Ideal No. I-4902 Army Bulldozer Re-issue

Looks like we've got a series within a series goin' on here. Fortunately for people wanting to put together a diorama, repos (or re-issues, or re-pops, whatever you want to call them) are still available for the Ideal Bulldozer. It occured to me that you don't necessarily have to build a rather tame road construction scene. The U.S. Naval Construction Battalion's (aka the Seebees) saw a lot of action and put themselves in harm's way building and re-building airfields in the Pacific Theater of War during WWII and this bulldozer would make a nice starting point for a diorama of that type. My repo came with the recast driver originally found on these AND a more suitable military style driver which you'll see in the photos towards the end. Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina

A comparison shot of the repo and original dozers.

Ideal No. I-4902 Army Bulldozer - Customized

The Army Corps of Engineers must have been the darling of the '50s because there seems to have been a lot of construction themed Army vehicles produced at the time by various manufacturers. This Bulldozer by Ideal was made from 1951-53 and normally had a 'Farmer Vic' looking driver attached. The driver is often times missing and if you've ever seen one you'd know why. Ideal would have been well advised to put a G.I. in the seat but they took their civilian tractor (which came out in bright primary colors) and simply produced it in olive drab, placed a decal on the blade proclaiming "Corps of Engineers" and called it a day. 

When I bought my sample many years back there was a gentleman on eBay selling modified Army toys. He had taken junkers and re-worked them into nice useable pieces. At the time I remember how much I'd wanted to buy more of his work but just couldn't afford it. You'll notice on my sample one of the cross bars on the front grill is missing. The break has been cleaned up nicely and the treads have been painted a light gray (unlike the original which would have been all one color). The buldozer measures 6" (15.24cm) L x 3 1/2" (8.89cm) W (blade) / 2 1/2" (6.35cm) W (tractor) x 2 1/2" (6.35cm) H. Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina

More About Comments

After thinking it over (and getting a headache in the process) I believe I know what happened. On blogger's dashboard we used to get a little notice appearing on top of the post list saying something to the effect "You have 1 comment awaiting moderation". That notice doesn't appear any more. Now one has to check the 'Comments' area of the dashboard to see if there's any new ones. That being said, I'm all caught up from November of last year!! DOH! LOL

Opa Fritz

Comments On The Blog

OOPS!

I dunno, did I miss something? I must have been living in a haze because I have totally missed all the comments posted the past few months. They're all just sitting there awaiting moderation! So sorry folks, I'll start getting to them ASAP.

Opa Fritz

Pyro Army Stakebed Truck Update

Well, I totally have been forgetting to consult my best reference book on these various Army vehicles being posted here of late and have a couple of updates. In PLASTIC TOYS Dimestore Dreams of the '40s and '50s by Bill Hanlon the Pyro vehicles posted here are identified as being made in the early 1950s but he lists no part numbers for them. In addition he lists them all as 'olive drab' whereas I see them as 'olive green'. Unless they've discolored, they definitely look more on the greenish side than the brown side of the color spectrum. And just like the smaller series of Pyro Army vehicles we posted earlier this year and part of last year, many of the trucks are simply listed as "U.S. Army Service Truck" like this stakebed we just featured a few days ago. So, if you're keeping track of details like this I hope this helps. Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina

Pyro Army Troop Transport Truck - Olive Green HP

We're still looking at Pyro's larger line of plastic Army vehicles and this time my sample isn't a very pretty one. It's old, broken, scratched, has parts tore off, and is generally beat up - kinda like me LOL but it is a survivor and another example of collecting on the cheap because in this condition who else would want one except a collector nut like me? :-) These trucks normally carried six sitting figures glued on to the seats but someone tore them off perhaps in an attempt to free up more cargo sapce for their miniature convoy. Pyro used the same, lightly colored and poorly detailed sitting figure in this entire series of vehicles and many times they're broken off. I wonder if people did that because, well, because the figures suck! The truck measures 5 1/4" (13.33cm) L x 2 1/8" (5.39cm) W x 2 1/8" (5.39cm) H. I noticed that the Pyro truck looked similar to the Payton truck we blogged on Jul 16, 2016 and when I pulled out the Payton to compare they were an exact match in nearly everything but size and material. The Payton is just a tiny bit smaller, has different wheels, and is made of soft plastic vs. hard plastic, but the outline and details on both match. Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina

Pyro (L) Payton (R)