| Lesney Caterpillar Bulldozer |
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The Lesney Bulldozer was introduced in 1947/48 and was an adaptation of the crawler with a three piece bulldozer blade added, The early versions which were sold individually had a handle attached to the left side of the blade which when operated would raise and lower the blade, It had black rubber tracks and because the tracks had to be fitted after painting so the axles on this model were not painted. The casting was altered when "Lesney Moko Made in England" was cast in to the back of the dozer blade, It was painted in one colour all over but many different colours were used. The dozer that was sold as part of the prime mover set had either a yellow body and red dozer blade and arms or was painted green all over, The dozer blade lifting handle was removed and it usually had black rubber tracks and on the red painted dozer arms gold trim was applied to the hydraulics. Unlike the crawler the bulldozer was not sold with a driver included. It is one of the more common of the early large scale models but rare coloured models in good condition still fetch very high prices, It was not packaged in individual boxes until it appeared as part of the prime mover set so until then individual models were packed and sold in boxes of 12, The model went out of production in 1950 when due to the Korean war an embargo was placed on the zinc stocks to reserve them for military use but the embargo ended in 1953 and soon after the model went back into production as part of the prime mover set. The model was reduced in size and released as the number 18a Caterpillar bulldozer in the Matchbox 1-75 series in 1955. Like the crawler the Bulldozer was also copied by Benbros |
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 photo courtesy Gary Galvin. |
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collectable toy specialists. |
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collectable toy specialists. |
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collectable toy specialists. |
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collectable toy specialists. |
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collectable toy specialists. |
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collectable toy specialists. |
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collectable toy specialists. |
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collectable toy specialists. |
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collectable toy specialists. |
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collectable toy specialists. |
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