Benbros Mighty Midget No.49 Coca-Cola Truck

Benbros Mighty Midget No.49 Coca-Cola Truck is often mistaken for the similar Lesney model (37a) because they were both one-piece hollow castings. An easy check is to look inside the cab roof where Benbros cast 'Made in England' but even this is unsure because the first Benbros models had no identification.

The first issue of No.49 Coca-Cola Truck had unpainted metal wheels (on nail-head & crimped axles) and no identification. It was painted dark-yellow both outside and inside. Silver trim was added to the grille, headlights and bumper and full-length 'Drink Coca-Cola' decals applied to both sides of the top bar. A further large decal was put on the back.

Benbros used two types of decals for the top board on No.49, long ones on early models and shorter ones on models with black plastic wheels. The long decals were a slightly brighter red than later types. The short ones may have been hard to apply because broken ones are sometimes seen.

One feature of the 'Coca-Cola' trucks was the variations in colour. The metal wheeled issue was a rich dark-yellow but those with black plastic wheels became steadily more pale.

Another feature was the inside of the models. To start with the whole model was painted yellow but later only the top was painted with the inside being left with undercoat. This was off-white, cream, or later pale-grey.

To add to the variety, Benbros used two types of black plastic wheels on No.49 Coca-Cola Truck, small and large.

The casting of the Coca-Cola Truck with its even crates did not change but late examples did seem to suffer casting flaws to the cab. After the first issue, they all had 'Made in England' inside the cab roof.

Completing the individual nature of the Coca-Cola Truck, even the Mighty Midget box for No.49 was different from others in the series. Benbros had used a uniform typeface for all the boxes but for No.49 they had larger type.

No.49 Coca-Cola Truck is not a common model and good examples usually fetch a high price.