ploughmaster

I think Britains have had the protoype for some time; it probably dates to before the change of skid unit colour which would explain the black. The production release may well be the newer grey?

CVT on the 7400, and Dyna-6 on the 6400 is the main difference and there is some overlap in power: 6445: 4cyl 4.4litre 95hp 6455: 4cyl 4.4litre 105hp 6465: 6cyl 6.6litre 120hp 6470: 4cyl 4.4litre 125hp 6475: 6cyl 6.6litre 135hp 6480: 6cyl 6.6litre 145hp 7465: 6cyl 6.6litre 125hp 7475: 6cyl 6.6litre 140hp 7480: 6cyl 6.6litre 150hp

The 6465, 6475, 6480, 7465, 7475 and 7480 all have the same basic 6.6 litre 6 cylinder engine I think, so I would think the bonnets may be the same also

I t could be. As you say, the backend view is a bit dark (and I used the dark glasses smiley, so I can't see anything ). From what you can see, it doesn't look like the same hitch that is still on the JD 8345RT.

I think a lot of the design work is now done in the Far East too. Most of the firms we would regard as the manufacturer, are actually little more than the distributor. The only chance of seeing design and/or manufacture here, would be to visit one of the UK/Europe based specialised model makers, but as they are usually on their own and don't work as a factory production line, there probably wouldn't be that much to see at any one time

The one that has been shown is the prototype, and has been damaged in its travels (there was a top link in place for the front weight). It certainly looks good (even as a prototype), so I think the production version should be even better. Good to see the new linkage fitted On the subject of the front linkage, does Atte (or anyone else) know if it is functional or fixed ? European members often appear to be getting the information on Britains releases before we do, but I think that is sometimes because information gets posted which is not meant to be released. Certainly the second list published in post 81 was supposed to be under an embargo (and I am told is incorrect in any case). As the 7480 was shown at the London Toy Fair a couple of weeks ago, I would have thought Andy would have been allowed to post the images he has after that, or are they still supposed to be embargoed? It is a pity that once again we are made to take second fiddle.

That's interesting, I thought they all shared the ame basic rear axle (although I believe the original SEM prototypes had a 7610 rear axle). Certainly when the 7910 I drove in the late 80's was opened up to 110hp, the dealer gave us to understand that the 79 and 82 were the same. We had a 'proper' 8210 as well as the two 7910's and all had similarly snail pace gearing (no more than about 16mph flat out in top gear!). When they got a 7810 as well, it was very quick on the road by comparison, though still slower than the two 7710s we also had. From the height and shape of the front grille and the side grill, this is definately a 7499 Judging from the seriously splayed front wheels, I don't think Britains have much to fear with their loose front wheels : I can't really see that it will have much impact on Ertl/Britains bread and butter toy market. The UH ones will be about double the price of Britains. Might the new Britains MF 7480 give the UH 7499 a bit of competition ?

You are quite right, ALO agreed to buy MX in late 2007, but on doing some research I discovered that the planned takeover was called off about a year later, so MX are still French. Is there still the Chillton name on them for UK sale? I can't find any current reference to the Chillton brand on the web; and all the links to the Chillton website (http://www.chillton.co.uk) now resolve to http://www.m-x.eu/ which is the MX main site. Sorry, off topic again I'll shut up

Is the Chillton name still used at all? (NB. it has 2xL). They were French owned when they were first taken over by Mailleux/MX, but MX were bought out by ALO/Quicke in 2008, so they are now effectively Swedish owned. He has certainly been very selective and is quick to jump on anyone who thinks of making one without his permission . Sorry' date= getting a bit off-topic here

Case New Holland now use Stoll loaders on both Case-IH and New Holland ranges, but I think Quicke have supplied loaders to CNH in the past. Chillton are now part of MX (who used to be known as Mailleux) who I think are now owned by ALO (Quicke). AGCO also use ALO/Quicke loaders on the MF range, although in the 90's, in the UK market at least, they fitted loaders made by Steelfab of Cardiff.

As there are already models of various Field Marshall tractors in both 16th and 32nd scale, perhaps the licensor would not allow them a licence for these scales? He has certainly been quite restrictive over licences in the past.

It was only ever issued in yellow, but there are a small number of prototype colour trials that were done pre-production which have found their way into one or two peoples collections.

I wouldn't rate it at that either, but there have been 21 of these sold on eBay (mainly 'post to Germany only') with end bids varying from 336 euros up to 516 euro (one of them was on US eBay and ended at $876), so some people either value them highly or have more money than brain (I know which I think ). This one from funchemist was offered a couple of weeks ago at that price and didn't sell. There was also one from another seller offered twice for 479 euro which didn't sell, and a third offered once at 585 euro which also didn't sell. I'm pleased I haven't got into collecting the gold models

It was first issued in 1948 as catalogue number 27a, but was renumbered 300 from 1954. Yours will be from before about 1962, as they started fitting plastic wheels and rubber tyres to the model from about 1962, and the decal was changed to Massey Ferguson from the mid 60s. I think it was deleted about 1970 (?). I'm afraid in played with/chipped condition I would think it is only worth £10 to £15 at best.

