If you guys are anything like me, you likely have at least one or two die-cast models of cars that you'd love to own (or, in some cases, do own! :)) so when a catalogue arrived in one of my favorite magazines, Canadian Classics, I thought I would post their website for everyone's review.
Canadian Classics is produced in my hometown on Prince Edward Island. The owner, Dale Lidstone, was a couple years ahead of me in high school. The basic premise is simple- each month, the magazine has a feature on a collector vehicle from each of the ten provinces. There is no bias for or against any particular make or model but since many collector vehicles are sports cars, there's more of those than anything else. There are also articles on restoration as well as events etc. http://www.canadianclassicsmag.com/
The die-cast model dealer is called the Collector's Guild. They produce some models themselves and also deal for other manufacturers. There are a wide variety of models of all makes and models. I'm impressed by the selection and prices. http://www.diecastbymail.ca/index.html
I have way too many diecast and have had to force myself to stop buying them ! Of course, my favorite toy's as a kid were Matchbox cars and Tonka trucks. Must still be in me !
Grey Ghost, my collection isn't extensive (total of 10) but I've got a couple really nice ones- a Franklin Mint 63 SWC which has excellent detail and a 58 FI; detail isn't as good but still nice.
Is the Franklin Mint the fiberglass one ? They really make some nice ones. I have about 20-30 in various scales and different cars. Honestly, if I didn't practice a little restrain, I would have a TON of money tied up in lots of them. The other problem is displaying them. I would like to build/find something that is REALLY dustproof to put them in. I also have about 12 cases with 12 cars in each case of the Zora Arkus Duntov cars. I am waiting for the price to go up a little more before I start selling them, don't want to flood the market. You can see them on Ebay. They are pretty nice - were made by Action Perf. and they only made them for a short period. Zora, personally had say so in their quality and endorsed them. They have a photo of him on the box.
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Grey Ghost, my collection isn't extensive (total of 10) but I've got a couple really nice ones- a Franklin Mint 63 SWC which has excellent detail and a 58 FI; detail isn't as good but still nice.
My Franklin model is die-cast (metal) produced in 1989. It has excellent detail and flawless paint. Dust is always a problem. I don't have display cases; I have them on top of my filing cabinet in my home-office, so I have to dust them on a regular basis. I've seen some nice looking cases but I've never been interested in locking them up. Mind you, I've always kept my models up in out of the reach of little hands. The last thing I need is for my son to be playing bumper cars with my models.
This is the one I've been using for my sig, since my own car isn't pretty enough yet.
The only die cast car I've got on my shelf right now is a mint green Trabant. My girfriend and I went to Eastern Europe last summer, and I had her take my picture with a real one. She thought I was nuts...as did her brother in law, who later sent me the model. It's not quite as nice as the ones you posted, but then again, neither were the real Trabbys.
I'm a die-cast nut too, and have always had most of them in boxes due to the hassle of dusting the ones that were out on display in my office at work or at home. When I built my garage/office and retired, I wanted to get most of them out and display them with "zero maintenance"; one weekend a major local furniture retailer had a sale on lots of different sizes/styles of curio cabinets, and I found one that was originally $599, on sale for half-price ($299), with another $100 off on a "12-hour special". It looked like what I needed (mirrored back, side access panels, interior lighting), so I had one delivered; only had four glass shelves, so I drilled more support pin holes and had four more shelves made up by a local glass shop. Works great, no more dusting, nice display. Naturally, I had more cars than I thought, and wound up buying another identical cabinet 3 months later when they ran the same sale again, had more shelves made, so now I have two of them full of cars in my office. Still have a few more die-casts in boxes, but two display cases is enough! Here's a pic of one case:
Wow ! That looks great. A standard plexiglass unit, would have cost what you paid for that nice piece of furniture. I guess, that I will have to start looking at those sales inserts that come in the paper.
Collector's Guild is located in Kingston, ON, just off Hwy 401 at the corner of Division St and Counter St. They have a 'storefront' operation for walk-in business. I've been there a couple of times and they have one of the most varied displays of different models/colours etc that I have ever seen. Good prices as well as some 'in-store' clearance items from time to time.
Hey Mac,
I'm over here "toe dunking", and I had to chuckle, I just purchased a diecast 63 SWC black/black.... couldn't find one with a red interior. Maybe they exist in Canada..... :yesnod:
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