Corgi got some value out of this old casting over the years, however this was its first trip out as a vaguely US military 'Tow Truck' with a 6x6 chassis. It looks more like a cargo truck or a troop carrier to me though. Whatever - this is the first version, later ones had star decals and I think suspension and a new treatment to the cab roof which appears to be canvas on this one. I've had an email from a visitor to the site who tells me that the 1965 troop carrier release has 'RA' markings.

Of course its more familiar turnout is that of a Chipperfields Circus crane truck.

This one is in remarkably original condition with the addition of a CD sticker from the Accessory packs - not sure how the Foreign Office would react if one of the London embassies started to run one of these as diplomatic transport... Sadly the accessory stickers have suffered in the cleaning process.

There have been two interesting outcomes of cleaning all the models, beginning with these 1950s items. Firstly in most cases the insides of the windows are filthy. As there are no seats or interior detail anything thrown off the tyres in play goes into the car and tends to coat the windows, this is worse in the case of the mechanicals where oil has been applied as requested on the base plate. The oil flies of the flywheel (as it would) and makes the mess worse. The other issue is the colour of the cotton wool after it has been used for cleaning. Even cars that appear pristine can give off a yellow material as they are cleaned, presumably cigarette smoke. We forget these days how our lives were filled with smoke back then and the fact that these childrens' toys were covered in it suggests that passive smoking was a real issue, as would have been coal fire smoke and smog in general. TS Eliot describes it thus, albeit earlier in the 20th century:

Now I'm cleaning it off toy cars!

diecast.plus.com

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