Dinky 113 Steed’s Jaguar Coupe (not commercially released):
Neither the 113 Steed’s Jaguar Coupe car nor the Gift Set 307 ‘New Avengers’ both from the TV Series The New Avengers ever reached the production line, although the 112 Purdey’s TR7 from the same series, was produced in 1978, possibly because it was just a repaint and rebadge of an existing model.
GOVintage Jewelry and Collectibles was able to find this in England. It can be purchased at govintage57.com. Just click the picture below.
Steed’s car was to have been produced by Lintoy in Hong Kong, the Binns Road factory being well on the way to closure and the management were seeking to cut costs. However it appears that Lintoy were not paid or not paid enough so very few were actually produced for Dinky. In addition it was probable that The New Avengers set & the Jaguar wouldn’t have sold particularly well as the last episode had aired in the UK in December 1977 and the series was nowhere near as successful as its predecessor.
Some of the prototypes however have survived.
Genuine models are very hard to come by and command exorbitantly high prices, a recent authenticated model being sold for £5,400 at Vectis Auctions.
The cardboard boxes for these models would probably have come from Dinky but Lintoy also sold a version on a card with a factory sealed blister pack. One of these was sold for £3,000. The text reads Dinky Toy rather than Dinky Toys and similar packaging was used for the 361 War Chariot and the 219 Big Cat Jaguar.
Although featured as ‘coming soon’ in the 1977 trade catalogue and the in the 1978 consumer catalogue, John Steed’s jag never made to the shop shelves.
