When the Automobile Association in the late 1950's introduced Land Rover Patrols to augment their existing Motorcycles, several toymakers added models to their collections. The Qualitoys version which Benbros created was possibly one of the best.

 

Benbros had already added Army and Royal Mail Land Rovers to the Qualitoys range so creating the AA version used existing castings for the body. New parts included a revised roof section with 'AA Road Service' on each side, a new roof sign, and the addition of 'AA' at the front and rear of the model.

 

The body of the model was one casting without a base and included the two seated figures (except their heads which were seperately cast). There was also good detail inside the rear compartment to represent toolboxes and equipment. 'Benbros Qualitoy' and 'Made in England' were cast underneath and the number-plate 'TML 448' was included at front and rear. The front bumper, along with both side doors, a rear tail-lift, the roof sign and the tailgate, were all seperately cast and added to the model at assembly.

 

The roof, windscreen and sides of the model were another large casting which slotted onto the body using pegs at the four bottom corners. The centre of the roof included a nodule onto which the 'spring' aerial fitted.

 

The AA Land Rover was painted yellow, the colour of all AA vehicles, both inside and out with the paint later brushed off the raised writing on the sides and the AA signs and number plates at the front and rear. This was a handy technique to save adding black trim to the model. The seperately cast front bumper was painted glossy black before assembly.

 

Benbros produced two colour variations of the AA Land Rover. The first was a pale yellow which included the roof, and inside the yellow figures were given tan or pink face trim. The second colour was dark-yellow with the addition of a black glossy roof, but there was no face trim on the figures inside.

 

6-bolt metal wheels on round-head & crimped axles were used on the AA Land Rover and the tyres were chunky black rubber including the spare on the bonnet.

 

For the AA Land Rover, Benbros created a special box generously promoting the AA logo current at that time with illustrations on all four sides. The pictures show a vehicle with additional black front wings (which followed the real vehicles) but Benbros is not thought to have included these when the model went into production. 'Benbros Qualitoys' was printed on both end-flaps.

 

The AA Land Rover is a scarce model and complete examples of both variations are hard.