Japan (Unk Mfr) No. A5784 Tin Batt Op Police Car - 1967 Chevrolet Caprice

Okay, I'm scrambling to find toys to post here folks - sorry! There's a new series in the works for the blog but it's a couple of few months away from being ready. In the meantime, here's a group of photos taken four years ago of a really cool battery operated police car that's been in the collection many years. I bought a couple of these large squad cars because they reminded me of a similar one from my childhood. If I recall right, that childhood car had a more rounded dome light on the roof which rotates when the car is turned on. I'm going to say this represents a 1965-67 Chevrolet Caprice. The 1968 versions were longer so they don't appear to be a good fit.

Anywho, this sample is quite clean and does operate, albeit slowly and hesitantly. There are of course the four wheels of the auto proper. Then there is a turntable-like affair with two wheels on the underside of the car which are actually powered and which 'drive' the car. Next to that wheel assembly is a small bar which can either lock them into a forward only mode, or a circle only mode. When disconnected, the wheels move in a random fashion. There is a 'siren' as well - essentially a loud screeching noise. It's safe to assume that when this car was brand new, lights, siren, and drivability were just fine. It measures 11 3/8" (28.89cm) L x 4 3/8" (11.11cm) W x 4" (10.16cm) H. Enjoy! Opa Fritz

In this configuration the car moves randomly

The wheels are locked into forward mode

The wheels are locked into circle mode

Solido 1/43 Scale Diecast Lionelville Police 1948 Chrysler Windsor

Hooray! This is it - the last one of our series on Lionel City / Lionelville diecast cars and trucks. We covered 18 sets with 24 items; cars, trucks, trailers, airplanes. Now I know there's a ton of cars and trucks out there in the wide world that I didn't even touch but really, I stopped collecting these over a dozen years ago and I'm just fine with what I have. Truth be told a bunch of these started making there way to fleaBay and other on-line sales. For the most part the Lioneville stuff will stay and the Lionel City stuff will go. 'Linelville' fits in nicely with the 'Marxville' and 'Plasticville' themes.

This last offering is a real nice 1948 Chrysler Windsor Police Squad Car made in 03-88. That's the marking molded on the bottom of the chassis and one I'm assuming is the production date - could be wrong though. It measures 4 13/16" (12.21cm) L x 1 5/8" (4.12cm) W x 1 5/8" (4.12cm) H and is a very deep blue, deeper I would say than Navy Blue. Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina

Corgi #51302 LCPD '57 Chevy Squad Car

Arrrgh! I hate photographing black toys! Sometimes I think they're designed with the express purpose of collecting dust!! No really. I mean I take them outof the packaging, spritz a little Armor All on a rag, dust them all down and then blow on them to get any loose particles off and voila' - DUST descending from all corners of The Cave. You can see it traveling in waves; attracted to that nice, new, black-colored toy with the goal to blanket it in a coat of smutz. Needless to say I spend a fair amount of time Photoshopping-out dust flecks but even that's not a perfect solution - cuz I don't have the time to mess with it any more than I do. Also, diecast toys don't have perfectly smooth surfaces. Close examination of just about any diecast metal toy will reveal very tiny bumps, many of which will reflect the light in such a way as to make it look like dust flecks.

All that being said, it was still nice to pull out this early Lionel City offering from Corgi. In the mid-'90s Lionel was having a resurgence in popularity following on a wave of toy train popularity in general. Manufacturers like Corgi and Ertl were producing licensed vehicles under the 'Lionel City' moniker. It was at this time that I was pretty much out of HO scale trains and committed to 3-rail O-gauge. Having jumped on the tinplate/toy train band wagon I started buying up these little gems. And then...

...and then I stopped. By the end of the '90s I was pretty much hooked on Marx trains and Lionel sorta fell by the wayside. Not entirely though as I would still pick up the occassional set or piece of rolling stock, but mostly Marx was in, Lionel was out for me.

The past several months have been spent trying to make sense of the nonsense out in The Cave. Recent archaeological digs uncovered the box of diecast Lionel vehicles and boy was there a lot! First up is this gorgeous '57 Chevy decked out in Lionel City Police Department livery. The black & white color combination is just about as old as the invention of the automobile (okay that's just speculation, I honestly don't know when that scheme started). As a fatter-of-mact, Las Vegas Metro still tools around in black-&-white units. The car sports a huge siren flanked by two lights on the roof, has an opening hood and trunk, and measures 4 3/4" (12.06cm) L x 1 3/4" (4.44cm) W x 1 3/4" (4.44cm) H. Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina