On August 7th, Chris Knight gave us a fascinating talk about ‘Dinky Toys’.

Meccano Ltd manufactured Hornby trains, starting in the 1930s, and they produced Dinky Toys as railway accessories. They were wildly popular with children, and subsequently to older enthusiasts, like Chris, who carried on collecting them long after Dinky Toys went out of production in 1964.

Chris was particularly interested in model military vehicles, and when he retired he went to the regular auctions at Teesside, selling, and particularly buying mixed boxes of old Dinky Toys. He started selling them online via Ebay, rescuing and restoring the items by mending, painting and imaginatively developing them into toys never produced by Dinky but attractive to collectors. His enthusiasm led him to filling his home garage with the toys and the many pieces of equipment he invented and used to restore the toys.

Chris showed members how to tell a ‘fake’ from a genuine article – some of which can be worth a lot of money, especially if the original box is part of the sale!