Benbros Mighty Midgets

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.

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The other two variations of the Coca-Cola Truck were fitted with black plastic wheels and there were also differences in colour. The first issue was a rich dark-yellow but those with black wheels became steadily more pale.

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.

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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 the Coca-Cola Truck, small and large.

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.

Variation 1 : dark-yellow, long decals, gpw 

Benbros No.49 Coca-Cola Truck

Variations

All models had Mighty Midget boxes

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(1) DARK-YELLOW    long top decals     yellow underside                   gpw

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(2) MID-YELLOW       short top decals    off-white/cream underside    small bpw

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(3) PALE-YELLOW    short top decals    pale-grey underside              large bpw

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

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

Long decal (front), short decal (rear)

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

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