B is for Bedford RL by Blue Box

A childhood favorite, not the toy - the real thing. As an army-brat I saw more than my fair share of these, and there were still a few kicking about in REMF units when I served in the mid-80's.

The two 'box' bodied versions, a GS with canvas tilt, and a hard-topped ambulance with opening doors, this would take two of the stretcher cases from the hard-plastic G.I. range. Sandwiched between them is a shot showing how they were glued into their boxes with a clear plastic plate, the plate had to be broken off before you could play with it!

Although the GS is a unique body moulding, the ambulance is glued to the 'generic' flatbed with control panel at the cab end. Other uses for this body were single and double cannon, multiple-barreled rocket launcher, Radar and search-light. All bar the single cannon were based on the Lone*Star vehicle loadings. Grey vehicles are not as common, being included in the larger sets only, as enemy forces.

The big picture of a rocket-carrying vehicle was a bit of a quandary for a while, as it looked like another makes rocket had been shoved into the twin-gun cradle, however I now have two, both boxed so it's a 'proper-job', I'm still not sure about the Japanese Sun-disc sticker!!?

17th June 2015 - It's 'right', it's from the 50mm-figured boxed sets of Japanese and can be seen in an old auction image somewhere (Bonams or Vectis?) with the elusive officer's mule!

Civil versions were also produced with different bodies. Below the main photo are a three-decker, two-decker and a couple of single level boxed sets containing RL's. Blue Box also produced an equally good Bedford MK and I'll cover them shortly.

[I've only just realized I photo'ed the qwarch side on the tanker, it does have a SHELL (petroleum) sticker on the other side, where you can see the white glue-residue on the side showing!]

I haven't got a lose one of the small rocket launcher, which is another Lone*Star inspired design. Finally a late carded set with a grey copy of the Crescent WWII field piece, and soft plastic versions of the Britains combat infantry, also in grey and green.