Benbros TV Series & Mighty Midgets

No.21 Foden Diesel Wagon

The third of the Foden trucks in the Benbros TV Series & Mighty Midgets was No. 21 Diesel Wagon, another eight-wheeled vehicle which Benbros called a wagon but which could more correctly have been called an Open Lorry. The model used the same cab & chassis casting as the No.20 Flat Truck but with a different body representing a load-bed with fixed sides.

The Diesel Wagon shared many of its colours with the Flat Truck including the first issue in orange & green. The cab & chassis were painted bright orange and the body green, there was no trim, and the wheels were unpainted metal on nail-head & crimped axles. Underneath was cast 'Benbros' with the logo 'Qualitoy' and the usual 'Made in England'. It appeared in a TV Series numbered box (TV3) with a picture of the model in reverse colours (green cab and orange body).

Once the switch to Mighty Midgets had been done, Benbros issued the Diesel Wagon in a range of new colours with the first being red or metallic blue with a bright yellow body. This was followed by metallic blue and metallic green with painted metal wheels, probably overpainted earlier models to which silver trim was added to the grille, headlights, bumper and fuel tank.

Both metallic blue & green colours were also issued with unpainted wheels, as was an unusual beige model with red trim. These were followed by a red version and another in mid-blue which had unpainted wheels to start with but black plastic later. Nail-head axles were used on most of the models but round-head & crimped were fitted to the red and mid-blue versions.

The final models, like the previous Flat Truck, were painted dark red, dark blue or green with silver trim and black plastic wheels on nail-head & crimped axles.

Several of the colours of the Foden Diesel Wagon are difficult to find despite the model being popular and when they do turn up they are often playworn. The early TV Series box is rare.

Variation 1 : orange & green, no trim, umw, TV3 box

Benbros No.21 Foden Diesel Wagon

Variations

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

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

(3) MET. BLUE cab/chassis   NO trim      YELLOW body   umw              MM box

(4) MET. BLUE                       silver trim                             painted mw    MM box

(5) MET. GREEN                    silver trim                             painted mw   MM box

(6) MET. BLUE                       silver trim                             umw                MM box

(7) MET. GREEN                    silver trim                             umw               MM box

(8) BEIGE                               RED trim                              umw               MM box

(9) RED                                   silver trim                             umw               MM box

(10) MID-BLUE                       silver trim                             umw               MM box

(11) MID BLUE                        silver trim                             bpw                MM box

(12) DARK-RED                      silver trim                             bpw                MM box

(13) DARK-BLUE                    silver trim                             bpw                MM box

(14) GREEN                            silver trim                             bpw                MM box

Variation 3: metallic blue/yellow, umw

Variation 4 : metallic blue, pmw

Variation 6 : metallic blue, umw

Variation 7 : metallic green, umw

Variation 9 : red, umw

Variation 11 : mid-blue, bpw

Variation 12 : dark-red, bpw

Variation 14 : green, bpw

Variation 13 : dark-blue, bpw

Wheel variations : pmw (front), umw (centre) bpw (rear)

Dark- and mid-blue (non metallic)