I am not allowed to send you a return message ,so i will post my thanks here for sharing these old newsletters with me. Wiseguy toy Collectors have been pulling shinnanegins forever it seems , to fool or even fleece some of the collectors some of the time.But there are also those ´LUNCHBOX´ special cars that certain factory workers took home without the knowledge of Lesney specifically to sell to collectors,which do include cars in silver or gold without their clear tinted laquer top coats if posts on mboxcommunity .com are to be believed.Probably the RED regular wheels no 15 VW1500 falls into this category along with the sea green 28 SF Lincoln Continental.
Most modern collectors dont have access to the magazines produced in the 1970s by the original collectors of these toys so it is an eye opener to see how those collectors were reacting, not so different from new millenium hotwheels collectors facing resealed blisters and wheelswaps
Please do share with us the significance of your post name. SMS88 is the number of a fullsize London Transport bus that I owned in the 1990s
:thumbsup: cheers from Mick

early on, the NAMC featured some great members, and i do emphasize members, who would write feature stories for the club, some were quite revealing and the buggery did start very early, my dear friend Ron A. was one of the first to document variations for the club, his articles were named a closer look, his photograpy skills and dedication were unmatched in the late 60s to early 70s, we sit and talk for hours at times and it is just a marvel.....the later release of the reverse color wrecker and how it came to be, a grand story on the gray wheel taxi. I put more faith in Ron and early writing than the written post on the web. if you get a chance, some of these early NAMC maggies were wnoderful.
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y152/SteveCameron/DSC00278.jpg

I only know a gray wheeled 20 Taxi was issued, supposedly a scarce normal issue.
I have heard that the domed hub reverse wreckers are genuine pre-pros that BP rejected as unflattering, and the crimped axle reverse wreckers were lunchbox specials made intentionally for the collector market.If there are any errors in what I have written please do enlighten me.Most folks who have those old newsletters are dead ,not online or dis interested relatives of the original subscriber so it makes it very hard to find out the story as it happened

the gray wheeled 20 taxi is indeed a scarce toy, but at the time it was presented for sale, it was another story....here is a account.
speaking regionally only, the black wheeled taxi arrived first in the city of el cajon, it arrived in a hobby store that sold matchbox in decent numbers, and very shortly thereafter the gray wheeled taxi appeared, they were both for sale at apx. the same time, at that time tho, zero thought was given as to wether the gray wheeled taxi was going to be such a rarity, in fact, they were presented for sale in about the same quanity, the gray wheeled taxi quickley became very disfavored side by side with its counter black wheeled part, because its realism was sorely lacking, it just looked foolish compared to the real looking black wheeled taxi,ron bought 1 and most of his collector friends of the time bought 1, but only because it featured a wheel variation, not because they enjoyed the model, only because of the wheel variation....looking back at time, 3 things probally added up to this being such a hard to find model today.....it was shipped to certain areas in abundance, but distributed only 1 time, and it was not very popular at the time.

As The NAMC collector base grew, several members made trips to LESNEY in England, the club was most popular within the LESNEY orginization and they gave wonderful access and information to several members...LESNEY also created wonderful 1 and 2 page color (pullout) inserts for NAMC to place inside the newsletters.
On one of these trips, a collector from New York, Joe Stone, visited the factory, it was on this trip, he either ordered, or they created the "new" reverse color wrecker for him....a wonderful example of a model in its origanal release was folklore to the collecting community, that even back then, the origanal model was impossible to find for even the most seasoned,hardened, professional collector. How many were made, Im not sure if anyone really knows, but I would think only hundreds, nor is anyone, i believe sure after he left, if they were ran again....but i suspect they were, and in my opinion they were probally sold out the back door of LESNEY,

VERY enjoyable reading -
Thank you, JunkMan.

there’s good information contained in those early newsletters. of course there are two sides to every story and stories do change over the years. when some names kept being mentioned through the years by different people it was hard not to believe that certain people were trying to rip-off others. so much didn’t make the newsletters about the rip-offs because some of those that were ripped-off were embarrassed or didn’t want to make waves.

at least documentation exists regarding some of the questionable models, written by those who were involved at the time and not written by someone today.

as we have said it usually comes down to money. i have always thought building a nice collecting friendship was the best way to go. where everybody watches each others back..
that’s why i have a tough time believing some of the sf variations.

junkman are these that gentleman’s pictures?. considering the year (1970?) they were amazing.
http://img512.imageshack.us/img512/8599/earlyphotos1ix4.jpg
http://img523.imageshack.us/img523/5131/earlyphotos2hi7.jpg
http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/8057/earlyphotos3nw8.jpg

no real significance to my post name, just a misspelling of the word mountain.

Moutain...I echo your sentiments, ten fold

Yes, the pictures are, they were taken near the end of 1970....The top right was 48-2 the toung for the Boat Trailer

The middle right is the 69-2 Hatra Shovel - the last casting.

The bottom right is the wonderful 10-1b Machanical Horse(with brace of course on the rear axle supports

The bottom left is the grand Mobile Canteen

The middle is the BRM Racer

All the negitives still exist for these Moutain....a super look back into time !!

Today most collectors are aware of the NAMC past status with Lesney because of the purple 32 BP tanker special issue that was made for the members.I dont know how many were made but the choice of color shows us today that Lesney were aware that collectors liked this shade from the 22 Pontiac GP.
So the 2nd run of crimped axle reverse wreckers was sanctioned by management- that is good to know because those guys on MCCH seem to think that it wasnt so that this is not a genuine issue merely parts stolen by an employee - so now we know that they are honest too.The same mboxcommunity.com thread specifies how many were produced, it was a low number,off the top of my head something like 25
Interesting to hear that original documentation exists from NAMC about models questioned today.I guess the most interesting that I would like to know about are the red regular wheels 15 VW Beetle,lime rw 28 Lincoln and the SF sea green 28 Lincoln.
I have handled a genuine cream 62 rw Cougar :cool: amazing stuff, and have met a guy with a sea green plastic base Opel Diplomat (probably will see it this year - the Cougar owner has handled it ) - enough of these exist to satisfy me that although they were prepros they were sent out to stores in very small quantities,hundreds,possibly a few thousands
Now that time has passed i hope survivors of those days will share some stories without worrying about making waves, with the sole intention of making sure that the historical record is clear and correct, rather than filled with alternative speculations.I can see that Mountain and Junkman both have access to documentation that the vast majority of us modern collectors will never get a chance to buy,let alone read
THANKYOU both for sharing

here is an interesting ad on how to obtain the namc #32 tanker.
http://img384.imageshack.us/img384/2566/namc32tankerym4.jpg

Excellent to see that they gave the 32 tankers away to subscribers.I wonder if they made many more than the total NAMC membership which was ???

Does Mountain or Junkman have any more old newsletters to share concerning the genuine production status of the lime rw 28 Lincoln, aqua 28 SF Lincoln or the rw red 15 VW Beetle? These are so ultra rare and always perfect when they show up that I suspect that they were collector only lunchbox specials, but I can only guess.........