1958 saw the intro­duc­tion of sev­er­al new Dinky Toys auto­mo­biles, with many new Amer­i­can cars fea­tured. One of my favorites was the # 173 Nash Ram­bler Sta­tion Wag­on, which was a nice­ly done mod­el of the real car. In a way, this con­tin­ued Meccano’s seem­ing fas­ci­na­tion with less well known Amer­i­can cars, such as Hud­sons, Stude­bak­ers, and Packards, that were far from being the most pop­u­lar in terms of sales.

The Ram­bler sta­tion wag­on was announced in the May 1958 issue of Mec­ca­no Mag­a­zine, and was made in two col­ors. This also hap­pened to be the sec­ond mod­el that Dinky out­fit­ted with the then new win­dow glaz­ing.

1961 Dinky Toys catalog page, source: hobbyDB.com

Dinky actu­al­ly made a very nice and accu­rate mod­el of the real car, and this mod­el has always been quite pop­u­lar with col­lec­tors over the years. It was made until 1962. My orig­i­nal pur­chase in 1958 was the pink or salmon col­ored ver­sion, which was not my favorite col­or.

So sev­er­al years ago I acquired the oth­er col­or, the bluish, or turquoise, one, which I hap­pen to like bet­ter. For all you fans of Dinky Toys with win­dows, this one will qual­i­fy, as it was made late enough that all ver­sions had win­dows.

These ear­li­er ones still used the paint­ed con­vex die-cast wheels, while lat­er ver­sions had the pol­ished con­cave style. Below are both col­ors togeth­er.

This next one is the #257 Nash Ram­bler Cana­di­an Fire Chief’s car, made from 1960 through 1969, and along with sev­er­al oth­er new Dinkys, rep­re­sents the new­er look, with win­dows and the pol­ished wheels.

Dinky did anoth­er mas­ter­ful job with these cars, a very nice mod­el that was quite pop­u­lar. I always liked these Ram­blers, part of the first era with win­dows.