ploughmaster

Some nice ones there - brings back a few memories - I remember the lineup of MF 100 series, and the Shell sprayers ad (in fact I think I have them in a scrapbook somewhere too ). In the 1970's ?? British Farmer & Stockbreeder, Arable Farming, and Big Farm Management to name three other very common ones. I always found more machinery ads in Big Farm Management than in either FW or Power Farming

Only if they were to have a general licence - and I think most current licencing is model and scale specific.

Most recent licences are make/model and scale specific - just because a model manufacturer is licenced to make a specific tractor model in one scale doesn't automatically entitle them to make it in any other scale, and certainly has not enabled any maker to 'get around' licencing issues with some OEMs. I don't understand your point about Ertl - they have never had "all the licences". They did have an exclusive licence for John Deere, under which nobody else could obtain a licence to make JD models without both JD themselves and Ertl allowing it (the Siku licencing started as a bit of an anomaly as it was originally done through John Deere Germany - I believe it was done without the knowledge or permission of the US management). There are one or two US model makers who obtained licences for specific JD tractors, but no other toy manufacturer has a JD licence (nor are they likely to get one in the near future I would think) There was also and exclusive arrangement between Ertl and International Harvester (which I think also required the agreement of Ertl before a licence would be granted to another toy/model manufacturer), but I am not sure how that stood once IH merged with Case and then New Holland (and under the overall ownership of FIAT). Not that this is really within the original topic

These figures are quite difficult to find complete - the standing mechanic tends to have lost his spanner (and sometimes the wheel as well), the petrol attendant is mostly found missing the nozzle (or with the nozzle but missing the hose); the cleaning attendant is usually missing her sponge; and the lying mechanic is usually missing his torch (a nice diecast representation of a standard 1960's Eveready). Ther were four variations of the petrol pump:- Shell/Supershell; Shell/Shellmex; Esso/Esso Extra; Esso/Esso Plus The illuminated version was only available until the end of 1965, the lighting parts being deleted from 1966 (and the sets re- numbered), and it was available on its own without the pumps, or in a larger set which included the four figures together with the forecourt stand and 3 petrol pumps (there were seperate sets for Shell and Esso). The pumps and forecourt sets lived a year longer in the catalogue than the figures, being deleted in 1969, but were only available as Esso Extra/Esso Plus (the Shell pumps were deleted in 1968).

They are supposed to be available sometime in May. Britains don't seem to have released any pics of the actual models yet though (apart from those we have seen of the prototype/mock-ups).

Your second blue Lone Star tractor is actually a rather horrendous representation of an International

Most likely a transition model - Britains have always tended to use up parts when changes are made to their toys - I would think they were using up the yellow tanks around the time that the all yellow Autoway one was superceded by the white Road Series one. The Autoway one was badged as an Iveco, but the later Road Series one was normally badged as a Volvo. The later Road Series orange Cement Mixer also exists with Autoway decals and packaged in an Autoway box.

I think the item description is fairly clear and unambiguous; i.e that it is a Code 3 conversion: " AUTOMATIC" decals added to the BRITAINS toy (42492) ...........................Comes with certificate of Ltd. Edition No. of the only-100 to be issued, hence "opened" packaging + the addition of the Automatic decal."

I quite agree - I don't regard a factory mistake which can easily be recreated (ie. faked) by a simple swap of models between boxes or swapping easily removed parts as being special at all - some are interesting, but no more than that. They certainly cannot be regarded as having any more value than the standard item. That sounds like the early Ford Force 5000 for which Britains used up the previous boxes for the Super Major 5000 and merely fixed a sticky label with the words "New Ford Force Tractor Inside" on it. I would suggest that variations such as that do have a slightly higher value as they are a rare but genuine variation rather than an error.

£77.50 including the postage I missed one on eBay about 7 years ago which sold for a winning bid of £45 if I recall correctly. I don't know how many were produced, but probably only in the hundreds at most rather than thousands. I often wondered why they had a version of the blue Land Rover, rather than the striped Safari version?

Yes, they are genuine

Having read Warner Halls article, I assume that the said item was indeed the Hausser one which Warner took to Britains to try and persuade them to do something similar, and I imagine that it came back out via the sale of Charles Biggs archive of Britains prototypes etc a few years ago. The only 'special' feature of it seems to be what appears to be a Britains reference label tied to it - but hardly worthy of bidding £220 + buyers premium \ It is a shame the Hausser range didn't last long; I have a few of the Hausser models, and they are very high quality, probably better than the best that Britains have ever acheived, and of course using an identical linkage. If only they had produced the Fahr combine in 32nd rather 43rd.

