Another Dinky survivor - 1951 Rover 75

More great comparo shots!  I love your old Dinky's! 😎 

David, I don't know how you kept your childhood toys so undamaged. Here are two of mine from my childhood that I rescued from my parents before they were given away. The damage is by me, but I have left them unrestored as a tribute to youth.

First, the #31a DINKY TOYS Trojan Van with Esso markings from 1951. It was reissued as #450 in 1954 but this is the original.

Second is the #38f  DINKY TOYS Jaguar SS100 Sports Car from 1946 though I think that I got in 1949.

@david-green I have the same ones David. But purchased long after childhood.

Here's my Dinky Rover 75, a two-tone made from 1956 to 1960. The earlier Dinky 140b/156 was introduced in 1951, two years after the 1:1 Rover 75 made its debut. The toy had been in the range for 5 years, and with competition from Corgi's Rover 90 and the flood of two-tone real cars in the mid to late 1950s, Dinky introduced two-tones on many of their castings to breathe some new life into them, not always successfully. But this Rover was better than most. By 1956, the model number on the baseplate had been updated since the 1954 model renumbering throughout the Dinky range. 

In 1953 Rover introduced the 4-cylinder Rover 60 and the Rover 90, the latter with a 2.6L 6-cylinder (vs. the original 2.1L). I mentioned Corgi above - they introduced a Rover 90 in 1956. 

Dinky's two-tone looks pretty spiffy next to the dull gray Corgi, despite having windows. 

In the view below note the lengths of the two cars and particularly the shape of the trunk area. The Corgi seems to have the better shape, and this is also borne out by David's profile views above.

In 1952 Rover dropped the Studebaker-inspired cyclops headlight in the grille. The front view clearly shows this change with Corgi's newer casting. Many Rover 90s had a foglamp on the left side in front of the grille and Corgi included this. Also, interestingly, Corgi's Rover has a faint casting of the Lucas tripod-type headlights - I had never noticed this until taking this picture.

That is a wonderful selection Harv and a well written post. I had a pair of those Lucas 'flamethrowers' on my 1955 MG Magnette.