Well spotted! I'm not sure what the collective noun for a Fred Homepride Flour Man is, but I have a little committee of them on the window ledge too (the oldest of them was also a toy from childhood. As @volkswombat would no doubt point out, I am indeed a sentimental fool )
I wanted a retirement present, looked at a few options, fat boy Harley, v8 Hot Rod, none family friendly, Then rembered my first car a 1967 beetle 1500cc, as a family of 5 now just a bit small ! started looking at T25's, Family then got involved and that was a big "NO" then it was a split or a bay ? Decided my first one would be a bay, looked at a few then found" kuk" in Wales only a few patches underneath, basically a sound solid van just needs time and money to replace neglected/bodged bits. Then to make it family safe!, inertia seat belts front and rear "No" lap one's (3 in rear all forward facing). I have purchased numerous seats with belts (Ex minibus) which I will convert next year, and ultimately then engine change will be a 2.2 or 2.5 Scooby conversion. Mig welder, sandblaster and other goodies all waiting to be used. I just need to start/finish the house roof side and rear dormer conversion when I have nothing to do. Makes me wonder how I ever had time to do a full time job.
What @volkswombat fails to inform you is that he is more of a romantic than he lets on... My interest in them started in my early 20's when I ended up hitch-hiking in one whilst travelling through Malawi to Tanzania. Myself & a friend had sweet talked two South African boys into giving us a lift to Dar-es-Salaam, rather than sharing jam-packed public transport with chickens and goats! They were perfect gentlemen and when we reached the border between Malawi & Tanzania at night time to find it was closed, they let us (my friend & I) sleep in the van in No-Man's -Land whilst they slept outside in tents! Fast forward a few more years... Living with @volkswombat and we discover that we both like vw camper vans. When we were planning our wedding we decided to hire one for 2 weeks (for a pre-honeymoon, wedding, & honeymoon), travelling around the West coast of Scotland, to see if the reality of driving/living in one matched our idealistic dream. We both fell in love with Dylan, a 1979 Westfalia with a Devon roof. We decided to put all of our wedding gift money towards a camper of our own... We did the classic... in our naivety and excitement... we bought the first one we saw, a custard coloured Viking, who we named Freya. Little did we know about what lay underneath... Heh ho... it's all about the journey, right?
My 6 year old loves the Lost episode where Hurley, Sawyer, Charlie and Jin push the bus down the hill for the first time. He constantly watches on Sky+ thinking its my bus as its the same colour lol
Did I say that? It maybe explains volkwombat's post a little more... Sat here with our little boy... He spotted your avatar @snotty, "Mummy, why is that mouse in jail?" Made me chuckle! Then I had to try & explain what a ferret was... All educational here, you know!
Moved to Cornwall in 1994 on the way to take the kids to school was a vw garage ,I used to drop in on the way home and have a chat ,his name was Dennis and he was mad on campers ,but never owned one just fixed them.. One Thursday I looked in the west britain to see a tintop 1973 for renovation 300 pounds ,I went and bought it...I was pretty confident repairing it because all my life I have tinkered with cars... after a month took it for the test and it passed ,went to the Lakes ,Wales,Scotland and France ,Dennis sold me half a dozen campers over the years and kept playing with them... IF I stayed in Leeds, I would to this day never have owned a vw camper...