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Benbros Mighty Midgets

No.49 Coca-Cola Truck

Benbros Mighty Midget No.49 Coca-Cola Truck

The 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 Lesney cast the model number and name whereas Benbros at first included nothing and then later only added 'Made in England'.

 

The first issue of No.49 Coca-Cola Truck was one of only two Mighty Midget models to be fitted with grey plastic wheels making it a very rare model (the other being 16b Station Wagon). It was painted dark-yellow both outside and inside with silver trim added to the grille, headlights and bumper. Full-length 'Drink Coca-Cola' decals were applied to both sides of the top bar and a further large decal was put on the back. On this variation there was no id.

The other two variations of the Coca-Cola Truck were fitted with black plastic wheels and painted in a lighter yellow colour, with the last variation being the palest. Two types of black plastic wheels were used, small (which looked out of scale) and large.

 

Benbros used two types of decals for the top board on No.49, long ones on the first issue 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.

Another feature was the inside of the models. On the first issue, the whole model was painted yellow including the inside but later only the top was painted with the inside being left with undercoat. As a result, models can be found with off-white, cream, or pale-grey undersides.

 

The casting of the model 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 font for all the boxes but for No.49 they had larger type.

 

No.49 Coca-Cola Truck is not a common model and the variation with grey plastic wheels is rare.

Benbros Mighty Midget No.49 Coca-Cola Truck
Benbros Mighty Midget No.49 Coca-Cola Truck

Variation 1 : dark-yellow, long decals, gpw 

Benbros No.49 Coca-Cola Truck

Variations

 

All models had Mighty Midget boxes

(1) DARK-YELLOW,  long top decals,  yellow underside,  GREY PLASTIC wheels

(2) MID-YELLOW,  short top decals,  off-white or cream underside,  SMALL BLACK pw

(3) PALE-YELLOW,  short top decals,  pale-grey underside,  LARGE BLACK pw

Benbros Mighty Midget No.49 Coca-Cola Truck

Variation 2 : mid-yellow, short decals, small bpw

Benbros Mighty Midget No.49 Coca-Cola Truck

Variatiuon 3 : pale-yellow, short decals, large bpw

Benbros Mighty Midget No.49 Coca-Cola Truck

Long decal (front), short decal (rear)

Benbros Mighty Midget No.49 Coca-Cola Truck

gpw, small & large bpw; yellow, cream & pale-grey undersides

Benbros Mighty Midget No.49 Coca-Cola Truck

Contrasting yellow colours (left to right) pale-yellow, mid-yellow, dark-yellow

Benbros Mighty Midget No.49 Coca-Cola Truck box

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