Thanks for the compliments, Jim.  I'm glad the pics are coming out okay.  Hopefully I'll get good ones on the crane and the fire engine.

Great Budgies everyone - just a quick warning, though, to check all your Budgies for the dread metal fatigue. I sold some really nice, boxed ones a while back (rare stuff too, like the aircraft refuller). They were all mint-looking. Packed them up super carefully, but they arrived in pieces! Seems they were fatiguing from the inside out (I was amazed not to have noticed any signs on the outside) and had gotten shaken to bits when the package was in the mail!

Wow, that is suprising. I hope you had some insurance on them.

Here are the pics of my #59 Merryweather Fire Engine and #22-1 Bedford Crane Truck.

Going by the images of the AEC Merryweather fire engine no 59 and the TK Bedford  swivelling crane no 22-1 they look good.  What do they look like from the inside no sign of crazing of the metal.

Great condition breeze, I have that crane truck but there are two versions I was after.





The other has an orange crane body as well as the jib.




I found this one harder to get and ended up with one in a real bad way.




So kept the body and used a spare Chassis I already had




Half the fun is in the chase

Great cranes, the Bedford cab casting is great.

Nobleco wrote:


No, I didn't - the guy who bought them had never heard of metal fatigue and was completely mystified by what had happened. The package wasn't crushed or damaged in any way, the boxes were still perfect, but the models were in bits - he couldn't understand how. I explained and gave him a half-price refund. He said he was going to glue them back together (they'd broken into large chunks and hadn't crumbled, although I bet they've started to do so by now).

The Bedford TK crane above was metal fatigue rather than damage, that's why I scrapped the chassis

I see now there is a problem with some Budgie castings contamination within the zinc not being purer enough like 99.9%.

I'm not a Budgie expert or a diecast expert for that matter, just a collector.  I have been a quality control tech for metal at Maytag for washing machines so I know  about metal.  I've played with and handled little cars for years.  I looked inside as best I could this morning at the Fire Engine and Crane Truck and they look like new to me.  I even lightly pressed on the roofs/cabs and I felt no give, they seem solid.  No cracking, peeling, etc.  I'm not familiar with the orange platform on the crane, the only ones I've seen are green.  I'm collecting a few of these to keep the Budgie history going by saving them from the scrap heap.  They remind me of the old Lesney Matchbox cars





in the late 50's and early 60's as shown in the pic I'm sending of my Ford station wagon.  A HAPPY NEW YEAR to all of you on this forum post!  You've really helped me to learn and appreciate Budgies.

Really like that Ford casting, it's always been one of my fave Reg Wheels. Happy new year to you too and glad you've been converted to Budgie fandom!

Now apart from the Routemaster buses, this is certainly one of my favorite Budgies:

Budgie Leyland Hippo 209H Cattle transporter



 

 

 

And our only living budgie: Sammy













 



 



 

Hello Sammy keeping an good eye on things.

Talk about shattering moments I dropped this and as it bounced down to the floor it splatted in bits and pieces. I tried to glue it but then some supers are just not super glues.



Some of the white residue from the super glue is evident in places. The other is there seems to be some irregularity with the casting metal. Like it is not solid and seems to have pitted holes in the actual metal flow and doesn't have that solid look about it. Porous would be more to the point. Like I have seen them dropped and stood on, thrown them against brick walls over the years. Yes those Matchbox ones and they just seemed to bounce off regardless of their age.



Now I have some good super glue to use these days so they say and I might just have another go at gluing this busted Foden back together, just like Humpty Dumpty long ago.

 

Could we have some more pictures of the Ford Station Wagon please. Looks very good from the one image but more would be great. Thanks.

Jim, that was the only pic I had on file so I'll have to take some more when I get the chance.  That is another car I bought to match the one I used to have that was given to me as a birthday gift from my dad, who passed away last Sept.,  in 1958 in Estes Park, Colorado.  It's now a keepsake and I had a repro box made for it by Kevin Bolton of England who I consider a friend and fellow diecaster.  The pitting in the metal would come from impurities within the mixing of the metal,  most likely dust or dirt particles.  We had that problem with our metal blanks and a problem with zinc peel from one company.  My dad had a parakeet similar to Sammy but more green.  The large budgie is a fine piece.  Sorry to see the other one in pieces.  I hope that you can get it back together.  Thank you for the New Year greetings.