No.20 Flat Truck in the Benbros TV Series & Mighty Midgets saw the second of several more Fodens in the collection, the first having been No.8 Timber Tractor.

 

Based on an eight-wheeled lorry, the Flat Truck model was quite small in scale measuring just 57mm long. It had a straightforward two-part casting made up of a cab and chassis section, and a flat-bed body rivetted on top. With this design there was no need for a base because the axles and wheels were fitted directly onto the chassis. One interesting feature was the inclusion of 'Qualitoy' on the casting, a logo which Benbros first added to the bases of the American models Nos. 16b and 18 and which was now included on most of the miniatures. 'Benbros' and 'Made in England' were also added. 

 

The colour Benbros chose for the first issue of No.20 Flat Truck was a two-tone model with orange cab & chassis and a green flat-bed and this was illustrated on the 'screen' of the TV box. However,  only one example of this colour combination is known to exist so it seems Benbros was not happy with it, or it was a pre-production trial.

 

The first full-production model was brightly coloured with the cab and chassis section a rich red and the flat-bed deep yellow. There was no silver trim and the wheels were unpainted metal on nail-head and crimped axles. It was packed in a TV Series box (TV3) with the TV 'screen' still displaying the orange & green model. 

 

At about this time Benbros added metallic colours to many of their models and the next Flat Truck was metallic blue without silver trim with a red body and metal wheels.

 

After these first three twin-colour models, Benbros painted the remainder of the Flat Trucks in just one colour, the first of which was metallic green. This variation was the first to have silver trim added to the grille, headlights, front bumper and the fuel tank on the left side of the chassis and was also the only Flat Truck to get painted wheels and axles. These were often overpainted red & yellow models with the old colours sometimes showing.

 

New colours quickly followed with orange, blue and green models, all with silver trim, and a beige variation with red trim on front grille, bumper, headlights and fuel tank.  

 

The usual Benbros assembly method was to fit the wheels after the model had been painted so all the remaining Flat Trucks had unpainted metal wheels or black plastic ones. Nail-head & crimped axles continued for most variations but round-head & crimped were used on the beige and mid-blue models with umw, and on some of the last models with black plastic wheels.

 

The Flat Truck was a successful model and when Benbros switched to black plastic wheels, they not only applied these to several existing colours (or overpainted them in another colour, for example orange over green) but added two more, dark-blue and red. These last variations are perhaps the best of all in both strength of colour and finish. 

 

It is not hard to find good examples of No.20 Foden Flat Truck but several of the colours including the first issues in TV3 boxes are scarce or very rare. 

Benbros No.20 Foden Flat Truck

Variations

 

• (1) ORANGE cab/chassis    NO trim      PALE-GREEN body   umw                TV3 box

• (2) RED cab/chassis             NO trim      YELLOW body            umw                TV3 box

• (3) METALLIC BLUE             NO trim       RED body                    umw                TV3 or MM box  

• (4) METALLIC GREEN          silver trim                                        painted mw    MM box

• (5) METALLIC GREEN          silver trim                                        umw                 MM box

• (6) METALLIC BLUE             silver trim                                        umw                 MM box

• (7) GREEN                              silver trim                                        umw                 MM box

• (8) ORANGE-RED                 silver trim                                        umw                 MM box

• (9) BEIGE                                RED trim                                           umw                 MM box

• (10) MID-BLUE                      silver trim                                         umw                 MM box

• (11) MID-BLUE                      silver trim                                         bpw                  MM box

• (12) ORANGE                         silver trim                                         bpw                  MM box

• (13) BEIGE                              silver trim                                         bpw                  MM box

• (14) METALLIC BLUE           silver trim                                         bpw                   MM box 

• (15) DARK BLUE                    silver trim                                         bpw                  MM box

• (16) RED                                  silver trim                                          bpw                  MM box

• (17) GREEN                            silver trim                                          bpw                  MM box

Variation 2 : Red & yellow, umw, TV3 box

Variation 5 : Metallic green, umw

Variation 6 : metallic blue, umw

Variation 10 : mid-blue, umw 

Variation 9 : beige, red trim, umw

Variation 4 : metallic green, pmw

Variation 15 : dark-blue, bpw

Variation 16 : red, bpw

Benbros No.20 Foden Flat Truck : colours

Variation 17 : green, bpw

Benbros No.20 Foden Flat Truck : variations of trim

Base detail and wheel variations

Variation 14 : metallic blue, bpw

photo Robert Newson

Variation 1 : orange & green, umw

Variation 12 : orange (factory over-painted green model), bpw

Variation 13 : beige, silver trim, bpw

Variation 3: metallic blue & red, umw, TV3 box

Variation 8: Orange-red, umw

Variation 7: green, umw