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How many vans are in your collection?
Why do you collect only toy vans?
Where do you find your toy vans?
How can I contact you?
How I display the diecast custom model vans
Why do you collect crappy toy vans?
How I made the model case
Do I have a favorite toy van?
Do I have any other vans?
How many vans are in your collection?
There are 615 diecast vans, 18 tin vans, 49 plastic vans and 30 1/24 and 1/25 scale vans (made and unmade, not all displayed) currently in my model van collection, am always adding more. (dated 27/08/2025) dd/mm/yyyy
Why do you collect only toy vans?
Why not? I grew up around the custom van scene of the 80's, have always loved custom vans and have built many of them. I'd love to have a warehouse full of 1:1 scale custom vans but in reality that will never happen, so I collect toy vans.
Plus I no longer drink so have to spend my beer money some how.
Where do you find your toy vans?
I find toy vans all over the place. Am always on the lookout at swap meets, garage sales, toy shops (new ones) etc.
You can find a lot on online auction sites but being in New Zealand postage can make the best deal bad.
If I find a worn out toy van that I don't have, I'll get it for a place holder and try find a better one later to replace it. Being a budget collector it's not always easy to get every van out there. Some people want stupid money for older ones and I do this for fun, not for resale so stick to my tight budget.
How can I contact you?
This website is basically for showing off my collection. Unless you want to contact me to give away or sell me your diecast model vans (cheap) then there is no real reason to contact me.
It seems I need to make this clearer; I do NOT want to sell my vans. I am NOT a shop or dealer.
How I display the diecast custom model vans
I started off just displaying my diecast custom vans on my dresser and bookcase but soon ran out of room.
I searched the web for display options and all the cabinets were expensive (and overseas) so I went about and built my own.
This display unit holds 100 vans as I didn't think I'd ever have as many as I do. I'll have to make another.
This photo shows most of the vans when I created this website in January 2012.
Why do you collect crappy toy vans?
The crappy ones are more place holders until I can find a great condition of it.This is how I seem to find the variations, I think I found a better one of what I have but it turns out to be slightly different.
Some of the older and rare diecast I doubt I'll find mint ones of.
How I made the first model case
The model display case is made out of pine with a rimu stain
The back wall is dark tinted perspex and it also has a clear sheet for the front (removed for the photo because of the reflections)
The outside case measures 975mm x 578mm The outside frame wood is 18mm x 40mm and the inside bits are 10mm x 40mm which makes each slot 85mm x 43mm
Do I have a favorite toy van?
Not really, I do tend to like the hotwheels design of the van a bit better than the others but the johnny Lightning vans are better quality.
Would be very hard to pick just one.
Do I have any other vans?
Why yes I do, I'm currently building a 1:1 custom van, a Custom CF Bedford van called Mid 8.