powerrabbit

We seem to have digressed a little from the original subject of rarest implements into other rarities to include machinery and implements as well but this to me is good to discuss and relavent. So in ths veign I will continue in saying that it now seems that the boxed sets such as the tractors with various equipment have become hard to find and you rareley ever see any about, especially those from the late 1960's to the early 1990's which is a large time span. Could it be that not that many were produced or is it that they were not that popular and only sold in small numbers or perhaps they were considered expensive and just weren't sold by the toy shops? You don't even see them on the auction sites like eBay very often. The very few sets that I have seen on these sites or at the toy fairs are priced fairly high. I have found only a couple over the past couple of years and managed to aquire a couple at a reasonable price, one being the early 1980's riding set with the horses and riders with 8 white fences, a horse and rider jumping a fence, a couple of children on Shetland ponies and the farm gate set in the contents. The other was the Ford 5610 and wooden shed set. I did find the riding set game at a toy fair but was priced too high for me.

We used to do a bit of vacuum silage years back but it was rather expensive for the heavier gauge poly sheeting, sealing strips and the rest of the equipment but if done right and you kept the air out there was no waste at all like you tend to get with clamp silage which compensated the expense in the long term. We shared the PTO driven vacuum pump with two other farmer relations.

I see the log trailers quite often here at the toy fairs, both boxed and loose, well, I presume were on about the extendable one? Very often see the late pale grey and orange one boxed.

Brilliant. Works a treat.

1980 rainbow red farm boxed Britain's safari Land Rover from eBay.

There is a good MF DVD available from dealers that is part of the Massey 50th anniversary. Comes attached to the Autumn 08 issue of the 'Redline' magazine newsletter, aimed at the dealers and sales reps.

The Corgi one in the set was as described and with the David Brown 1412 and dump trailer.

My mistake, you're quite right Nathan, they were 376 and 377. Should have took more notice before posting.

Nice to see you and the wife there today Nathan. There were indeed some bargains. I've already done the Ford Pre-Force 5000, that one is finished, just ordered up a new pair of rear wheels for the Force 5000 so will do that one when they come. Not bad at £20 the pair, in fact the same chap had an early green diecast log wagon, the one with red plastic wheels and tractor drawbar and with the 2 5000's was £38 all together and the red NH conventional balers at 2 quid each had to have them. Its strange though that some of the stall holders at Newton who also go to Westpoint don't ask as much for their stuff at Newton. It always was a very strong train and railway orientated fair.

Local toy fair. 2 Britain's Ford 5000's early pre-force and a later one for restoration. 3 Britain's red NH balers, 2 556 and 1 557 for bits and restoration. Several Britain's Herald horse and riders. Britain's log cart, earlier green one with red plastic wheels for the E27N. A Volvo loading shovel in drab olive, unknown make but suspect NZG. Britain's Ford 7710 for the bits. Lastly a Corgi limited ed Grey Cars AEC Regal Devon coach. Not really into buses only local ones in the larger 1:50 scale.

Yes, there was a straight-legged Twose one but this was originally in a set with a tractor. the splayed legged one came on its own. The accurate representation are the wide or splayed leg type as in real life gives more stability.

This subject has been touched on in another topic but there are a few variants. The Twose one with the blue frame with splayed legs and orange digger arm was the first one. There was an Autoway yellow one and another with a red diagonal striped decal, a later Road Series one, some with green frame and brown frame and the ones with straight legs were in the sets. Straight legs to save on the width of the box apparently. The production dates I think are listed in Peter Barrons book from a few years back.

Been out in the garden most of the day hoeing and planted a couple of rows of dwarf been seed. Funny thing was that when dropping the seed in one of the drills in the ground I found a Britain's pink piglet, scrubbed him up and he came up like new. Must of been in the ground the last 30 odd years.

Tell her that at least she won't have to feed them.

Boot sale early this morning, mint Britain's Case IH Maaxim 115. Loader arms missing but the frame still there, took the frame off. £4. There was quite a bit of Britain's stuff there, a few high sided tipping trailers and a few older Land Rovers but all was very rubbishy so left them behind.

