F is for Follow-up - Dime Store Row Crop Tractors

The first of a few (?) follow-ups to things seen recently here at Small Scale World, and it's those pesky row-crop tractors, a design which never took off here in the UK, indeed, while there may have been a few demonstrators, or experimental imports, they were never a 'thing' over here at all, but, nevertheless, British toy companies ran with them, as mould-swaps or straight lifts from US dime-store vehicle manufacturers, and may have instigated some?

 

Partially as a follow-up to this post;

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2025/11/m-is-for-mohawk-and-more-military.html

 

A line-up of the recent additions to the genre, with from the left marked Tudor Rose, x2 unmarked, marbled blue is slightly larger, both likely British, possibly Tudor Rose or Kleeware, the previously seen (in the above-linked posts) marked Made in England in military green, and a marked Banner in dark blue, The last two being bigger again, but not the same. Obvious differences in wheels, also contribute to the question marks.

 

Comparison between the Banner and unknown tractors, frankly the unknown (which I floated as possibly Kleeware last time) is the better moulding, did it come first, or was it re-cut? Maybe it was a mould swap with someone else - Pyro, Wannatoys or Wyandott - with the Banner being a copy of whatever donor's tool, the England mark was using?

 

I then found the military pattern Banner-marked version, so re-took the comparison, light conditions differed, so here's two, the lower image is eye-true colours, and you can see how the engine details are cleaner and more symmetrical on the Made in England - left hand of each pair.

 

The two Banner's, the blue one is marked Banner USA, the military-green one has had the USA removed, otherwise they are the same, and one wonders if it's a case of domestic and export, and if so, which is which?

 

They both have a hole on the right side of the engine-bay, which could be for a missing flywheel (more normally found in the other side in the UK, when present), or a higher-price-point's clockwork conversion, unlikely as the wheel is partially obscuring it?

 

The two known British ones, they are different mouldings, with the yellow Tudor Rose one slightly smaller, and only marked in the upper portion of the hollow engine cavity, while the 'army' one has the Made In England along the length of the engine on the right-hand side.

 

A larger, closer to 1:32nd scale, soft polyethylene Tudor Rose row-crop, in reversed colours from the smaller one, which is an earlier 'styrene, or less stable polymer (phenolic or urea-formaldehyde type?), but with perfectly stable polystyrene wheels.

 

Kleeware marked wreaker-truck (a straight mould-swap of the Pyro dime-store model) behind the 'England' pulling its gun, just for a colour study between the two, and because it was kicking about! The gun is a much copied design, and really, I don't think anyone knows who did it first (Auburn Rubber?), or in what size! And - of course - there was that close connection between Kleeware and Tudor Rose, and between both of them and Pyro on the space-stuff.

 

This artillery combination appears to be the one seen in this post;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2016/11/d-is-for-dimestore.html

 

Where a mix of a Bell machine-gun, a pair of unmarked Gilmark (possibly Tudor Rose) AFV's in bright colours, and some of the 'Built-Rite/Hardy/Kilty/Loeser/Spencer' semi-flat GI's were all found together with the tractor-gun combo'?

 

We've looked at them before, and looked at three versions of the Merit (J&L Randall) offerings, with solid wood, solid-rubber and hollow-backed plastic wheels like all the above. When I've got them all together, we may be able to work out a timeline of piracy, from US originals, to n'th generation Hong Kong clones!
 

All six. This post doesn't prove anything, but it didn't set out to, beyond the fact that there are many of these, and their heritage/origins aren't clear! When marked, we can say, they are what they claim to be, even if the tool is someone else's, but when unmarked, it's all a bit grey. More images are here;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2025/03/b-is-for-banner-and.html, and I bought them in the end!

 

And knowing at least one was used as an artillery-tractor, I'll have to look at them all again, with the guns present? There were several already in the stash, mostly military green ones, but there are some other 'farm' ones.

