COBI Willys MB Set 3133

COBI's Willys MB is a 1:35 model built from 132 blocks, 10.5 cm long, in a new olive green brick colour matched to American military vehicles. The wheels turn on rubber tires, a machine gun is fitted, and a figure of a soldier of the 101st Airborne Division is included with accessories.

Thirty-six inches tall, and not by accident

The US Army's 1940 specification for a light reconnaissance car set numbers that look arbitrary and were not: a maximum height of 36 inches, a wheelbase of 80 inches, a weight under 1,300 pounds.

Every one of those figures comes from the inside of an aircraft. The vehicle had to fit into a transport aircraft and into a glider, be liftable by a small crane onto a ship, and be pushed by four men when it got stuck. The folding windscreen exists so the overall height drops further for loading.

Designing around transport rather than around the road is why the jeep looks the way it does — upright, square, with nothing overhanging — and why around 640,000 of them ended up everywhere the American army went.

In the COBI range

Set 3132 is the same vehicle with a trailer and a second figure. The large 1:12 versions are sets 2804, 2805 and 2806.

Specifications

Pieces: 132 · Figures: 1 · Scale: 1:35 · Machine gun and accessories
Model dimensions: 10.5 × 5 × 6 cm (4.1 × 2.0 × 2.4 in)