News, Views etc . . . Bits and Pieces.

Inflatable

A few bits not worth whole posts . . . starting with a few balloon related items from the recent press, as the previous post was also balloon-related!

I saw this in the other day and got to thinking how cool? Fully inflated it's the ultimate diorama base for space figures, robots, aliens and rocketry stuff! Indeed, one's gone on my lottery-win 'wants list', yes; I know my lottery-win wants list is quite long, but I'm planning on a triple-Euromillions rollover win, so I think there's still room on the shopping-list for a giant planetary satellite - and a stronger tether!

You could put it in a little house, like an observatory with a domed-roof and a spiral gantry-walkway )similar to Foster's Reichstag renovation), so you could lean over and glue things to the surface of the moon, you could have Hing Fat astronauts poking-about in the dust doing a little exploration, then, just over their horizon a vast alien battle could be raging between Games Workshop changelings painted different colours, further on maybe Buck Rogers and Dan Dare - taking turns to photograph dinosaurs from the relative safety of a Marx space base! Clangers, Trolls, Daleks, gun-toting apes, they could all have a sector?

Another story (actually a dry thing about investment company divests) with a balloon involved this library shot from Getty Images of a street-parade Sonic the Hedgehog; had me to thinking what would your favourite inflatable be if you had the choice, I'd probably go with the LP robotic cycle-cop?

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Picture - Dennis Mathies

Unusual

I mentioned the other day that someone, possibly the Royal Engineers or RCT had locally-purchased Mercedes 'Wagon & Drag' combinations in Berlin Brigade, the above is the set I was trying to explain, although I think ours had timbered drop-sides like the trailer and no cantilevered plate overhanging the cab, but it was a long time ago in a life now far away.

Obviously they would have been that particular sun-faded British Army green with broad swathes of black over-painted or over-sprayed and have been wearing the Berlin Brigade bumper sticker.

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Inimitable

Sticking with military vehicles; preparing the figures and photographs for the articles forthcoming on the Hong Kong Blog page and posts, I found these; well, I didn't find them - I knew exactly where they were - but I encountered them again, and noticed that their product code was one of the question marks in the Blue Box A-Z entry listing, so I'll sort that out!

Various military versions, presumably, as the number (7438) appears in the civil vehicle list there are more colourful versions out there? Or did they just stick with the green and grey to save money?

There are two versions of the bike (a Dinky Toy piracy) and both wear the number, one which stands up and another which doesn't! A block was cut into the mould tool to allow for an unsupported, upright stance on later production models.

Instructional

Speaking of Blue Box and further to my recent treatise on accuracy and fraudulent frauds, research reveals that Tai Sang Toys are still going (as Tai Sang Industrial Co. Ltd.), still own the company (BBI) that owns Blue Box Holdings, also own the company (RBI) that owns Redbox and own several other trademark/brand names such as Cheerful Toy, Hitech Electronic Manufacturing and Talentoy Ltd. remaining, in fact, the administrative vehicle and legal parent of the 'group of groups' which includes the Blue Box group and the Redbox group, and that therefore - yes - Blue Box (in a roundabout way) presumably now have access to the Zee Toys/Zylmex moulds.

Therefore Tai Sang weren't renamed Blue Box (the impression given by the owner of both companies in his interviews with Sarah Monks), but rather that Blue Box were created as a separate entity following the conversation with/visit to Cecil Coleman, with Redbox following a few years later - they first appear in the mid-1970's; allowing for the brief entry in Garratt, published 1980/1.

Tai Sang still occupy some offices in the old Blue Box HQ building in Aberdeen, the rest of the plant now given over to other tenants some of whom are toy companies, so Tai Sang are also landlords! Redbox now has four mainland factories, apparently (interestingly) in a different region to Blue Box's. Rivals? Mr. Sell couldn't have been more wrong about Redbox if he'd said they never existed or were called Green Box!

So the Blue Box entry in the A-Z already needs a 2nd edit, with fuller entries on Tai Sang and Redbox in the pipeline, indeed the history section of all will probably be transferred to the Tai Sang entry with links to the various other-brand's listings; a similar exercise of which is ongoing, with Giant/Arco/Sarco, the Rosenberg's and the Gardener's at the moment.