L is for Loose Lots - Sandown - Everything Else

Last of the purchase posts from Sandown Park, it's funny I've mentioned the stash/pile and Battle of the Planets in the last 24/48 hours, and Bushy managed to name-check them both in the last few hours (the irony being, he doesn't have a pile), almost like he can't bare me to post original stuff, but that's all I do; original images, original copy and original opinions - isn't that right readers? While someone else has commented, forgetting what he said about me a few years ago, but stupid people have the brains of goldfish!

 

A nice bunch of Charbens circus. Circus, like Pirates, have become a bit of a side interest for me, but then so have dime-store vehicles, parachute toys, LB, stationary novelties, Cracker & capsule toys, and, and, and! I think the Tiger is quite unusual here, and the different colours of the dogs costumes, and horses furniture, make the sample more interesting.

 

Speaking of dime-store vehicles, here's a couple more of the small, US pattern, row-crop wheeled tractors, Western plastic crap, predating the Hong Kong plastic crap by a decade or two! As you can see, these are basically the same model, but different sizes, and I have near-on a dozen now, nearly all different, so when they're all together, we'll have a proper look/comparison.

 

The blue one is marked Banner, and is the same as one of my military ones, the yellow, is not the smallest, so may be the same as the Merit/Bell ones, but marked Tudor Rose?and possibly the same as the unmarked pair we saw last September? That's a check I can make one evening this summer, when sorting over at the storage unit, where I think there's four or five of these?

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2025/09/l-is-for-last-mays-lots-of-lovely-loot.html 

 

Action Man command post field telephone set, which was in the biscuit tin from Isaac. This would be connected to landlines (the origin of the phrase, predating the mobile telephone!) connecting the forward trenches/positions, with a platoon net, company net and 'chat net', set at the evening O-group (Orders). Sometimes, on Salisbury Plain, in the middle of the night, you'd pick up Russian spy trawlers in the Channel, due to the power of their sending sets, and the aerial properties of all the D10 landline network!

 

Tomte Laerdal Renault Floride Cabrio sports car, note how much better the wheels are moulded on these than on the Galanite ones we saw the other day;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2026/04/l-is-for-local-loot-2-of-2.html

 

A couple of interesting Animals, Adrian found the horse, I think, which is similar to, but not the same as the Britains Shetlands, longer, thinner legs for a start! The composition squirrel is damaged, but was always a small delicate moulding, and squirrels are another thing I have a soft spot for, along with elephants, and hedgehogs!

 

Better Hong Kong copy of Lone Star, than some (but may be Spanish, South American or even an actual Lone Star, hard to tell, until I compare), and a kit accessory, possibly from a Jacques Cousteau ship model of Calypso?

 

Upper lot are Holly or Holly-like, we saw some of them in the recent Gary Gygax posts;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/search/label/Gary%20Gygax

 

While the lower shot shows their 'rubber jiggler' clones, as part of my favourite childhood set, indeed, the Dimetrodon to the right, is pretty-much how I remember mine to be, prior to my tearing all the spines free of each other, and ruining it!

 

Random, newish Dino', which turned-up during the course of the day!

Thanks to Adrain, Gareth, Isaac and Steve for bits at the show.

L is for Last May's Lots of Lovely Loot - Vehicles

Before I can get on to the very late Plastic Warrior show reports, I need to get the previous, and even later, Sandown Park's loot out of the way, which was purloined a few weeks before the PW show, so let's get them out of the way sharpish! Although I don't think you can say sharpish, when the posts are three months overdue!

 

A small Gescha/Gama style tin-plate tank, bearing more resemblance to some early post-war APC's, with a small turret, and high superstructure. I can't remember if it had branding, or if someone gave me a brand? Space Tank!

 

Two mystery (when I saw them) die-cast military vehicles. a nice inter-war armoured car, actually Charbens, it is die-cast alloy, but has lead wheels, and a British tanker-truck, which was marked Britain or England I think, the trouble with doing these posts so long after the event, is you forget stuff! But while in the style of Dinky, it's not, and is probably a re-painted Benbros Esso tanker - note the red on the paint-chips! Interestingly, a re-issue of an old Timpo mould.

