12 Ton Van Thread

[Mulfred100]

This week I was lucky enough to get one of these vans and I'm very impressed with them


Out of the box I was very impressed by the detailing and especially the handles on the door. They add a bit extra to the model which really elevates it for me.
One other thing I did notice which I'll fully admit I only realised today. The G and N Scale 12 ton vans vents are raised and modelled HiT era styled where as these go more classic/cgi with the vents being more standard

Which I think both work well and both variations look great. Nice variety across the scales. I do still wish we got some of the vents vans we have in G scale and N with the 12 ton tooling over the vent van but what's done is done.
It's also got fairly good weight so it rolls along very nicely. Speaking of which it also looks great in a train

I haven't weathered it yet or even given it a matte spray yet however I did try one modification which

Which brings me on to me last point.

There's definitely a future for more products to be made using this tooling. Here's just a handful of ideas without non canon ideas like maybe a steam works van or something. Bakery, Fireworks which we have 2 options for, circus which tbf we have the fun fair vans they just need a logo. The topham circus if you wanna go old school and of course a Troublesome truck. Which I think based on the fact we have a grey van i do believe it will be a brown version unless they do what they did with Troublesome Truck 5 and reintroduce the grey van with a face. However that's way in the future.
Overall this is a brilliant new tooling and I definitely plan on getting more.

[Cheeky_ULP]

One other thing I did notice which I'll fully admit I only realised today. The G and N Scale 12 ton vans vents are raised and modelled HiT era styled where as these go more classic/cgi with the vents being more standard

This is because the HO/OO van body is sourced from the Bachmann Branchline range, while the G scale (and then N scale) ranges made their design based on the Season 7+ van design that was included in the HiT 2004 references.

The only difference is the body was retrofitted on the ex-Mainline chassis that the majority of wagons in the Thomas range use.

[JacobSK]

Great review, Mulfred! I got my 12T van in last week, but am waiting to open it and various N scale stuff next Wednesday for obvious reasons. I have some Bachmann Mainline UK 12T vans, so I only bought one gray van. It'll go nicely with those and my other rolling stock. Your review has definitely got me pumped!

I also hope we get some more variants with this tooling. I'd personally love to see (although it may be a pipe dream) a plain green van, myself. Same livery as the Fruit and Veg van, but without the logo. I'd snatch that up without flinching. Maybe even the dark blue livery that the Brendam Bay van is in, just again, without the logo? Again, I'd snatch it up in a heartbeat.

Anyway, I'm definitely excited to rip open the package for my 12T van! Merry Christmas, mate!