O is for Ottowa?

Did they have red 'London' buses? Do They?

We're going to have a quick season of plastic vehicle articles, two of which are left over from the last 'follow-ups to the Lucky post's season, two of which I shot the images for at the next Sandown Park show (so thanks' to Adrian Little for all four post's images, and don't forget it's Sandown this coming Saturday), and this posts which was sent in by Brian Berke about a month or two ago.

This is basically the Telsalda bus again and everything I said last time - of an opinionated perspective - applies equally to this one, however there are detail differences which need to be pointed out, but which serve only to underline everything I was getting at in those previous musings.

The first is that the box while being the same at a glance; has no Telsalda logo on the end of the building, while the BOAC logo (British Overseas Airways Company) on the side of the bus in the image has been replaced with the informative - but unnecessary? - Double Decker Bus!

In the box (unlike last time) the stickers bear no relation to the box-art, with Ottawa, Canada and huge Union flag graphics down both sides, I can't begin to guess whether this was an attempt by Hong Kong to find 'any' market for the toy, or something with UK Tourist Board money behind it, or if Ottawa actually had red buses to sell toys of?

The other major difference is a deliberate removal of the code-number by drilling a bloody great hole in the tool-block where the number was placed and allowing it to fill with plastic. Also the silver plating on the wheel-hubs hasn't happened, so they are a neutral-granule looking; creamy-white.

Brian photographed it with the likely donor a Dinky die-cast model, however my comments last time about the number of donors holds true with the 'not'-Telsalda having a more rounded frontage to the roof and a more pronounced curve to the body-panel which comes down off the floor of the upper deck to the pillar at the back of the engine compartment

The box of the Telsalda version we looked at last time, along with three others to show the size variation of these plastic vehicle models;  the tipper truck from that previous tranche and two fire appliances we will be looking at in the next few days.

Then we must have a News Views or two - a PW168 review is due - it arrived yesterday; full of lovely things!

While posting I double-checked Brian's email and . . . "I bought this in Ottawa back in the late 70's. They had old London RT's running sightseeing tours, most memorable for all the wood worm eaten floors on the upper deck!", so my bad, and a quick Google reveals open-topped ex-London RT's - which pre-dated Routemasters - so a ready market for a Hong Kong plastic toy.