Fendt F20 Dieselross

Johann Georg Fendt, the firm’s founder, gave his first tractors the name ‘Dieselross’ (literally: Diesel Steed). Fendt tractors kept their trade name from the end of the 1920s up to the 1960s, and it proved a highly effective one, suggesting in a word the enormous power the tractors generated and at the same time a kind of friendly familiarity (after all, there are horses on every farm!). Even the 1920s version (the classic Dieselross) had six-horse-power; the post-war F20 (hence the name) twenty.

Not for the first time we’d like to emphasize the tragic near-disappearance of tin toy motor vehicles from Europe. There are hardly any makers left, and we were lucky to find the Czech firm of Kovap in Novy Hradek, who make these toys with great skill and attention to detail. The tractor has a clockwork engine with three forward and one reverse gear, steering and a handbrake – all in working order!

Not suitable for children under the age of 3. Risk of choking on small parts if swallowed.

We do not want to tire of emphasizing how vanishingly small and soon probably completely disappeared the share of mechanical tin toys from European production. Since the relocation of almost all tin toy manufacturing to the Far East, the manufacturers remaining in this country (as in the rest of Europe) are often left to fend for themselves. We have collected some of their products: historical car or tractor models and corresponding trailers or a cable car. For the tractors, the company Kovap in Nový Hrádek in the Czech Republic has partly reactivated old tools and is reassembling steel rims instead of plastic ones for us. All vehicles and trailers are kept in 1:25 scale, so they fit model railroads of 1:22.5 scale. Some classics produced for decades, such as the calculation monkey Consul, have virtually disappeared - we have only found a manufacturer in India, which manufactures it.

Not suitable for children under 3 years. Risk of suffocation due to small parts that can be swallowed.