AARGH! DEATH TO DINKY TOYS! ZINC PEST STRIKES OLDER BEAUTIES
SMN report It’s one thing to enjoy a beautiful collector’s item dating back 70 years or more, but you have a tale of doom and gloom if it starts falling apart before your very eyes. And it can happen, thanks to the curse of ‘zinc pest’, a form of corrosion that can affect diecast toys manufactured anytime from the 1930s to early 1950s. Zinc pest explained Zinc corrosion is caused when the metal has been mixed with impure lead, and it may be accelerated by damp, and big changes in temperature. Once the pest hits, it’s unstoppable, and over time the affected item cracks, buckles, and eventually falls to pieces. There’s no cure as such, because the fault lies in the zinc-lead mixture itself. The only real answer is to steer clear of any model that shows the slightest sign of it. Dinky Toys Empire boat The 1930s-era Dinky Toy shown above, a Short Empire flying boat, displays the sad destruction wrought by the pest - as you can see, it’s nasty stuff! Luckily, modern manufacturing processes,...