Ian Law

If there’s one man who more than any other typifies the creative and imaginative energy that many collectors have then it’s Ian Law. Many collectors will experiment with a careful chop for their own amusement, but Ian has taken his abilities in this field to another plane altogether, developing a significant market in adapted models in the Dinky Toys style, almost all of which are true representations of real vehicles.

But Ian’s roots go back to the golden era of Airfix kits, when they were 11½d each. He built most of them and then progressed to balsa wood aeroplane kits, all whilst he was around 9 – 12 years of age. Ian was living in Finchley Road, West Hampstead at the time, and in his lunch hour at school, he would jump on the train and head for Holloway Road, Highbury, to the Toys, Toys, Toys shop to constantly add to his building repertoire.

Subject ID: 81383

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If there’s one man who more than any other typifies the creative and imaginative energy that many collectors have then it’s Ian Law. Many collectors will experiment with a careful chop for their own amusement, but Ian has taken his abilities in this field to another plane altogether, developing a significant market in adapted models in the Dinky Toys style, almost all of which are true representations of real vehicles.

But Ian’s roots go back to the golden era of Airfix kits, when they were 11½d each. He built most of them and then progressed to balsa wood aeroplane kits, all whilst he was around 9 – 12 years of age. Ian was living in Finchley Road, West Hampstead at the time, and in his lunch hour at school, he would jump on the train and head for Holloway Road, Highbury, to the Toys, Toys, Toys shop to constantly add to his building repertoire.

His other love was cycling, and he proudly talks of the first love of his life, his Soleil d’Or bike, used throughout his teenage years. However, Ian’s world was about to change! A friend who was a collector of Minic Toys suggested they visit the Dorking Halls toy fair in 1980, and this was Ian’s first glimpse of the vast range of old toys still available. Shortly after this, he gave up working in the greengrocery business, and moved to Worthing. He happened across Dave Bull, who ran a collectors shop in Lancing, and bought his first Dinky there, the Bedford Refuse Truck, for £5.

Whilst Ian immediately found repairing and restoring very rewarding, at no time did he get into seriously collecting Dinky Toys.

By 1985 his repairing and restoring had built up to a business sufficient for him to open his business unit in Brighton, which he initially shared with Chris Stonor, called Collectamania.

When collectors told him that the sources of 28 series Dinky van replicas were a little sporadic, mostly coming from DG Autocraft, he decided to start making copies himself. No sooner had Ian started, than a toy fair trader said he would take 50 from him, and thus he was into higher quantities!

Ian managed to get a friend who was in the casting trade to let him practice on his centrifugal casting machine. He gave up Collectamania, and launched his own business under the name of Presents Past. Ray Strutt guided him with his advertising, placing pieces in Collectors Gazette, with a front page article in the September 1989 issue. It was a small step to name his range of copy models, PP Copy.

This prompted some enquiries, including a call from Leslie Hurle Bath, who a decade earlier had worked with Barry Lester. Leslie owned Replicars BV in the Netherlands, and ordered a massive 2000 examples of a promotional 28 series van model, for sale in the store ‘De Bijenkorf’, followed by others. The first 2 payments from Leslie, Ian recalls, enabled him to place a deposit on his first house! A subsequent order from Leslie was a quantity of the Triumph Dolomite roadster, to be marketed under the Replicars name. Ian had previously arranged with John Hodges of Odgi Toys to create the pattern in resin using the original drawings from Dinky Toys. Sadly, Leslie died in the early 1990s and his son Randolph, who took over the business, did not wish to continue the arrangements with Ian.

At this stage the materials being used by Ian included ‘Printers Lead’ purchased from the dimly lit backstreets of London in ½ ton quantities, and casting took place in Ian’s garage. Ian’s copies of the Spot-On range of sports cars have sold well over the years, and still the Daimler Dart SP250 is regularly ordered by the car’s owners’ club.

The Dinky Toys Club of America ordered a promotional issue of the Dinky Toys Trojan van in red, white or blue. Whilst resolving how to deliver these models, Ian and his wife Christine, together with his son Steve, decided to deliver them personally. To combine business with pleasure, they flew to Detroit to complete the delivery, and went on to Baltimore to the toy fair organised by the Dinky Club. Ian was amazed at the acute shortage of Dinky Toys in the USA, and the demand for the few items he took with him meant that he was sold out!

