Action Force (Truck Set)

The full set in their box

In the last fortnight I mentioned to my beloved I'd seen a box of trucks that would be suitable for my games and was lucky enough to receive the very same this week.
More or less all the information about these can be found on the front cover of the box, save for the fact that I don't believe these are from the same "Action Force" company that make die-cast military vehicles. However that shouldn't deter the bargain hunters among you - at £6.99 for six vehicles, (or £12 for 12 if you buy  two boxes) they're a bargain in my opinion.

Sid showing their size

They're very comparable in both quality and size to many Poundlandbargainworld vehicles that I've bought over the last few years. They're made from a soft (ish), but durable plastic, but have few noticeable mold lines. They also have a kiddy-friendly push along motor (whereas some of my others have the pull-back and let go variety).

Cement truck with revolving 'bucket' thing

They are typical of  normal bright coloured toys, but I'm sure that the more able modellers amongst you could do wonders with these, weathering them etc.

For my part initially I'll be doing no more than removing some of the stickers, the ones either side of the cab showing "Beat truck" in a large blazon and the ones either side of the rear body showing a spanner and the word "Truck".
I've removed many of theses from similar buys I've made. The fingernail and peel method doesn't always work, so once this has been attempted it's a water soaking followed by another soaking using Turps substitute, White Spirit or something similar. This latter stuff removes the tacky bits of glue left even after a successful peeling.

The container truck

  The container vehicle has an immovable container on the rear of it (I haven't yet worked out how it's attached) and the rear 'door' sticker is a bit 'meh' too, but serviceable until future enthusiasm to do something about it kicks in.
There is also a rear sticker that is a flat representation of the rear lights, though there is no physical representation of these on the model, but you can see that the model does have wing mirrors represented, so they're not entirely lacking in detail, even if a little bland.
As a final feature of this version, the container roof can seemingly be pried off.

Sid on lookout.

   Next up is this cherry-picker with a basket large enough to get a figure in, that is, providing it's on a base less than 25mm diameter. My figures are on 20mm washers for the most part and Sid is quite a tight fit.
The photograph gives a view of the 'detail' on one of the alternate beds (there are three from what I can tell ) with some form of control panel (or possibly it's a seat), in reality has so little detail on it, it's impossible to tell.

Sid by the 'control panel' thing.

"So what's this for again?"

The 'digger' vehicle, uses the same 'bed' as the cherry-picker, but has additional stickers that will be removed (for an instant model improvement). You can see on this photograph that the exhaust pipes aren't completely solid either (yes, that's how cheap these are), but a quick bit of filler, or some paper wrapped around will  fix that little problem lickety-split.

Sid with the "No tipping" tipper truck

The last of the models made me chuckle somewhat (and not because of the two extra stickers that'll have to be removed - that's just annoying), because although it's blazoned on the side of the model and on the box as a "tipper" is doesn't in fact tip at all. No, the tipper part is securely affixed to the bed of the truck with some form of plastic magic - but it's not something that bothers me in particular.

My vehicle storage solution.

Overall though I'm very happy with this acquisition and for the price I may well have been tempted to have bought it myself. I've bought a lot of vehicles over the last few years but have never paid more than £1 for each, but at just over a
£1 a vehicle (who needs two sets ?) these are still good value. (And yes,  I do have a lot of vehicles that have cost more than a £1, but  these have been gifts and I didn't buy them.) The only problem I have now is that I need a new storage bin to fit them in.
As you can see from the photograph to the right, this is my storage solution for my vehicles. They're obviously vegetable bins, free from my local grocers and they're each crammed full of vehicles . My largest vehicle had to be put at a slight angle to fit (and it's a slightly under-scaled model at that) but normally I can get anywhere between upwards of two dozen cars to at least a dozen models of the size these are.
I've done very little 'work' on any of the vehicles I have, as a lot are fine to play with as they are, but there are just as many, like these, that really should have a a bit of attention. One day, maybe, possibly  I'll get around to it.
 In other news I've been once more bitten by the pirate bug and my bed-time reading has been reading through my recently acquired pirate rules, contemplating both the good (for the most part) and bad parts.  This enthusiasm for all thing Pirate has been tempered by the ongoing Large Factory build, that has taken up the majority of my hobby activities this week. The windows have all been 'glazed' and framed; all the doors (large and small) have all had their details added (8 large doors, all with twelve [that's 12!]  bit of cardboard cut to size and added for detail on each side - making 192 individual bits) and it all takes time. The initial coats of paint have also been started , but the model still hasn't been assembled and glued together yet, but I guess I'm over the half-way stage with this build - further news next week.

That's it then for another week, here's hoping that I haven't completely bored you to tears.