This is the first of the 'readymade'
vehicle articles, publishing in 2019, it's/they're well-overdue as I started this
Blog in 2009! Beginning with the first - listed (by code number) - vehicle, and
one which didn't get a second version; possibly because it was out of scale
with the latterly stated 'scale' [size] of OO/HO, indeed it could be considered
that it was replaced by the Field Gun & Tractor (Quad and 25lbr.) . . .
. . . the Jeep & Trailer.
My collection; not vast but enough to study
in this post, with a carded 'minter', a loose pairing and another pair with a
play worn jeep, taking this shot mid-way through the photo-shoot, I replaced
the carded one without it's windscreen, but you can see how the screen keeps it
tight under the card, while the seats prevent it slipping through.
The card; cleverly cut-and-folded from a
single sheet, with a retaining flap for the jeep and 'axle-hook' for the
trailer, both of which are designed to fold forward as the card is folded back
into an L-shaped 'shelf'. A 'rack-toy' hanger-hole is also punched in the card
and on both my example and another two seen, the axle-hook was not employed,
the jeep sitting tight enough without it.
Component parts; the trailer and jeep being
a single shot, but only by dint of not having the connecting 'sprulette'
removed in the factory. The wheel/axle assemblies are single mouldings and the
windscreen is plug-in with a sort of off-set, bayonet-fitting 'lock' to help prevent
loss.
Several of the pieces have what are
probably mould-tool cavity-numbers, a hit and miss affaire as we will see with
some of the other vehicles, some obvious pieces having no number (Pershing turret,
whole APC) others having one (as here), while the common hull carries five
different numbers, due to it's being used on four vehicles.
For the jeep though it appears there was
the one cavity for each of the three numbered components, 12 for the windscreen,
with the jeep and trailer bodies being 28 and 29 respectively. I'll look at
this numbering more geekily on a separate page dedicated to these all vehicles!
My first GIF-animation (if it works!),
don't expect a plethora of them, and this is hardly the best, the fact that I
cropped the two images by eye, means there is a slight variation in 'register'
giving it a slightly 3D aspect which actually makes it more tangible.
A few close-ups of the sprulette and the
unused axle-hook stamped into the card, the trailer is an odd choice, being a
reasonable approximation of the ammunition trailer for 25lbr field guns (and
6-pounders?), usually seem limbered between the gun and a quad-tractor.
It's also equally out of scale with either
of Airfix's chosen scale/sizes of 1:32/54mm and the slightly mystic 'OO/HO' or
HO/OO!
Various comparisons - for the next bunch of
shots; these three are pretty contemporaneous, with - from the left Eldon (USA) with a pintle-mounted
.30-cal Browning MG, the Airfix (UK),
a Tudor Rose (UK) jeep with two crew
and Manurba (Germany)'s offering, the
Manurba (Manfred Urban) also being
sold in the UK as Tallon.
Rubber jeeps from Auburn (USA) behind; late production PVC, and a similar Skandie-jeep
in blue from Tomte Laerdal along with
a rather tatty (but quite rare I think?) Frog
'Penguin' Jeep (penguins can't fly; a little joke from the predominantly
model aircraft maker!), which is manufactured of an indeterminate material - it
could be hardened rubber/PVC, an early styrene, a dodgy-ethylene hybrid or even
a composition of some kind?
An eclectic line-up here; the lilac jeep (with
spoked wire-wheels!) is by a Sayarat
(possibly Israeli, Indian or Turkish?), the white one at the back has a
pull-back-and-go motor, is Italian-made and marked 'Gio.' (which could be any one of several makers . . . Giochi Preziosi (GiG), Giocatelli, Giolitto Torino (Kinder), Giovanni Plastics,
Il Giocattolo, Techno Giodi (Kinder), et
al!) and could be from a Kinder
'Maxxi-egg', or just a more standard pocket-money plaything.
The much distorted (with age and
drying-out) MP's vehicle with wheel-arch siren is Thomas Toy's from America and the other 'jeep'/4x4 is a
clip-together/slot-together kit of unknown origin, but which could fit in a Kinder egg with very careful
packing?
Die-cast line-up; to the left of the Airfix vehicle we have a generic (or
currently unknown) HK jeep with ambulance stickers, to the fore are a couple of
later Universal Matchbox jeeps with
big-wheels, roo-bars and rather lose (but intentional) tilt-covers and - in
front of them - two recent Chinajeeps, one (left) probably based on an Indian Mahindra jeep, the other based on the
old M38/Wrangler type - did the Chinese
army copy them at some point?
