I spotted this plastic jeep on a buy-it-now eBay ad, but didn’t recognize it. It looked unusual due to the spare tire placement (CJ-2-like), so I made an offer and scored it. After some research, I learned it is pretty unique.

According to Fred Coldwell (you can see his collection of these below), “in 1945 California Moulders, Inc., Los Angeles 11, California, produced plastic models of the 1944 CJ-2 jeep named the “Agrijeep”.  These first 20 CJ-2 civilian jeeps can be identified by their spare tire mounted mid-body on the passenger side, as faithfully reproduced in the plastic models below. These CJ-2 models came in a variety of colors, and the red and white and blue and white model pairs shown below have opposite colored hood, bodies, tailgates and tires. I have yet to find the complimentary models to the blue and yellow and white and green plastic CJ-2 jeeps.  These very first plastic models of “The New” Civilian Jeeps are not easy to find, but over the decades I have collected the ones shown here. Enjoy!”

Mine is all one color (I have yet to find a comparable one on the internet), but lacks the windshield. It seems like it got too hot (see the front bumper), so it’s hardly a perfect specimen. There are no markings on it, other than “39” is printed on the box; I’m unclear what that signifies (no company name on the box either).

Other California Moulder models:

This first photo shows Fred’s collection (from this link):

Continue reading →