Also makes you wonder if Blue Box's die-casting works in Macau ever had a hand in Zyll's prolific production? Over the weekend Peter sent some interesting Blue Box 6" figures to Paul, because there's always more to find; have to add them to the listing too!

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Blogging

Overdue

I've spent the last few weeks sorting out the small scale Britains/Crescent khaki infantry copies to get the job finished on them, the page at the top of this blog may well go, or I might rush-finish it at some point with links to the Hong Kong blog, but on the Hong Kong Blog there will be a new page with a brief run-through linked by figure type and set to the individual posts which will appear at the same time.

Unthinkable

Having taken over 7 years to get the first million hits up (last June was it?), it seems we are racing to the 2-million! With a lot of help from Russian clik-bots it has to be said, but with 700+ as a daily average (I took this screen cap as I liked the round 1000 of the previous day!), I find I'm starting to consider biting the bullet and re-jigging the blog to a more conventional scheme; I've always been happy with it in black, all my favourite Big O and Dragons Dream books have black pages, and I did jig it to a dark purple-brown with grey text for those who were having problems with it.

However, not having Internet on my laptop for the last nine months has shown me how much the layout appearance varies from PC to PC, and even I find myself squinting at the hot-link lists on some machines, so when I have a day to play on a mate's Internet I think a planer layout will ensue . . . anyone got any strong ideas or real bugbears? Speak now or forever hold you piece.

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Advertorial

Other Media appearances for toys in the last few months have included . . .

. . . this little chap; called Wilbur . . . the Penguin (no shit Sherlock!) is the new face of British Gas's 'Planet Home' series of TV and print adverts, expect toys any day soon, remember Buzzby, the British Telecom brat? Still turns up on feebleBay like a bad penny from time to time! AND . . . Royal Fail's The Stamp Bug . . . Hahahahahah!

While this story on a market slowdown was accompanied by an arena of Kiddybrix decedents; people, aliens (that look like aliens), aliens from long ago and far away (Tunisia and Shepperton mostly!), a bloke made from sewn-together body parts and various other miscreants and ner'do'well's, including a few pirates, Harry Potter and Genghis Khan! Who's the monkey-man in the grey cloak?

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Seasonal

I don't know where this year's gone, but it went there so fast I barely noticed its passing! Been an odd year, and it could get odder in the next 48 hours huh?!!

I've 'so' tried to stay out of that one, but it begs a question - if he is . . . you know . . . if he does . . . what will it say to the Kennedy conspiracists? I mean, if Kennedy can be assassinated by any one of those groups , organisations or individuals placed in the frame over the years - other than the nutter in the book store - why is the wigless one still here, hinting that "She" should 'get it' from an NRA member or two?

Anyway, closer to home; this is my seasons stash of Sweet Chestnuts, so the war can come and the world can go to hell, I'm alright for roast dinners until at least the 4th Jan! Just call me . . . dadaa-dadaa dadaa-dadaa, dadaa-dadaa dadaa-dadaa . . . Squirrelman!

You may be thinking 'But they're only chestnuts?', you don't know that three years ago we had a poor harvest and while I was picking through the damp, wormy remains on the forest floor, several squirrels up in the trees started throwing the spiky husks at me, while chattering "Fuck-off human" in Squirrelish at me!

This year was perfect; wet spring, warm summer, dry autumn and they fell before the rain; the squirrels were busy elsewhere and before you could say "Holy Rodent Roulade Squirrelman!" I'd bagged a stash.

Equally Seasonal is the annual appearance of Christmas cake decorations, an advent which gives slimmer picking every year in my experience, but these are being sold in The Works as crafting accessories, six for a pound - that was about US-75¢ a few months ago, but thanks to the basket-case Brexiteers it'll be about 7¢ by the time you read this! Anyway, if you need winter coverage for your Panzerlarger, now's the time to invest!

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Follow-ups

Mentioning the possibility of NRA members shooting a President to retain the right to bear arms (beyond irony!), I see that Nigella Fáràgê (rhymes with c**t) was wishing urban violence, revolution and Mad Max on us this weekend; fantasist twat, but, after the fascist headlines of last week I think we all know where we're going here, Hungary, Austria, Poland, Bulgaria, the UK (or at least England) and yes, even the 'States . . .

