COBI Volkswagen T3 Camper Van Set 24638

COBI's Volkswagen T3 Camper Van is a 1:35 set built from 232 blocks under official Volkswagen licence: the camper at 15 cm with a bicycle, plus a forest diorama with a wooden table, firs, rocks, mushrooms and trail markers, a climbing rock, a climber figure and a wild boar.

In America it was called something else

Volkswagen sold this van in the United States as the Vanagon — a contraction of van and station wagon, coined because American buyers did not think of themselves as buying a commercial vehicle.

The version that mattered was the Vanagon Westfalia: pop-top roof, two-burner stove, sink, fridge, folding table, beds for four. Westfalia had been converting Volkswagen vans since the 1950s, and the T3 generation is the one that turned the arrangement into a subculture in North America. Owners still keep them running forty years on, largely because a vehicle you can sleep in is worth more effort than one you cannot.

There was also a Syncro, with four-wheel drive and a viscous coupling, built in Austria — which is how a van with a rear engine and no ground clearance to speak of ended up as a serious expedition vehicle.

In the COBI range

Part of the 1:35 Volkswagen collection. Set 24639 is the T3 with a winter ski diorama; the standard, fire, ambulance and police versions are 24634, 24635, 24636 and 24637.

Specifications

Pieces: 232 · Figures: 1 climber plus a wild boar · Scale: 1:35 · Officially licensed
Model dimensions: van 15 × 6 × 7.3 cm (5.9 × 2.4 × 2.9 in), rock 14 × 7.5 × 11 cm