Op Shop Score.

[Swift]

Look what I found in the kid's toy section at my local Salvo's store for a couple of bucks?.
A small bendy bus model. It's about the same scale as the plastic Wiking models suitable for HO scale trains.
The middle part actually bends.

Look!! A bus back.

[Merc1107]

Looks like an O405G or whatever the MAN equivalent of the time was SG2xx?

Nice score!

[Swift]

Yeh definitely VŌV body. I think you may be right that it's a MAN. The front clip looks like an early 90s iteration.

[Lt. Commander Data]

I have the exact same model! Purchased new from (probably) Toyworld in c. 2010. As a kid I thought it was the bee’s knees.

The rigid to match it looks more like a MAN than a Merc, and I’ve always assumed the artic to be a MAN too. Same VöV Mk II front that Adelaide’s SG280H/SL202s had.

[Swift]

Do you know what it cost new?

[Lt. Commander Data]

Do you know what it cost new?

Not that much really - but more than a regular Matchbox/Hotwheels, maybe $10-20?

[Swift]

I had guessed around the $10 mark due to it's scale (less than 1:76) but having a moving bendy part (sideways only -not up and down).

[ScaniaGrenda]

Do you know what it cost new?

This is made by a company called Siku, according to their own website the articulated model costs $16 AUD brand new although you could probably pick it up at any hobby or toy store for the same price.

https://www.sikustore.com.au/siku-hinged-bus

They also do have a licensed bus line using MAN Buses, of which I own one, it is a 1:87 scale bus. (But I am more of a 1/76 scale person)



Although the licensed products do obviously cost more money. The reason you see a lot of MAN buses and no Scania or Mercedes-Benz licensed buses is at least because MAN is known for particularly giving their likeness away so long as it is not portrayed in a negative format, I've worked alongside a couple of game developers and this is what they told me, makes sense.

[Swift]

A couple of buckaroos sounds like bargain central then.
At first I balked at it being LHD but then thought it's an accurate representation of a European bus.
Does everything have to be Australian?

I like MAN even more than I did now. Huge kudos for not being petty.

[Lt. Commander Data]

Although the licensed products do obviously cost more money. The reason you see a lot of MAN buses and no Scania or Mercedes-Benz licensed buses is at least because MAN is known for particularly giving their likeness away so long as it is not portrayed in a negative format, I've worked alongside a couple of game developers and this is what they told me, makes sense.

Scania do have a fairly extensive range of their own models - I have an Omnilink tri axle which is probably close to 15 years old now. Although this is likely different to licenced products as scania make them directly.

https://www.scania.com/content/dam/scan ... e_2019.pdf