Dinky Toys South Africa

Dinky Toys South African Issue

Meccano Ltd exported Dinky Toys to all of Britain's old colonies relatively cheaply because of existing Commonwealth trade agreements.

Dinky Toys South African Issue

Meccano Ltd exported Dinky Toys to all of Britain's old colonies relatively cheaply because of existing Commonwealth trade agreements.

South Africa was one of its big importers. When South Africa withdrew from the Commonwealth in 1961, a luxury goods import tax was imposed making Dinky Toys very expensive – a potential loss for Meccano Ltd.

To resolve this problem, Meccano Ltd began shipping Dinky Toy parts to South Africa in 1962 where models were assembled and painted locally by Edward E. Harris (Pty) Ltd in Cape Town, South Africa.

The import of unfinished goods was not subject to the tax.

These models were sold in South Africa between 1962 and 1963 and it is believed that only one batch of each model was produced, making South African Dinky Toys very rare. South Africa also imported Dinky Toy parts from the French factory in 1966.

Some of the distinguishing features of South African Dinky Toys are:

The boxes have Afrikaans lettering at the one end and "Printed in South Africa" on the side.

The colors are often different from those on the same models assembled in the UK.

The base plates have a glossy finish, whereas the same models released in the UK have matt black base plates.

The rivets in the base plate in the South African assembled model have upright shoulders in contrast with the UK rivets of the era that had a domed head.

There may be other published articles on this subject, I’m only aware of the following:

Model Auto Review #16 - 1985

Classic Toys Magazine - Volume 1 issue 5 MAY/JUNE 1995

Model Collector Magazine - May 2014

Nandosworx