Welcome to my blog, the story of my continuing journey into the World of Zombie Wargames.

Monday 30 September 2013

Mystery Vehicles

"Who ordered these then ?"
After yet another hospital trip which turned out to be my last eyesight check, I visited, what my wife has called my favourite shop, namely Poundland !
"Taxi for posh folk ?"
Along with all the normal goodies I buy (namely UHU, undercoat spray and sweets) I came across these vehicles. Now, they really aren't anything new and have actually been around quite a while but I never seemed to be able to catch them on sale when I had cold hard cash in my hands!  I did however find them tucked away in a box adjacent to, but not in the toy section. It was explained to me at the cash desk that these weren't toys but models  and the cashier could only sell them to me if they weren't going to be used as toys ! The whole thing was quite a palaver which I've thankfully never experienced previously.
The first picture shows two models which I've sought after for over a year now, namely yellow cabs.
I was very pleased with these and took both I could find, but there was another smaller
"Some sort of van for a toy-shop ? "
different cab/taxi style vehicle that I passed on. The next vehicle was yet another vehicle with checks down its side that could easily be a taxi, but it had no light on the top. At some time in the future I'll be trying to remove the checks.
The next vehicle is a van of some description and gives away the origin of these models as the lettering on the side (and on all their bases) is distinctly Cyrillic and probably Russian in origin. Alas I can't read Russian and their makes and models elude me. 
"Second hand cop vehicle anyone?"
The white vehicle suffered from an broken rear wheel that I couldn't repair, but I did replace.
Even if the vehicles had had English script on their bases I would still have had to read them to find out what they were.
My fourth vehicle, shown here is another van, larger than the first and does actually have some small insignia on it, but it's far too small to be made out. Again , unfortunately it too had a broken rear wheel (it's a double wheeled rear axle), but that glued on fairly easily.
I did think it would make an excellent police van  or swat vehicle but for the two go-faster stripes on the front.
The next vehicle is yet another large van, more like an RV, but does have two orange hazard-type lights on the rear.
Again I have really now idea as to what purpose this vehicle is for, but I'll be using it as a general purpose RV type thing.
"I'm stumped too"
Given the very small windows on either side of the body it does tend to look more like a security van than anything else ! The second view of the other side also shows the side door for the vehicle, looking ever more like a security vehicle.
"Vote for whom?"
The vehicles I got seemed to just get more and more peculiar and the next was no exception.
It's obvious as to what type of vehicle it is but it does have an intriguing slogan down the red strip on the side of the vehicle.
I did think immediately that it looked like something from the forties or fifties and wouldn't look out of place in a VCBW setting except of course it has a left hand drive- like all these all of these models.


Whilst the vehicles bodies are a soft metal all the fittings on them are a very soft, delicate  plastic. and there are quite a few of them ! I can't really envisage the windscreen wipers or especially the wing mirrors lasting that long and I already know that the plastic wheels are suspect to wear and tear.
  As I said above they did get stranger and this red fire-department "thing" is no exception.
It's hard to make out from the photograph, but there is a central ladder on the black canopy flanked by a pair of very solid looking hoses or pipes.
It's easy enough to recognise that there is some kind of device on the door, but what exactly it's meant to be is a mystery and will probably remain so. The insignia does look like a vehicle with flames above it though and the lettering underneath I suspect may say "Fire!"
  From this second photo the inside detail can be seen, two bench seat in the rear and a search-light can be seen on the drivers side.
I did think that I may have problems removing the roof but it actually just fell off so no problems there, probably the reverse will be the case and I'll probably have difficulties keeping the damn thing on, unless it's glued in place.




"Wtf ?"
And the weirdest (imo) I've kept until last.
I bought this thinking it was an alternative to a very similar van I spotted (one that Postman Pat would have been proud of) but  it didn't have the prominent lettering on the side that put me off the first, so I snapped it up !.
It wasn't until I returned home and unpacked everything that I discovered that this was no ordinary van. (I blame the ongoing effects of the eye-drops I'd had)
I think the first thing to give it away was the plough on the front, closely followed by the strange roller underneath.

"Oooookaaayyy......"
This view shows the underneath of the vehicle and clearly shows the plough at thefront and the roller set at an angle.
Both these features are plastic and would have been easily removed had I not had second thoughts on retaining them.
I thinks it's probably some form of gravel spreading and compacting vehicle (I'd already ruled out it use in snow) and you would have it wheels going over freshly laid tar either.
So it's actual use remains a mystery




There were several other vehicles in the box (including a military looking one with blue light on the top) which looked interesting, but alas my pocket money was all spent up.
The price I paid for these was obviously £1, but a model shop less than 50 yards from where I bought them was selling identical models for upwards of £4.99, so I was satisfactorily smug with my purchases.
Other than this recent purchasing foray, I've manged to clear my table and set up and played a game which I'll be relating next time.

