About Me

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No Fixed Abode, Home Counties, United Kingdom
I’m a 60-year-old Aspergic gardening CAD-Monkey. Sardonic, cynical and with the political leanings of a social reformer, I’m also a toy and model figure collector, particularly interested in the history of plastics and plastic toys. Other interests are history, current affairs, modern art, and architecture, gardening and natural history. I love plain chocolate, fireworks and trees, but I don’t hug them, I do hug kittens. I hate ignorance, when it can be avoided, so I hate the 'educational' establishment and pity the millions they’ve failed with teaching-to-test and rote 'learning' and I hate the short-sighted stupidity of the entire ruling/industrial elite, with their planet destroying fascism and added “buy-one-get-one-free”. Likewise, I also have no time for fools and little time for the false crap we're all supposed to pretend we haven't noticed, or the games we're supposed to play. I will 'bite the hand that feeds', to remind it why it feeds.

Friday, November 23, 2012

S is for Size, Scale, Ratio (with an 'r') and Gauge with a 'g'!

This image is a round-up of the articles which will appear above(for ease of reading in the western manor by 'page' scrollers in the future)  over the next few hours or days and represents a size comparison of the output of the companies/brands variously called Hornby-Dublo, Dublo-Dinky, Dinky Toys, Hornby Hobbies, Hornby Railways, Triang Railways, Tri-Ang Hornby, Battle-Space, Modelworld and Minic Motorways.

As you can see from the result of 80 years production with a continuous lineage, the debate about scale/size is a pretty pointless and fruitless way of wasting time!

From the left and in not very chronological order; sizes given from underside of base to top or approximate top of head.

Hornby Dublo/Dublo-Dinky, poured lead, 22.5mm or approximately 00 gauge
Hornby Dublo/Dublo-Dinky injection-moulded styrene plastic, 26mm (Schoolboy is 18.5mm)
Triang/Tri-Ang - Hornby, injection-moulded styrene plastic, 22mm
Triang/Tri-Ang - Hornby, injection-moulded styrene plastic, 25mm
Tri-ang Railways - Model-Land injection-moulded styrene plastic, 24mm
Hornby Hobbies/Hornby Railways, vinyl-rubber with propylene base, 21mm (also Hong Kong and Life-Like)
Tri-ang - Hornby Battle-Space, injection-moulded styrene plastic, 30mm
Hornby Hobbies/Hornby Railways, rigid ethylene plastic, 25.5mm
Most generations/Brands, injection-moulded styrene plastic, 21mm
[Believed to be] Hornby Dublo, injection-moulded ethylene plastic, 28.5mm 2023 - These are now known to be Crescent Toys, issued with a set of Mazac/Zamak die-cast scenic accessories in HO-OO gauge-compatible size, probably as a seasonal ('for Christmas') gift-box, with thanks to Jon Attwood for the missing poses, see Crescent Tag.

This last one which will be covered in the posts above was tentatively confirmed as late Hornby Dublo at Sandown Park last weekend, by people who know more about trains than I do, it is believed they were only available for a short period before the Triang buyout, and would have replaced the 'crystal box' set of railway personnel who were a little smaller.

Missing are the 2nd and Third generations of the Battle-Space figures, 2nd generation were the same size, 3rd were slightly smaller and we looked at them here;

B is for Battle-Space and Blue Box

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