This was too good an opportunity to miss, and Ian and Christine then opened a unit in a collectors mall in Adamstown, Pennsylvania, which lead to a further 5 units being taken in the next 3 years.

Whilst on one of his visits to the mall, he was asked by a stallholder to obtain an example of the Britannia Beanie Baby bear. Prices in the USA meant a minimum value of $300, and thus began a regular ordering of quantities of the Ty produced cuddly toys in the UK, followed by despatch of the Britannia on a regular basis! He was selling large quantities here in the UK, and also exporting considerable numbers to the USA, but was only stopped and searched once by the US Customs! During this period in which Ian had been diverted by Beanies from his preferred pursuits, he was still occasionally contacted by people to undertake commissions, including a run of 25 Dinky aeroplane copies.

Many white metal makers have found that the arrival of eBay has improved their business, and in Ian’s case, eBay opened up the enthusiasm for Dinky Toys to collectors worldwide, but meant that his sales in America could no longer support keeping the units in the mall.

A major breakthrough came in 1998, when Ian got the call to produce 300 pieces of a promotional model for Club Dinky France (CDF). For a short while, Len Buller, trading as B&B Military Models, had been providing these specials, and it was Alain Gransard who asked Ian if he would make CDF3 the Citroen 2CV in grey. At the time, Alain was trading in old toys at his shop in Paris called Le Grenier de Grandmere.

A year later, Guy Girod, President of the Club Dinky France, decided to take over the ordering direct, and Ian found himself producing the next model which was a Studebaker Fire Chief car.

The club then alternated the issue of a B&B Models vehicle, with an Ian Law product. However, after Len Buller died, Ian was asked to take over the entire issues, and from 2002, the requirement has been for 2-3 models per year. In 2010 it increased to 6 models per year! These special issues are usually in quantities of 100 – 200, but repeat orders continue. As of this writingm plans were already in place for the 2012 issues.

The process is quite fascinating, in that Guy Girod will send Ian an A4 sheet depicting the car he wishes to be modelled, always based on a pre-existing French Dinky Toy. However, it will have significant changes, such as from saloon to convertible or estate. Perhaps it will be a delivery van using a different cab unit. The sheet sent will also show the parts of other vehicles required to create the finished product, and finally the real car, as all are based on a real vehicle.

For the last seven years Ian’s output has been mostly for CDF, and a book is to be published shortly featuring all the club models. This will be a fascinating read, and can be obtained from CDF.

Special promotionals for both the Maidenhead Static Model Club (MSMC) and for the Dinky Toy Collectors Association (DTCA) have also emanated from Ian’s workshop, but Ian’s ‘bread and butter’ lines and his promotionals for France represent the combination of clever design, unique creation of a master, followed by truly International quality control!

Ian’s master pattern for such a conversion is created by first identifying which original toy vehicles will be contributing parts of their construction to the finished product. He then orders a small number of white metal castings to be taken from these original toys, produced for him by a Birmingham based casting company with a flair for detail.

This then provides Ian with a soft metal base with which to cut, file, alter and then solder together this new design. Thus a rough pattern is produced, which is then sent back to the casters. The staff there will clean up the inside of the casting, add on detailed casting ridges, and machine cut the shut lines of doors, bonnet etc, before taking a mould and casting the finished product.

Once this has passed the eagle eye of Ian, a production run with that mould is assured. An example of this process is in the Bugatti type 101 featured as the CDF model for 2010. The pictures on hobbyDB highlight the ingenuity involved. The Bugatti’s side panels and doors are taken from a Corgi Riley Pathfinder, the bonnet and front wings are heavily modified Dinky Jaguar XK120, and the windscreen and rear end from the French Dinky Simca Sport 8.

Ian estimates that it takes him a total of 1 full day, over a 3 week period to produce the master, then a further 10 days for the castings to return, ready for assembly. Whilst Ian originally undertook his own casting, the ever present need to improve quality meant that he sought out and found his casters, already well known for their quality war gaming figures, and also badges and pins for football clubs.

Subject ID: 81383

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