Reader's Digest (1999) 1919 Pirsch

It's Fire Engine and Emergency Vehicle Friday! Well, at least for now while I still have a few to offer. For the next few weeks we're goin' to take a look at the remainder of the Reader's Digest series of 1:64th scale die-cast apparatus'. These were offered as premiums by Reader's Digest for those who renewed subscriptions. I honestly don't have a handle on the years they were offered because many of them are dated 1999 but that may just be the copyright year and the toys may have been held back so as to offer them on an annual basis,  but we can pin it down at least to the 1999-2000 time frame. I also don't know exactly how many were in the series. I have seven vehicles and quite frankly haven't yet seen any more offered but will remain on the lookout. These are terrific little vehicles that are great for the collector who simply doesn't have a lot of room or for the operator of American Flyer S-gauge trains. One of the features I like about the series is that the vehicles  are generically lettered 'No. 1 Fire Dept.'. No worries that these will match up with whatever you've named your layout. Enjoy!

Auburn #533 Fire Engine Assortment

Well, as promised here's the Auburn Rubber Company's #533 Fire Engine Assortment. I had to buy a couple of figures to make the set complete but it was worth it. As a fatter-of-mact, I believe my set was a 'put-together' set - one in which there may have been pieces original to the set box, but the remainder were simply extras the seller had and just threw them in. I'm comfortable with the vehicles being appropriate for the set but can't really say what combination of colors were included in regards to the figures - were they all color matched, were the firemen one color and the policemen another??? When I bought this set it actually had a whole bunch of duplicate figures of different colors. I also cannot say definitively when the set was released although I would be comfortable in making an educated guess of late 1950s.

The first photos show the recently acquired figures - Policeman w/Billy Club, and Policeman blowing whistle - followed by the set box and contents.. Enjoy!

This photo was taken prior to obtaining the remaining policemen.