1:43 scale model of the 1983 Porsche 956 that finished 7th at the 1983 Le Mans.
While I was at the flea market this past weekend I stumbled onto these two diecast Porsches manufactured by Quartzo. I got a pretty sweet deal on them because the boxes show a bit of wear and Quartzo collectors tend to ignore the Le Mans racers, favoring the Formula 1 or NASCAR models from the same company.
Happy with a bargain, I brought the cars home for closer inspection. The 1983 Porsche 956 wearing BOSS livery stands out as being the first monocoque car built by the company. The model itself is in great condition and has lots of little details that encourage a prolonged viewing. The second car is a 1980 Porsche 935 K3 variant developed by Kremer Racing. Sure these cars were successful at the track but what I love is the 1980 Apple advertising. While I’m not a big fan of their modern products, I do have great memories of many hours spent in front of their old monochrome systems of the era.
It wasn’t until I set the boxed models down side by side that I noted the different spellings of COLLECTABLE and COLLECTIBLE on the box art. While I frequently discover new bits of history while collecting my diecast cars, it’s a rare day that I get an English lesson from the packaging of one of my finds. Wanting to know which is correct, I headed to the Oxford English Dictionary to learn which spelling is correct.
The first recorded use of the word as it relates to souvenirs, bric-a-brac and items worth collecting appears in an article published in 1888 within the pages of Gentleman’s Magazine referring to old playbills that were becoming sought after items. The spelling in that article was COLLECTABLE. It wasn’t until 1955 the word appeared as COLLECTIBLE in the US publication Bookmen’s Bedlam.
For modern usage, the ‘A’ spelling is most common in England while the ‘I’ spelling is used most commonly in the US. I keep them straight by remembering that A comes first and I is for independence. My only remaining question is why Quartzo would change the spelling on their packaging?
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- Getting the decals to settle back into the wheel wells is going to be challenging to avoid damaging them.
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- The damage to this section of the tail is minor but I think I can fix it easily enough with a delicate application of paint.
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- The use of water applied decals is readily apparent when you notice the overlap going past the edge of the wheel well.
Collin David Here's one for you - is it diecast or die-cast? Or die cast? We've been discussing this around the office, and while Hot Wheels and Matchbox use 'diecast' as one word, Corgi uses both 'diecast' and 'die-cast'. A copy editor we used INSISTED that it was die-cast, always... so, as an expert, what do you see as the dividing line between these words, if there is any? June 24th, 2012 at 9:13 AM