Have to say that this topic has really got me thinking rather hard as there are a lot of implements from Britain's that can be considered rare and for the sake of not wanting to repeat myself or others statements, I suppose its down to how many are still in existance and in good enough condition to be worth looking out for and how many are still in the box. Short run items are worth considering but we have to remember that an awfull lot of numbers could have been produced in that run time and another thing to consider is the items that were unpopular, did not sell too well and were soon withdrawn. Another Britain's item, not really an implement but certainly falls into the catagory with the rest is the Massey Ferguson 780 combine that was made in Macao when manufacturing was moved from Britain in the early 1980's. This particular combine was only produced in Macao for one year only before manufacture was again moved to China, recognisable by its very much darker red colour and slightly plainer box. The Bamfords BL58 baler has been mentioned but there are two variants worth looking out for and these are a brown chassis, which according to Pullens book was only produced in one small batch and one with yellow wheels.

July 4th I read somewhere. It will be in next months magazines.

Yaxon made several farm models/toys. Those that you mentioned plus a small Stayer I believe plus a few non-descript items. The tractors were available with machinery in sets (tractor plus machine) as well. Mostly produced in the mid 1970's in Italy. Now been gobbled up by Ros I think.

Several variants of the rear digger. Twose in orange with blue frame was the first one with the Twose paper decal midway on the boom. Yellow road or autoway series in yellow with red striped long paper decal. There was a green framed one as well. The straight legged ones, as said, only came in the sets.

Building the Scaledown David Brown Selectamatic 990 kit that I purchased at the very last Toytrac at Farmer Giles'. Yes, I know I've had it for a while but all good things come to he who waits so they say. Just have to apply the bonnet decals and we'll be there.

The thing is that if you have the boxes this will put a premium on the value if ever you come to sell the models. Speaking of this, if you look at all the guides, auction prices and 'experts' comments on other types of models and toys like Corgi and Dinky toys etc, they say thay 2/3rds of the items value lies with the box being present and the condition. So, I wonder, why are people paying premium (I won't say stupid) prices for farm related items regardless of these points? I picked up the early animal trailer all complete, with the lying cow that located on a spur in the middle of the trailer at a toy fair a couple of years ago that needed very slight unnoticeable repair for £35 and a little later someone gave me some odd Britain's bits and peices for nothing that icluded a full set of top side rails and grey ramp/tailboard for said trailer so that was a bonus.

I agree, its boxed items, afterall, they were all only toys and the majority were actually played with and delicate parts soon became broken so unless these items are still in their packaging chances are that there is a fault with it. We know new replacement parts are available for a lot of Britain's stuff but its not the same as the original which considerably affects the value. I would say, from a collecting point of veiw, boxed is the way to go. The transport set with the sacks, churns, bales and blue linkbox is getting hard to find boxed now (2 types). Boxed balers like the Bamfords, (several variant chassis and wheel colours) Red New Holland and the yellow one are also scarce now. Mule dozer in green card box and the front linkage system with the yellow tine buckrake based on the muledozer are others, etc etc etc.......

I'm not sure that there were any particularly rare items just the length of the production time. As Tractorbob says, limited or short colour variants are the most scarce and there have been some prototype escapes. If you count machinery as well as implements in this subject it is commonly thought that the blue animal transporter trailer, the forerunner to the high sided tipping trailer, with the lying cow in it is one of the rarest peices but it was produced in 3 variants. The 8 furrow Kvernland plough is concidered a bit of a rarity, 3 versions exist, one with silvered bodies, one with green bodies and the rarest packaged in a 'dealer' box which was a promotional variant only available from Kvernland dealerships. Other rarities are those items that were produced for outside the U.K. but can be found, one such item was the Vermeer round baler in yellow that went to the USA. Rarity of the older machinery now basically comes down to how many are still around and wheather the original packaging was a one-off or changed after a very short time. I'm sure there are others that can be catagorised as rare and I expect this topic will run for some while.

The original large one is no longer available, or any of the others but I know that the Club did do the smaller version but not sure if any are still available. You could visit the Clubs website www.dbtc.co.uk and look in the shop listings, not all items are listed so you might have to enquire by email.

This poster is very hard to find now, as are all of them, it shows all models produced up to 1979 and has a section on one side showing the military models. Two versions exist, a large one that was the original and a half-size one that is a reproduction produced by the D.B. Club. I will post up a picture of it for your reference and if you want to see any of the other posters that D.B. produced I have most of them. This one measures around 3 feet by 2 feet and is an original. Sorry for poor picture but difficult to do with shiny surfaces.