All terrain vehicles seem to be a perrenial favourite on the blog and after searching for various Tonka toys recently, I saw an amphibious vehicle in the 1972 Look Book. I didn't expect to find one, but just this week, I managed to nail a fine quality example. Unfortunately, the Look Book didn't really give an indication of scale and when I bought it, assumed it would be a touch larger than a Dinky car.
When I came home tonight, a huge box was waiting for me, which revealed the Alley-Gator to be about 15 inches long. As with all Tonkas, its rock solid and a real testament to toy building quality.
The only sign of wear is a little bending to the rubber steering wheel, a dab of paint on the hull and a little rust on the wheeltrims. If it hadn't been such a rough night i'd be outside with the camera! To mark the occasion, I fetched out my other Tonka ATV too. Just the Tonka Crater Crawler to find now..
Beautiful toys Billster. Real stonkers. Is the boat car battery powered or is the propeller for decoration? Its a shame that no SWORD toy had smaller vehicles as accessories like the TB2 pod fleet. Smaller versions of these tonkas would have been brilliant!
ReplyDeleteLike most classic Tonkas, its static, just robust, push along and built to throww off a cliff. The prop is purely cosmetic.
ReplyDeleteThere isnt really a freight carrying SWORD, the closest we get is the cargo pod on the Nuke Ferry.
That's a sweet piece. At first I thought it was a modded Fisher Price Adventure People boat but that is too small for Joes. Now I want one of those Alley-Gators. I got lucky and rescued a Crater Crawler from a "antique center" for a fairly low price. It's the white body, gorgeous blue fenders/insides. Only downside is there was no bubble. Looks great though with a Joe in the seat.
ReplyDeleteNooe its legit 1972 tonka!
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