I'm gonna be bantering around from subject to subject for a while \like a bird trying to find a decent place to land in bad weather. Bear with me folks!
In keeping with the most recent theme of MPC's military toys from the '60 & '70s we bring you this really cool Armoured Vehicle-Launched Bridge or AVLB. I don't have any playsets to associate this toy with so this for now will be a stand-alone post. Some members of the various fb hobby groups I belong to relate that they had it as part of a Combat Engineer set. To-date I have yet to find pictures on the Web of that set, plus I ended up with three of these and not one of them was 100% complete. The closest thing I can find to a real life inspiration for this toy is the M60A1 AVLB which utilized a modified M60 Patton tank chassis to transport and deploy a temporary combat bridge which was hinged in the middle and lowered via hydraulics. Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina
Courtesy Wikipedia
Courtesy Wikipedia
Courtesy Wikipedia
The toy features a spring-loaded deployment mechanism which lifts the bridge up and forward. As the bridge moves forward in its arc it opens up, then slowly plops down on the ground in the deployed position. I believe there was supposed to be some kind of cannon barrel on the front of the piece (totally non-prototypical) as there appears to be a firing mechanism but none of my three samples had a barrel with it. The overall dimensions are: 16 1/2" (41.91cm) L x 6" (15.24cm) W x 1 5/8" (4.12cm) H. The hull measures 10 1/2" (26.67cm) L x 5 1/4" (13.33cm) W x 4 3/8" (11.11cm) H. The bridge is 13" (33.02cm) L.
The AVLB with bridge
The bridge
Deployed position
Towards the top middle you can just discern the spring
You hold down the connector plate with one hand....
...while inserting the tab on the bridge into the slot in the hull. The bridge is now 'locked and loaded'
On the hull front there is most definitely a place to fit a barrel and a small spring loaded firing mechanism. I have yet to see pictures of a complete AVLB unit on the Web
A perfect match for MPC's line of large military vehicles