COBI Sd.Kfz.2 Kettenkrad Set 2401

COBI's Sd.Kfz. 2 Kettenkrad is built from 170 blocks, 16.5 cm long, and includes a trailer loaded with supplies. A tilting flap reveals a printed engine, and a figure of an Afrika Korps soldier is included with a head printed with a scarf over the face, plus tools, weapons and headgear. A brick carries the vehicle name. Pad-printed throughout; no stickers.

You steer it with the handlebars, and then you don't

The Kettenkrad looks like a motorcycle that grew tracks, and the steering is where that idea gets interesting.

Turn the handlebars a little and only the front wheel moves, exactly as on a motorcycle. Turn them further and a mechanism engages the track brakes — slowing one track so the vehicle pivots, the way a tank turns.

So gentle corrections are made like a bike and tight turns like a tracked vehicle, with the transition happening automatically as the rider turns further. It meant a man who could ride a motorcycle could drive one with almost no retraining, which was the whole point.

The front wheel could be removed entirely for the worst going, and the vehicle drove perfectly well on tracks alone.

It was built to fit inside an aircraft

The dimensions were set by the cargo hold of a Junkers Ju 52. The Kettenkrad was conceived as a tractor that airborne troops could take with them — something that could pull a light gun or a trailer where no lorry could go, and be flown in.

It ended up doing everything: laying telephone cable, towing aircraft on airfields, hauling supplies through mud that stopped everything else, and carrying mortars and machine guns. It worked well enough that Allied troops kept captured ones and used them.

Production continued after the war for agriculture, which is unusual for a military vehicle of that period.

Specifications

Pieces: 170 · Figures: 1 with accessories · Trailer and printed engine included · No stickers
Model dimensions: 16.5 × 4 cm (6.5 × 1.6 in)