John Hodges

As a youngster, John Hodges had been a keen model maker, so it was no surprise that later, after doing an apprenticeship in mechanical engineering, he began making items and exhibiting them at the National Model Engineering Exhibition in London.

When trying to find out more about the cars that Dinky Toys had produced, he came across several references to the 38 Series Triumph Dolomite that he initially understood may have been produced as a prototype, but never made it into production. That being the case, he thought that if he could produce the model it would appeal to true Dinky Toys collectors.

Subject ID: 81381

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As a youngster, John Hodges had been a keen model maker, so it was no surprise that later, after doing an apprenticeship in mechanical engineering, he began making items and exhibiting them at the National Model Engineering Exhibition in London.

When trying to find out more about the cars that Dinky Toys had produced, he came across several references to the 38 Series Triumph Dolomite that he initially understood may have been produced as a prototype, but never made it into production. That being the case, he thought that if he could produce the model it would appeal to true Dinky Toys collectors.

In pursuance of this idea, in the late 1970s, he became aware of the two materials that would make the production of this and, perhaps, other models possible. One was Milliput, an epoxy resin that enabled him to fabricate the Dolomite ‘master’ and the other was the cold cure silicone rubber into which the molten white metal could be poured to form the casting.

Everything worked according to plan except that he found the whole process very laborious. The gravity castings were fairly poor and required a lot of time finishing, so he tried three or four commercial casting companies, none of which gave him satisfactory results, until he crossed paths with a specialist caster, Peter Comben of Enco Models who, from that moment on, made all the castings he subsequently required.

Such was the success of the Dolomite, finding space in many Dinky Toys collections, that John decided to make more ‘toys that Dinky might have made’, calling them Toys of Yesterday. He went on to make 12 or so others during a 30 year period, all being made at home in limited surroundings.

After minor finishing to the castings he applied one primer/undercoat followed by three coats of acrylic automotive paint, all from aerosols. The bodies were then hand polished and smaller parts such as seats, radiators and wheel hubs were hand painted.  

Box making was quite a laborious process too. They were originally made with white cardboard printed with label and covered with yellow film. They were then hand cut round a ¼” perspex former and formed up around a wooden block. Later on, when yellow film became unavailable, the labels were computer printed on yellow card and covered with clear film.

Samples were sent to magazines in England and many overseas countries. The vast majority of his production was sold by mail order through editorial and occasional advertising publicity. Word of mouth brought in many other orders and a few traders were selling them at swapmeets and toyfairs. A lot went overseas, to America, Australia and Canada, mainland Europe and South Africa.

Subject ID: 81381

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