In 1949, Mec­ca­no intro­duced the first Dinky Super­toys Guy van, in the famous “Slum­ber­land” liv­ery. This was a most attrac­tive mod­el, fin­ished in bright red paint, and fea­tur­ing exquis­ite decals, in gold with black bor­der, show­ing the com­pa­ny name as well as the Roy­al Crest of King George VI. Many think this is the most attrac­tive of the 6 Guy vans made over a peri­od of sev­er­al years. This was in pro­duc­tion from 1949 through 1951.

The sec­ond issue in the series was the “Lyons Swiss Roll”, made for only one year, 1952, so now quite rare and hard to find. Fin­ished in a beau­ti­ful violet/dark blue, with more won­der­ful mul­ti-col­ored decals, it makes a hand­some mod­el.

In 1953, Mec­ca­no released the third ver­sion of the Dinky Super­toys Guy Van, in the icon­ic “Weet­abix” liv­ery. Very rare and expen­sive! Mint, boxed exam­ples can run over USD 3000. For many seri­ous, diehard Dinky col­lec­tors, this is the Holy Grail. After search­ing for sev­er­al years, I set­tled for this one in very good con­di­tion, not quite up to my usu­al col­lect­ing stan­dards.

The fourth van was in the “Spratt’s” liv­ery and was one of more com­mon, best remem­bered of this famous series, made from 1954 through about 1956.

Around 1956, the Guy Van in “Ever Ready” liv­ery made its first appear­ance and was the fifth mod­el in this series. As Ever Ready bat­ter­ies were sold every­where, this mod­el got wide recog­ni­tion.

Of the six Dinky Super­toys Guy Vans that were pro­duced, maybe the most strik­ing was the Robert­son “Gold­en Shred”, also the last in the series.  If you want to know the his­to­ry of the ‘Gol­ly’ doll on the side of the van, see wiki or here.

All the Guy Vans were very pop­u­lar, beloved mod­els, made for sev­er­al years in the 1950’s.  Many think that they and the Fodens rep­re­sent the best com­mer­cial mod­els made by Mec­ca­no in that Gold­en Era of 1946–1960.