The Farming Models Gift Set 22

 

One day I will try to gather all the items for the lovely Gift Set 22 Farming Models. The very first set was issued in September 1962, before the deep green 438 Land Rover was available individually. In those early sets was what I call a 'farm green' Series II Land Rover which would have been a 406S had it been issued in a box on its own. These are hard to find now and most that I have encountered appear to have had a pretty hard life on the farm too!

The Land Rover tows another item unique to this set - an all yellow 101 flat bed trailer. The first ones would have had fixed shaped wheels which will be about as scarce as the farm green Land Rover. Later they had free-spinning wheels fitted but I don't know whether this would have been before the deep green 438 started to be used or after. One would guess that, as the deep green 438 appears on the shelves in December 1962 it would also have been put in the Gift Sets once stock of the farm green edition had been used up.

Only 31000 of these sets were produced, according to the records, which isn't very many. By comparison the 351S RAF Land Rover is supposed to have had 25000 produced and you know how hard is to find those now!

The other components in the Gift Set 22 were initially:

• 1111 Combine Harvester
• 53 Massey Ferguson Tractor with shovel attachment
• 51 Massey Ferguson Trailer
• 55 Fordson Power Major Tractor
• 56 Four Furrow Plough
• 1487 Milk Churns
• 1490 Skip & 3 larger Churns to fit on the rear of the Massey Ferguson
• 3 Drivers, each different, for the tractors and Combine Harvester.

Despite its low sales, the set remained available until 1965 and, along the way, changes were made to what was in the box. 

• The normal 438 replaced the farm green 406S
• The 60 Fordson Power Major replaced the 55 version
• The 61 Plough replaced the 56 version
• The 57 Massey Ferguson Tractor with a Fork attachment may have replaced the 53 with a Shovel attachment but I'm not sure. I have only seen sets with the later item but it was not available when the set was first made available.
• The 62 Tipping trailer replaces the 51 Trailer but that will only be late in production as the trailer only gets issued in February 1965 and none of the sets I have seen illustrated seem to have the raves.

So most of the other components are fairly easy to find. It could be a bit of a struggle to find the different driver for the Combine Harvester but the other two gents will be with the later issues of the Massey Ferguson tractors in sets or in the box for the Fordson. You don't see many of the big milk churns or the skip but as a 1490 set they should appear from time to time and the 1487 block is common.

Now there's something that the Corgi Model Club could help us out with!! We haven't had anything agricultural from them yet.

I haven't looked to see whether anyone does a reproduction box but I am sure one will be available, if not both. That does mean you need to be careful, though, and make sure you get the right items for whatever box you find! (I will update later with more about this).

Lastly, you'll see that I have found a way to add some nice backgrounds to images! This is AI at work and most impressive it is too. One of my first efforts is below with the lovely 273 Rolls Royce with Golden Jacks. I have just packed up my silver over metallic blue edition which, interestingly went to an Andrew Windsor! So I had to use the slightly more common cream over muddy blue but it still looks good.