinky Toys Shetland

Postby grwebster » Tue May 10, 2011 7:01 pm

right you are , still very confused, I just copied them from a book and didn't check.
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Re: The Massive Dinky Toys Shetland

Postby MichaelB » Tue May 10, 2011 8:00 pm

Awww...c'mon...a Shetland that was about an inch in wingspan would be cute! ;)
Not exactly a massive model at that point!
I missed it too...but then I'm strictly English system!
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Re: The Massive Dinky Toys Shetland

Postby Aeronaut » Tue May 10, 2011 8:30 pm

MichaelB wrote:Awww...c'mon...a Shetland that was about an inch in wingspan would be cute! ;)

That would be a "Massive little model" :lol:
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Re: The Massive Dinky Toys Shetland

Postby grwebster » Wed May 11, 2011 7:19 am

Metric is now more popular in the Uk than the old system, judging from all the references I read.
My German cars can switch from english to metric and anyone who drives them in France can't figure it out. The GPS systems are multilingual too, with voices to match.
The europeans have an unusual way to measure gas mileage, too. They would say my car goes 100 kilometers on 9 litres of gas. Figure that out!
Actually it is rather useful when you get used to it.
So how much does gas cost in france?
Well it is about 1.40 euros per litre. Go to your calculators, gentlemen.
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Re: The Massive Dinky Toys Shetland

Postby MichaelB » Wed May 11, 2011 12:26 pm

Lessee....4 litres to the gallon and 1.6 Euros to the dollar makes for about 45.6 miles per hectare?
N'cest pas? :D
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Re: The Massive Dinky Toys Shetland

Postby Aeronaut » Wed May 11, 2011 3:18 pm

MichaelB wrote:Lessee....4 litres to the gallon and 1.6 Euros to the dollar makes for about 45.6 miles per hectare?
N'cest pas? :D

Or $95.74 per bushel, at today's exchange rate of $1.43 per Euro :shock:
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