Coming back in from the right we have the Matchbox Jeep with recoilless-rifle,
from the 1-75 range; it was Battle King
compatible and contemporaneous, even to having similar wheels to the Battle King US half-track.
Then there are two Corgi models; the earlier Huskey/Corgi
Juniors Jeep in front, with a later, leery-painted one behind. The final
model here is a lump of solid die-casting in the style of the old 'dime-store'
slush-casts from Midgetoy . . . a
brand of the A&E Tool & Gauge Co.,
USA.
A group of Hong Kong generics (some of
which will be attributed over the next few years, there's some good information
on HK coming out of the woodwork now) in the same vein as the ones we saw here,
with a Payton (?) at the back; I
think someone called it MPC the other
day, it's unmarked but a quite good quality moulding with the spare-tyre in the
cargo foot-well?
Two generations of the same Hong Kong
'mini', the rear one being a cleaner tooling with trailer, the one on front
being a slightly tired-looking moulding but seemingly from the same tool,
probably toward the end of it (the tool)'s usefulness, which are both better
scaled for 1:72nd scale war-gaming. The wheels tie-them into some of the 1-ton Humber mini-trucks, so a maker or
brand may be forthcoming on these too, one day.
Getting smaller - front to rear; Marx's Jeep from the Miniature
Masterpiece playsets and window-boxes, the Zee/Zyl/Zylmex
'Mash' jeep later handed to Tai Sang and issued by Redbox as Motormax (see also below), the Airfix
and two die-cast jeeps; one Marx
(tatty green one), the other Hong Kong - the orange one.
Because the Airfix-Airfix comparison further below involves a rubbish sample
and the Zee Toys model above was
missing it's aerial, I dug-out better samples of both along with the Matchbox plastic model-kit version and a
couple of colour-variant Marx mini's
and shot them all together. The diminutive Matchbox
kit vehicle knocks the others into a cocked-hat, accuracy-wise!
Another smallish HK Jeep is to the left of
the main line-up, with a comfortably upholstered back-rest to the rear bench!
Next to that is a cartoony novelty Jeep in bright-orange with baby-wheels!
Moving to the right we then have a red HK
one, possibly a gum-ball machine capsule prize, I have it in several colours,
then a polystyrene one, also probably HK* and possibly a play-set accessory
(train wagon or transporter-lorry load?) or another capsule novelty?
The next one is the Roco-Minitanks M38, the silver one is from the Spear's board game Trek
(or Safari Trek?) and the teeny blue
one is from a Kinder-egg, it was a
load on a little recovery-lorry, it also came in green or yellow.
The other blue one at the back is either Montaplex or Mundi Toys I think; the wheels are right! But I'm not sure about
the packaging, although it's sealed so I've voted to leave it for now, but I
suspect a dealer. Some dealers went through a phase of using those cheap
mail-order, freezer-bag heat-sealers to make their stuff look 'more new' a few
years ago!
Finally at the front is what I believe is a
Hong Kong copy of a US mini die-cast - Tootsie,
another Midgetoy, Mattel? It's definitely looking HK, it's
missing a windscreen and I also have a green one with pink driver.*
*Both these are unmarked and could equally
be Spanish Sobres or similar small 'pocket-money' toys/giveaways from
Europe.
Finally (for comparisons, for now); the
smallest of the small! I have half a feeling that this is actually either a
carrier-deck jeep from a naval model-kit, or one of the cargo vehicles from the
similar landing ship kits from Aurora,
Monogram or Pyro, back in the day - there were some odd-scaled/box-scaled
amphibious-assault vessel kits knocking-around in the 1960's?
Not actually a jeep, and possibly ex-Bachmann (or AHM), it is nevertheless marked Airfix
on the base and another open-backed, 'pick-up' configuration, utility vehicle!
The very US looking, vehicle from the Airfix
Mainline model railway Dr. X play
set; is it a Dodge or a Ford?
The Airfix-Airfix comparison which lead to
the upgraded shot above, it's not bad, but it's missing the windscreen and has
been 'transferred-up' without painting, this was from the Buffalo Amphibian model kit.
I'd taken most of the images in the initial
photo-shoot before I remembered or noticed (again!) that one of my three has
had its front bumper (fender) removed (or snapped-off - I'm not about to see
how brittle it might be by trying to do more damage!), it's a pity they didn’t
just remove the rope-coil (probably meant to be/represent a winch) and leave
the bar behind, which would be a reasonable conversion, but actually, it's really
not that noticeable!
