Cherilea Vehicles

The Cherilea line of vehicles were native to England and seemed to serve the same function as the Irwin vehicles in the United States. They filled a vehicle gap the parent company - in this case Palitoy - did not wish to fill.

The vehicles for the most part represented modern (at the time) British military vehicles such as a helicopter, a Harrier jet, a couple of tanks, a truck, armored cars, a boat, raft, kayak, and more. There were also some World War II vehicles such as a Kettenkrad, motorcycle with sidecar, and halftrack.

In the 1990s, a company called Sunny Smile redid a few of the vehicles - the helicopter, armored car and truck being several examples. In the 2000's, another company redid the Harrier jet and offer it thru the JC Penney Christmas catalog.

ARMORED CAR AND MILITARY TRUCK


Here are a scout car and supply truck in part of a supply convoy. All three figures are vintage Action Man Eagle Eye figures. The Scout car driver and truck gunner are wearing Action Man tanker outfits while the truck driver is wearing an Action Man paratrooper outfit.

		Here is the back of the truck. The tail gate and the two sides actually fold down. The stickers are coming loose from age on both sides of the vinyl top. You may see this truck listed on eBay and see it with a tilt bed. That is because someone removed the two bolts at the front of the bed. If you take them off (under the truck) the truck converts into a tilt bed (the back of the bed is hinged on the frame.) This truck still has these bolts in tact, so it does not tilt.

Here you can clearly see the hatch on the truck roof. When you open the hatch, there is a machine gun mount built into it. The machine gun originally came with firing missile. I sadly did not get that with the vehicle when I acquired it. Note that both doors open.

		Here is the truck with the tarp braces off and one side and the tail gate down. As you can see, this truck really can hold a lot of supplies. I am thinking of building some narrow benches and putting them in for troop transport.

Both front doors open for easy insertion and removal of figures.

		This is the box the truck came in. Not in the best of shape, but it does store the truck nicely and keep it protected.

A view of the armored car shows the headset and mic I created for it. The antenna is a long twisty tie.

Helicopter

This is the Cherilea helicopter. I believe this to be a Cherilea version vs. a Sunny Smile version because the stickers look very old and the Sunny Smile version had missiles on the front instead of the headlights.
There is a crank under the rotors that lets you operate the rotors.
The yoke on the console inside the cockpit moves up and down.

Rear view

Joe (a Timeless Collection flocked figure wearing an Action Man jump-suit with TC boots, helmet, clipboard, knife, binoculars, sub machine gun, signal lamp, holster, and pistol) gets into the helicopter.

Well ... this IS a one person helicopter :-)
A rather tight fight ... but Joe makes it in and is ready to take off on his patrol.

Amphibious Jeep

This is one of the cooler Cherilea vehicles.
That I can tell, the only thing missing is the glass in the windshield. I have plans to replace that as soon as possible.

What surprised me about this when I received it is the dashboard sticker is still present and in pretty good shape.
Also, check the back. The rudder and propeller are still present and in good shape too!

		This is the Cherilea helicopter. I believe this to be a Cherilea version vs. a Sunny Smile version because the stickers look very old and the Sunny Smile version had missiles on the front instead of the headlights. There is a crank under the rotors that lets you operate the rotors. The yoke on the console inside the cockpit moves up and down.

Rear view

		Joe (a Timeless Collection flocked figure wearing an Action Man jump-suit with TC boots, helmet, clipboard, knife, binoculars, sub machine gun, signal lamp, holster, and pistol) gets into the helicopter.

Well ... this IS a one person helicopter :-) A rather tight fight ... but Joe makes it in and is ready to take off on his patrol.

				This is one of the cooler Cherilea vehicles. That I can tell, the only thing missing is the glass in the windshield. I have plans to replace that as soon as possible.

				What surprised me about this when I received it is the dashboard sticker is still present and in pretty good shape. Also, check the back. The rudder and propeller are still present and in good shape too!