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Going by the later junk this man is selling, I think everyone may have missed the boat on this playworn rarity. The gamble isn't that great at the price the whole lot brought, and kwakers the optomist would have squeezed a boom picture out of the Seller long before this listing closed to make sure they were the thin style, or just chanced it with a quiet purchase. The clearly missing/ possibly indented winch ejector ring, and also the hint of grill paint both look correct, and the telltale base line in front of the rear axle that Mick mentions is not there either. I personally think the evidence points to a 'Holy Grail' that has gotten away from us here. I see nothing 'Fresh' about the paint on this one, it looks the part of a well-played with sandbox toy that would have been useless in towing if the child had ripped the correct hook off. (We all knew that 50 years ago as children, so most missing, deformed, or 'chewed' hooks I feel are taken off by collectors today and exchanged for better ones in the 'modern world'.) The metal hooks on other models break, but these late plastic ones are very rugged in normal play, bending just as on this Toy rather than snapping off. These are my thoughts on it, I have not found one of these for our collection. Once you have one such as Mick does, the gamble may not seem as worthwhile.
One must remember that we have discussed details that are not available to the non collector world, so they should not be viewed as common knowledge to any but the most intent faker who would be doing this one mint. A good minty repro is 75 U.S., so why do one like this well-loved version for such meager gains in life? Just my thoughts on it, a bit too late for action now.......kwakers

Wish I had seen that, well worth a try. looks perfect to me. J

nearlymint wrote:Wish I had seen that, well worth a try. looks perfect to me. J

Have you ever seen oven baked paint wrinkle like it does on that cab door without the aid of paint stripper? It looks like unbaked paint that has been exposed to damp over many months to me even if shades do look very good..........

SMS88 wrote:

nearlymint wrote:Wish I had seen that, well worth a try. looks perfect to me. J

Have you ever seen oven baked paint wrinkle like it does on that cab door without the aid of paint stripper? It looks like unbaked paint that has been exposed to damp over many months to me even if shades do look very good..........

More I look, more I am gutted to have missed it. May well be a fake but I would love to be waiting for this lot. Over the years I have seen lots of unusual paint jobs, but this one does not put me off at all.

Must agree with Dick and J

As a non-owner of an original reversed colour Dodge Wrecker, I must ask Mick a new question. Does it help my case to state that I have noticed tonight that this particular Wrecker does not have the stock brace between the two boom ends near the hook?? All views seem to clearly show the boom ends not being tied together at all, a very weak design I have never noticed before.........kwakers

kwakers wrote:As a non-owner of an original reversed colour Dodge Wrecker, I must ask Mick a new question. Does it help my case to state that I have noticed tonight that this particular Wrecker does not have the stock brace between the two boom ends near the hook?? All views seem to clearly show the boom ends not being tied together at all, a very weak design I have never noticed before.........kwakers

Yes it does, mine is like that,ok now I am convinced that this could in fact be genuine and perhaps the seller had heard that these were special but decided against selling it separately because its condition is so poor with that paint likely to flake off when attempt to clean it up.......

Does anyone know the buyer (1***i)? With 1009 ebay transactions?
I hope it is one of the forum members so we may get a chance to see some clear images.

Aha,..

Exactly correct Numi! I don't know whether to laugh at your Post or to cry over the well-loved reversed paint Wrecker ?? Again, the kids are teaching the teacher as he reasons through a problem with some homework they were given, and both end up a bit more educated than without these Forum discussions. Someone got a rare bargain, so we all went back to school for an enjoyable lesson.....
Because these reverse paint Wreckers were done so early in production, could we be looking at a prototype model without factory baked paint Mick? They did go on the production line for a short while with these colours, and were most commonly found in early Garage gift sets here in the U.S.A. This one may in fact be sub normal in it's unbaked paint, or the owner guilty of a poor chemical 'cleaning' of it as you have said. The model is 49 years old this year, so either might be a possible explanation here. I passed on a couple of oddly colored, but primitively painted Lesneys with non baked (And also non-factory) looking paint years ago, only to later find out their provenance as factory stress trial models, and also that they were known pre-production colors as well! kwakers