. . . although as I muttered warnings of burning cities on Dear Prime Minister a while back; none of this is surprising me, it's all just rather depressing, that we seem to be blindly marching off to war, to re-learn the lessons of the last two! The main lessons being 1) War is not nice and nobody's the winner; 2) It costs more than getting to the stars and 3) Liberal Democrats are eminently preferable to self-interested, brain-dead, flag-waving Nationalists.

This picture (from the tables in the background - sat in Picasa since 2011!) really needed to be in the Preiser/Elastolin band post the other day, but I forgot it! Home painted by one of those weird types who do such things "Ooh-yeah, ooooo, ooooh-yeah, Nazis, lots of lovely Nazis, just . . . just paint one more, yeah . . . oh yeah! Ooooh, ooooh, huh . . . fuck'yeaaaaaaaarrrrrrhh!"

Seriously; they are nice-enough figures as they come, and can be re-painted to any arm of the military, even Waffen-SS, but as black-clad 'bodyguard' thugs? Really? He's even painted-over a composition original - not just a sick Nazi but a bloody vandal! Still - guarenteed seller!

Safer ground with this one! A while back (January?), I did a post on the various cereal-premium kits, and there were a few mostly incomplete soft-plastic 'planes given away with UK comics at some point, this came via Gareth in the Spring and is an almost complete Messerschmitt Me.109, I posed the missing fuselage-half to show the 'whole' runner.

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Shouts-out

Repeating the call I made the other day, in case this post gets more/different traffic over time . . .

Someone stated that he wouldn't produce a complete list of Preiser as it would run to 100's of pages; actually it currently runs to less than 60 - with all or most of the blanks in place; and I am in the process of completing it for the A-Z entry.

However I have two gaps, one is the very early days (with any additions to the small 3xx series we looked at the other day), the other being the four-number codes from the 1970's/1980's.

Also while I have various lists of Aristo-craft, Bachmann, Faller, E-R, VIP, Vollmer and Walther's/Terminal Hobby Shop products as supplied by Preiser, I'm sure they are not all complete. If anyone can help supply scans of old catalogues (mine is PK 12 I think, but in storage now) or listings of early stuff or the mid-four number era, that would help, and all help will be acknowledged when I publish, also you will get my current draft by return.

The other call for help is: can anyone tell me anything about the two 'space-cars' in the picture? I am guessing they are from an early track-race game, as they have wings with rods that seem designed to follow a channel or stay within track-walls or something?

About OO-gauge compatible for size and with plastic bodies, heavy lead-wheels and clock-work mechanisms, this is the second pair of these I've picked-up, worse condition than the pair in storage, I have an idea there was a problem with one of them too, so I'm hoping that between the four I will cannibalise a decent pair, with all their bits intact.

The other pair is the same colour way, so I think that's it; 'a pair'; twice? I was thinking Chad Valley, Marx, early Lines/Mettoy or Rovex, but haven't the faintest idea, anyone know? Might they even be a Hornby or Hornby-Triang thing

The other items in the shot are an inter-war slush-cast Renault in need of tracks and a Japanese celluloid cart with blow-moulded figures and load.

Finally reader/follower Jacob Ndolu from Indonesia (Small Scale World dot com goes global!) asked me if I had any spare Wing Lung copies of Matchbox/Airfix, I don't; can anyone help him find some? I can pass details, just email me, or post links in the comments.

R is for Remember, Remember, the 5th of November....

How cool are these? Too cool for space school, that's how!

Brian Berke sent me these, and it's not so much that they're balloons that's the cool thing (although rocket balloons are pretty cool), it's that the backing-card is rocket shaped, you don't often see novelty-shaped packaging - perhaps you should!

And they are brought to us from Ja-Ru, which means . . .

. . . These (image also from Brian) almost certainly are as well, as the artwork is clearly from the same studio!

With this set you get more balloons and a pump, instead of the little inflation-tubes of the carded set. Don't think Ja-Ru actually made these; they just wheel and deal them about the place on behalf of an anonymous Chinese manufacturer.

