In the early days of the Dinky Toys range, aeroplanes and ships formed a considerable part of the output of the Binns Road factory, along with models of cars, vans and trucks.

That was of particular importance in the production of French Dinky models, due to the political friction in Europe before the war and the fact that France was occupied by the Axis forces during hostilities.

Production of Dinky planes tailed off in 1968, but was resurgent in 1971 with a range of World War II types complete with battery-powered propellers, as well as modern jet fighters, and even a Sea King helicopter.

The models, which were 1/1200 to 1/1985 scale, were cast from the same unstable alloy that was used across the entire pre-war Dinky range and have therefore suffered from the metal decay that makes survivors all the more rare.

[16] These were the opening chapter of the "golden age" of Dinky Toys in the post-war era and represented far greater accuracy and detail than their pre-war relatives.

The 40 series cars were manufactured from better quality alloy, meaning that the survival rate is higher and although originally sold in trade boxes of six, they were renumbered in 1954 and re-coloured in two-tone paintwork in 1956, the Austin Somerset ref.

Some models issued in this line included: in 1954 In 1950, Meccano introduced in the Supertoys series a number of Guy Vans finished in appealing period liveries.

Supertoys were commonly packaged in white boxes with thin blue horizontal lines and were marketed all on their own – no longer were these models solely focused on railroad accessories.

Meccano continued producing detailed Dinky Supertoys commercial vehicles through the fifties and sixties, including such subjects as a Mobile Television Control Room and Camera Van in both BBC and ABC Television liveries, a Leyland test chassis with removable miniature 5 ton weights, a series of military vehicles including a Corporal Erecting Vehicle and missile (a subject also modelled by Corgi Toys at the same time), a range of Thornycroft Mighty Antar heavy haulage transporters complete with loads and a Horse Box in British Railways and later in Newmarket liveries.

Some cars in the sporty pre-war line were carried on after the war: for example, the Alvis sports tourer, the Sunbeam Talbot, or the Frazer-Nash BMW.

4 / 249 offered Cooper-Bristol in British racing green, Alfa Romeo in the Italian red, Ferrari in the blue and yellow of Argentina (Juan Manuel Fangio's country),1 H.W.M.

[20][9][page needed] Production of agricultural machinery and implements had occurred since the 1930s, such as the 1933 number 22e Fordson farm tractor, and such offerings were maintained post-war.

One interesting model was the odd Opperman 3-wheeled Motocart, a tilting flat-bed vehicle with engine hanging off to the side of its large front wheel.

A rival third range of model cars also appeared in 1959 called "Spot-on" which were manufactured in Northern Ireland and produced by Tri-ang, a division of Lines Brothers.

This range was kept to one scale, 1:42, also featured mainly British makes, and were comparatively more expensive, never managing to sell as many units as Corgi or Dinky Toys.

[25] The company continued to make innovative models, with all four doors opening (a first in British toy cars), retractable radio aerials (another first), new metallic paints, and jewelled headlights (pretty, but not very realistic).

It could be argued, though, that it was too little too late, as Corgi Toys had already been offering for several years vehicles from far more well-known shows and movies like Batman, The Saint, Daktari, James Bond, and The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

Many of these models were the result of beating Corgi Toys to the signing of a licensing deal with Gerry Anderson's Century 21 Productions, whose programmes are immensely popular in the United Kingdom.

[9][page needed] In 1912 Frank Hornby set up an office in Paris on Rue Ambroise Thomas to import Meccano toys into France.

In the early days production consisted mainly of tiny model trains cast in lead, with vehicles gradually increasing in number.

The vast majority of the French Dinky range was only available in the home market, Belgium, Switzerland, U.S.A. and other non-British Commonwealth countries although a few models did make it across the English Channel both before and after the war.

[9][page needed][29] As import duties were high on finished goods and reduced on components, to get into the Spanish market, Meccano s.a. (France) exported sixteen unpainted and unassembled Dinky Toys to the Novades Poch Company in Barcelona.

Pilen models, most of which were Dinky dies, were very popular and numerous in Spain and commonly sold in El Corte Inglés and Galerias Preciados department stores.

[9][page needed] They were : Meccano Ltd exported Dinky Toys to all of the United Kingdom's old colonies relatively cheaply because of existing Commonwealth trade agreements.

[9][page needed] When South Africa withdrew from the Commonwealth in 1961, it imposed a luxury goods import tax, making Dinky Toys very expensive – a potential loss for Meccano Ltd. To resolve this problem, Meccano Ltd began shipping Dinky Toy parts to South Africa in 1962 where models were assembled and painted locally.

Only twelve models are known today, those which in England were packed in clear boxes and were provided in Chile with specific yellow packaging with a red 'globe' symbol.

In 1963, Meccano closed its Speke factory and sold the dies, the casting machines and remains of spare parts and yellow boxes to S. Kumar & Co. in Calcutta, India.

After attempts at simplifying the products as a means of saving costs, the famous Binns Road factory in Liverpool finally closed its doors in November 1979.

This seemed to be a logical and perhaps synergistic development, uniting two of the most valuable and venerated names in the British and world die-cast model car market under one roof.

In the United Kingdom, the first five models issued were the Triumph TR2, Bedford CA Van, Ford Thunderbird, Morris Mini Traveller and the Jaguar XK120 coupe.