VBD2 is closed. Please go to https://vbd3.co.uk instead.

kwakers wrote:The only correction I may point out is that the term "Common" for this Great list of GPW models listed is not quite true in the U.S. These Fine GPW wheels raise the value quite a bit, and are quite rare to find on both the #69 Van and the #13 Wrecker. These two in particular were/are real tough to find here in the U.S. and were not commonly found in our stores. The 45 Ford Corsair 9X36 GPW (more common for us), the not so common 12B Land Rover, and also the quite rare #57 with 11X45 GPW were not listed above, but they also were mid production releases on these 3 Lesney models. The use of these Fine GPW when more realistic black ones were already used and available has always puzzled me. They make locating them fun for we collectors, but they have/had no logical explanation for their use. kwakers

Thanks for your comment!

Perhaps I should clarify that when I said, in my above statement, "common", I meant "relatively more common than black wheels with the same tread pattern", as my point was that those models were intended to have grey wheels rather than black ones, which is why - in my opinion - fine tread grey wheels were produced for them. That does not preclude those variations from being less common than the earlier variations of the same models with knobby tread grey wheels, which they usually are. (After all those models were all a few years old when they began to be fitted with fine tread wheels and were consequently sold in smaller quantities than both their own earlier variations and other contemporary models which were newer introductions to the range.)

The models mentioned by you - 45b, 12b and 57c - are all much more common with fine tread black rather than grey wheels and did not have earlier variations with knobby tread grey wheels, so they would not have fitted in with the point I was trying to make. I.e. they were not the reason why those fine tread grey wheels were made in the first place, but rather they were among the other models which also had those wheels fitted occasionally (along with 3b, 16c, 20c, 62b and others).