It's been years since I saw balloons like this, when I was a kid they would be sold by vendors in the street, filled with helium, so they hung 'up', there were wobbly ones and the standard tear-drop as well, and giant, black ones with swirly-patterns on them like the page-end blocks of old books, but they had weak spots and would inevitably burst on the train on the way home.

It's a bit late for this year, but given the fear fireworks engender in some family pets, maybe seek-out some for next year and have your fireworks in the warmth and comfort of your living room!

WTF is for Wheeled, Towed and Fire-fighting!

The last/rest of the wagons, phew! I do have a few shots still in the Preiser folder, and may do a couple of military round-ups in a week or two, but this is the end of the Preiser 'season', and the last of the wagons donated to the blog by Gary Worsfold, and the last of my words on the subject - for now!

Top right; I could have put this in the pneumatic post, but it's neither agricultural, nor horse-drawn so it goes here as an oddment. The other two were both sent by Gary, one being a petrol engined beast: shouldn't be here at all, but it's such a tiny little thing, and clearly trying to be a wagon; a horseless wagon!

The next few are all from the catalogue as I haven't any of the fire appliances, but they need to be covered to get everything ticked-off. I hate to think what that scene would cost to produce at high-street prices, but when you get the chance (a lottery-win is required!) well worth the effort.

Steam-pump, hand-pump, coal and water, just add fire! These really are lovely little things let-down only by matching horses and drivers, but a little home-conversion would sort that out.

There's a fifth fire appliance, a 'crew-bus'! The wagon top right is perfect for British outline railway layouts, being the same to all intents and purposes as a rag-&-bone cart, or costa-mongers or street-traders wagon, and the sort of thing you'd find down the docks taking things from quay-side to warehouse.

The removal van or pantechnicon is a more European design, similar to the road-workers or construction-site vans or circus wagons, both of which we haven't covered in this season, the site wagons seem to be being phased-out, you don't see them like you used to; in real life or model railway catalogues, but I'm guessing that they are still used for [local?] removals?

Both Roco Minitanks and Preiser used to carry a few of them (we looked at a Preiser for Aristocraft one in an early wagon post here), but other than a couple of office-bodied military ones in Roco's last listing and the Preiser circus ones, they seem to have all but disappeared.

So to the death of horse-drawn transport as a mass feature of everyday life, the Daimler motor-wagen! It's a tiny little thing, fascinating, and explains in part why both horse-flesh-power and electric vehicles were still more numerous before the First World War.

Open-wagon look, central steering wheel, little engine in a box at the back, only two pedals (?) and barely room for three bodies . . . err . . . I mean bags of potatoes! Yet you can see the attraction - imagine Toad of Toad Hall; "Poop poop! Coming-through, no horses, make way for the future, plebs!" I probably should have used WWI figures for the size'ers. Lovely - thank you Gary.

Only for completeness, and very useful for war-gaming, the 17103 is an unpainted kit and provides for a whole street-barricade, not much use against T34/85's but it will slow-down Cuirassiers!

Modern versions of the previous trolleys with electric tugs and hand-barrows.

My final addition to these posts, and the last of Gary's contributions, and arguably the nicest, it's certainly a fine sight. Underneath the logs is the 'standard' Preiser frame and the red cloth is a nice touch, also interesting to find the practice was universal

A few close-ups; when I say it's arguably the nicest, I'm thinking the VIP coach is the better finished, the beer wagon is just 'the best', the post wagon is a dinky little thing, while this has a grandeur by dint of its presence, the obvious weight, the visual length - it needs a team of four I think?

The same log-wagon is currently still available in the catalogue, along with Santa and his sleigh, also two more of the more work-a-day wagons, these both having the older, spoke-wheels, all three would look good busying themselves next to the Matchbox/Revell Flower Class corvette 'down the docks'!

Finally - it's November and Santa has swopped his two horses for four reindeer; he needs four more animals, but only to cover the names Disney invented to accompany Rudolf!

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A few years ago, someone stated that he wouldn't produce a complete list of Preiser as it would run to 100's of pages; actually it currently runs to less than 60 - with all or most of the blanks in place; and I am in the process of completing it for the A-Z entry.

However I have two gaps, one is the very early days (with any additions to the small 3xx series we looked at the other day), the other being the four-number codes from the 1970's/1980's.

