A LEGO tanker that arrived ready to drive

This small Esso tanker is a LEGO vehicle, although its cab and tank were not assembled from ordinary bricks. The museum records it as the 1:87 Mercedes tanker, no. 650-2.

Its red body carries a broad white Esso stripe, with a separate articulated trailer and silver-coloured wheels. A row of familiar studs runs along the top of the tank.

It belongs to the era of LEGO’s small-scale town traffic. The company introduced its Town Plan in 1955: a network of streets where children could arrange buildings, cars, lorries, road signs and miniature traffic police. LEGO’s own history connects the idea with the growing importance of road-safety education.

The tanker supplied a ready-made vehicle for that town, long before today’s minifigure-scale petrol lorries. Did you keep these little LEGO vehicles with your bricks, or with your model cars?