T is for Two - O is for Other People's Rack Toys

A couple of rack toys, both of civilian subjects, both sent to the Blog in the last few months for the purpose of sharing with other loyal readers, a purpose ably dealt with right here, right now, in the order in which they were sent . . .

Theo van der Weerden sent me this a while ago, and it's interesting for two reasons, firstly it shows the other (or 'some more') figures to go with the road workers we looked at here and followed-up here, secondly it ties them into Tootsietoys, although Tootsie' were primarily die-casters and may well have bought the figures in, so the possibility they are/were originally Pioneer remains.

Also the third figure (with clipboard) has some similarities with one of the sets of ground-crew, which may tie them (the flyboys) into Tootsie' too? Although Tootsie' may itself be only a 'bought brand' these days, I'm not sure who owns the brand.

When Britains finally died and the assets were broken up, the Asian toy giant Tomy-Takara bought the branding and the farm/zoo tooling (or elements of it), which is why the US pretend Britains have that mouthful of a brand 'wuhabritain', the attached image is the current carding of spare tractor/harvester drivers, from Tomy, who still use the last common iteration of Britains official logo.

Brian Berke had purchased them for a project he's working-on, for which there will be one or two posts in the fullness of time here, but they are in the long-queue at the moment, maybe for the autumn or winter, there's a lot of nostalgia wrapped-up in them!

Note the painted-overalls are designed to tie-in with the main tractor brands (most are made in the same factories, they just change the body-shells), we see here New Holland, John Deer, Massey Ferguson and Claas/JCB I think/suspect. When you spend £180k or whatever it is these days, you get a free set of corporate overalls.

 I was that guy in red, I was dead-proud of my MF 'body-suit', it zipped right up the front so you could take a pee behind the hedge (or the tractor wheel!), had elasticised, wooly sleeve-cuffs, but loose trouser-legs to go over work-boots, or inside welly's and was made of something pretty tough as it lasted for years and was second hand when I got it -  well, when your uncle gives you his old tractor, he gives you his old overalls!

Thanks to both Brain and Theo for the shots, it's all grist to the mill, and all appears here, eventually!