The German TimMees

In 1957, TimMee Toys opened a manufacturing facility in West Germany to produce their plastic figures for the European market. Included in their product line were the 60mm WWII soldiers. In addition, they created four new U.S. poses: kneeling with rifle, kneeling with mortar launcher, prone with binoculars and prone with rifle. These figures had slightly less detail in comparison with their U.S. counterparts and the scale was slightly smaller. A pale green plastic was to used for several castings (which does not translate well in the photographs below) in addition to the usual shades of green and a butterscotch color. A mold was made specifically for the German factory and variations between the U.S. poses and their German counterparts (while often subtle) are evident throughout the series.

Kneeling w/rifle

Mortar launcher

Prone w/binoculars

Prone w/rifle

German logo

Made in Germany

U.S. nurse (left) • German nurse (right)

Butterscotch soldiers

Red soldier

TimMee's Spanish Counterpart

Shamber's M48 Patton tank

Hugh over at Small Scale World brought this very unique take on the TimMee tank to my attention last week. It was produced by a Spanish toy company called Shamber's. They produced a wide variety of toy vehicles during the 60's and 70's (possibly beyond). The hull and turret are obviously related to TimMee's M48 tank. While I'm not 100% positive, I think the company who created the M48 mold for TimMee also produced the mold for this tank. I can't imagine TimMee loaning out their own mold or even allowing it to be modified to this extent. You can clearly see the addition of rivets, fender handles and a larger muzzle on the main gun. Underneath you can see that the wheel clip mounts have been removed, the surface smoothed out and the addition of two screw thread mountings. The turret has a few alterations as well including a slightly more detailed antenna and other components. The motorized chassis is the classic push-n-go (friction motor) set-up attached with two screws.

All in all this is a very cool and unique piece, especially since it has a bit of TimMee blood flowing through it. I'd love to see a video of this tank in action (hint, hint)! A special thanks to Hugh for taking the photos. You can find his own blog post regarding the Shamber's tank here.

Star stickers

star stickers

When I began collecting TimMee tanks as an adult in 2003 I looked for a company that manufactured ½" white star stickers to replace the damaged ones on the tanks I was buying from Ebay. I found a company that produced the exact size and color. There were 300 stars per pack at $1.69 each. And I loaded up! It's a good thing I did because they were discontinued a few years later. Although I had a decent supply left, I still searched for them once in a while, with no luck. However, I found a company a few weeks ago that produced white star stickers...and they had several sizes to choose from. One of which was a ¼" star. I ordered that size and placed one on each side of the turret because the larger stars are simply too big. Plus, many real world M48 Patton tanks had a smaller star on either side of the turret (not big registration numbers, etc) with a larger star up front.

The $49 Deal of the Century!

Ebay seller Wally Wannabe

There's been a sudden spike in value for the classic TimMee Patton tank....well, according to a slew of online auctions there is. Some Ebay sellers (aka, greedy, entrepreneur wannabees) from across the land have found well-worn examples of this champion toy tank hidden deep within their attics or basements and with a few featherbrained  keystrokes have set the price at a head-scratching $49.00. Has greed completely snuffed out common sense in the land of opportunity? Are google searches really that much trouble? As Rick Harrison from Pawn Stars would say, "just because something's old doesn't mean it's valuable." Now, if you happen to come across a first edition tank sealed within a mint header card and bag then perhaps you can spring for a family discount matinee at the local multiplex on a Saturday afternoon. Otherwise, you need to come back down to Earth with your prices so you can move that so-called treasure trove of inventory you have and actually make a few bucks. There were hundreds of thousands of TimMee Patton tanks cranked out at the factory in Illinois over the course of 40 years and much more to come with the new reissues. They'll be around long after we're all dead and gone...just like the cockroaches! 

Semper Fi!