For Now, It's Siku for I

I'm back to my first love: toy fire trucks! I'm not leaving out pens and inks and notebooks, no. I just want to go back to my previous fascination before I got so enamored with fountain pens, inks, and notebooks. It's a coincidence, perhaps, that my treasure of fountain pens and toys come from the same places: Japan and Germany.

I love fire trucks. Real fire trucks, toy fire trucks, it doesn't matter - as long as they are fire trucks. I'm not sure what it is, but there is something about a big, red truck with sirens and flashing lights that always fascinates me. I tried to get my hands on a remote/radio controlled fire truck, but that plan did not work, and I was left wanting and pinning for a red toy truck. Until I found a couple of small, shiny, die-cast models called Tomicas. Tomicas are die-cast toy vehicles that are produced by Japan's Takara Tomy Company.

I bought a lot of Tomica trucks, not only the fire trucks, but also those of the construction, trucking, and farming series. I even got myself taxis and police cars. Other toys caught my fancy, like the Fire Saver from Matchbox's 50th Birthday, part of the 9-toy package I got from Leo Sajonas sometime last year. And then there's Siku.

I have always wanted to add European toy fire trucks into my collection. And research pointed me to Siku, which has, more or less, similar selection to that of Tomica's. I've seen them in toy stores, but couldn't get them because I didn't like trucks that are bigger and larger in size than my Tomica trucks. But Virra Mall's Toy Kingdom made me a very happy collector when I found out that their Siku selection now includes the Siku Super Series. Hurray!

And now, here are my Siku toys.

Here is Siku No. 1068, a Unimog fire engine, scaled at 1:87. It is cast in metal, and its high-quality design has fine detail engraving. This piece has been offered since 2006, but was only available here in the Philippines last year.

This is Siku No. 1345, a 4x4 version of the Panther airfield water cannon by Rosenbauer. It is designed for use at smaller airports, with the No. 1889 scaled at 1:87 meant for big airport action. Introduced in July 2009, I'm very happy to get it here now.