powerrabbit

Anyone who has passed their car test can automaticaly drive a tractor on the road, look on your driving license and you should see the class of vehicles you are permitted to drive, agricultural, pedestrian operated and road roller in catagory F.

Took and passed my tractor test on a David Brown white 880 in 1970.

My train of thought on sending hatching eggs was that I have a freind who's wife breeds and hatches rare breed chicken and bantams and sends eggs all over the place, wheather she sends them overseas or no I'm not sure but I could soon find out and if she does I could ask how she goes about it and what's involved.

Just a random thought but would it not be easier and less hassle to have fertile eggs sent over and then hatch and rear yourself? I'm thinking that the regulations may be a little less stringent and there would be less issues than importing live birds concerning welfare and disease and the like. Would be a little more difficult with pigeons, although you can hatch and hand rear them it would take more than chickens do.

Massey ferguson did stick on blue parts didn't they? Called it Landini I believe!

I think you may have hit on something there Sean, nearer the truth than you may consciously think. UH have done their research I think and know what models are desirable or on the rare side and what these older models are potentially worth and do fetch toying with our minds in producing similar models hoping we will buy them with this in mind believing these may also become valuable in the future, very clever. Similarities between Chad Valley and UH models in the 1:16 scale, for instance, E27N Major, Fordson major, standard and brushed silver, Ferguson TEA20 and an uncanny resemblance with the Nuffield to the Denzil Skinner Nuffield. Perhaps a Fordson Dexta may be in the pipeline.

Joking apart, I think that we can all view any of these studies with a critical eye but we must not look too deeply into these as it slightly spoils the overall image. As for future tractor studies I think that the forward planning is well into the future but I think that BFA are always very open to ideas and suggestions and do take their customers comments seriously.

I haven't seen the book so I can't really offer an honest opinion but we must not forget that there were two versions of catalogues printed, one for the customer, which was the small format and the trade catalogue which was in A4 format for the retailer. It was around the end of the 1970's that the pamphlet customer type ones changed to the lesser quality fold-out sheet type and the included retail price sheet dissapeared but the trade catalogues remained the same. In the early 1990's the cataloges returned to the pamphlet type but the included price list never re-appeared. It is still nice though to have the originals but as said, they can be expensive to obtain and the book is obviously financially more affordable and a complete reference. I'm not saying though that the book is second best.

I believe that the chrome Fordson is the least produced or rarest one as it was mainly for dealers desks and promo purposes. None of the chrome ones did not have the clockwork mechanism and just as a word of warning, these have been faked in the past so if you see any inspect them well.

Well, I'm hoping they will still offer the freebie as I ordered the D.B. study in April so this offer coming between that time and the time this one is released, they say June/July, I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Like I say, I'll certainly be asking them.

I think that the concept of the book is a great idea and an invaluable resource but for those of us that have all the original Britains catalogues I think it will not be a must.

Bill, does this mean then that when the PH let me know when my order for 'A Tight Turn' is ready for despach that I will be offered one of these as well? When they do ring me I'll ask them about it.

When the dealers place their orders for any specific models they are supplied in boxes of 6, 12 or 24 units and the suppliers will not split boxes. The only way boxes can be split is if dealers get together and share boxes but apparently this doesn't seem to work as some are not willing to do this.

Now he tells us!

I know what Jack is asking and I am with him in thinking that it is easier to list the machinery that they did not make because there was a vast amount that they did. If you can obtain any books on the subject of Ferguson and Massey Ferguson they are worth getting. There seemed to be more machinery made for the Ferguson 20 series tractors than any of the later models. If you want to see a comprehensive collection then you can't do better than going to one of Mike Thorne's open days near Crediton in Devon, I think that anyone on here that's been will agree.

