Credit: Little Car Youtube Channel

**Page 13 of the last ever Dinky Toys Catalogue from 1978**
In the very last days of Liverpool’s famous Meccano Factory Dinky Toys were working on two model cars from the ***New Avengers*** a popular TV programme of the time.
In 1978 a Triumph TR7 was produced in an interesting ***‘Purdey’*** livery which was, of course, not how it appeared on TV where it was just a pain yellow TR7. Dinky had a habit of bringing to the market models that weren’t quite as they appeared in TV programmes but which they clearly thought would be more interesting to those buying them.
***Maghull’s Frank Hornby Heritage Centre*** has a ***‘Purdey’*** TR7 on display but it’s definitely seen a lot of play wear!
There was to have been a ***‘Steed’*** Jaguar too, plus a boxed set of both cars but these did not see the light of day production-wise. Both cars made it into the final (1978) Dinky Catalogue though.
Interestingly, Steed’s Jag was to have been produced by Lintoy in Hong Kong, due to Liverpool’s Binns Road factory being well on the way to closure (it closed November 1979) with management seeking to cut costs.

**June 2025 - A battered Dinky Toy (Land Rover 109 WB) donated to Maghull’s FHHC - See below after our refurbishment…….**

**Sept 2025 - Following disassembly, caustic soda treatment of metal parts, primer coat & top coat of Khaki Green - Now all but back to Meccano Factory condition.**

This is a scale drawing of the cab/body of a lorry-mounted Coles crane Dinky Toy. It was drawn by Don Mann in 1953 at Liverpool’s Meccano Factory and donated to our Trust by his son Robert in February 2024. It is now on display next to the Dinky Toy it partly represents.

**Spectrum Patrol Car from the Gerry Anderson TV series Captain Scarlet**

**An RAF Tornado aircraft by Dinky Toys. Produced 1974 to 1976 there’s one on display at Maghull’s Frank Hornby Heritage Centre**

Here’s an interesting link to a video of Dinky Toys being made at Liverpool’s

world famous Binns Road Meccano Factory back over 50 years ago in 1967

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWC8LNWeswI

**Our present main Dinky Toys display area at our Maghull Heritage Centre. Separately, we have a display of Dinky milatary vehicles and Dinky ships**

**A beautifully refurbished 8 Wheeled Foden Truck - Donated November ‘23 by Bob Knapmam**

**This simple application form was donated to our Tust in September 2024 by Keith Jones. It’s around 60 years old**

**We have the full range of Gerry/Sylvia Anderson TV programme Dinky Toys displayed at our Maghull Heritage Centre**

The History of Dinky Toys

In the early 1930s, Meccano made many types of tinplate and other metal cars, such as its Morgan and BSA three-wheelers, mostly in kit form. In 1933, Meccano Ltd issued a series of railway and trackside accessories to complement its O gauge (1/45) Hornby Trains model railway sets. The accessories were first called "Hornby Modelled Miniatures", but in the April 1934 issue of Meccano Magazine, they were given the name "Meccano Dinky Toys" for the first time.

In August 1935, the name Meccano was dropped and the marque became DINKY TOYS, which lasted until 1971.

By December 1934, the Dinky name was also used for the "Dinky Builder" sets, which were coloured flat metal pieces that could be hinged together to make buildings and vehicles.

One story about the origin of the "Dinky" name is that it derived from a nickname that a friend gave to Frank Hornby's daughter. Another version is that when one of Hornby's daughters-in-law first saw the models, she called them "dinky", a Scottish word meaning "neat" or "fine". Please watch the YouTube video linked top left of this page.

Credit: Wikipedia - Dinky toys

**Dinky Toys catalogue as seen at Hull's Street Life Museum - March 2025**

A Dinky Toys double-deck bus and road roller that are included in our Education/Memory Box which is available to borrow via Sefton Libraries - see details on our home page.

https://dinkytvspace.com/about/

The link above takes you to an interesting site which covers over 60 Dinky models produced over the period 1964 to 1979 when the Binns Road, Meccano factory in Liverpool, England closed.

The genres covered are Dinkys which were licensed from Films, TV shows or other entertainment media, were real or fictional space vehicles or were specials, created for fun rather than modelled on real vehicles.