 

Vintage Tootsie-Toys AFV's, one marked the other anonymous (can't remember which was/is which), I think the lorry may be pre-war (1930's), while the Armoured-car might be just post-war? But that's going on the wheels/tyres (or 'tires', they're American after all!), which could, just as easily, be replacements? You won't believe the trouble I had, getting the two MG's to look right, they are suspended, free-floating or hanging, between small bumps in the moulding, and loose with age, and were a bugger to get right!

 

Another Charbens, this all die-cast, wheels and body, and darker green than some I've seen, and while not the most accurate version of Humber out there, it's a darn-sight better than the plastic one they did later!

 

Two more French 'readymades', one each Noreda (front, Jeep-like) and Injectaplastic (behind, DKW with Jeep trailer), we've seen them both before, but they were clean, and cheap, so I took them home with me!

Banner 'row-crop' tractor in military green, possibly depicting an Oliver tractor (US Readers?), and two copies, the copies are slightly smaller all-round, and have a few detail differences, unmarked, I hope they are in Bill Hanlon's book!

 

Again, newish to me, similar to some Archer space cars from the 'States, I was told these were actually British so Kleeware or Tudor Rose, but the larger one is a Marx future car, the smaller however is a Pyro/Kleeware moulding, so could the Marx also be a mould-swap with Kleeware?

 

Two teeny-tiny battleships, probably from a late-Edwardian board game, and a larger lead yacht, which could also be a board-game piece, or a smaller component of something more decorative? It's covered in what appears to be black paint, but which could just be severe oxidation?

 

Because they came with a T4, these two reprobates have got themselves into the vehicle post! In the style of MUSCLE or Kinnukiman, these two Thunderbirds Keshi are new to the collection, along with the little Thunderbird Four.

 

A damaged Manurba coach and spare helmet crest for a Lone Star knight are snuck in at the end, just to get them off the laptop!

B is for Banner . . . and?

Also shot at Sundown Park in November, but not purchased (because I think I have them in the collection already), was this series of comparison shots between a clearly Banner-marked 'row crop' tractor, from the US and two probably British copies, of unknown origin, and both unmarked.

 

The Banner is larger, and has better sculpted tyre treads on the front wheels, it also has a towing hitch missing from the smaller copies. I don't know who made the copies, but when we saw a similar copy, it was more close (with tow-hitch and marked Made in England), and came stitched into a gift box, with Gilmark-copy vehicles, 'Bonnie Bilt' figures and a Bell gun, which probably rules them out of responsibility for these smaller ones?

P is for Plastic Toys!

The title of Bill Hanlon's excellent book on Dimestore Dreams of the '40s & '50s, and the core of this blog, no matter how much metal, wood, glass or card sneaks in! Alongside the military vehicles, which Mr Berke sent us the other day, was a plethora of civilian transport delights, most being of the 'dime store' variety, and this post is looking at the larger examples.

Left to right we have here, a 1911 Maxwell Roadster, a 1911 Daimler and a 1911 Renault, all made in Hong Kong, and my initial thought - given the leery colours - was Wilton's cake decorations, but they are different, so these may have just been pocket-money rack toys, like the ones we saw in a bit of a mini season a while back, but lovely additions to that particular oeuvre!

Two of the vehicles had been enhanced with 'ticker-tape' type-written graphics, which had seen better days, but with weathering/discolouring looked like a comercial exercise, until you realised one was a Marx tanker, the other a Dillon-Beck 'Wannatoy' utility/tool-locker truck, so I removed the remnants, which proved easy, as the glue was some water-based animal-stuff, like the old 'Gloy' pots at school!

 

There were actually a fair few Wannatoy or DB marked examples, including the boat and three 'rigid' trucks - we saw the artic's here, years ago! Indeed i think there were five different markings between the seven items. One of the spare cab/tractor-units had a different hitching mechanism/method, and I thought I might be looking for new trailers, but the aforementioned Hanlon book put me right.

 

I had seen the unmarked yellow bit, and decided it must be part of a construction vehicle or earthmover, but it turned out it's the other half of the 'new' Wannatoys cab design, but I'm still looking for the outer-end of the arm, for now it can do service as a tow-truck!