Been into town this morning to do a bit of shopping as the fridge is getting empty. Whilst there went on a tour of the charity shops, market stalls and video shops. Have been replacing my VHS film collection with DVD's, also been buying from the internet seeing you can pick them up so cheap and finding cheap new and amost new ones is easy as well, most people only watch them once. Got some really good classics and a lot of 'special collectors editions' as well. Must have bought over 50 this last couple of weeks. Party on dude!

Going back to the topic, how it's affecting the hobby, I had an interesting conversation with a model dealer today that told me all the other dealers and stockists that he knows are reducing their orders on new models and some are even returning their orders simply because they can only sell a very small proportion of what they have in stock. They are, or have been in the past, required to order a certain volume and pay up-front which they can no longer sustain and unless the suppliers agree to only supply what the stockists require and not what the suppliers dictate, they are saying that they will close their accounts. So it is biting even more now.

I would say that the hook is all there, the tractor main body was cast in two halves and the hook was cast as part of one half so would appear off centre slightly and if you look down on it may appear to be 'half' cast onto that side with the other half overlapping the join line. Question now is wheather you're going to touch in the lost paint bits or leave as is.

Confirmed, Chad Valley ok, no disputing that. Only thing I can see (or not) that's missing is the box but you can't have everything! Superb find there and is quite rare although I have seen them from time to time in toy fairs but well into 3 figures with the box. Hope you had a bargain.

Oh I don't know, it seems that the older you get the prettier girls seem to be and I've always said why cover a pretty face with all that unnecessary scrape. O naturelle, that's the way to go! It has always facinated me that girls from around 14 years of age spend the next 20 years trying to look older and the rest of their lives trying to look younger, too much like hard work I say.

I think there are two main issues in this topic, the first being the purchase of models. There will always be a collectors market but as collectors obtain the models they desire the market slows, especially for older models and collectors are now looking for these models in mint and boxed condition as opposed to just buying a 'good example'. This to my mind is because collectors are becoming more educated in what to look for and spend or save their money accordingly. Secondly, over the past two years there have been so many manufacturers, both long established and recent banging out more and more models that the collectors market is awash with choice which is affecting the market as the collector can't buy everything that comes along and only buying the best of what their pocket can sustain rejecting or dismissing models that are just a variation on a theme, all these Valtras is one example that springs to mind, just buying a single example as just that, an example of that model or range. At the end of the day, recession or no, if we were to collect every model that was available, one we'd be spending a fortune every year and two, we' all run out of room to house them without going to even more expense extending our houses to do so. You wait, hang in there, save your money and there will be loads of models on the market in the not too distant future as some will loose the will to keep their collections and stock that the dealers are having to hold will eventually have to be disposed of, I know of 2 or 3 that have so much stock they are still holding that is over two years old that they have drasticly cut back on quantity of units on new model orders.

A little off topic but I remember those 'offers' and 'free gifts', most came in boxes of cereals like cornflakes, shredded wheat, rice crispies and others, I wonder if anyone can remember the submarine and the diver that you filled with baking powder and plopped in a tank of water, they would sink to the bottom and when the powder got wet it would fizz and the toy would rise to the surface. Who remembers the Robertsons Golly, save the paper ones from their jars of preseves and send them in for an enameled Golly brooch, the more you sent in the better the brooch, I seem to remember that you had to send in a specific number to obtain a specific brooch. Food for a seperate topic perhaps?

I forgot that there was also a later version of the MMB tanker, it had the 'splash' of milk in blue and silver with a blue and silver decal each side of the tank, similar to the 'Nike' stripe. I did see the milk tanker that was produced for the US market at a toy fair a couple of years ago but it was too expensive for me, I bought from the same stall holder instead a US market YELLOW Britains Vermere round baler boxed for £30 which is equally as rare, and that was a bargain.

There were 2 more variants of the milk tanker, white Dairy Crest and black and white Robert wiseman.

I remember back in the mid 1970's seeing an uncannily similar setup on a bull breeding farm on the Hereford/Welsh boarder close to the Wye valley not far from the river.