Benbros Qualitoys
224 Articulated Petrol Lorry
Dating from 1947 as one of the original Timpo Toys models, Benbros re-issued the Articulated Petrol Tanker without change except to the wheels. Timpo did not include id. on either the cab or trailer so there was nothing to blank out. Benbros called it 'Articulator Petrol Lorry'.
The cab was the same as that used on other articulated Qualitoys and could be coloured red, orange, green or pale green with silver trim on the front bumper, headlights and grille. Early models had solid metal wheels painted black but fairly soon they were replaced by painted metal in yellow, red, orange, green or blue with black tyres.
The tanker trailer was a solid one-piece hollow casting painted inside and out onto which the axle was directly clipped. An internal cylinder at the front provided the coupling method.
As with the cab, wheels were possibly solid metal to start with but most trailers had painted metal wheels with black tyres. The colours of the trailer wheels were often different from those on the cabs.
Benbros produced several variations of the trailer using different colours and decals. The green variation was unadorned but the yellow and metallic green trailers carried a single 'Esso' decal, and the red trailer had either 'Shell' or 'United Dairies' decals.
No.224 Articluated Petrol Lorry shared two types of multi-model boxes with other numbered models, the first with large pictures on the sides, the second a yellow box with various models illustrated and given name and number, the only reference there is to numbers (see Qualitoys Petrol Tanker). The red end-flaps carried the Benbros Qualitoys 'crest' and at one end a blank panel for the model name to be added.
The Articulated Tanker is quite scarce and good examples with undamaged decals are rare.
Benbros Qualitoys 224 Articulated Petrol Lorry
Variations
All models were sold in multi-model 'Qualitoy' boxes
-
RED cab GREEN trailer no decals solid BLACK pmw
-
RED or ORANGE cab GREEN trailer no decals coloured pmw
-
RED or ORANGE cab YELLOW trailer 'ESSO' decals coloured pmw
-
RED cab METALLIC GREEN trailer 'ESSO' decals coloured pmw
-
GREEN cab RED trailer 'SHELL' decals coloured pmw
-
PALE-GREEN cab RED trailer 'UNITED DAIRIES' decals coloured pmw