Benbros Mighty Midgets

No.35 Army Land Rover

Benbros continued the Mighty Midget Land Rover models with an Army version which had the same body and base castings as the previous No.34 AA Road Service Land Rover but without anything cast on the sides. In some ways this was a missed opportunity because adding, say, 'Military Police' would have been little more difficult than having plain sides. Interestingly, the picture on the Mighty Midget box appears to show an insignia on the side so perhaps it was originally intended.

No.35 Army Land Rover was a functional but not particularly exciting model but of interest to collectors because Benbros produced it in three distinct shades of green, and some models also carried a 'regimental' decal square.

The first Army Land Rovers were painted a glossy olive-green which included the base, nail-head & crimped axles and large metal wheels. Silver trim was added to the front grille and bumper but on this version there was no decal.

The next colour was a gloss green model, again with silver trim on the front, and this time Benbros added a red & yellow square decal on the rear tailgate. Benbros used two sizes of red/yellow decals with the small one being used on the green model.

The final variations of No.35 Army Land Rover were army-green in a matt finish. This actually varied from matt to semi-matt but all had silver trim and carried a decal, although models are known where this was omitted, probably due to factory mistakes. There were two types of decal used, a large red & yellow square on the rear tailgate or a small dark-blue & yellow square on the front. 

No.35 Army Land Rover is not widely found but there are sufficient variations to make it interesting to collectors. Although scarce, it does not have a high valuation.

Variation 1 : olive-green, no decal

Benbros No.35 Army Land Rover

Variations

All models had Mighty Midget boxes

(1) GLOSS OLIVE-GREEN   NO decal                                              pmw

(2) GLOSS GREEN               small RED/YELLOW decal at rear       pmw

(3) MATT ARMY-GREEN      large RED/YELLOW decal at rear        pmw

(4) MATT ARMY-GREEN      small BLUE/YELLOW decal at front     pmw

Variation 2 : gloss green, small rear red/yellow decal

Variation 3 : matt green, large rear red/yellow decal

Variation 4 : matt green, front blue/yellow decal

Benbros No.35 Army Land Rover : colours & front decal

Benbros No.35 Army Land Rover : colours & rear decals

Benbros No.35 Army Land Rover: base detail