Vehicle IdentificationThis page is from the original DTCA Website created by Peter Golden.

This is a note on general identification of Dinky Toys vehicles. It is based on a piece in Cecil Gibson’s book on Dinky Toys.Detailed identification of Dinky Toys is the subject of many sites including this one and reference books especially those by the Richardsons and Dr Force.

Nearly all Dinky Toys have "Meccano", "Dinky Toys" etc. stamped on them somewhere. There is an article describing the few Dinky Toys which were not branded. None of these are vehicles.With vehicles, there is little difficulty in identifying the manufacturer as Meccano Dinky the tin plate or Mazac base-plate is missing.The very early vehicles of the following, 22 series, 23 Series, 25h, 28 series, 32/30a did not have base plates and the brand is cast into the body.The first vehicles produced with the so called criss-cross chassis in the 24 and 25 series had the chassis cast in Mazac. This is prone to suffer from fatigue and examples are found where the chassis has disintegrated and as the brand was cast onto that the resulting vehicle has no branding. The following 24a Ambulance with a reproduction chassis is one such example:

Very few pre-war cars had the name of the car, notably the 38 and 39 series stamped on the chassis under. The reader is referred to the Galleries to help identify the 24, 30 and 36 series cars.

Post War most of the cars had the model name stamped underneath and many also had the catalogue number, e.g. “40a Riley”, but some of the commercial vehicles, where one cab and chassis did for three or four lorry, tipper or breakdown versions, were simply be stamped “Bedford", "Dodge" etc. as were some vehicles where the car was used as well for a police vehicle or fire car.The confusion inherent in renumbering some models twice makes for more difficulty, and a box with one number may contain a model with another (955 and 555 for instance. or a 258 USA Police car box which shows a De Soto Fireflite containing either that car or a Dodge. or a Ford Fairlane or a Cadillac). Post-war catalogues are reasonable accessible, for example in the Document Archive in this site.One quoted difference between pre-war and post-War, or more accurately pre-mid/end-1946 and post-1946, is the fact that the earlier models had wheels that were smooth and the later ones were ridged, simulating a hub cap.

Smooth hub:

Ridged Hub

There are some pre-war models with a similar wheel, the so called Tootsie Toy Hub, some of these retain some silvering:

Tootsie Toy Hub

A longer piece on Dinky Toy and Dinky Supertoy wheels and hubs is planned for the Wiki in the Members' section.

Axles

The only way to definitely tell a pre-war vehicle from a post war one is from the axle

diameter. Pre-war Axles are thinner, .062 inch and all drawings were updated in 1945 to a new axle diameter of .078 inches.