Airfix Ferguson Tractor

Probably not!

Peter

P.S. please note ebay's policy on spamming newsgroups and please note our policy on spamming newsgroups!

The only reason I posted that link to EBay was because I thought some people might be interested, It is`nt an advert, Its not my auction and because it was a UK auction I did`nt think that many people would see it, I do try to contribute as much as I can to this excellent Newsgroup but frankly comments like make me wonder whether I`ll bother again, Darren

Models are culturally relative, and think this may be a bigger deal in UK than US. According to UK historians this was the first Airfix kit to go on the market, and was essentially a knock-down of a toy they made at the time.

Same applies to other countries. I once saw two elderly German gentlemen get ready to get into a fistfight over a 1/87 (HO scale) Wiking moving van as one said it was fake, as the original had grey tires, and the other claimed it was legit and a very rare piece.

Am sure they feel the same about us and some old Aurora kits -- remember the $3000 for the Aurora "Lost in Space" Robot of about 12 years ago?

Cookie Sewell AMPS

Cookie (and all!),

If any farm-toy collectors see this auction, watch out! The Ferguson tractor was widely sold in the US in the early 1950's, after the ending of a partnership between Harry Ferguson and Ford Motor Company. Ford's first modern farm tractor (the 1920-vintage Fordson having been dropped in the middle

1930's, due to falling sales), the 9N pioneered Ford's last 4-cylinder flathead engine (also offered in passenger cars and pickup trucks in 1940-42). In 1945, Ford struck a partnership with Harry Ferguson, the result being the famed Ford 8N tractor, which used Ferguson's patented drive system, along with the Ford 4-cylinder flathead engine. Thousands of Ferguson-Fords were sold before the partnership was dissolved in 1950-51, and Ford introduced a new line of farm tractors.

After the dissolution, Ferguson began offering the same basic 8N design, but with a different engine, built, I believe, in Canada for the North American market. I've seen a lot of farm toys over the years, but never a Ferguson tractor of this vintage, and certainly not in a model kit.

There were a fair number of plastic promotional toys of agricultural/light construction equipment made in the 1950's, with Product Miniatures leading the way. PMC produced a fairly comprehensive line of International Harvester McCormick tractors, both wheeled, and crawlers, and an equally fascinating line of Allis-Chalmers tractors as well, both wheeled and crawler designs. Farm toy collectors snap these up whenever they appear on the market.

Art Anderson

This one is more than a _bit_ "culturally relative"...

The Ferguson tractor marks the point when Airfix moved from making plastic promotional gimmicks for companies into making "scale" models for the public. Other companies had sold model kits before, but that Airfix kit is the watershed between some very rare pre-war Frog Penguin kits and the mass-market hobby that we know today (in England, at least).

The Airfix Ferguson tractor is pretty much the first "Airfix kit" in the sense that "Airfix Kit" is still generic for "plastic scale model" in the UK, like Hoover or Sellotape. It's the Revell "Highway Pioneers" or Monogram LST for the UK.

Sadly, I played with an umnmade one as a kid... for one Saturday afternoon, and when I realised how valuable it was (thirty years later), I called the friend of my parents who had owned it, but he'd sent it to the jumble (aka garage) sale... Bestest, M.

By consensus, it's perfectly acceptable to post eBay listings here. In any case the OP wasn't promoting his own auction anyways.

Thanks Bill, Thats exactly why I posted it here, Yes it is a hefty sum, Just under 9 hours to go and no bids!! Darren

Ouch!

Peter

Thanks for the 'heads-up' - I just learn't something about model kit history I didn't know :o)

Cheers,

Iain

32SIG