It's the gonad-challenged leader of the
4,000-odd-day Reich; Herr Adolf Hitler, in his Mercedes tourer, with
straight-backed driver at the controls. Shot two years ago at the then
September Sandown Park show, this has been sat in Picasa ever since, but two
years is about par for the stuff in the queue! Adrian Little of Mercator (link)
is to thank for allowing me to photograph it.
I can't remember if Adrian said if it was Elastolin or Lineol, but it has a porcelain-head Hitler so it could be Elastolin, although other people
bought-in the figures for their vehicles; Arnold,
Bing and Karl Bub, for instance, so I stand to be corrected.
The detail of the model is on a par with
modern, similarly scaled (and unnecessarily expensive) 'executive desk toy'
type limited edition things, and compared with my Land Rover, is in a different
league.
The main construction is tin-plate, but
much use is made of die-cast and white-metal parts, down to the little
door-handles! The wheels are almost scale replicas with rubber tyres, steel
rims and cast hubs on rod-axles.
If one thing lets it down it's the
steering-wheel which is a simple tin-stamping which doesn't look right next to
all the other, finer detailing? The Fuhrer also has a moveable arm so he can do
his flicky-little Nazi salute, or madly wave at his granny!
I can't remember where this came from; it's
cropped out of a larger (but un-watermarked) image, from somewhere - auction
catalogue on feeBay? Anyway, you can see the cheaper, rival Märklin model has all-tin wheels/tyres and
simpler figures, albeit three of them, probably small O-Gauge/40mm to boot?
Whether the main-subject above is also a 1936 model Mercedes or not I don't
know, there are differences between the mud-guards of the two vehicles?
A worthy - if temporary - winner of 'Best
Toy Ever' I hope you'll agree; despite it's background politics, it's a
beautiful thing and many thanks to Adrian for the chance to photograph it.
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