Matchbox 40d; Vauxhall Guildsman

The back body is lifted straight from the AEC Horse Box (17e) produced from 1969 to 1972. Here it has been updated to fit the Bedford TM chassis cab.

The Horse Box, 40e, came out in 1977 and was produced right up to the Lesney crash in 1983 when it continued in production under the new ownership. Cabs are orange, yellow or green, box backs are cream, red, or brown and the drop-down ramp can be brown, white, cream or lime green. Bases can be black, silver, green or unpainted, windows are green or yellow. So, lots to go and look for then, although the ramp is usually missing. There should also be two plastic horses.

None are particularly rare, the hardest to find seem to be the yellow cab with dark brown box and in this one the lime green ramp is harder to find than the cream one. However I suspect that there are so many variations that there won't be huge differences in value in practice. The red box body is mentioned in Ramsay, but no price is quoted which leads me to guess that it is a pre production prototype.