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For years, fans of Thunderbirds speculated on what was the tracked toy which was the source for so many of the pod vehicles. Finally, after over 30 years, the secret has been revealed. TV21 is proud to present the full text of the article about the "Vickers Vigor" toy tractor that originally appeared in the May 1999 issue of the UK magazine "Toy Collector". Malcolm was kind enough to provide the text of the article as well as the photos of the toy you see here.

During the 1950's, Victory Industries of Guildford became well known for their excellent large scale plastic models of British cars and for their pioneering range of VIP Roadways. What is perhaps less well know today is that in addition to the cars, Victory also produced several large scale models of plant machinery, all of which were similarly endorsed as "Official Scale Models" by the manufacturers of the real vehicles.

Without doubt the rarest and most difficult to find today is the 1/16 scale Vickers 'Vigor' Tractor. This was one of the last models in this series and made its debut at the National Models Exhibition held at the New Horticultural Hall in Westminster on New Years Eve in 1959.

The Vickers Vigor tractor

At almost a foot long, the Vigor is an impressive looking beast, even when it's alongside the triple motored Coles Ranger Crane which was released at the same time. Equally impressive was its price. Weighing in at a hefty