Category:Minic Vehicles

A Minic Models advert from 1939 [image info]

Triang's much-loved range of cars and other vehicles produced under the MINIC name were strictly-scaled to match gauge 0 model railways.

They were produced using tinplate, and although it's common nowadays to look down on tinplate cars and to expect them to be more "toyish" than models produced with more modern methods, tinplate actually allowed more precise scalings for very thin parts such as windowframes and wheelarch edges - areas where a designer creating for plastic mouldings or cast metal would have to make the parts artificially "fat" so that they could be produced reliably and wouldn't be prone to breakage.

The result with the Minic range was a set of models that were startlingly realistic when viewed up-close, and the pack artwork for the Minic vehicle range stressed the degree of accuracy - "All to Scale". The models were even more desirable (and impressive) when one realised that each one managed to incorporate a clockwork motor.

Some of Minic's road vehicle models underwent a few design changes after the war, with some being simplified by the replacement of an occasional metal part with plastic (such as the roller on the steamroller model). Towards the end of the range's life, some of the designs were converted to take "friction" motors ("Push and Go"), and a few pieces even appeared in plastic. However, even some of the plastic pieces were highly respected for their accuracy.

Anomalously, the Minic range of vehicles doesn't seem to have been given its own name or sub-brand (unlike Minic Ships), they were simply sold as "Triang Minic", without a qualifier (although "Minic Transport" did keep appearing as a toy brandname referenced on some of the models' signage).

In the Museum

Because the Minic vehicles were originally intended to complement other "gauge 0" pieces, we've displayed them in their natural habitat rather than keeping them in a separate cabinet - all the vehicles scattered around the Museum's large central gauge 0 layout are Triang Minics, as are the cars decorating the "Building Sets 2" cabinet.