ploughmaster

The tipping Tumbrel Cart did indeed have quite a long life. As 9502, in the sleeve and plinth type box, it was deleted along with the other remaining horse drawn items at the end of 1969 (the others being 9500 Horse Drawn Cart and 9503 Milk Float & Milkman), but re-appeared in the 1970 catalogue as 9567 Tumbrel Cart with Driver, packed in a long and rather flimsy window display box along with the Boy with Rope (2036). From 1972, the Cart Horse (2109) was replaced by the new Clydesdale 2104). This set was only catalogued until 1973. The Tumbrel Cart had a brief re-release in the range as 9499 in 1983 and 1984 with the Clydesdale Horse (2104), packaged in a window fronted plain chevron rainbow box.

Very good question - As it was deleted at the end of 1963, and that style of box started in 1964, I would think it unlikely that the new style box was produced for it. However that's another thing I have yet to see an example of in any type of box !

I was interested to see those too, having been keeping a watch for any of them for many years. I had wondered if any existed! I hadn't seen the lead mould Land Girl in white plastic before either, or the white lead mould sheep, or the brown calves. I look forward to his next book

Is the milk churn in lieu of a cab step?

You're right, the sets don't appear often, for a combination of all the reasons you mentioned I think. 20 years ago the the sets from the 70's and 80's were less difficult to find, but at that time, nobody much collected them - I remember seeing the large tractor and implement boxed sets (with either the Ford 6600 or MF595 which would have sold for around £10 BM at the time), struggling to find buyers at about £15, when the unboxed contents would have made over £20 if sold seperately (perhaps some sets got broken up to be sold that way?). Now the same sets would command three figures. The earlier sets with the E27N's, Majors and early Ford 5000's have always been more collected and so have been higher priced for a long time.

That's interesting, because I rarely see any nowadays. But, as I said earlier, most of the implements, even the very rare ones do seem to turn up in batches for some reason. Ones that seem common at present, may well be unobtainable in a few months.

I have received mine also. I agree, a very good catalogue of the range and the principal versions of each. I thought I knew most of the main variants, but have discovered one or two more from this book (I have also noted a couple which are not in it). It fits well between Peter Coles' book 'Suspended Animation' which gives the background to the designs and production methods, and the specialised study guides by Jonathan Stephens.

I would agree, the powered Lister elevator is probably the rarest of the standard implement models. Only two years in the catalogue, very expensive (so probably only sold in low numbers), and very easily damaged. I hadn't mentioned it because the OP asked specifically about 70's. 80's and 90's, and the so didn't consider the 60's. Going that far back, the Timber Trailers, are not common (but more common than the elevator). The early 129f is quite hard to find (particularly boxed and especially the brown version), with the later 9560 being similarly scarce. Even the last one (9559) from around 1970 doesn't appear that often.

I have no connection with RC2 whatsoever. It just rattles my cage that every time a pic of a new Ertl or Britains release is posted on this site, certain people immediately rip it to bits, when much of the criticism is unjustified, and could in any case, be expressed in rather less antagonistic terms. We used to get regular previews of upcoming models from Bill Walters, and the same sort of aggressive criticism tended to surface each time. Some time ago he posted a pic of something new and it attracted what amounted to little short of a tirade of abuse from some posters, and from his subsequent post, I felt Bill was clearly taken aback and certainly offended (he was after all only trying to help us by giving a preview of what was at the time a prototype). He certainly still looks at the forum from time to time, but we don't get the input from him that we used to, which is to the detriment of the forum IMO. Constructive criticism is useful, but I have to say that I can't really see that this baler looks poor by comparison with the old one.

TM810 - here's a pic of the real thing. Would you mind explaining exactly what is wrong with the toy in comparison? Ertl will obviously produce toys that are geared towards the US . That is their biggest market. These balers are available in Europe too, albeit in a different colour scheme. The toy will be released in yellow when/if it comes to Europe. I cannot see the problem here.

That is not unusual, and as the real thing is mainly based on the old model, I don't see why it should need a new chassis From the pics I have seen, there isn't a lot of 'detail' on the real thing.

Yes, there will be. This is the Ertl (US) version. These balers are still sold in red in the US. There will probably be a European release later in the year which will be yellow. Errr, yes. A toy is exactly what it is designed to be. That is why it is less detailed and less expensive than Universal Hobbies. I would say that large square balers are more common (particularly in the US), and to a great extent, the toys produced are governed by what the OEMs want. Obviously NH wanted this one.

Agreed, I like the yellow better, but they still use red across the ditch. Have another look at a BB960A

That does actually look quite good .

