This toy stayed in the range for 13 years and you can see why. It was a splendid piece of miniature engineering. Not only is it an accurate model of a Priestman digger, it has been well thought out and beautifully made. The knob on the side takes the digger through a continuous, circular cycle of a digging action, emptying the bucket at the end of each pass. It must be one of Corgi's best engineered items, better even then the Simon Snorkel fire engine.

The one on the left is a late example. The knob is a newer casting, you will also see this knob on the very late issue Land Rover wrecker. The attachment of the swivelling body to the tracked base is different too. On this one there is a screw and washer with a car tyre under the washer - the earlier ones had a metal spring circlip type arrangement. The one on the right is an early one.

I ended up with two of these by mistake. I thought I was buying the High-Lift Crane when I bought the second early one. I now have a dilemma - do I keep both or sell one, and if I sell one, which one? Well I'm going to keep the old one, I've ordered a set of tracks for the other one and it will be sold. The old one has much more character and is a much more attractive object altogether. It is interesting to see how the mechanism changed over time. and how corners were cut during 13 years of production to take out costs.

One example is the cables, at one stage in the cycle they lose tension, on the old one this was handled by them being allowed to fall out of the bottom of the bodywork with a weight tied to the end, on the later one the cables are elastic. There's also a little lever at the front of the cab on the old one - thanks to Dave who left a note in the Guest Book I now know that this locks and unlocks the swivel mechanism, allowing the cab to swing over the tracks, the lever has disappeared on the newer one.

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