Also while I have various lists of Aristo-craft, Bachmann, Faller, E-R, VIP, Vollmer and Walther's/Terminal Hobby Shop products as supplied by Presier, I'm sure they are not all complete. If anyone can help supply scans of old catalogues (mine is PK 12 I think, but in storage now) or listings of early stuff or the mid-four number era, that would help, and all help will be acknowledged when I publish, also you will get my current draft by return.

N is for Nude Naturists, Natural Nudies and Naughty Naked Nymphs!

Well, like the best plot or part-work, one should keep the promised excitement until the end! Don't deny it, I can guarantee that a year from now this will have had way more hits than any other post this year . . .that's human nature!

Although I notice a post from a couple of weeks ago is garnering a lot of traffic, can't think why; too much text, not enough pictures was my opinion, but Blue Box always proves popular!

AND they're not all naked, AND there's at least one more Preiser post in the pipeline, but there's interesting stuff among the titillation of 18mm high pink plastic people with little or no clothing . . . painted on!

My five sets, across the board with two Merten, two Preiser and one - actually - Faller (which has been on the blog before . . . last time we did nakedness I think!), supplied by Preiser.

Below them are - on the left, a comparison between painted and unpainted sculpts of Preiser's older nudes and on the right some odd Merten's waterskiing; although my Merten's are all clothed they did do nudes as well . . .

. . . and as we can see, the Merten nudes have been to a Brazilian clinic if you know what I mean - next to Preiser's, they are err . . . very well endowed young ladies!

I rather like the skiffle group - dates the set somewhat! And to their left, what my odds look like as a full set.

The real reason for this post and one of the reasons for the whole season, this runner (left) has all the figures (but not the props) for at least three of the old catalogued 'six-figure' sets from Preiser, although it's never that simple.

The sets are 106 - Artists, Sculptor, Models and Accessories (of which the part-set top right was supplied to Faller - as seen, with painted figures and unpainted accessories), set 107 - female bathers and accessories (seen above and below as 10107) and 108 - Doctor, Patient, Revue Girls and Accessories (not currently listed, although the doctor and his patient are in the new 'single figure' series).

The budget version of 106 used to have five figure, but I can't remember which one gets dropped, I think one of them also appears in a vignette 'at the window', so it'll be that one!

Over the years the lump of stone the sculptor is working on has taken on more form, it used to be more of a shapeless block, with the beginnings of the side of a head chipped out of one corner.

All three creative's live-on in the new premium range, but only two of the models; now the sculptor has nearly finished sketching-in, but the seated artist has gone off to paint landscapes and his model is now on the beach as 26073!

The other 2607x sculpts are newer designs while the Doctor and his patient are sold together, giving a lie to 'single figure' series, the working girls having been dropped from the catalogue for now.

More nudity, now in the bathroom and the older sculpt makes yet another appearance as a bright-orange shop-fitting dummy/mannequin at a car-boot sale!

Because Europeans generally have a healthier relationship to nudity than us Anglo-Saxons - either side of the pond (speak for yourself Hugh!) - with less of the giggling, smirking or hypocrisy; it was often a feature of the coin-operated layouts you used to get in main stations and termini (do they still have them?) to have a nude (usually from one of these sets or the Merten one's (above) hidden in the window of an attic garret, or bedroom, for the grown-ups to find while the kids watched their train go round and round and disappear into and reappear out of the tunnels.

The two Merten sets I have with a third family group to their right on the top row, and various others sets from Preiser including a newer 'FKK-Strand' (nudist beach) set, again with a family element, it's really not about the titillation or 'stag' element (unlike the larger figures from Marx!), but rather allowing for the modelling of what are - to more enlightened societies - everyday things like tractors or station-trolleys, mechanics or moo-cows.

Remember that while Brexiteer Britains (or American Trumptons?) will get quite hysterical about child-safety at a large public baths (these days read 'high class, tourism related, end-destination, leisure facility, water-park') and see any unaccompanied male over 40 as a potential 'Facking Paedo out to brutally abuse YOUR kid and ruin house prices in YOUR area!', it is considered bad-form to wear clothing into the communal sauna at a German water park, and was back in the 1980's, whatever your age or gender, as the sauna contained people of all ages and both sexes.

