Ken McRae, 66, has become an expert on Dinky toys since he began collecting them in earnest in the 1980s. The retired army officer owns some 2,500 models, with the most valuable item, a pre-war gift set of six saloon cars, worth up to £8,500.
McRae believes the value of his hoard is in excess of £300,000. He says: “My total outlay has been around £120,000. I suppose I could sell them and use the capital for a bigger pension, but at the moment I don’t need to and I’m still getting pleasure from them. If I were ever to dispose of them, I would put them into auction.
“I used to think collecting Dinky toys would be a passing phase, but it isn’t. If anything it’s become more compulsive because these toys are attracting a great deal of interest. Enthusiasts in Australia, Japan and America are prepared to pay more money for them now than the British.”
Dinky toys are 1/43 scale die-cast models of boats, trains, trucks, cars and aeroplanes. They were launched in 1934 by Frank Hornby to put alongside his train sets. Since then, ownership of the company has changed hands several times: in 1964 Dinky was taken over by Triang, followed by Matchbox in the 1970s.
And the different toymakers that have run the company have caused big changes in the product. McRae says: “Dinky toys went broke because manufacturers like Corgi and Matchbox brought much more detail into the vehicles, such as doors and windows that could open.
“Dinky toys were manufactured in Hong Kong and India in the late 1970s. When Dinky went broke, the mould was sold to Kumar, a firm in India, and they came to England with their samples. These were of such poor quality that Dinky refused to let them use their name, so they called them Nicky toys. They are in poor packing with rusty bases, but highly sought-after, and some are probably worth more than Dinky toys.”
Six months ago, McRae paid £1,000 for a 1975 model of an AEC truck with a flat trailer, made to promote Thames Board Mills. He says: “Thames sold rolls of paper and this vehicle had four imitation rolls of paper on the back. It was for sale with the original box. I found this one through the internet, and contacted the collector at once. It is probably worth about £3,000.”
But McRae usually concentrates on tracking down vehicles he considers to be “true” Dinky toys, produced from 1934 to 1964.
He is confident that the miniature vehicles are giving a better return than the stock market. “In the 1980s when I worked for the MoD in London, I watched people in the coffee break phoning their brokers to sell shares. The public were being encouraged to invest, but I had no interest in shares.
“I wanted to get pleasure from an investment and to acquire an expertise in it, and be physically able to see and touch what I was buying. I would go for walks under Charing Cross station where little shops sold piles of junk. I would rummage around and find old Dinky toys. Another haunt was Grays Antiques Market.”
When the Liverpool factory was closed for vital war work, the French factory in Paris – kept open by the Germans – continued to produce Dinky toys. Some of those models still turn up and are very valuable because they are made in unusual colours. An aeroplane can command £700 or £800.
McRae explains that after the war toys were rationed: you were allowed one a week. “My mother bought me Dinky toys then, but I never held on to them. It was not until the mid-1970s when I realised that that people had kept them, and they were out there for sale. When I came across a number of Dinky toys on a junk stall outside Loughborough, I bought quite a few of them for 5p or 10p each.
“The models I bought were military ones, and I had fun restoring them with spray paint. I then had a model of an army truck that I had used myself in my early years of service. A repainted toy, unboxed, like that is now only worth £20 or £30.”
In 1977, McRae was walking past a stamp shop in Darlington and could hardly believe his luck. In a cabinet he saw a late-1930s Chrysler Airflow, a four-door streamlined American car.
He says: “We went in and the man said I could have the car for £3, including a pre-war caravan which was not on display. Today the car alone can fetch around £400, and the caravan up to £200, but because of their condition and colour these two items are worth considerably more than £600.”
Then, in 1981, McRae met an elderly collector at a toy fair. He says: “This fellow lived nearby and I went around to his house, where he had all the pre-war toys that he had kept as a child. He was an accountant and had meticulously written out a card recording the cost and source of each item.
“I paid him £67 for a pre-war Christmas gift set of six Dinky aeroplanes, tied together with string in their original box. My wife and I drove away from there, wondering why we had spent so much money on a few toys in a box, but these were really old. Today that set is probably worth £900.”
Even more valuable than the toys are the cardboard boxes they came in. McRae has paid about £900 for a 1ft square box. He says: “Collectors come across the toys more often than the boxes. Once you have got the box, you can then look for the toy that goes into it.”
