Miniatures News, December 1978

In the 1920s Leslie Wilson of Shelsley Walsh fame was responsible for some children’s pedal cars based on the 12/50 Alvis that won the 1923 JCC 200-Mile Race. I suppose we would all like to find one of these today, but none has survived. Then, after the war, the Austin Motor Co. put some of their disabled employees to work making pedal-car versions of what was said to be the twin-o.h.c. racing Austin Seven of pre-war memory. I see that these crude and not very realistic kiddy-cars are now loudly claimed by an auctioneer to be collectors’-pieces, worth vast bags of gold. 

This being the case, I do not see why we should despise a new venture for making pedal-propelled Morgan 4/4s  to 1/3rd-scale, with working headlamps and horn, bonnet-strap, and a glass windscreen? This is what Hamilton Brooks & Co., of 26, Vastre Industrial Estate, Newtown, Mid-Wales, is now doing. The price is £175 each, plus VAT.

In the miniatures field, GP Models of Radlett have their kit (or assembled) model of the Birkin blower-4-1/2 single-seater Bentley to go with their other great Brooklands model of the Mercedes-Maybach “Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang l” and both these will go into a Christmas stocking. One wonders whether anyone has made a suitable setting for either model, such as part of the Brooklands Paddock, Fork-start, or banking?  —  WB

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