K94A Airport Fire Tender

[Moyboy]

I have this entry on the prepro page at Matchboxmemories .com from the Jim Yates who designed the model but will paste here for all to save them visiting my site.
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This is an interesting one as I was contacted by Jim Yates after he saw this model here and here is his story
"I was at the Lesney, Chingford development site until it closed in 1982 and was involved in the development of this particular model, the biggest ever made and the first (and last) of what was to be a new range of models even larger than Super Kings. The model was close to 300 mm long and around 100 mm high. It had a siren, flashing lights and a functional water pump fed by an internal water tank filled via the cylindrical cap on the roof. The photograph is of the prototype. The body was made from soldered brass sheet and the base from plasticard. The exhausts were made from brass tube and the nozzle from many bits of plastic. The seats were also made from plasticard. The walkways on the roof were made from fine metal mesh fixed in place with double sided tape. The wheels had substantial suspension to carry the weight. On the side facing the camera is a statement in German - on the other side was a similar statement in English.
Diecast tooling was made for this model in early 1982 and a few hundred shots were produced. I still have one somewhere in my loft. I do not believe any other tooling was produced as the development was discontinued due to Lesney Products ceasing trading shortly after"
Regards, Jim Yates

And to a further enquiry Jim kindly replied


"Do you mean the prototype Airport Crash Tender in the picture or other pre-production models - I was only aware of the one, the one in the picture, which is definitely the brass and plasticard prototype - I can even see my fingerprints on it.


Then - I remembered seeing a picture of one in a book - but I could not remember which book it was - so I did a bit of digging and found it on page 32 of "Matchbox Toys" by Bruce and Diane Stoneback. Sure enough, there it was, not the brass and plasticard prototype but one made from a diecast body and what appears to be an injection moulded roof, windows, and other fittings. I was not aware that this much tooling had been completed. The book suggests that 50 were completed. See attached and compare the detail with the one on your site.


I was with Lesney UK Operations Ltd. from late 1979 to early 1984 as Senior Control Systems Engineer, initially at the machinery and toy development site in Waterden Road. When that closed most of my engineering team and most of the toy development group moved to the Chingford site - which is where I became involved with the Crash Tender. I also became heavily involved with the sad work of decommissioning and closure of the Lee Conservancy Road site and then the Chingford site. In early 1983 I moved to the Matchbox site at Rochford for almost a year and then left Matchbox "

A fascinating piece of Lesney history again and many thanks for this information Jim. I will try and show the finished version in the book but do not want to broach copyright laws so will try and find out before I post it here.

[charliep]

"That makes !ten Where are the rest?"
Wolfie,
I know of at least 9 more in various stages of development safely in collectors hands. It would be interesting to find out where the one pictured in the 40th anniversary book went. I think that one by far was the most decorated of the whole lot.

[nearlymint]

What a great model, I would love one of these. Thankyou for showing these superb models.J

[Moyboy]

Here are 2 more that exist. Rodger who used to work at R&D posted these on the Moyboyz site. One in white is almost a final complete model with complete K number and date whilst the red is a very early version with almost all first run components. There is also a mocked up prepro box with them shown.







Amazing how so much work was done on this model yet was never released.

[roger the dodger]

Thanks Mick.