Things to note: 1. There is a buyers premium of 17.5% (plus 20% vat on that premium) for room buyers, plus a further 2% clearing charge if paying by credit card (3.5% if American Express!). That is effectively 21% on top of the hammer price for cash/cheque buyers, or 23% for credit card buyers. For those bidding online via Artfact there is an all inclusive premium of 23%. In other words, a winning bid of £50 will actually cost about £61 - and on the 30th, the £1200 that was bid for lot 4639; 171F Fordson New Performance Super Major, will have been a final cost of at least £1594 (what was so special about that one?) 2. A considerable number of the items in that sale had less than mint boxes (quite a few appear severely damaged from the photos in the online catalogue) 3. A significant number of lots contained items/models which were slightly damaged, sun faded or otherwise less than mint. 4. The lotting was very erratic (as indeed were the estimates!) - there were several unusual variations of certain implements which were in with some of the multiple lots and were possibly not noticed for what they were by bidders - although, just looking at the photos, I noted no less than 3 rare Alfa Laval tankers with no pipes along the top (including the one mounted on the toyfair plinth/display), an all yellow 9565 trailer with the decal off the cattle lorry doors on the sides (another uncommon but genuine factory variation), another rare 9565 trailer with red wheels, and an earlier 9550 version of the trailer with blue wheels and light gray raves; a green Acrobat Rake; and the red version from the set of coloured Valmet 805s (with red cab instead of the black one fitted to the standard issue of the later decal type Valmets) which was tucked in a seperate lot from any of the others (with a standard Valmet). Whilst there were several lots which did go for a fraction of what they should have done, the vast majority made around the right money, with most of the obviously rare and desirable lots making very high bids (some of them selling for way above what they are realistically worth). Many bids on the second day for the lead and point of sale items went ballistic. I also think that perceptions of values by some folk are unrealistically high in the first place (you only have to look at certain excessively high 'Buy-it-Nows' on some Britains items which have been going round and round on eBay for months and show no sign of selling). Vectis have long been associated with some of the highest bids for toys in general, so in some respects, it is refreshing to see most of the items on Tuesday finish at more realistic levels. On a slightly different note, there were clearly some nutters bidding - I mean; £220 bid for lot 3461: the unboxed Hausser-Elastolin maize drill (missing the hopper lids at that!)

Frankly, your entire post is irrelevant to what I was saying. We have only pictures of the first prototypes of the trailers, and already mud is being slung - and it seems mostly completely unjustified! I would like to know exactly where Britains have 'ignored what the customer wanted'?? Yes there are a lot of Britains collectors, and we collect them for what they have been and what they are - almost all the criticism on this forum centres on the releases in the last 10 years or so, but Britains hit their lowest standards in the late 80s and the 90s when they were teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, but those dreadful bodge ups seem to get nothing but praise round here \ Aside from the hitch problems and one or two other relatively small issues, they have produced some excellent toys in recent years, but all some of you do is constantly harp on about minor inaccuracies and complain because the detail isn't as good as Universal Hobbies et al. Well, Britains are not Universal Hobbies, they are not Wiking and they are not Schuco, and I hope they never will be, because if they were, I for one would be unable to afford them. Get over it, deal with it and move on. If you don't like them, or feel they aren't good enough for you, well don't buy them, and don't come here constantly grousing about them. You have ample choice of exceptionally highly detailed models elswhere. When I started collecting seriously in the eighties, this was a friendly, enjoyable hobby, with a great deal of satisfaction in constructing a meaningful collection. Nowadays it is a constant round of moaning and complaining from people who seem never to be satisfied, bitching and bickering about irrelevant minutiae. The hobby has become largely overblown, unpleasant and depressing, and as I feel right now, I very much doubt if I shall continue to persue it. My opinion is that the recent items from Britains and Ertl combine an excellent standard of modelling whilst still being easily affordable and retaining some character and charm. I do not want Britains/Ertl to be driven to producing to the sanitised standard of Wiking, Schuco, or even UH, and thus becoming to expensive for me to afford. For those who want and can afford near perfect levels of accuracy and detail you now have plenty of choice elsewhere; so leave Britains to do what they think is best for their market, and leave those of us who are reasonably content with what they are producing in peace.

