|
Lesney Matchbox Major pack M3a Antar tank transporter & Centurion tank |
|
|
|
The 'Thornycroft mighty Antar and Sankey tank transporter trailer with Centurion tank' to give it its full title was introduced in mid 1959, The Centurion tank was originally made for inclusion into the 1-75 series but the price of the bought in rubber tracks made it too expensive so the Antar and it's Sankey trailer were developed and the set was released as a Major pack. The set was painted military olive green all over including the Antar baseplate but the baseplate on the Centurion tank was in the usual gloss black, The Antar originally had silver trim to the headlights and front bumper but this was soon omitted. The model was always fitted with black plastic wheels on dome head axles with rounded ends and the wheels were usually knobbly tread but a late issue was fitted with fine tread wheels. Like the 25b Volkswagon (with an 'o') the Antar also had a spelling mistake because the baseplate reads "Thorneycroft Antar" but the correct spelling was Thornycroft without the 'e'. Apart from the wheels the only other known variation is the rollers on the tank which can be bare metal, grey plastic or black plastic. The bare metal and black plastic rollers are common but the grey plastic are quite rare. The Antar was packaged in 'B','C','D' and 'E' type boxes with six different model illustrations so there is plenty for the box collectors to look out for, It was deleted in 1966. |
|
|
 |
|
collectable toy specialists. |
|
|
 |
|
collectable toy specialists. |
|
|
 |
|
collectable toy specialists. |
|
|
 |
|
collectable toy specialists. |
|
|
 |
|
collectable toy specialists. |
|
|
 |
|
collectable toy specialists. |
|
|
 |
|
collectable toy specialists. |
|
|
 |
|
collectable toy specialists. |
|
|
