Austin Greenough

Hello fellow members, the story starts from when I was a very young boy and has developed into a passion for Mercedes Model Cars.

When I was young, I received one birthday a tin Bandai 300sl Mercedes Benz Coupe. I still have this today, red body and black roof.

Somewhere along the line I had a tin Mercedes Benz 180. This was well played with but still in our collection.

There was also a red 300 SL tin Mercedes Benz Gullwing, somehow this ended up in the back shed and unfortunately rain leaked into the shed and destroyed this toy. When cleaning my parents’ property, I have kept this as a “Barn Find”.

Moving forward to our wedding day back in 1982. Fay and I both wanted as our wedding cars Mercedes Benz cars. We had two beautiful Mercedes Benz in white. This year is our 40th Wedding Anniversary in December.

A few years later we had two boys, Christopher and Timothy.

Christopher when he was five used to play with my tin Bandai 300sl Mercedes Benz Coupe.

Timothy also used to play with this same toy.

We then purchased a plastic kit of a Mercedes Benz 300SL Gullwing. This had a red car on the front of the box. This was so much like my tin Bandai. This was the start of our collection.

From then on, we started to purchase models of the Mercedes Benz Gullwing. We started buying from various retailers.

One day we found a model shop in Burwood, Victoria called Model Cars of The World.

This shop sold quality models. We purchased a white metal Sommerville Mercedes Benz in Gold. This model was 1/43 in scale. This would have been early 1990.

Around this same time a model maker from Italy call Bang Models started to bring out on a regular basic diecast Mercedes Benz 300SL Gullwing all in 1/43 scale. These were rally, racing and road cars.

We were going to Model Cars of The World on a regular basic, and they were keeping anything regarding Mercedes Benz Gullwings.

Before long we had a good size collection, these were mostly 1/43 scale.

Around 2000 I was on our local primary school council, and had achieved 10 years’ service on council, the Principal, Mr. Mick Whiting, presented me with a gift, a Brumm Mercedes Benz 300 SL Gullwing. He went to a lot of trouble to purchase this for me.

He found out from Fay where I buy my models, he drove a good hour round trip and was told, yes, we know Austin, he has every gullwing model, but wait a second, he does not have his one, it just came in.

One day reading a magazine we came across an advertisement for a Franklin Mint 1/24 Mercedes Benz 300SL Gullwing model.

This we purchased, followed by the beautiful crystal with gold roof Mercedes Benz 300 SL Gullwing.

We then were offered a very small pewter model from Franklin Mint. This model is matchbox size. Also, a Mercedes Benz Gullwing.

Looking at my Mercedes-Benz Club cards, it appears I have been a member since 2005.

This appears to be correct as my MBMC Journals appears to go back to about this same time.

I also purchased club model made by Tin Wizard Sondermodel 300 SL Prototype 1953.

This model was the 20 years of MBMC, released 2006.

If above is correct I have been a member for about 17 years.

Moving along, we have now amassed a good size collection of Mercedes Benz 300SL Models.

Collection is mostly 1/43 scale.

Collection also includes various models from Solido, Schuco, Max, Corgi, Quiralu as well as other brands.

There are a few larger model 300sl Mercedes Gullwing models.

Gullwing models are the main part of the Mercedes Benz collection.

In the Victorian chapter of the Mercedes Benz Club, I have had the privilege to meet and know a gentleman who has the right-hand drive Mercedes Benz 300sl Gullwing, Mr Patrick Devine, who allowed me the privilege of sitting in his car. This was a great experience as a collector of a particular model car to be able to touch the actual car.

I am forever thankful for this experience and has motivated me with collecting.

In more recent times we have collected Mercedes Benz 600 models also in 1/43 scale.

We also have the Blue Wonder Formula 1 racing car transporter in 1/43 scale.

Also, we have Schuco 1/43 scale Mercedes Benz 300sl coupes.

My hobby would not have been without support of Fay and our sons. They know what to buy for birthdays, Christmas.

Finally, we would like to say thank you to two gentlemen who keep our hobby alive, Mr. Bernd Loosen with his regular newsletters and Mr. Dev Kuruppu with his enthusiasm for the Australia chapter of MBMC.

Austin & Fay Greenough