Thoughts on Collecting Scales

By Hans Nordström

I was a frequent contributor to the print magazine Model Auto Review while it was still being printed.  Some online discussions in recent months about scale is a thing I am a bit concerned about. For example: The trend away from 1:43 scale seems set to continue, with 1:64 being the growing scale as well as larger scale models in 1:12 and 1:8 scale being more frequent releases.

My Lotus collection is in all scales from poor toys to excellent models, I still have an Elan S4 Se DHC and Seven S4 in 1:1. I also have a collection of sportscars in 1:43 scale which includes prototypes, GT cars, Coupes as well as road versions of successful rally cars (no special Metro road version found yet) and successful F1, F2, and Indy racing cars, sports racers, and GT cars, but not rally cars. It is a very large collection, indeed it must be around 10,000 items, so yes even if they are in large cases I am about to run out of space and of course money as well. Some of my comments about the current scale problems are therefore based on my own collecting interests.

Part of the current problem is to be found in the US. The world wide number one scale used to be 1:43, but for some reason it was never that big in the US, where big scales like 1:24 have always had many followers partly because of plastic kits and also because of car makers promotional models. Therefore, when Burago started to get followers with their 1:18 scale models even the US took to them. At the same time the popularity of the around 1:64 scale Hot Wheels grew to overtake 1:43 models. It was also in the US that higher quality models in 1:64 started to appear, dearer than Hot Wheels, but nearly as good as those in 1:43. Today more and more Japanese and European cars in 1:64 scale are being made with fine details and finish and are nearly as good as, and far cheaper than, the regular 1:43 products.

1:18 scale models often have more details, opening doors, and engines, and consume more materials to make, so them being more expensive than 1:43’s is fully understandable. A comparison between current 1:43 scale models against similar 1:64 scale models makes 1:43 scale items look overpriced! OK, so there are high quality and rare 1:43’s like AutoArt ones where fine scale opening parts and details are hard to produce, and in that case prices similar to those for 1:18 scale models are understandable, but otherwise in my opinion a decent quality one should not cost much more than a 1:64 and at least in the world outside of the US there still should be a vast market for them, as many old collectors like me cannot simply switch to 1:64. Proof that I am not entirely wrong is that both Solido and Norev are producing reasonably priced 1:43 scale models and this shows that there is still a market for such models. On top of this some of the very cheap toy 1:43 Buragos are also surprisingly good except for their lousy toy wheels!

For the sellers the growth of 1:18 scale has led to it becoming more important for them than their 1:43 scale products which makes the situation even more complicated. In the long run many buyers of 1:18 scale cannot buy as many models for their own collections, simply because a lack of space. A very complicated situation for many of us ‘old schoolers’ indeed. If I was starting my collection like I did back in 1977 then I would go for 1:64 scale because of the fact that they are now good quality and easier to store and display. It certainly is, as we say in Swedish, ‘a bees nest’!

As a collector of Lotus toys and models of all shapes and sizes I fully understand people who collect original Dinkys, Corgis, Teknos, Politoys etc, as the old toys do have a charm missing from today’s quality products. But, the really good ones in original boxes are getting more and more difficult to find, so I also appreciate it when a replica is made for people who no longer can afford the original items. Yes, they are just replicas, but sadly I’ve also seen some of them being sold as the real thing, so the makers should clearly mark them somewhere to make it clear that they are replicas. Maybe by stamping on the base plate for example Dinky Toys R?

What I really do not like are, for example, the current Italian Officina 942 Models made as if they were toys from the 1940’s with toy wheels and the like. OK, I have bought some of their Fiat Racing cars of hard to find or never made subjects and then I have converted them into better models with more accurate wheels and more detailing. Maybe I do get some satisfaction by doing this but would prefer it if they were less ‘toy like’. The truth is that I have also ‘ruined’ some worn out old toys by making them into models never released in 1:43 scale previously so making such modifications to models wasn’t entirely new for me when I bought my first  Officina Fiat to ‘upgrade’.

I feel that these points are important for other people than myself so I thought that I would share them.