I am already back in Berlin while DrJ and WonderDaughter enjoy an extra-week of holidays in Australia. Home alone with time to unpack a recent Ebay “win”: A set of bus models in scale “HO” (1:87), produced by BREKINA and titled “20 years of VW-transporter T2”. It commemorates the twentieth anniversary of the end of the production of the bay window bus in Hanover, Germany, so should be from 1999. All six buses are late bay windows (or T2bs) and all appear to come in original Volkswagen bus colors, though all with different body versions: The humble panel van in neptun blue (L50K), a microbus in red-beige two-color scheme (could be panama brown, L12A), a Westfalia camper in dakota beige (L13A), a single cabin pick-up truck in sage green (L63H), a high-roof ice cream van and a red fire truck from the “Volkswagenwerk AG Wolfsburg”. It took me quite some time of fiddling around with the macro setting of my happy-snappy to get the depth-of-field ok-ish. Hope you appreciate the effort!
Comments : Leave a Comment » Tags: Art.-Nr. 90353, Brekina, Bulli, Kombi, Late Bay, microbus, model, T2b, VW Bus Categories : Unusual Stuff, VW Bus Merchandising Look what Santa brought our little wondergirl! Lego Duplo’s Pit Stop set featuring Fillmore, the kombi. Hope you have a great Christmas and will have a few more relaxing days! Comments : 2 Comments » Tags: 5829, Bulli, Christmas tree, Fillmore, Kombi, Lego, microbus, Movie Cars, Pit Stop, split-window, T1, Volkswagen Categories : This and that, VW Bus Merchandising Hawaiian Kombis, Part II The Volkswagen kombi seems to have a firm place in the Hawaii tourist folklore, with toy buses with glued-on surfboards lined up in every souvenir shop. But today’s surfers drive pick-up trucks, four-wheel-drives and SUVs, no more kombis on the beaches. Good to see that at least some of them have survived and are still in use. Below is another one: Found this green metallic beauty in the eastern part of Maui.
It’s a 1974 Westfalia camper with 1.8L engine, interior rebuilt in bamboo wood, including the floor and the panels for the walls and doors. Cool battery of switches under the dashboard to operate an LED and laser light show all over the inside ceiling of the van. Originally fitted front spare wheel holder has been removed and the holes were carefully closed for a simple and clean look. The winding coastal roads with lots of one-way bridges, the surfer beaches and the beautiful warm and sunny weather reminded me a lot of New Zealand’s South Island and Australia’s Great Ocean Road. The small size of the island of Maui and its remote beaches and bays look ideal for a kombi holiday. I searched the web and found two rental companies that offer VW buses: Aloha Campers has a range of T3 Westfalia campervans, and Maui Camper Rentals rents out T5 Westfalias. Drawback seems to be that there is not really a great camp site infrastructure, and wild camping is unusual or even illegal. if you want to read up more on this topic.
Tags: 1974, Bulli, campervan, dashboard, Hawaii, Hookipa Beach, Kombi, Late Bay, postcard, T2b, toy, Volkswagen, Westfalia Categories : VW Bus Merchandising, VW Bus spotting Got this set of nine small fridge magnets some days ago as a birthday present (thanks Matti!). “VW Bus & Beetle Surf Coast” from www.nostalgic–art.de. Nice that the bus part is played by an early bay window! Comments : 1 Comment » Tags: Bulli, Early Bay, fridge magnet, Kombi, surf coast, T2a, Volkswagen Categories : VW Bus Merchandising „You may pass me but you won’t outlast me.” Saw this brilliant motto for a kombi first on the back window of an unusual late bay campervan, about four years ago in Berlin. Started hunting for it on the web last year and tracked down one version with Slook Designs in the UK. They do have some cool stickers – I also got Taiga Lily an “Air Cooled” one and “Home is where you park it”. Tags: 1976, Bulli, car sticker, home is where you park it, L63H, Late Bay, Sage Green, slook design, T2b, Taiga Grün, Volkswagen, You may pass me but you won’t outlast me
Categories : Resurrecting Taiga Lily, This and that, VW Bus Merchandising Straight to the Pool Room! After the kombi collection of our baby-daughter, here comes daddy’s pride and joy. This is what happens when all your friends know you as a kombi fanatic: 17 years of kombi models, some bought, but most received as presents from friends and family. It started in 1996 with the big blue-and-white “Nivea” panel van and the red-and-white T1 microbus, in the lower shelves of the cabinet below. They were birthday presents from Caro and from the colleagues at work (thanks guys!). The series of early bay-window tin toy buses in the fourth shelf from below is also pretty cool. They are produced by the Czech company Kovap, were apparently already on the market pre-1990 when there was still East and West Germany and one could buy them in East Germany as well. I found the first two models during a visit to Prague with DrJ, Emily and Mike in about 2003 and bought some more when I found them again in a shop in Berlin in about 2008.
Tags: Bulli, Kombi, Late Bay, microbus, Pritschenwagen, split-window, T1, T2b, T3, toy, Type 2, Volkswagen, VW Bus Taiga Lily’s return from her winter quarter has been postponed till the end of April. In time for the official start of spring, winter has returned to Berlin, with 20 cm of fresh snow and temperatures down to -12°C. So not yet safe for the old bus to come out and play. On top of that we are moving house next Tuesday, so no time anyway to wake her from her winter sleep. Instead, some update from the kombi toy front: These magnets were put in storage some 2 years ago when we renovated the kitchen. Now they are back because our little one enjoys so much moving them on (and into) the washing machine, the dryer and the dishwasher. The early bay window with the 3D impression was a present from Jan, probably a souvenir from South America. The sage green/Taigagruen splittie came from Marion. The blue and white split-window, a present from Dave, is a photo by Australian photographer Peter Gibne who specializes on surfer motifs and Volkswagens.