COBI Volkswagen T2b Feuerwehr Set 24622

COBI's Volkswagen T2b Feuerwehr is a 1:35 model built from 162 blocks, 14 cm long, in German fire brigade red with signal lights and a siren on the roof, rubber wheels and printed markings.

Most German firefighters are volunteers

Germany has somewhere over a million firefighters and the overwhelming majority of them are unpaid. Full-time professional brigades exist only in larger cities; everywhere else, the Freiwillige Feuerwehr is the fire service — people who leave work or bed when the pager goes.

That structure explains this vehicle. A village brigade cannot justify or garage a full-size appliance, and often could not get one down the lanes of a medieval town centre anyway. A Transporter fitted out as a command or equipment vehicle costs a fraction as much, fits in an ordinary garage, and gets there.

The T2 filled that role across West Germany through the 1960s and 1970s and was easy to convert, which is why brigades ordered it as everything from a crew carrier to a small pump to a command post.

In the COBI range

Part of the 1:35 Volkswagen collection. Set 24619 is the T2b ambulance and set 24621 the passenger bus.

Specifications

Pieces: 162 · Scale: 1:35
Model dimensions: 14 × 6.5 × 6 cm (5.5 × 2.6 × 2.4 in)