Recovery Ambulance and Undertakers

[Tim_w]

Hello Everyone,

I think its about time i revealed one of my other conversions because it has been in my gallery now for many months and i feel its a shame not to share it on the forum. Apart from that i have had great trouble finding a tactfull way to deal with this subject so please bare with me on this one, its taken ages to get right.
I made this particular vehicle because i believe it has a very important role to play in my collection. I have allways been interested with most aspects of the emergency services and have allways represented them at work in my photo stories. There has allways been one burning question that i dared to ask, who deals with any dead klicky's ? I think we have established that klicky's are mortal due to the fact that Playmobil produce a very nice skeleton, we have lots of different ghosts and why have hospital themes or weapons if they don't get hurt or killed ?

So who does pick up all those little plastic bits and bob's when things go wrong ?

Klicky Undertakers:

The two gentlemen you see before you are my towns undertakers. It is their job to recover and transport any klicky that has been unfortunate enough to get themselves killed. I think i should point out before i cause an uproar that the only klicky's that ever get killed around here are the baddies and those that have been careless enough to cause their own demise. Even then this is very rare indeed because they are quite tough and made of very hard plastic . The undertakers have a contract with the Police and can be called out 24hrs a day, 7 days a week. They wear protective white overalls to keep their smart suits nice and clean when carrying out their duties.

[Tim_w]

Recovery Ambulance:

The deceased klicky is transported from the scene in a special vehicle called a recovery ambulance and not a hearse. Most of the time they are special vans that are specifically designed for the roll, but they are often ambulances that have been withdrawn from front line use like mine. These are purchased by undertakers and take on the roll of a recovery ambulance. They don't have sirens and instead of flashing blue lights some (but not all) have green lights, which i can only presume are used whilst stationary on or at the side of a busy road. All recovery ambulances bear the words 'ambulance' or 'private ambulance'. The ambulance we use is an old 'front line' vehicle which has been converted specially for the role. It has a new stretcher bed to take a wheeled trolley, the windows have been plated over and it comes complete with a set of green lights.

[Tim_w]

Body Bag:

Once the deceased has been recovered they are placed into a body bag and transported to the ambulance on a trolley. The body bag in this picture has a dummy inside it to make it look authentic (i did say at the beginning that klicky's are very rarely killed ).

[Tim_w]

On a final note thank you for having the patience if you have got this far . I hope i have dealt with this as tactfully as i set out and that it has not caused any offence . As i said at the beginning it is a very important part of my collection and has a specific roll in how i 'run' things. I do like to be able to cater for most eventualities in my stories and rather than leaving my imagination to fill in the gap's i like to have the 'real' thing there to back it up.

Kindest Regards  Tim 

[Martin Milner]

Very nice conversion Tim.

I'm always of the opinion that Playmobil can and should be used for educational purposes as well as fun, and your recovery ambulance can help teach us about how death is dealt with. The klicky world has premature babies in incubators, and takes children to the doctor and the dentist, so there's no reason it should ignore the ultimate fate of a poor klicky.

I have an old ambulance that needs refurbishment - I may copy your idea.

[playmofire]

That's an excellent conversion, Tim, with beautiful attention to detail.  The green lights are interesting because they were originally introduced in the 1980s for use by doctor's on call.  A doctor attending an emergency could have a green flashing light on the roof of his/her car.  I remember that they were also used by the early paramedic/immediate care units (this was in the days before the NHS service having paramedic and emergency ambulances) which were run by some General Practitioner doctors.  One of the first, if not the first, emergency service vehicle I photographed in detail was one such immediate care unit, the Nidd Immediate Care Unit.

And you dealt with the topic extremely sensitively and, as Martin says, death is all part of life and so using something like Playmobil to deal with it can only help.

[Tim_w]

Hello Martin

Thank you again for taking the time to reply to my thread. I am really pleased that you are considering making one of these for yourself. It was a really easy custom to make and it only needed a fresh coat of white paint once the changes had been made. If you do decide to have a go at making one i would suggest that when you plate over the window in the rear door you use thin plastic and plate over the outside or use some thicker plastic and put it on the inside. I only found out when i refitted the door that due to the thickness of the plastic it wouldn't stay open when raised. I am currently modifying the rear door on mine so that the plastic plate is on the inside.

Kindest Regards Tim

Hello Gordon

Thank you again for your kind reply. I found what you wrote very interesting indeed and hadn't realised that the old ambulances started out with green lights. I cant understand why some private ambulances have them unless they are for use when stationary at the scene of an accident. I think the green ties in with the 'medical' theme and distinguishes them from other services that have to use yellow flashing lights.

Kindest regards  Tim

[playmofire]

Hello Gordon

Thank you again for your kind reply. I found what you wrote very interesting indeed and hadn't realised that the old ambulances started out with green lights. I cant understand why some private ambulances have them unless they are for use when stationary at the scene of an accident. I think the green ties in with the 'medical' theme and distinguishes them from other services that have to use yellow flashing lights.

Kindest regards  Tim

It was only doctors in private cars on call to an emergency or the immediate care units which existed before the NHS paramedic units that used the green lights.  Local authority/NHS ambulances have always used the blue emergency light, as do the modern paramedic units and emergency ambulances.  In fact, where a doctor is attending an emergency in his/her private car today, they can still use a green light if they wish, or not bother at all.  In practice, however, many health trusts now have a system of out of hours doctors who have access to a trust car of some sort with a driver when they are on out of hours duties.

[Richard]

Hello, Tim ...

As you know, Gordon and I are getting along in years. (Gordon will be quick to point out that I'm getting along a bit faster.) ... 

Regardless, is it possible to pre-order one's "bag"? Personally, I'd prefer brighter colours. Actually, stripes would be nice. Vertical stripes please, as horizontal stripes tend to make one look a bit heavy.

On a more serious note, Tim ...

Your photos are excellent as always. And, your attention to detail as well as your handling of your subject matter are superb! Very impressive custom.

BTW, were any of those websites useful at all for your custom idea. If you're not in a hurry,  I have some friends with Wells Fargo that I can ask when I'm next on the mainland.

All the best,
Richard

[playmofire]

Hello, Tim ...

As you know, Gordon and I are getting along in years. (Gordon will be quick to point out that I'm getting along a bit faster.) ... 


Richard

Now actually, that's not true.  I am ageing faster than you. Next birthday I will be 1/64 older than I am now, but you, if I've got your age right, will be only 1/71 older.