Many col­lec­tors have some knowl­edge of the two ver­sions of the Dinky Toys Foden trucks, that the Eng­lish Mec­ca­no fac­to­ry made. The first, ear­ly ver­sion was made from 1947 through 1952, and was then replaced by the sec­ond ver­sion, reflect­ing the new­er style cab. Besides the new look, Mec­ca­no also intro­duced sev­er­al oth­er changes: new recessed style Super­toys wheels are very vis­i­ble and obvi­ous, but Mec­ca­no also choose to improve the over­all strength of the mod­els, by also chang­ing the axles and also the way there were sup­port­ed.

First, they great­ly increased the diam­e­ter of all Super­toys axles, and, sec­ond­ly, they total­ly changed the way the axles were retained to the chas­sis. Instead of uti­liz­ing a sheet met­al clip, they were now insert­ed through a hole drilled in the chas­sis. The pho­to above shows the under­sides of both the first and sec­ond style Foden Flat Trucks with Chains, clear­ly show­ing these impor­tant changes.

And this pho­to clear­ly shows the dif­fer­ence between the two cabs and the styles of wheels.

For a more in-depth look, please see these addi­tion­al arti­cles by me:

• The Birth of Dinky Super­toys
• Dinky Super­toys Fodens – the Sec­ond Ver­sion