Big Tractor Mike’s Collection of Construction Collectibles!
BTM’s collection starts off with this nice series of Siku roadwork miniatures, courtesy Ken. Below is the Hamm HD 90 Road Roller.
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Hanomag R45 Vintage Tractor
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Articulated Dumper Truck.
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…Well, except it isn’t articulated. Still, it’s a nicely-rendered model. Seems to be from Volvo’s E-series of articulated dumpers, but I can’t ID the specific model.
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This photo might otherwise belong in the Main Gallery, but since Mike waited so long to finally get his own Member’s Gallery, I decided to boost his initial display by 25% (yes, the math is correct) by including this photo here. Mike collects Micro Machines; I don’t, and I can’t have these around the house because they’re too small for my Littlest Relatives to play with safely, so I RAOK’d him with ’em at our Dec 2010 meeting. The planes and better-looking vehicles are Micro Machines; the cartoonish 4x4s are Road Champs. (The teensy cars in front might be Micro Machines Insiders, but I’m not sure.)
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This photo might seem to belong in the Main Gallery, but Big Tractor Mike did me a Big Tractor Favor, and I want to give him serious props for it, so I decided to put this photo here in his gallery. This is the Johnny Lightning version of the time-travelling DeLorean from the Back to the Future movies. I picked it up at a rummage sale; however, it was minus its tires. Knowing that BTM has a large assortment of tires (and tracks & treads, for that matter), I aksed him to fix me up. He eventually found a set that not only fit but look good as well. So, if you’re in the need for replacment rubber of the 1/64th variety, please stop by the next Suncoast Diecasters meeting and speak to Big Tractor Mike “for all your tire needs.”
”Where we’re going, we don’t need– well, let’s put some tires on this thing anyway, just to be safe.”
These two VW campers are Matchbox Superfast. The blue one has a variation of having a gas filler cap on the side — sadly (says BTM), this is not that variation.
Groovy, man! I’ll get my bongos!
The red fellow is the Cedric fire chief wagon, by Tomica. Its rear hatch is missing, yet surprisingly its bubblegum dome light, sirens and even its fender speaker are still intact! The odd-looking blue fellow in back is Monster, by Johnny Lightning. I had a few JLs which could be customized via snap-on parts, and as Monster seemed to be lacking some parts, I hit the ‘Web for info, presuming it was of the same species. Much to my surprise, I learned that Monster is an entirely different sort of beast, as it were — specifically, a jet-powered beast! In 1970, JL launched its short-lived “Jet Power” line, which was cars featuring a special interior cavity designed to hold compressed air, and the “Power Compressor” accesory which is (er, was) used to pump up the cars. Each car had a little flip lever on the rear which would release the compressed air, thus “jeting” the car. Monster was the car included with the Power Compressor.
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Classic TootsieToy K880 Battleship…
Anchors away, me’boys!
…And classic TootsieToy anonymous pick-up truck. Note the classic white rubber tires. This nostalgic element was reflected well on the Treasure Hunt version of Hot Wheels’ Old Number 5.5.
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Turning over the pickup truck reveals embossed bittersweetness. Yes, kids, there was a time when toy cars and trucks were actually made right here in America. So proud of this was Tootsietoy, it seems, that they didn’t bother abbreviating it…
They, *literally*, don’t make ’em like this anymore….
For all you young whipper-snappers with your iPads and your Sony Walkmans and your portable I don’t know what else, feast your jaded eyes on this: the 1968 Hot Wheels Talking Service Center (“by Mattel!®”). Yeah, you have your highly-detailed playsets made of high-impact styrene plastic, with action features and LEDs and digitally-stored sound effects and character audio. But in our day, we had this!! Cheap, thin vacuum-molded plastic for the second floor and roof, while everything else was folded cardboard wrapped in printed vinyl. That’s right, I said folded cardboard wrapped in printed vinyl. And we liked it! NOW GET OFF MY LAWN!!!
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So, this guy walks into the August meeting, and asks Big Tractor Mike about membership and et cetera. Mentions something about cars and stuff his parents collected and put away for him when he was a kid. Goes back out, and brings in the most awesomely huge collection of Redlines and accessories and stuff that I done ever did see! BTM starts goin’ through a case, and pulls out a few cool finds. Me does the same thing. Eventually he gets his wits about him, does some math in his head, makes Mr. New Guy an offer … and ends up buying the Whole. Incredible. Collection., in One. Huge. Single. Drop.
Boom.
Suncoast Diecasters 