T is for Two - Antique Armoured Cars

Well, they're both older than me and I've been feeling like a bit of an antique myself, after a couple of weeks in the garden! These couldn't be further apart, one a clockwork tin-plate toy from Germany, the other a lump of vulcanised-rubber (now stone-like), probably from the US, yet they are also remarkably similar, in both being a yellow-olive, and representing inter-war period, small-run armoured cars, but of generic lines, and both probably actually manufactured in the 1950's.

Marklin, Bing, Karl Bub? Your guess is as good as mine (unless you know for certain!), compatible with the smaller 40mm composition that both Elastolin and Lineol made a few of, it still works, but the key is long gone, although the Mecanno keys fit I think? And while it needs a new flint, it looks like a Zippo flint will fit, so maybe one day I'll do a video of it rushing-about; spitting flame!

It manages to look quite American in its lines, presumably as they would have been the bigger customer; I imagine it escorting gold to Fort Knox for Wells Fargo! I'm guessing it's from the 1950's but may be from inter-war period tooling?

This has more the look of a locally-produced 'revolutionaries' vehicle, of which the 1920's and 1930's were littered, world-wide. Take a prestige car (with a big engine = heavy chassis), or commercial truck and cover it with steel plates down the local blacksmith's or bus depot's workshops; every town and most villages had one or the other - if not both!

I don't think it's Sun Rubber or Auburn? My book on them is hidden at the moment, not in the attic or the garage, but a couple of feet away . . . behind more books, a pile of Sammelerkatalog and a teetering heap of crazy-clowns who didn't combine as neatly as I had hoped they would and are now waiting a new, larger container! I'll tag it to both but try to remember to come back and correct it if I ever find out.

Markings on the tin-plate car consist of the DRGM registration mark and a 'Foreign' mark (which appears to have been sniped through the 'o'!). DRGM stands for Deutsches Reich Gebrauchs Muster and indicates that a unique feature has been registered with the relevant authority. It has no connection to the Nazi era (beyond overlapping) as Reich is an older term for State. The Foreign was an indicator of an import - I think to BOTH - the US or UK.

Side by side they make quite a team! I think the German tin one is a bit too tatty for serious tin-plate collectors, who like their stuff rust-free, mine's seen quite a bit of action in a damp climate . . . Indochina? The counties which . . . err . . . aren't in Ulster any more (lucky them!)?

Likewise, the rubber one is a bit dry and cracked and the tyres look flat at certain angles, but it's just that they are a bit small, and slightly perished, which has led to the shrinkage and radial cracks.