 

A lot of red, in the parcel, it has to be said! Three lovelies here, with a Renwal delivery van, we know it's a delivery van because it has DELIVERY written across the roof for police helicopters!

 

In the middle a Thomas Toys marked sedan, or at least I think it's called a sedan, in the UK it would be a 'family saloon car'! With a soft polyethylene dream to the right! I thought it might be a T-Bird and was googling with image-results by year '51, '52, '53 etc. . . and getting nowhere, before switching to Processed Plastic soft top, and finding it was a '56 Cadillac El Dorado, which I should have recognised, but I only drove the hard-top!

 

Stop me if I've bored you with this already, oh! You can't, it's a Blog . . . Hay-ho! Many years ago, like about 25, I worked for a stretch-limo' firm for a bit, actually ran into a childhood mate, but have since lost touch with him again!

 

Anyway, they were mostly shitty-old Lincoln Towncars from the 90's, ratted, sparking mother-boards you had to hold against the shocks with your spare hand to keep the gizmo's shining for the punters, awful things which had been hammered doing the LA-San Fran-Las Vegas triangle, 100's of thousands of miles. And in various liveries of silver, graphite, grey, white (weddings!) and two-tone.

But, there was one original 1960's 'Beatles & Stones', presidential Cadillac El Dorado ('68 I seem to recall), in black, with all leather, slightly stretched with a little B&W TV, and mahogany veneer bar, it only sat about six (some of those Lincoln's could hold 12 or 14 topless tarts!) in a small broken-U, but compared to the modern shit, it was one classy lady!

 

One summer evening I parked-up in the big Sainsbury's at Hatch Warren in Basingrad, while my fare did their function, and I went in for a snack and when I came out I had a crowd! She was lovely, and this little toy, albeit an earlier model, will remind me of her! She broke down as often as the others, though!

If you need a Limo', go to a reputable firm, with new cars and a landline, stay away from the local-press guys with their old cars, a mobile number and maybe a hosted webpage, you could spend half the night by the side of the motorway, or miss your flight, and you rarely get your money back!

This was funny, I'd literally mentioned it in passing a few days before it dropped on the porch, unannounced! It's the dairy boardgame, which was from Hasbro, and four players go around delivering milk, eggs and butter (I think) which fit over the different studs on the back! There was a green one in the parcel, but Royal Fail did their worst, and I have a bag of green bits waiting for a glueing session.

 

Some more polyethylene, the two to the left are in the style of all that German or Scandinavian vinyl, but in 'ethylene, and probably some similar infant/first/early-learning type thing, 1970's maybe? The tractor is lovely, marked Hong Kong, it is a direct copy of the Jean Höfler one which I have in military and civil types, so it will be nice to compare all three sometime.

While the sports car [muscle car!] is in a similar vein to the first two, I suspect enhanced with aftermarket or old leftover kit transfers, and while I would clean them off if I was sure, I'm not, and I'm even less sure about the blue paint, not obvious in the shot, but which runs around the lower quarter, and might/might not actually be factory-finish, so I wouldn't want to lift that at the same time?

Two of the little Pyro's, an Ideal 'aerodynamic' trailer (very 1950's), which is a fair lump of stable cellulose-acetate, a Banner road-grader, I think I have the military-green one somewhere (?) and a locomotive conductor's caboose from Lido Lines!

 

While this is a mystery, there's a feint USA mark under the right corner of the bonnet/hood, but no other markings, and it clearly had some interactive properties which are now half-missing, a hole in the rear only reveals that which is no longer there, while a sliding piston thing at the front has no obvious stop, trigger or function? I don't think it's dropping low enough to fit in a road-slot?

 

I suspect either a jump toy, with the trigger in another component (ramp or launch-mechanism), or a magnetic novelty with parts/a corresponding magnetic-wand missing? So any help tying this down to a maker or a set would be happily accepted!

 

And many thanks to Brian again, for this pile of brightly-coloured treasures!

P is for Picasa Clearance - Banner and Pyro Trucks

Just a quickie, this was in the folder with the spaceships - which is a bit daft, so let's get them out and away!

