The Little World

When I was a kid in the 50’s there were dime stores that sold goods cheaply. In some cases they were cheap goods – particularly if they were plastic toys from Hong Kong. There was a particularly brittle form of plastic that was used in toy factories that was moulded into all sorts of workable parts that broke within hours of purchase. Even as kids we could recognise that these were cheapjack toys – the term ” Hong Kong Junk ” did not refer to a wooden ship with bamboo sails…

Then the Chinese toy industry moved into the mainland areas and the Red government saw that they needed to get overseas currency – and a new generation of toys was exported. Tin, this time, and charmingly retro. Still a little plotzy, but far better than the HK stuff. And finally, when China became the workshop of the world and wanted world dollars, the kit and toy makers started to enter into overseas contracts for real money…and the industry started to turn out first-class models. I’ve bought some from Emhar and other Chinese makers and frankly I am impressed by the results they achieve – my go-to rack for small models in the hobby shop is the Hobby Boss shelf.

However, there is still a lower level of manufacturing and I have just come across an example of it. Creations Metals Toys Pty of Bao An, China* are the culprits. The little kit that heads this column was a bargain picked up at a model car show for the commendably low price of $ 2.00. It is $ 2.00 more than it is worth, as the kit sprues were sealed into a plastic packet with two vital parts missing – one of which was part of the fuselage.

The kit is thereforeunbuildable and was so when it was exported. Probably the fuselage half broke off on the packing line and was just swept to the floor.

No great disaster in monetary terms for me, but it wouldn’t be viewed the same by a kid who had saved up allowance money for it. And a bloody disaster for an importer who might have crates of this dodgy crap and local Australian consumer laws to bite his arse. Unless, of course the importer is either very big – Like Big W – or very small like the local Red Dot.

What to do? Whistle. There is no point bleating to the chap who had the kit on his table. The packet was sealed inside the box. And $ 2.00 falls under the figure that makes resort to law courts practical…

This kit will join the memory of the Revell Convair R3Y Tradewind in my Stash O’ Disaster file. If I ever see another Tradewind I am tempted to buy it just to get some closure.

• Not surprisingly, it’s 35 Km from Hong Kong itself.