Hard to date this one, as the early sets tend to be better painted with Merten, and attached to their runner, while later sets: poorer paint on paper-thin bases. Also Merten kept the same codes and packaging for, like, ev'ER, but these wouldn't suit bases, needing the runner, and with the poor paint - a late'ish set I think.

Below are the contents of the modern 107, the large number of signs are useful, if I had the time, money and space for railway modelling I'd use every sign I could get; try counting the number of free-standing signs in the high street next time you're there, the let-down of any large urban diorama is the lack of signage!

Originally 70 and 71, these were the first beach-sets from Preiser, and were used in the funny little range of 3xx coded sets we looked at briefly the other day, with their instructions on how to make cave-men! Unlike most Preiser beach-sets where the costumes are just pained-on; here they are modelled onto the sculpting.

The 308 contains two-each of most of both sets with one-each of the other four poses, I'm guessing a different four poses in each of several sets to make clear the contents of the 'spare' part-runners?

A couple more from Merten's catalogue, the canvass deck chairs in the lower set are a childhood memory, while comedians have obtained much mileage from the older wooden type, vis-à-vis people falling-off or through them or having them fold-up upon the victim: my memory of those steel-tube framed, canvas-covered one is that that was exactly what they did . . .

. . . if you sat in them too hard, or sat up too quickly, or turned-over to cook the other side too abruptly they would fold over you like some great, damp, sandy, clam, or catapult you onto the beach, earning you a mouthful of grit, much to the merriment of those around you - until it was your turn to laugh at the mechanism-failure of their own idiot chair!

ome more images; it's not just the wagons I photographed the hell out of! Half-hearted attempt at a pose comparison on top, close-up of the other Merten set in the middle and a few loose figures with the lilo's at the bottom, the lilo's were meant to be bendable into shape for leaning against - see some of the catalogue illustrations.

More sets from both makers, the Merten 'Nightlife' is a lot more explicit than the Preiser 'Revue Girls', coming complete with poles for the pole dancers it leaves little to the imagination, whereas the Presier girls can be (and in some sets are-) used as 'just' undressing - for the beach or bed.

Speaking of beds (and other pieces of furniture), Noch have a range of 'adult' sets that make this Merten one look tame, I do have a couple in storage, but they are for another day. The ethylene readymade figure makers of Eastern Europe have gone much further, while Preiser run with humor, having a little kid run off with big-sisters bikini-top!

If you get all the sets in this post you can build a busy beach scene, but what would it have to do with a model railway? Note how the wooden grid that comes with the beach-chair can be used to close the chair, as a platform/footway or as a wind-break or screen, even as a clothes-horse for drying towels!

Someone was listing the Preiser 'Adam and Eve' sets the other day, somewhere else (the bough of amphibiousness!), but forgot to mention the HO set; those big-scale purists huh?!!

Catalogue Picture of 1:22.5 / G-Gauge set

Very useful sets aimed at the real scratch-builder, like a naked 'multipose' set (err . . . because it's a naked multipose set!), you can create the pose you want from a kit of parts and then build-up clothing from a modelling compound and the spare-parts box.

Another one from the new single-figure prestige range is this 'streaker' from the old concert set, originally flashing some 1D-Beliber type fuckwit, she's apparently now undressing!

I saw one in the modeling shop in Basingrad the other day in the same colours as the original (red shorts, black top), so with all Preiser paint now to roughly the same high standard, I guess these are more about selling single figures for too much money, than about real exclusivity?

The rest! The set with the three African skin-types (providing the other 2607x poses above) was first issued about 15/20 years ago (?) in the larger scales (1:22.5 / G-gauge?) and is now in HO as well; I'm not sure where the photographers swimming-suit came from, but he's very-much a 'HE' anatomically, if you know what I mean, and shouldn't want to be seen dead in something so little removed from Borat's 'man-kini'!

That's enough bare-flesh to excite the lonely, the virginal and the puritanical, foaming-mouthed bible-belters (it's only the third group that worry me!) - back to wagons next time!

P is for Pneumatic

Getting toward the end of the wagon posts, and indeed, there are no wagons in this post, but there is useful stuff nevertheless, particularly for post WWII war gaming. While I went with 'pneumatic' there are also a few towed implements in this post as they didn't go in any of the others and apart from my carded disc-harrow, it's all catalogue imagery.

