NEW PRODUCTS MATERIAL HANDLER

With the introduction of the Tonkin Replicas Precision Series Material Handler, a note about its primary cargo, drywall, might be appropriate. Drywall replaced hand plastering and is somewhat unique in the fact that using drywall has become nearly universal, worldwide, in the construction of buildings. While it might go by different names (Gypsum board, wallboad, rock lath, sheetrock, plasterboard, placoplatre, etc) it is largely the same in every country worldwide: gypsum plaster pressed between two sheets of paper then dried in a kiln or oven.

Drywall is an extremely dense material, making a load of drywell extremely heavy, making the working crane on the material handler an important feature of a drywall truck. While there are several manufacturers of drywall, most of them can be easily identified by the color of their drywall load: most manufacturers use a color or color group to quickly identify their gypsum board.

In 1:53 scale, Tonkin Replicas has made two different dry wall loads: one made out of stackable ABS drywall pallets which have been injected via a traditional plastic injection press the other being a lighter blow molded plastic which yields a softer load that is also less expensive to manufacturer. Only one load has ever been delivered to a customer using the blowmolded process, that being a Signature Series Kenworth T800 with flatbed that was produced for National Gypsum (who has a very distinctive purple load). Most other runs favor the new ABS load which provides a rigid stacking system that is very flexible to arrange and change depending on the configuration a customer is looking for.

Example of this unit for purchase can be found at 3000toys.com, amongst a variety of other independent resellers. Here is an example of a white unit for sale, set up for customizing, although that is only one example of what is available…