LATEST SITE NEWS

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25 September 2024

• After a lot of research I'm delighted to finally launch the 'Ghost Models' section of the Impy/Flyers page. I've enjoyed pulling this together as it looks at Lone Star's proposed Impy models which for whatever reasons never materialised. Some models were no more than ideas but excitingly there's evidence that others made it to the final stages of pre-production. I discuss possible ideas as to why these models never appeared using but as ever I'm interested to hear any other opinions and ideas. 

                   Link Here:

https://lonestardcmt.co.uk/impy-flyers-various#3de8ac39-cad3-45fa-832c-2cae5c6ea106

16 November 2023

• Space Commanders page launched.

18 August 2023

• 'Lone Star's Kiwi Connection' article added to Blog Page. This exciting feature tells the story of Lone Star's Roadmaster Cars which were produced in New Zealand in the early 1960s to avoid the import restrictions which were in place at the time. The New Zealand based production has resulted in some unique colour schemes which today are very rare.

11 July 2023

• Roadmaster Lorries page launched.

7 July 2023 

•  Lone Star Land Rovers article added to Blog Page. An updated version of my article  which was first published in 2018 in 'Model Collector' magazine. Now with 11 packed pages of information and photos so get yourself a cuppa!

2 July 2023

• The Roadmaster Cars page is now live and packed with information and photos.

• 'Silvers' (Silver Flyers and Silver Commercials) page is live. Can you add any further                               information or models to these mysterious ranges?

• Impy / Flyers accessories section is live. This includes the Impy accessories and Flyers   Flyway track plus a look at the Impy garages which appeared in trade catalogues.  

Well 2023 has been pretty hectic so far meaning the Lone Star site has unfortunately been somewhat left on the back burner. Some good news is the Roadmaster Cars page is now ready to launch and will do so shortly. This will tie-in with my latest Diecast Collector article which features in the August 2023 magazine. The article focuses on a rare series of Roadmaster Cars which were produced in New Zealand to avoid the import restrictions in place at the time. This resulted in some unique packaging and rare colour schemes only found on these NZ produced models.

As I’ve had a number of requests the ‘Silvers’ website page will be the next to go live. This documents the Flyers and Commercials models which were issued in plated chrome finishes. To be honest little is known about these ranges other than they seem to have been issued for the Japanese market. With no known catalogue or price list appearances it’s not even known how many of the Flyers cars appeared in this range, but as I’ve said before, ‘the unknown’ is all part of the fun of collecting Lone Star!

Also in the pipeline is a feature titled ‘Lone Star’s Forgotten Fords.’ This looks at a trio of Impy and Flyers Ford cars which, despite appearing in Lone Star’s trade catalogues, never made it into production. Quick LS quiz question, can you name these three Fords?  

I hope you’ve had an enjoyable Christmas and wish you a prosperous 2023. For those of you who didn’t see it in Diecast Collector magazine my ‘Lone Star’s Lost Legacy’ article can now be viewed on the ‘Blog’ section of this site. This tells the fascinating story of the continued production of Lone Star toys in Pakistan. Following the closure of the Hatfield factory in 1988 the Khan family acquired much of the machinery and moulds and shipped them to Pakistan where amazingly production of several Lone Star ranges continued for a further 9 years!

My next article, which is due for publication in Diecast Collector magazine shortly, is equally exciting and investigates a series of Lone Star Roadmaster cars which were produced in New Zealand during the 1960s. This was to get around the import restrictions which were in place at the time and resulted in some very rare ‘Kiwi’ colour variations.

With both the above significant discoveries being made during 2022, along with the launch of this site, it’s certainly been an exciting and busy year.  For 2023 I’m hoping to get the final outstanding website pages finished and live, but who knows what further exciting 'Lone Star'  discoveries are out there . . .  

 Welcome to my new Lone Star Website! It is my intention to provide a useful resource for fellow collectors whilst sharing my passion for Lone Star toys and hopefully making some new discoveries and friends along the way.

Those of you who are long term Lone Star collectors may remember my previous website which documented all the Lone Star toy vehicles from my collection. Well despite websites being the latest future-proof platform for hosting and sharing information it proved not to be the case when in 2008 Yahoo pulled the plug on its Geocities sites and in the process thousands of valuable websites were lost. It wasn’t just me or Yahoo either, back in the early 2000’s several collectors had fantastic, informative Lone Star websites, the most notable being Akiko Hoshikawa from Japan. Alas all are no more. 

This left me somewhat reluctant to start from scratch all over again with a new website so I gave some serious thought to publishing a book on the subject. Having published books on other topics I was well aware of the vast amount of time and effort involved, but at least a book can’t disappear into cyberspace! However after much consideration I decided against this. The fundamental problem (but also excitement!) with collecting Lone Star is that after 30 years new models and information are still coming to light so a book would unfortunately be instantly out of date.

Eventually I bit the bullet and started work on a new website. I’ve launched the site as a ‘work in progress’ primarily to ensure there are no fundamental problems before I invest more time and effort. From the ‘Ranges’ page you can navigate to the different series of toy vehicles Lone Star produced. Not all are completed or live yet (these have the names greyed out). I’ll announce on here when any new pages go live.

Thanks for visiting and I welcome any feedback!

James