Pier van Netten

When proprietor Pier van Netten was 9 years old in 1955, he would spend his one shilling pocket money on lead farm animals. Every week he would walk to the local toy shop in Box Hill, near Burwood East, a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria about a mile away from home and come back with one or more lead farm animals. By the time he was 12, he had over 300 pieces in his collection and he still has them all today. 

When he was 12 years old his pocket money went up to one shilling and six pence so he saved up to buy a Dinky Toy and the one he bought was the Bedford articulated truck and it was going to cost him twelve shillings and six pence On arriving at the shop the lady serving said we are having a sale this week and all the Dinky Toys are on sale at half price, so he bought two identical trucks as he liked them so much, and he still has the one truck in his collection today, having swapped the other one 15 years after the original purchase.

Subject ID: 82954

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When proprietor Pier van Netten was 9 years old in 1955, he would spend his one shilling pocket money on lead farm animals. Every week he would walk to the local toy shop in Box Hill, near Burwood East, a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria about a mile away from home and come back with one or more lead farm animals. By the time he was 12, he had over 300 pieces in his collection and he still has them all today. 

When he was 12 years old his pocket money went up to one shilling and six pence so he saved up to buy a Dinky Toy and the one he bought was the Bedford articulated truck and it was going to cost him twelve shillings and six pence On arriving at the shop the lady serving said we are having a sale this week and all the Dinky Toys are on sale at half price, so he bought two identical trucks as he liked them so much, and he still has the one truck in his collection today, having swapped the other one 15 years after the original purchase.

At 14 he started working for his Dad as a carpenter’s apprentice and earned the princely sum of three pounds, so that meant after he had paid his Mum for the board, he had a bit to buy tools and some to save up for more toys. He thought he was the only person collecting Dinky Toys and farm animals over those years.

When he met Hilary, his girl friend, over 45 years ago she knew the model cars came with him. They married over 40 years ago and in all that time Hilary has been a wonderful wife, supporting him in his collecting.  

In the early 1970s Pier had the opportunity to start his own building business and it was at that time that he met up with a small group of collectors who met once a month and swap and buy models from each other. In the late ‘70s he heard of a collector who was selling his collection of over 1000 model cars. They negotiated a price and with the stock purchased he started the business, Model Cars of the World. This was a first in Australia as no one else was selling model cars as a business. Starting with mail order, Hilary would type a monthly catalogue and help him with the packing, as well as running the building business.

A short time later he found out about a swapmeet that was held in Gloucester and decided to come over to the U.K. and have a look. Wow, he bought more than 500 Dinky Toys and his customers were very happy, so he started to come over twice a year. So, it was to be for the next 30 years or so that he would go to the UK twice or 3 times a year to buy model cars

In the 1980s he bought a little shop in Burwood East about 5 miles from his home; retired from the building business and devoted all his time to buying and selling model cars. He looked forward to going to the swapmeets and bringing back lots more to sell. It was on one of these occasions that he first saw a hand built Brooklin model and a Western model and was most impressed with the weight and quality

So the next time he was in England he visited John Hall at Brooklin Models in Bath and Mike Stephens at Western Models in Taunton and thus began the launch of these makes into Australia. The collectors there were most impressed and he had many standing orders for the new releases. The more he came to the UK the more he learnt about the handbuilt model manufacturers

When Pier heard that Ray Strutt was having a ModeleX show for hand built models he signed up straightaway. It was there that he discovered models by Somerville, Pathfinder and MiniMarque 43 to name a few. What lovely people and what lovely models they made. He even had some special editions done exclusively for his company and again the Australian collectors were very impressed with the quality of these special models. One such was the Holden that Brooklin Models produced for Pier, a batch of 200 models in four different colours, 50 of each, now very sought after.

Over the years Model Cars of the World have commissioned handbuilt models made in Australia, from Dinkum Classics, Fimcar and Weico Models to name some of them. In the last few years the demand for handbuilt models has declined in Australia as the diecast models manufacturers are producing models of such high quality.

Subject ID: 82954

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