T is for Two - PVC Jeeps

Looking briefly at two vinyl-rubber jeeps, I photographed quite a bit over the weekend but also went down with a head-cold, nothing debilitating, but it left me a bit 'whatever' when it came to any serious editing, so I pottered about and shot some stuff!

It's odd, but PVC doesn't like long-term storage, these weren't 'mint' when they went in, but they didn't look like this - left hand shot! One has a black mould, the other a sandy deposit (remember the fury, grey Roman). Clearly as well as phthalates and free-radicals, PVC's exude something nutritious to various micro-fungi?

In the backgrownd is a Tomte Laerdal Toys model No. 2, the Willy's Jeep, with an Auburn Rubber 1950's Jeep M38A1 in front, but the later 'PVC vinyl-rubber' (synthetic rubber) not the earlier vulcanised rubber (real rubber) before and after a quick scrub-up!

The fact that it's the PVC means it's still quite supple, the old Vulcanised toys are hardening now and breaking-up, but they were different toys and I don't think there was a Jeep, one of the makers (Sun Rubber?) did a lovely half-track! Tomte also experimented with hard rubber to begin with before settling on PVC.

Both crewed with rear-area troops wearing side-caps who can be put in any army with a bit of paint! The Tomte look a bit air-force to me? Auburn's looks like an off-duty Marine (yaay!) or MP . . . boo!

The Auburn appears in the same slight shade-variations of green as the figures, but the Tomte comes in various bright colours of which this blue is possibly the best . . . if you run with the air-force line! Yellow, orange, scarlet, neon-green and [occasionally] white are also found

The M51 is around 1:35th scale, while the Tomte Laerdal Jeep is closer to 1:48/50th scale and the two share pretty similar design parameters, the Auburn losing on the position/moulding of the undercut (or lack of it!) for the steering-wheel, the Willy's having a silly windscreen.

Tomte means gnome in Norwegian, and Tomte Laerdal therefore translates as 'little Laerdal', the larger parent being big in pharmaceutical accessories of all kings, probably best know over here for  Resusci-Annie, the mouthwash kisser!

While there is (or was; I suspect it's died-down a bit, like Kinder prize prices!) a bit of a 'thing' about Tomte in wider collecting circles, there are in fact two or three other issuers of similar ranges of the smaller PVC vehicles in both Scandinavia and Germany ('West' at the time), and while I don't know of another Jeep, I think I have tracked-down 3 of four Land Rover's which we will look at here one day!

Also - as you can see - they survive a lot of punishment and aren't seen as being as rare as they may have been thought to have been when the 'thing' was at its height a decade or so ago. The one big problem with Tomte and the other brands are the clear vinyl windscreens which can harden and break-off with age/handling, got ripped-off - when still soft - by little-hands, or are to be found chewed!

I almost forgot these; they can go here! Brian Berke sent them to the blog some time last year - everything sent by anyone will get used in the end. They are both Tomte; No's 15 - Truck (which I've seen described as a Dodge or Commer?) and 16 - the Ford Thunderbird convertible - hey? Only the best for the streets of New York!

Co-indecently the truck is the best other Tomte Laerdal vehicle for military-use alongside the Jeep while the T-Bird is another with figures and a windscreen, between all the ranges there are quite a few 'soft-tops' and Brian's right-hand shot reveals another aspect of Tomte, the finish is poorer than some of the 'Germany/W. Germany' models.

Cheers Brian - T is for Two + Two!