Demise
Changing fashions in the toy industry, international competition and the switch to cheap labour in lower wage countries meant that the days of British-made toy vehicles like Dinky Toys were numbered. After attempts at simplifying the products as a means of saving costs, the famous Binns Road factory in Liverpool finally closed its doors in November 1979. By comparison, Corgi Toys managed to struggle on until 1983. Matchbox was taken over by Universal International of Hong Kong in 1982 (McGimpsey & Orr 1989, p. 28). Thus ended the era when UK-made die-cast toy models were dominant.
The Dinky trade-name changed hands many times before ending up as part of Matchbox International Ltd in the late 1980s. This seemed to be a logical and perhaps synergistic development, uniting two of the most valuable and venerated names in the British and world die-cast model car market under one roof. For a time some Matchbox vehicles were sold under the Dinky name (Stoneback 2002, p. 24). Matchbox began issuing model cars of the 1950s through the 'Dinky Collection' in the late 1980s – these models were marketed toward adult collectors. The models were attractive and honoured the tradition of the Dinky name in terms of both quality and scale, before production stopped after only a few years.
The 'Dinky Collection' eventually was absorbed into the themed series offered by Matchbox Collectibles Inc, owned by the US giant Mattel, that has shown little interest in any historical understanding of the Dinky brand. Mattel has preferred to re badge normal Matchbox models with the Dinky name for some editions in certain markets. In some cases 1:43 scale models from the Matchbox era were given the Dinky name. No new "dedicated" Dinky castings have been created in the Mattel era since Matchbox Collectibles was shut down in 2000.
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