And that's it for this week, as always your comments are both welcomed and appreciated.

34 comments:

  1. They were from some magazine type deal, of soviet cars

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ah, thanks for that, makes a lot of sense now.

      Delete
  2. Lucky you, Joe. Some good finds there. I have missed my visits to Poundland these past few months.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Bryan but I've no doubt that you'll be spending your pocket money there soon enough.

      Delete
  3. Gah, that's a great haul you lucky old git! (thats a new phrase I learned at Bryan's so you'll have to excuse me using it :P)

    Anyways, I can't really help you with cyrillic, but the van with 2 children is believed to say "rolled fabrics" or something, you know...the cloth. This was found out on LAF.

    The black van looks a lot like what EU workers would use to come to Italy from the east here. If I'm allowed to complain a bit, they "are" the reason special twice-the-price highway vignette will be used for any bigger vans here.

    The security van looks like just that to me, hehe. A bit odd, sure, but it looks apart. Perhaps a money collector!

    And as for the last one, I'd assume it could be made to plough the snow. Apparently, they roll snow in countries where they get a lot of snow as they got nowhere to put it at certain point.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. thanks for all that Mathyoo, and yes I am an Old Git.
      BRW it was nice to see your cavemen featured on the TMP board too.

      Delete
    2. Oh, really? You got link for that? :D

      Delete
    3. http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/topics.mv?id=295

      Delete
    4. Oh, thats nice, I'm popular :P. They're just made from zombies, not zombies as such though :(

      Delete
  4. What a very nice find. That would have made my day. I hope it put a smile on your face as well.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes Clint i was very happy to at last got my hands on some of these and the smile did come evntually !

      Delete
  5. You're a lucky guy! I've never seen these in any of my visits to Poundland, though I'm aware that they do exist and have been looking occasionally.

    As part-works go [these vehicles are the unsold remnants of such a publication, if I remember right], Soviet-era model cars must be one of the wierdest ideas ever!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I do think I was quite lucky C6 as I believe these were removed from the shelves and then put back out on display.
      These may well be Soviet-era top of the range vehicles, even though they probably looked out of date when new.

      Delete
  6. Envy...Right here! The old cars and fire trucks are great!

    Well done mate!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks LS, but I won't rub it in. The fire truck is still a bit wierd though and I may well go the route Brummie took and make it into something more usable and less fire-truck like.

      Delete
  7. Nice job they are all DeAgostini Soviet collectors cars that did come with magazines. Mostly some sort of Gaz variants from what I could tell with the odd different Soviet car.

    Ebay has some descriptions of what each vehicle actually is but whether it is correct or not I don't know lol.

    Just ebay search 'deagostini russian car' and you can have a mooch through.

    They are great cars I picked up what I could to use for 7tv never though about getting the Transit types for Zombie gaming I though they where to big but they look fine in your pics!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's a great idea, doing "the research" for them on e-bay, thanks for that.
      I was a bit apprehensive about all of them scale-wise, but I think they're OK now "in the flesh" so to speak and out of their packaging.

      Delete
  8. What a great haul, great looking cabs and the cash in transit van too!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Fran, I would have been just as pleased had I only got the cabs.
      (I think Ray would have said Cock o van - or something similar)

      Delete
  9. Superb collection of vehicles there

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Zombie Ad, I now well on my way to having a motorway (freeway ?) traffic jam.

      Delete
  10. Strange they may be, but really useful - great finds.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think I'll get over their weirdness and they'll hardly be noticed amongst the mass of other traffic I've accumulated.

      Delete
  11. Great haul you got there, I'm jealous. maybe I should go to the dollar store half blind...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks PS (I think). I get jealous over finds I see from US bloggers too, (Dollar Tree ?) where others' finds almost always have me go jealous.

      Delete
  12. Great finds mate, you can never have enough vehicles, especially yellow cabs right?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The yellow cabs are so iconic that I've always wanted models of them for my game, the search continues for decent black and white us cop cars though.

      Delete
  13. Replies
    1. Thanks HW they're a pretty mixed bunch, but all are usable and add to the gridlock !

      Delete
  14. I like it. I hate the fact that after my zombie apocalypse everyone drives Ferraris and Corvettes. It's nice that you have some unique cars to add variation.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Charles, I agree and I've tried to avoid "high-end" vehicles but I'm limited to what's available too.

      Delete
  15. Thanks for a very interesting blog. What else may I get that kind of info written in such a perfect approach? I’ve a undertaking that I am simply now operating on, and I have been at the look out for such info.

    Eye tourism hospital

    ReplyDelete