Investigating the story behind the Dinky Toys Pressure Refueller 642

Famous fuellers

It’s often said “what goes around, comes around” and much the same can happen in the model world.

Current manufacturers look back for ideas, but this process is still not new.

In May 1957 Dinky Toys introduced its Pressure Refueller 642 – surely its designers must have been looking back a couple of (refueller) generations to their predecessor’s efforts of 1938, billed then as Refuelling Tender 60Y.

In the 1930s, aviation records were being broken almost monthly. As most were of a non-military nature, the public interest was phenomenal.

The Dinky Toys range, with its railway based foundation of late 1931, had included aircraft for the first time in 1934. By the outbreak of war in 1939, some 25% of the Dinky Toys catalogue was of aircraft models with, of course, an increase in military content.

Aircraft needed fuel and in this period their thirst proceeded well beyond that of a few hand-administered cans...

*This is an excerpt of the article 'Famous Fuellers' first published in Diecast Collector's February issue. To see which issues of Diecast Collector are available to buy online, click here.

*Diecast Collector is a monthly magazine which focuses on all types of diecast models from Dinky Toys to Oxford Diecast