The Final Years of Meccano and Binns Road 1965-1979
1965 -1969
From 1965 there was a period of decline in Dinky Toys. Now owned by Lines Brothers, the Binns Road factory continued to make Dinky Toys, Lines Brothers discontinuing the Triang Spot-on models. However, Hornby Trains were effectively discontinued and the range on trains consolidated with the Triang range. A range of larger scale aircraft was launched in 1965 with the Beechcraft S35 Bonanza.
In 1966 a series of American Cars was manufactured under licence in Hong Kong.
This period saw the introduction, in 1967, of the first TV related products. These were models from the Thunderbirds TV puppet series and included Lady Penelope’s FAB 1 and Thunderbirds II (given numbers 100 and 101 respectively).
In 1968 a range of 1:38 larger scale military products originally designed by Lines Brothers for the US Market was introduced. In this year some dies were sold to Atamco in India and these became Nicky Toys. Various new features continued to be added to vehicles in the ongoing feature war against the competitors, e.g. 4 opening doors, stoplights, flashing indicators etc.
1969 saw the introduction of Speed Wheels on the Dinky Toys Cars etc. to compete with Mattel's Hot Wheels". In this year the company’s name was changed to Meccano-Triang Limited."
1970-1979
By 1971 the new company owning Binns Road got into financial difficulties during a recession. The banks called in their loans and the whole of the Lines Brothers Group to go into liquidation. The factory in Binns Road and other assets of Meccano were transferred to a new company, Maoford Limited, which was then acquired by Airfix Industries. The trade mark Dinky Toys becomes Dinky™ and the marque DINKY TOYS has not been used since.
1971 also saw the introduction of Dinky Action Kits, which then appeared in the 1972 Dinky Toys catalogue. After the Bobingy factory closed, the latest dies were transferred to Binns Road and those models listed as British Dinky, French designed models were made in Britain (Citroen Dyane, Matra 630, Renault 16 etc…)
1972 also saw the introduction of the name, “The Big Planes” and a range of very basic models such as the 410 Bedford Royal Mail Van. This casting was also supplied in various colours to dealers to add their own advertising. This year also saw an expansion of the ranges of larger aircraft and larger scale Military vehicles.
In 1973 the first 1:25 scale car the Ford Capri was launched. This year also saw the introduction of large scale boats, unfortunately these did not float as they ran on wheels.
1974 was a low point in that this year had the lowest number of new issues since the post war period.
1976 saw the introduction of Cinderella’s Coach from the film “The Slipper and the Rose”. This was never a great seller along with the large scale boats.
1977 saw Silver Jubilee items released buses and taxis. In this year a cheap range of plastic “Convoy” trucks was launched. This also bought the use of new packaging, hanging boxes. The catalogue issue was No. 13.
1978 saw increasing financial problems for Airfix caused by losses at Binns Road. In 1978 Meccano lost £735,000, but Airfix still made a profit of £848,000.
The last retail catalogue, number 14 was released for 1979 (copyright 1978). This saw the release (and planned release) of more models made in Hong Kong and elsewhere. For example a classic model in the 1979 Catalogue was the never released 113 Steed’s Jaguar. This had appeared as early as the 1977 catalogue but never made it into production, presumably due to the ongoing financial problems. 36 pre-production models were released. One of these is illustrated. Other production included models made in Hong Kong and Italy. 1978/9 saw two cardboard building kits, the 001 Space War Station and the 002 Blazing Inferno, design to increase the play value of Dinky Toys.
However, mounting losses caused Airfix to call it a day and the factory was closed on 30th November 1979.
1980 on; Post Mortem
There was a sit-in at the factory by staff which continued until March 1980 when Airfix obtained a court injunction.
As well as poor management and strategic vision, poor industrial relations also made a major contribution to the eventual demise of Meccano and its subsequent companies.
The Binns road factory was put on sale. However, it was eventually sold for redevelopment and the factory was demolished in 1981.
For more information about the history of Meccano Limited, there is an excellent academic work “Factory of Dreams” ISBN 1-905472-08-0 by Kenneth D. Brown, who is Professor of Economic and Social History at Queens University Belfast.
Since 1982 the brand Dinky has fallen into several hands, it is bought by Universal International of Hong-Kong who also buys Matchbox. 1989 saw the launch by Matchbox of the Dinky Collection. In 1992 Tyco buys the Universal / Matchbox group and in 1996 Mattel buys Tyco, since then the Dinky brand has been owned by Mattel Inc. who issued four Matchbox Dinky in 2006 and in 2008 has launched a range of replica Dinky in the French and Belgium markets. This range is planned to go until 2011.
The DTCA’s collecting interest ends with the closure of the Binns Road Factory in 1979.
The following gallery is a time line of images of Dinky Toys interest from 1965 to the factory's closure in 1979. Placing the mouse pointer over will display the description, clicking on an image will start the slide show.
Timeline
