AA Road Service

Series 1 Landrover

Beautiful 1/43rd scale diecast model of a Series 1 Landrover in the livery of the UK's Automobile Association Road Service.

The Land Rover was launched in 1948 in order to get a product to the market in the immediate aftermath of World War Two. Rover envisaged it would be sold to farmers, and initially underestimated demand for the vehicle.

The AA bought its first Land Rovers in 1948 for use on night breakdown work in London. They were able to carry more equipment than the traditional AA motorcycle combinations, including bulky two-way radio sets, and could also tow.

Land Rovers soon proved themselves in AA service and became widely used, particularly in the Highlands of Scotland and other remote areas of the UK.

The black front wings serve no practical purpose and were simply designed to match AA motorcycles, which had black mudguards at the time.

Later AA Land Rovers were fitted with custom-made hard tops and heaters, but early versions had neither.

Equipment carried was basic, and included a trolley jack, tailboard-mounted vice, wheelbrace, tyre levers, jerrycans of oil, water and petrol, and a slave battery for jump-starting.

Patrols had their own toolkits, generally carried in old ammunition boxes.

Model is a new release produced by Corgi (Vanguards) and is a limited edition release of 2000 pieces worldwide.  It features accurately reproduced AA livery and photo-etched parts.