Both 'dime-store' vehicles from the late 1940's or early 1950's with Banner's cross-over plastic/tin-plate lorry behind and the larger size of Pyro troop-carrier in front of it.

Kleeware carried the Pyro vehicles in the UK, but this is a US moulding, I think you can tell - in the photo - from the sharpness and shade of the figures (?), in 'life' you will find different markings of course.

I don't know if Banner had a similar UK partner? Damp (these were from a collection kept in Florida) has attacked the tin-plate [canvas] tilt with surface rust which has to be watched, because once it's got a  hold it will always threaten to spread.

Another old picture from a sorting session at the old house back in 2009, we looked at the Tudor Rose at the time I think and maybe one or two others (Kleeware), but most would go back to storage, however we may well have them all back here by July, so there may be some in the autumn, but with everything else coming out of storage, it may be a while before we get round to some things in any event!

It's a fuzzy, long-shot I'm afraid, but you can spot another Banner truck with squarer tilt, along with a station-wagon and HO road-grader, in the mid-distance. Next to them are the other marked Pyro military (the Kleeware being out of shot or in one of the tubs) . . . what else can you recognise?

There's a Gilbert fire-monster from Dr. No.(the dividing/splitting yacht is hiding somewhere?), a rather warped Ideal jeep, Aurora window-display Patton, Tim Mee, the Raphael Lipkin tank transporter (we also looked at, at the time) and Conqueror, a few space-tanks, lots of 'Empire' and HK polymer, Thomas, a Tudor Rose battle-group in the foreground, Majorette hiding by the table, Manurba civil trucks (pale green blobs to the left), Auburn, Wannatoys, Irwin, Reliable, Wells-Brimtoy, Tomte/Galenite, a boxed 'old bill' bus and a whole tub of artillery!

All good fun, most still to come on Small Scale World! And no - I can't remember why a half a pirate ship is in evidence, their tub was elsewhere!

Added at the last minute, from another folder, this is the Kleeware marked, 'military' plastic version of the Pyro smaller-size drinks-crate wagon! We've seen it with the others, here before, but it gets it out of Picasa and off the laptop!

M is for Mini-trucks, Part 1 - Cab designs and overview

This set of 7 posts (following) was born out of the catalogue page the the boys over at Moonbase let me use the other week (month?!), and the fact that some time ago (over a year and a half) I said I'd do a thing on the mini-trucks from Hong Kong that were born out of the Kleeware trucks that were themselves apparently copies of the Dinky original of the post-war Humber.

Along the way it ties up a couple of other loose-ends...

Bottom right shows the two larger scale Banner trucks, I've looked at before, they were also produced in the UK by Kleeware (from borrowed moulds), next to them is the small scale Pyro/Kleeware lorry.

At the top are a Pyro cab unit (or 'Semi', or...see 'comments' the other day!!) in army green next to a Wannatoys red one.

Sandwiched between them all are a Cheerio pick-up truck apparently from the UK and the Wannatoys cab again to compare.

These mostly generic 1950's Lorry Cab Designs all have some features in common, such as the divider down the bonnet (hood) or the cab-roof lights, or the military 6x6 truck type wheel-arch headlights.

Alongside them ran metal vehicles of similar design and these are all from a Mettoy Playcraft (later; Corgi) catalogue of unknown age. The lower engines look very 'Denis' in execution, my local Lorry builder, they used to test-drive the chassis round Fleet when we were kids.

One of the loose ends; the upper shot shows the Triang Mettoy Breakdown Lorry, it is as you can tell the same vehicle as the two military ones in the original Littlewoods ad. Below it is the Lone*Star Cab Design.

The Matchbox take on the Humber lacked the sentry-holes and detail of the Dinky version and was not a copy, while the Dinky Lorry begot all the others!! I think?

The Humber was the Post-war (WWII) replacement for the plethora of 15cwt (UK) and 3/4-ton (US) trucks in service by the end of it. It would also provide the chassis for the wheeled APC immortalised in Northern Ireland as the PIG.

Kleeware (top left) to modern Christmas cracker toy (bottom right), these are the little beasts we look at in the 6 posts below this one.