---Doc's 181---

Convoy

2012-02-04T18:43:25+01:00

... with black signal flags?

United Nations

2011-12-24T18:13:56+01:00

I had heard the story of a UN 181 some years ago but I never found proof of such a car. I coulnd't really believe it because it would be rather a strange vehicle on hostile and foreign land. But now I found this obscure and little picture from the seventies/eighties of an UN 181, serving in what seems to be a North African country... On the front bumper we can identify an Austrian flag.

Pick up

2011-11-16T21:18:47+01:00

A very rare version was the 181 pick up. Only made (and probably only sold) in Mexico. The difference with a common 181/Thing was the lack of the canvas top. Instead the 181 pickup got a short hardtop and some wooden fencing in the back. It ain't no beauty but if it does the job...

I never saw a genuine surviving 181 pickup but I have the feeling this one is as good as it can get:

Old picture

2011-09-29T23:29:31+02:00

... just an old picture. Don't remember where I found it nor the story about this car. Must be getting old.

But it still is a interesting picture...Wolfburg-plates and some men in suits on a racetrack?

We are not alone

2011-08-29T22:40:46+02:00

I always wondered why the German Bundeswehr needed thousands of VW type 181s. Honestly, you don't want to go to war in these cars. They offer no protection, have very limited off-road capabilities, have little space capacity and aren't really fast. So not usefull on the farthest-most forward positions. But at the rear they could be useful, as personnel transporter or courier. Nowadays these type of cars aren't used anymore in the modern armies, but in the sixties and seventies these vehicles were used in many European armies. And Volkswagen was not alone with their type 181!

DKW Munga (West Germany)

FIAT Jungla Savio (Italy)

CITROEN Méhari (France)

DAF YA-66 (the Netherlands)

TRABANT P601 (East Germany)

Plastic Things

2011-12-10T11:03:13+01:00

From straight across the Atlantic: a few plastic Things (Alsi, Impala and Strombecker). Not checked yet but with those bright colors, I bet these must glow in the dark!

Le Thing

2011-08-16T20:39:01+02:00

A lesson in French grammar today: The Thing in french is le Thing !

A Canadian brochure, how rare must that be?