Issued 1959-64    Length 103mm

 

Originally planned as part of the Morestone Trucks of the World Series, the Renault 'Fresh Fruit Daily' lorry was based on a vehicle common in France during the late 1950's and early 1960's but rarely seen in Britain.

 

The chassis, body, base and front bumper were all one casting and painted a rich red. Quite a bit of detail was cast on the chassis including drive shaft and rear suspension and the wording branched into french describing it as 'Les Diesel 120CV Renault Chassis Long Surbaisse' (Renault 120 Horsepower long wheelbase diesel lorry). The painted metal wheels of the Renault Truck were always red with treaded tyres.

 

Onto this extensive chassis was fitted the cab held on by a forward mounted rivet. Its colour varied from a pale yellow to a quite dark orange-yellow. It was finished off with silver trim on the four front lights.

 

The canvas canopy of the Renault Truck was held in place by two rigid metal hoops the ends of which fitted into slots in each corner of the load bed. 'Fresh Fruit Daily' was printed on the canopy in combined red and blue but sometimes one or other of the colours were missed so single blue or red versions exist.

 

No.216 Renault Truck had an unusual range of boxes, two of them hard to find. The first was the standard issue Morris & Stone box without numbers (A1) and this seems to have been used for much of the life of the model. But two upgraded boxes were also issued with this model, both with 'Made in England by Budgie Models' on each picture face. These were after Guiterman had taken over ownership of Budgie Toys and changed the name to Budgie Models.

 

The first 'Budgie Models' box was a hybrid (A5a). Surprisingly it had no numbers on it which made it the only box of its kind issued after the time when all Budgie boxes were numbered in some way. It also had the new style of printing 'Made in England by Budgie Models' on the picture faces but still kept the old 'Budgie Toys' name on the end-flaps without number. The second 'Budgie Models' box did have numbers on the end-flaps but even this design (A6) was only used for one other model, No.256 Esso Refueller 'Pluto'. All these boxes are rare.

 

Despite its long run, the only variations to the Renault Truck were the colours of the cab so it is not hard to find.