These vehicles' solutions to specific engineering problems were often more obvious than in their civilian counterparts, as military specifications didn't require that a vehicle's design decisions be hidden behind polite consumer styling - the "look" of a military vehicle was more likely to be a raw reflection of exactly what role it was supposed to carry out, resulting in a small range of unusual and highly distinctive-looking standardised vehicles that were ideal subjects for modelling. Quite aside from the obvious "weaponised" units such as tanks, many of the associated military support vehicles were quite fascinating from an engineering perspective, clearly designed to carry out highly specialised tasks (such as towing vehicles across rough country) that were distinctly different to their civilian counterparts. However, for a company trying to produce toy vehicles for its Dinky range that were new and current and relevant, ignoring the war would probably not have been an option, given that these vehicles were now increasingly visible on Britains's streets. (in the UK) and Märklin (in Germany), both of whom had extensive military product ranges including field guns, and of course, in the case of Britains, toy soldiers. Previously, the company had not obviously been particularly geared up to produce military toys, and had seemed to leave most of this sort of business to Britains Ltd. November 1939 also seemed to mark the appearance and similarly heavy promotion of the new green Meccano Mechanised Army Outfit, for making models of military vehicles. Mechanised Army Set, showing the full range of Dinky army vehicles available in 1939, Dinky Toys 156, Meccano Magazine November 1939
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |