OldIHC

Got a nice surprise in the mail yesterday. A replica of my R160 gravel truck. Its made by the Product Miniatures company of Wisconsin. Plastic has suffered a bit of warpage over the years which I guess is not surprising for it's age. Should I paint it to match my truck or keep it all original?

This is the only Product Miniature I have. I was told to never paint these promotional plastic trucks. Some paints react with the ancient plastic and accelerate the warping.
I think I got this promotional at a local Sunday swap-meet on May 18, 1980, the same day a major volcanic eruption occurred at Mount St. Helens. My friend and I were in the New Westminster Hotel parking lot. We were on our way into the Hotel meeting room swap-meet. We felt a compression in the air then put it off to two rail cars crashing in Lower New West.
The ash fall-out 1/2 filled the rain gutters on the home of my wife's grandmother, in Portland.

While it would not likely fall into the current miniature classification, it is a "miniature" of it's time. Made by Structo, this toy resembles a mid '30's International C model. It is a toy that my dad played with as a kid and then I did as a kid. I still have it, but am not sure either of my sons or grandsons will want it. As you can tell, it's a little worse for wear, but I loved playing with this toy truck and it saw a lot of use.

I used to collect Porsche toy replicas. I had no idea that there were so many, when I started. I had collected thousands of the miniatures when I decided to sell all but five rare pieces. I have one Porsche 356a cabriolet. My friend wants it and has offered $600 for it. I found it at a garage sale for a dollar.
The same friend is in the toy collector hobby business. He buys complete collections and resells many of the pieces. I had no idea of how big the collector hobby had become. His sales are over $500,000 a year. He sold one complete, mint and boxed, collection to a collector in England for $1,240,000. His home is set up as a museum. He has over 4000sf of floor space on two floors filled with miniatures. Custom shelves with isles between fill every room except the kitchen, bath and half of the bedroom. Yes, he is single.
His double garage has cases of doubles and a restoration area.
I never had the business smarts to make something like this work.

....nor have I wanted to!