Milking the bladder big time here I think: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BRITAINS-2011-FARM-TOYS-AND-COLLECTABLES-CATALOGUE-/320655442419?pt=UK_ToysGames_DiecastVehicles_DiecastVehicles_JN&hash=item4aa88dc1f3 (= £10 BIN at the time I posted) http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BRITAINS-BRAND-NEW-2011-FARM-TOYS-AND-COLLECTIBLES-/370483316579?pt=UK_ToysGames_DiecastVehicles_DiecastVehicles_JN&hash=item564286c763 = £8.99 BIN (at the time I posted, was £10.50)

Me too! The end of the Herald moulds in the late 60s and early 70s saw a distinct drop off in realism and quality, which was repeated when a lot of the current moulds took over in the 80's. Judging from the 1990s monkeys that masqueraded as tractor drivers in the Britains range before Ertl deleted them altogether, I think they might be better off keeping what they have got now On the subject of tractors etc, in spite of the fantastic detail we now see on even the cheaper toys and models, many of them do lack character, and the sheer volume of new items continually coming at us like a tidal wave has taken much of the interest away as far as I am concerned. The excitement of waiting to see new models has largely gone - when we only used to get one or two new models each year from a small number of manufacturers I think we appreciated what we got far more, and acquiring the latest model tractor was really something to look forward to, and a great thrill for some time afterwards. Even 20 years ago, it was realistic to aspire to collecting all the tractors in a particular scale, or from a particular manufacturer or OEM, it was something to aim at, and aiming for some kind of 'complete' collection is how most older current collectors started. Now there are so many models from so many manufacturers that it is almost impossible to find a collecting 'theme' which is affordable (either financially or with regard to storage space) - it has for many simply become a case of pick and choose with no clear long term aim.

The thing is, when pigs weren't making big profits to start with, and the price of wheat shoots up to £200 a tonne, there is probably more profit in slaughtering the pigs and selling their wheat at £200, rather than feed it to the pigs which still don't make any more money than they were before.

I know, but so are the ones who never miss a single opportunity to gratuitously try to do Britains down. I find it unbelievably depressing If they can do it for an extra pound or two, I would be very happy with that. However, the 'superior' models that you all use as examples with which to justify your criticisms of Britains are rather more than that - mostly about double the price; the two Kane trailers will have a srp of £18.99 and £16.99 repectively when they arrive in the shops, compared with around £30 for the Ros trailers, and around £40 for the UH ones; hardly a valid comparison in my opinion. It's like criticising a Kia because it isn't made to the same standard as a BMW.

The company that has recently resurrected the Ros brand name is a completely different company from the the one that used the Ros brand back then (as I think is fairly apparent from the standard of the current releases). The 'old' Ros tractors even had plastic axles and as you say, not only relabelled a Lamborghini as a Ford 7740, but they did indeed rebadge their 32nd Fiat as a Fendt. They also released a tractor and implement set with a 32nd scale Massey 3070 (I think??) and the 25th scale Hesston baler . On the other hand, they also made a rather well detailed (if a little flimsy) 18th scale Fiat 180-90DT, and they were I think the first manufacturer to attempt a weathered look on a 'muddy' 25th scale Lamborghini.

UH are not toys

I think the body will be plastic and the chassis metal, so it is logical to assume that the body will be coloured plastic and the chassis painted. Coloured plastic doesn't chip like paint does, which is one reason why it tends to be favoured by most toy manufacturers.

That was the normal grille decal for the earlier ones - I don't think I have seen a flatbed version of the lorry with the later 'IVECO' decal, which I think may have been introduced in 1985 (9582 was deleted at the end of 1984). The corrosion/fatigue looks a bit nasty - it may well be due to an impurity already in the mazak when the model was made, and possibly damp and the extremes of temperature that it would have experienced in the loft have made it worse??

hmmm, like about 30% more

Some nice ones there Good to see so many of the sleeve and plinth boxes still with the card fixings - hard to find; I particularly like the cultivator complete with the header card (I've been looking for one of those for years and haven't succeeded in getting one yet ). Interesting to see a black 'BTN 76' number plate on the lorry too. Looking forward to the next batch of pics

Not sure how you are able to condemn that Deere in such a fashion from a photo of what I understand to be a prototype. In fact I can't really work out what exactly is so appallingly wrong with them to justify the aggressive terms you use in your frequent criticisms. I think we all know how intensely you dislike Britains by now, and you are beginning to sound like a cracked record