John M. Dean is a collector of diecast toy vehicles in Colorado. He has a large collection of toys dating back to the fifties and earlier, and displays some of the Jeeps from his collection here. See John's Dinky Toys and British Die Cast page for a look at some of his non-Jeep vehicles.
Click on any photo below to see a larger version (20K JPEG).
According to John, "This is a Marx (I think) pressed steel model of a Navy Jeep with
search light trailer. This is a Tonka sized toy from the early 50's.
I don't think the Jeep and the trailer match -- the wheels
are not the same."
This photo shows a 1/24 recognition model made by Dale of Chicago during
WWII. John says, "The red vinyl Jeep is also military one, from Tomte in
Norway. It's a copy of something probably because most Tomte toys
were. I can't recognize what this is a copy of though.
"The smallest
Jeep is a Siku made in Germany (see a closer
photo). Siku made plastic toys until the early
60's when they switched to die cast. I have a 61 Chrysler Windsor and a
Mercedes Benz 190 in plastic, and I have a 63 Olds 98 in metal, so I suspect
the switch was in there somewhere."
"This is another Siku -- a US Mail Jeep. The specs on the bottom say its top
speed is 123/kph and the engine is a 4 cyl 2674 ccm.
"Here are three rare models of the Jeep station wagon. The smallest of
the three is a 1/43 by Gasquy of Belgium that must be from about 1951
going by the age of the Studebaker that I have by the same firm.
"The middle one is by Mercury, the Italian die cast company (see a closer photo). The man I got it from said he got it at the Jeep dealer so it's a promo.
"The largest of the three station wagons is an incorrect repaint of a
true dealer promo. It was originally a dull red with the chrome and
windows masked off to make a chrome finish. I'm just guessing here but
in Banthrico Banks--who made promos of US cars in the late 40's into the
mid-50's--a red or a blue one meant that it was distributed through some
other outlet like a bank. The dealer promos were painted the actual
colors of the cars." -- John Dean
One of John's more recent finds is a knock-off (apparently made in
China) of the Matchbox MB. In addition to the ambulance markings, a
significant feature not found on any of the Matchbox versions is a spare tire
mounted on the left side. See also a larger front view photo (38K
JPEG).
Thanks to John for sending the photos. -- Derek Redmond
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