In the ear­ly to mid-1950’s mil­i­tary vehi­cle toys were in big demand, fol­low­ing both WWII and the Kore­an War. Demand was espe­cial­ly high in the U.S., and Mec­ca­no had­n’t issued many new Dinky Toys, so the range was a bit lim­it­ed. Although I’m not cer­tain, I think it’s like­ly that U.S. dis­trib­u­tor H. Hud­son Dob­son informed Mec­ca­no that he could use more mil­i­tary vehi­cles. The eas­i­est and quick­est way to do that was to con­vert exist­ing civil­ian mod­els to mil­i­tary use. All that was required was the use of a dif­fer­ent paint and is some cas­es, a few decals.

Here are the five mod­els that Dinky con­vert­ed to mil­i­tary guise, intend­ed for export to the U.S. Clock­wise from the right:

• 675 Ford Army Staff Car, 1952–59
• 669 US Army Jeep, 1955–57
• 30SM Austin Cov­ered Wag­on, 1952–54
• 25WM/640 Bed­ford Army Truck, 1952–54
• 30HM/624 Daim­ler Army Ambu­lance, 1952–55

And here are their civil­ian coun­ter­parts, in the same pose.

Here are some of the 1950s U.S. cat­a­log pages that show these export mod­els.