H is for Hummer, Humvee, HMMWV, HumBug

The Hummer, which for some reason turned into Humvee (a slightly longer abbreviation?!) was based on the Lamborghini Cheeta, which Tamiya made a motorized kit of many years ago.

It has now been in use for 20+ years, and has had time to become a common plaything, with various accurate and not so accurate versions available. I posted the Supreme/SP Toys examples here a while ago, so lets look at some of the others...

Top to bottom, left to right;

Simply marked 'China' this hard topped troop carrier version is covered in markings, and looks like the sort of thing you'd find in a military parade somewhere in the Far-East. Next we have the Johnny Lightning/Playing Mantis open pick-up 'GS' version and was issued with a nice GMC pick-up in the same colour scheme. Another 'China' model finishes this row, an M966 TOW launcher.

These three are all by the same Chinese company, are much smaller than the others at around 1:87/1:90 scale, they are also quite crude models.

The bottom row starts with another Chinese model, a soft-topped GS, again covered in markings, most imaginary! Finally the two variations of the Hornby Railways Hummer as issued in the Battle Zone play-set. They are the only all-plastic ones in this line-up. [They are to be re-issued this year (2010) in the same play-set but with a new name; 'CODENAME STRIKEFORCE']

Finally - a few versions of the modern - made in HK/China - Matchbox Hummers, one civilianized as an H1 Hummer (not called a Humvee? even though Mattel have called it so on the box!), although using the same moulding as the military versions, along with three paint variants of the M966 TOW vehicle. Two with quite good US desert camouflage, and one in a sort of Giraffe pattern! These all came from Tesco over a couple of years for about 99p each.

The figure used for scale, is a new Chinese piracy of recent Revell production, being a 30mm copy of a 23mm American soldier.

S is for Supreme/SP Toys, Part 2 - Soft-Skin Transport

A trooping bus and a variety of Hummer's/Humvee's. These are closer to 1:72, and fully compatible with the better offering from Hornby a few years ago, and the metal ones from Matchbox.

6x6 trucks, the tankers have a WWII Chevrolet type cab, while the GS/troop carrier has a more modern chunky design. I once saw a window display that had used the contents of a couple of these sets, and therefore know the GS truck has been done in desert colours, but don't yet know if the tanker came in a temperate scheme?

Smaller soft skinned vehicles, most are militarised versions of the civil carded sets, with a red Fire engine to compare. Again we find a WWII Beep rubbing shoulders with modern stuff. The silver van is an armoured car of the bank delivery type.

These Oshkosh M977/985 HMETT's only need a quick re-paint and you have some nice modern vehicles in several configurations. I'd drop the ore-carrier though! Note two different crane designs and body types. The tractor unit - without the ore-wagon trailer leaves scope for scratch building another variant such as the M984 wrecker.