That takes me back - the first farm I worked on had a one (they had a JAC24 first, but it caught fire and they replaced it with a J24S). Being a monoboom, it didn't have much reach, and although it had a 1.5 tonne grain bucket, it didn't reach high enough to tip into a lorry (you had to jerk the lever up and down and 'shake' the grain out ) but it was a vast improvement on shovelling by hand into a 6" auger . In the mid 80s Sambron started making a telescopic version (J24T), but I never had the opportunity to drive one of those.

Ahh, sorry, my misunderstanding . Everywhere is quoting the UH as being a 7480 too though, so we shall see.

I was only adding a some suggestions. In fact, i think you will probably find that timewise there isn't much to choose between travelling from any of the three (especially early on a Sunday morning )

Neither MF nor Ford/New Holland have ever granted an exclusive licence to a single toy/model manufacturer. Historically only Ertl had exclusive licences for IH and John Deere, but of course Siku now have a limited licence from JD Germany, and Scale Models have had a licence for some Case-IH products in the past. It is not unusual for the same machine to be modelled by more than one toy manufacturer at the same time (look through the Britains and Siku catalogues over the years and you will see several occassions when both have issued a model of basically the same machine (Renault 145, NH 35 series, MF7000 series combine spring to mind for a start). It does, it is...and remember, Andy has seen it or gone better 7810 in any colour will be tremendously popular no doubt, as was the real one (not sure how it was a "bucket of crap" compared with 7910 which I regarded as pointless - it was simply an 8210 with the pump turned down a bit, and most folk simply opened them up again when the warranty expired. Desperately slow on the road too

Only the open pick-up and and hard-top versions have been discontinued. The pick-up with Ifor Williams canopy is still in the catalogue. If we want a double cab in the Britains catalogue, we would probably get lumbered with the horrible 'thing' that is currently in the Ertl US 32nd range paired with either the Ifor Williams trailer or Ifor Williams horse box.

If you mean what I think you mean; no it doesn't.

Like a tractor?

In addition to Stansted; Humberside (Kirmington)(http://www.humbersideairport.com/huyweb.nsf/Content/Home) has a daily scheduled KLM flight to and from Amsterdam (Schipol) East Midlands (Castle Donington)(http://www.eastmidlandsairport.com/emaweb.nsf#70) has a daily Ryanair flight to and from Berlin and Dublin, and Paris and Brussels by BMI and scheduled (but not daily or regular) flights to and from Belfast and Rome, amongst others. Both the above are about an hour or so from Spalding (at legal speeds )

I think both have a place, and I do think modern front end loaders are seriously underrated by many people. Gone are the days of the 1/2 tonne maximum capacity, 12' max height loaders mounted on the oldest/clapped out 70hp tractor of days gone by. Unfortunately, that is still the image quite a few people have of them. I had a couple of years working on a Velcourt farm (Velcourt have always tended to use front loaders rather than telehandlers - possibly in part because Case-IH don't supply a telehandler ), and we only had a pair of MXM 130s fitted with ALO loaders and interchangeable pallet tines, standard bucket or toe-tip grain bucket. I wasn't really looking forward to using them when I first went there, but was very pleasantly surprised how easy to use and versatile they were. With the toe-tip, loading grain into lorries was not a problem (even from over above ground air ducts), and the bucket held almost a tonne. Having a loader on both the ferti spreading tractor and the ferti carting tractor also meant that bags could be unloaded from the trailer and stood in the field and coukd then be moved to enable the spreader mounted crane to get to them easily, turning what would otherwise have been a full time operation for 3 or 4 men into a job for one man full time and another bringing an occassional load out. A telehandler really only scores if long reach and/or maneouverability in a tight space is paramount (though a lot of newer large telehandlers are not that maneouverable!)

The green one was the first one and was a general overview of the Britains range. The yellow booklet was in many respects an update of the green one. For anyone who doesn't know, the full sequence was: Green cover: Britains Toy Tractors and Farm Machinery - has a basic overview of the farm equipment range from 1947 to 1992, brief coverage of boxes and catalogues and sources of models and factors affecting prices (and a dozen examples of what were at the time recent prices - Deutz DX110 for £10 ). The secod half of the 36 page booklet is devoted to listings of the models by OEM and by Britains catalogue number. Blue cover: Britains Fordson, Ford & New Holland Toy Tractors - Peters particular area of interest, this covers the Fordson/Ford and NH models in relation to their real life counterparts, and has a pictorial listing of the Briains models up to 1993, together with a listing of sets containing Fordson, Ford or NH tractors with detail of their contents. There is also a small section on Point of Sale display stands. 48 pages for this one. Red cover: Britains Massey Ferguson Toy Tractors - same size and similarly layed out to the previous Ford book, but detailing the MF tractor, combine and machinery models up to 1995, with a small section on promotional and point of sale advertising material. Yellow cover: Toy Tractors From Britains - 64 pages updating and expanding in the first (green) book up to 2000. Overview of the development of the Britains farm tractor and implement range, and the way this mirrored real life developments, together with a short look at special editions produced for particular manufactureres or specific markets. Concludes with a fairly comprehensive listings: By OEM, by catalogue number, and a listing of the special issues (as known at the time!). All are useful (there are colour pictures of some of the rarer colours/variations and of POS material), but are of course becoming a bit out of date, and new information keeps coming to light. They remain a useful reference as far as they go (particularly for implements), but David Pullens books have rather taken over as far as tractor variations go.

I don't know if it has had problems, but http://www.dbpmodels.com/ is working fine for me at present.