The box-art for my 912, Hanomag tractor and two agricultural trailers, while it's a post-war tractor, I suspect the engine, wheel arrangement and general layout is the same as the WWII airfield tender/tug and the older body could be scratch-built by someone with more skill than me? No real-life model number is given for the tractor but the current slightly different model in the catalogue is given as an R55, so this may be a first attempt at the same vehicle, or a slightly earlier/smaller engined model?

I've had the kit for a long time, it was an impulse purchase at a toy show (because it was cheap!) back in the early 1990's and I've never got round to making it, but in order to produce better images, I got the glue out!

But, I'm getting ahead of the image order! The parts in my set contain a colour-reverse on the box-art for the trailers, with oxide brown frame body-structure. Codes on the runners suggest the tractor was also available separately as 600, which would put it just ahead of the circus wagon/trailers, a job also now occupied by the R55 in the catalogue.

You'll also notice that I'm short two axles! I'll eMail Preiser and find out if their customer service is as good as Hornby-Airfix's current 'spares service'. It means I didn't make the tractor, and it can wait until we next look at tractors.

Full instructions; note that the runners are here translated as 'shots' (not sprues!). There is nothing to stop you/the modeller from converting these for pulling by draft-animals, a centre-pole attched to the front of the ridged A-frame, where the towing A-frame joins it, with a small wire pin to allow hitching/a bit of movement in the pole?

Made-up, and ready to roll; clearly the pneumatic tyres date these somewhat, and while the towing/draw-bar system is not common in the UK, it is the system used by 'Wagon & Drag' set-ups, operated by some UK hauliers - we had them at United Carriers back in the 1990's and you sometimes see Parcel Farce or Royal Fail dragging them round the M25 in the middle of the night - they are still quite common on the continent.

In Berlin somebody did have these, RE or RCT I think, pulled behind short-nosed, 3-axle Mercedes L-series (?) trucks; all locally purchased, probably paid-for by the Berlin Senate (?) and mostly used for bulk-rubbish runs, getting bulk stores from the BIS and hauling Ammo up from Gatow during Rocking-Horse or Trial-Canter alerts, whether BAOR had them or not I don't know, but I never saw them in use up there.

Current offers show the low-sided trailer with the R55, and the high-sided one in a new set of potato harvesting, I've done this king of potato harvesting and it's back-breaking work, the lifter just throws the spuds all over the place and you have to go along picking them up and raking the soil and stones and crap with your fingers, to find the smaller ones which have been covered up by the dirt or dust!

The shot also shows various other towed equipments in the current catalogue including a horse-box and a rather useful grass/meadow roller which would add that little 'extra' to a large Subbuteo set-up, especially the cricket range?

More trailers from the catalogue, both clean shots and dirtied 'in situ', the ridged draw-bars with resting/manoeuvring wheels shown here are exactly like the stuff you find in the UK and on most modern military trailers and that barrel tanker would look good behind a Roco Magirus or older Jupiter 6x6!

The roller is no longer in the catalogue, but will probably return from time to time, while other animal-drawn equipment (still in the catalogue) includes a single-furrow plough and a small reaper. Note the painting of the cattle back in the 1970's was poor, especially compared with the modern efforts.

Another useful set in the unpainted range, it also contains various things not in the catalogues at the monument, such as the Alpine belled-cows who's attendants match the wagon-teamsters/Alpine-horn chaps we looked at the other day. The plough is also included along with various gardener/gardening 'six-figure' sets and the wonderful peacock.

Loose ends; in the modern agricultural range, include a tractor mounted reaper and some towed cultivation tools, it may be that the reason for the disappearance of the cattle-drawn harrow is due to a move away from 1930-60's steam-era layouts to more modern outline, where tractors are meant to be in the background?

There's certainly a nice harrow here along with what Preiser calls a 'dung-spreader' which looks to me more like a small-farm's fertiliser spreader, but that might be a 'lost in translation' moment? We had a very similar one ('Varispeader'?) with a square-topped hopper; I hate to think what would have happened if you filled it with 'dung', but I suspect it might have involved a custodial sentence!