VANGUARDS 1/43 MORRIS MINI MINOR DELUXE 850, 2006 MARKS & SPENCER ADVERT, FEATURING TWIGGY

 Marks and Spencer re-launched their clothing range in 2006 and teamed up with two sixties icons, Twiggy and the Mini. The Mk1 Mini modelled here was bought by Elstree Studios specifically for use in the advert and sent to the London branch of legendary wall paper and fabric design house De-Gournay, who painted the car with a pink cherry blossom design. It was then used by M&S for over a year before being given away in a competition. It is now owned by a Mini enthusiast who exhibits the car at shows.Shop here

EFE 1/76 PLAXTON - GREENLINE

This Plaxton is on the Maidstone-London express run. The quite complex livery iswell reproduced, and there are some very nice detail touches such as the excellent Kent horse logo. Shop here

QUARTZO 1/43 COOPER T51 CLIMAX 4CYL - CHRIS BRISTOW

 

The Cooper T51 powered by the 2.5 litre 4 cylinder FPF Climax engine pushed out 220 bhp at 6,500 rpm. Chris Bristow, the young up-and-coming Bristish driver, qualified the car in third place, on the front row of the grid beside Brabham's Cooper T53 and eventual race winner Stirling Moss in his Rob Walker entered Lotus 18. Bristow dropped from fifth to ninth when he retired on lap 17 of the 100 lap race with gearbox problems, Bristow was sadly to lose his life at Spa only three weeks later in the same car.

The model is finished in the BRP colours of lime green and red, known as British Grazing Green at the same time. An extra high tail is fitted, although unfortunately as an add-on there is a gap between the bodywork and this extra tail piece. Otherwise the finish is similar to the other Coopers reviewed previously from the Portuguese company. The model is a limited of 2,000 pieces. Shop here

MINICHAMPS 1/43 MERCEDES L3500 FLATBED PLATEFORM TRAILER

This model is the MB L3500 1950's Mercedes open back truck with removable plastic tilt. The green colour and typical black chassis are classic Mercedes features, whilst the bonnet top is adorned by a scale etched three pointed star badge. The head and tail lights are particularly good, as are the semaphore turn signal indicators mounted high up on the rear of the cab. This truck is real classic and is sure to appear in famous German liveries. See more

HOT WHEEL TATTOO MACHINES OPEN WIDE 1992

 

 As you can see this is a very nice horror artworked themed vehicle. Officially this was part of the 1992 Tattoo release by Hot Wheels, there's a few other okay vehicles such as Street Dog (vicious dogs) and Skull Rider (skull and snakes), both of those are on BMWs by the way. They are not in the league of Open Wide but you might want to look into them. The rest of the Tattoo series isn't worth looking into at all. By the way they come with a few bonus tattoos of dentures too, I threw mine out, the paper had gone a bit yellow even inside the sealed pack so it's a gamble if you get yours and they actually can be applied to skin if you're into that. The blister pack is actually quite tall as well, a lot taller than you're average 1/64 sized blister card. You've got to take this out the pack though, it's that good. 

Open Wide is basically a van covered in a number of dentures with fangs, they don't all belong to the same owner as some are for thin snake like mouths and others wide canine types. All have some yellow substance dripping from them meaning getting bit by these dentures isn't just going to hurt or cause the loss of a limb, but if you somehow survive, you're likely to contract rabies or some other awful disease as well.   The colours of the van are yellow and maroon, applied in sort of a spray painted look. The Hot Wheels vehicle itself is nothing special, basically a van with very average cheap wheels, it's officially a Baja Breaker brand van. It's an ugly van, the designers couldn't decide if they wanted a rectangle rear window or a ship type circular one so went with both in the one bit of plastic. Without the great paintwork you'd probably pass on this Baja Breaker thing. It is a sturdy Hot Wheels vehicle though I'll give it that. 

The artwork is brilliant though! You've got eight fanged dentures on this thing. Three on both sides, and two on the roof. Unlike most Hot Wheels artwork, the three mouths on each side aren't the same but are six different mouths opened in different menacing poses. This means you can display it with either side facing the front then change it for a different look. There's no dentures on the rear doors, probably because the designers were so embarrassed by the circle rectangle window mistake, that they forbid the artists drawing any attention to it.  

Open Wide is a must own for any horror artwork die-cast vehicle collector.--James N Sympson  Shop here

SCHUCO 1/43 BARKAS B 1000 BOX WAGON - MINOL

Barkas was the name of a car manufacturer based in Saxony and the trademark for this utility vehicle. These were pick-up trucks and produced by the VEB Barkas works in Karl-Marx-Stadt in the former East Germany. In 1961, the company began the series production of the completely newly developed Barkas B1000 as a "rapid transporter". There were versions as boxcars and flat-bed trucks and vans. Shop here

SCHUCO 1/43 MERCEDES-BENZ UNIMOG 404 LF8 HAUERN FIRE DEPARTMENT RESCUE TRUCK

The Mercedes-Benz Unimog traces its roots to the late ‘40s as a simple, four-wheel drive, multi-purpose agricultural vehicle. It has evolved to become a sophisticated truck with a variety of commercial applications. The U300/U400/U500 series was introduced in 2000 and continues the decades-long Unimog tradition of utility and reliability. Unimogs have very high ground clearance—higher than a Humvee—made possible by portal gears that allow the axles and transmission to be higher than the tire centers. Unimogs also feature a flexible frame that allows the tires a wide range of vertical movement to allow the truck to comfortably drive over extremely uneven terrain. They are equipped with high visibility cabs to enable the driver to see the terrain and more easily manipulate mounted tools. A variety of diesel engines are available in the Unimog, depending on the intended duty. Shop here