Innocent Times Revisited

These little Lego cars are the earliest toys I can distinctly remember having as a child of 3-4 years old. Sometimes when my father came home from work (I presume on payday), I was allowed to search the pockets of his dark grey overcoat, and I would find a little cardboard box with one of these vehicles inside. I also remember a line-up in a glass display cabinet in the back of Mascot toy store (I think it was) in The Hague. [click on photos for larger view]

The printed cardboard town plan I had when young as well. It didn't survive (I now shudder to remember it was turned into a puppet theatre...) but did get a replacement much later in life when I found one for a nice price at the monthly Brussels swap meet. 

This prompted the acquisition of a few of the cars and the construction of a few buildings. A renewed interest has recently resulted in quite a few more vehicles and buildings being added to an extra couple of shelves in the bookcase where these are on display. Bringing back the same joy as they did during the earliest and most carefree days of my life.

I'm no expert, but I gather Lego started making these vehicles in 1955, initially offering a series of Bedford trucks and VW vans, the latter strangely without any window openings in the original version. VW Beetles were added, which were used by VW as promotional toys next to much larger-sized ones also made by Lego. These were all painted in correct VW colours, and so stand out amongst all the other vehicles which are moulded in then-standard Lego colours (plus green for the VW vans, a very dark blue and another few rare non-standard colours).

More car models followed, mostly of German cars but also a few from other countries. Then the Bedfords were replaced with Mercedes trucks with a few types of truck disappearing but more types being added (plus mustard yellow and pale olive green as common colours for the Mercedes trucks). All in all the range lasted until the second half of the 1960s before disappearing from the Lego catalogue.

My photos show at least one of each model in the range, except for the early VW vans. To my mind those are a bit of an odd-one out with the rest of the range, being in a somewhat larger scale and not having window glass. I'm still trying to make up my mind if I really need one, though if the price is right I still might.*

Bedford trucks exist in one colour (combination) only; Mercedes trucks exist in several colours except for the articulated tank trucks in Esso red and Shell yellow only. The scooters and (motor)cyclists were also part of the range, as were the traffic signs and flat trees.

* Update: a good year later I did find an early VW van for a nice price. Here it is, compared to a later version. The early one is quite a bit larger, because it used the same wheels as the trucks. The smaller wheels came in with the VW Beetles which were introduced a few years later.

A first version of this post was published on Moonbase Central. Continued in part two.