Matchbox Superfast MB63-c Dodge crane truck

The Dodge crane truck joined the SuperFast range in 1970 and was produced for 2 years.
It was packaged in ´G´ boxes or any blisterpack with copyright dates between 1969 and 1971.
This crane truck was commonly painted in the same shade of construction yellow that was used for most regular wheels issues, however a short run was painted in the bright yellow shade famously associated with the #33 Muira with significant quantities of additional crane units in this bright yellow shade being matched up to standard construction yellow chassis-cabs.

It was normally fitted with yellow or lemon coloured plastic hooks, and due to the ease of exchange, examples exist today with red hooks from the #13 wrecker although photos of blister sealed red hook examples have yet to be found to prove these were factory variations.All had green glazing and black plastic baseplates, although the front axle retaining clip which is commonly black can also be found in dark red.

Aside from the obvious twin die numbers 1 & 2 cast into both the chassis and the crane, the only really noticeable casting difference is on the top 1/2 inch of the boom design, but as cranes 1 & 2 were made in equal numbers the boom end variation exists in equal numbers.
These Dodge crane trucks are normally found with 12.5 x 4mm 4 slot truck wheels, however at least one construction yellow example is known to exist with the 12.5 x 4mm Spiro wheels well known from the #4 Dodge staketruck & #19 Lotus although more examples should be found before it can be stated with any certainty that this was a mass produced variation.

Components were shipped to Roly Toys in Brazil for painting and assembly of the standard 4 slot wheels yellow hook #63c before Lesney took this tooling permenantly out of production in 1972.