Strangely, the same seller sold the Silver Jubilee version of this a week or so ago. They added a note part way through to say they had been told it was by Brian Norman, so you would have thought they would realise that this one was by the same? That was damaged as well. Same seller had previously sold a BN County 1884 which also looked as though it had been seriously mistreated!

Broken exhaust but was a good buy for someone nonetheless http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=350196313980

It is unfortunately out of print now, but odd ones do appear on eBay occassionally. In fact you have just missed one by a month This is what you are looking for: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260383136464&ru=http%3A%2F%2Fsearch.ebay.co.uk%3A80%2Fsearch%2Fsearch.dll%3Ffrom%3DR40%26_trksid%3Dp284.m37.l1313%26satitle%3D260383136464%26category0%3D%26fvi%3D1

It definately shouldn't be the MF. I think the set is a bit later than the Fordson. The cab didn't come in the Fordson set (it had the implement lift attachment instead), I am pretty sure the blue muledozer only came with the 5000 set (but wasn't in all of them), and looking at the pic of the back of the box, it has the Super Major 5000 shown with all but the transport box. I think it should have the Ford Super Major 5000 in there. Personally, I think £1000 is a bit optimistic, even if it had the right tractor!

The Vaderstad rolls were only available for 4 years, so that might have restricted their number, although I would have thought there would have been a fair few sold (perhaps a lot got broken through play?). The Scraper/Buck Rake set is one that probably wasn't a good seller, and may not have had that many produced. The straight legged Twose Digger is rarer because it was only available in the boxed sets with a tractor (the sets were always lower volume sellers) - that style of leg was used so that it would fit the width of the box. The individual boxed ones were (as far as I am aware) all the splayed leg type. On another point, the Yardbrush is a 'Suton', with only one 't'. (It is a brand name used by Gurney Reeve & Co : http://www.sweepersuton.co.uk/ )

Things often turn up in 'batches'. There have been a few Animal Trailers recently, but they are generally very rare - we may not see any at all for a long time (a similar thing happened with Fordson DDNs in the 80's - they were impossible to find for several years, and then they seemed to be everywhere for a while). martinr had asked about the individual models, rather than variations so I don't think the High sided Tipper Cart would count as it is only the decal that is different. I have never worked out whether that decal was a proper release or a pre-production version. The trailer was originally catalogued (and decalled) as 'High Sided Tipper Cart' for release in 1974, but due to material shortages, it wasn't actually released until Spring 1975, when it was catalogued as 'Tipping High Sided Trailer' and decalled as 'Tipping Trailer'. The only ones I have seen with that early decal are yours and mine! As an individual variation, I think you are right, it would probably be the rarest.

I would agree with powerrabbit - the 9568 Animal Trailer must be the hardest to find of those going back to the 70's. It had a fairly short life (ran from 1969 to 1973). It was perhaps not too popular and so not made in great numbers. It is also easily broken, so a large proportion of those sold will have been damaged or destroyed. It's hard to find unboxed, let alone boxed mint. Last boxed one I saw sold made £175. The 9559 Timber Trailer is another (it was introduced at the same times as the Animal Trailer, but deleted a year earlier). Things like the Suton Yardbrush (1992 to 1995), Front Mounted Flexicoil (1990 to 1992), Transplanter (1977 to 1980), or Kemper Champion Crop Header also had short runs and were probably not as popular and consequently are now not common to find. If you go back to the 60's, the obvious one is the 9565 Lister Elevator which was only in the catalogue in 1965 and 1966. It was expensive and easily broken, so would have sold in small numbers, and be less likely to survive. (come to that, when did you last see many of the later yellow unpowered 9564 Multi Level Elevators for sale?).

As above, that type of box was for the uncabbed 135 in red (although a few uncabbed yellow ones have turned up in that type of box over the years).

Your wish will come true. This model as the Steiger Panther IV will be the 2009 Toy Farmer/National Farm Toy Show tractor: http://www.toytractorshow.com/articles/steiger-panther-iv-official-2009-national-farm-toy-show-tractor-by-ertl

I've not heard of them before (ugly looking thing), but I have found a few more links to pictures and forum discussions about these. However, you will need to make full use of Google translator to understand them as most are in Swedish Hope they are of interest. http://www.farmphoto.com/thread.aspx?mid=612299 http://www.kortlanda.se/html/body_swed_trac.html http://www.fordson.se/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=33293&sid=8f473f96d73a18a13b731220a9181163 http://fordson.se/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=4699

I didn't mis read anything. Read his post again! The OP referred to the position and the method used. Also, twice in this thread, anti hunt posts have been made. The hunt had nothing to do with it.