Hi,

In 2013 Faller released a remake of the classic plastic #318 pine trees, that were in the Faller program from 1955 till the 80s.

I like these old 318 trees a lot, they were also used on the Marklin factory layouts.

I bought two boxes of these “new” pine trees that now have No 181604, to see whether they still look good on a (classic) layout.
And yes, the new pine trees are almost identical to the old 318 trees, I think the old molds were used because the sprues still have the old ‘317’ and ‘318’ numbers casted in them.
The green plastic is now harder and not as flexible as the old trees and the set has no bent trunks as the old trees had (so you could place them on a hillside).
But the new trees still have the same classic look and appeal of the old trees, which had BTW also several different versions back in the day.

The first series of these plastic trees from 1955 had a marbled multiple color effect and are therefore the most sought after by the diehard fanatic Faller collector. These first trees from the 50s also had smooth trunks without the tiny side branches that the later pine trees had. In the 1960s the marbled appearance was abandoned and from that time the trees came in plain green just as these new pine trees.
I think that no layout can do without these lovely pine trees.

Marco

Edited by user 18 August 2022 16:14:26(UTC)  | Reason: Changed subject titel a bit.

Hi Marco, all

We had some 'goodies' available through our club last night in a special goods for sale evening, lots of bargains to be had and some interesting items.

My lovely wide Nadine (bless her heart) for some reason took a shine to a Faller Coaling station - wasn't quite my cup of tea but she is inspired and I'm all for that!!

Anyways.... among the items on offer was something that really caught my eye. It was a box of kit Pine Trees remarkably Faller-esque in style and for $2?, well I just had to now didn't I!!

So the thing is, if these are not a knock-off I don't know what is. They are made in Russia by a company called "Zvezda" who it seems are into Military, Wargaming etc.

Don't bother trying their English site, it does not have all the range of the Russian version but if Russian is not your thing, just use Google Chrome and let the automatic translation take care of it, Russian appears to translate quite well.

Here are some images of the kit which I thought might be of interest. This pack 8222 seems no longer available from them but might still be in various shops around.

The plastic is quite different, nowhere near as flexible as Faller, the green is much brighter (have placed some Faller ones either side to compare) and very plastic looking, and there is no detail on the tree trunks but all that aside, they are actually quite close, certainly at first glance and could easily be weathered or just scattered among original ones to give some tone variation.

Regards

Cookee

Edited by user 19 August 2022 12:21:02(UTC)  | Reason: Add images

I know this is an old thread, but sometimes it's better to continue an old one, than start a new.

I have 'collected' some Faller 1320 blisterpacks with the old type Faller pine trees.
These are the 1960s ready made '320' pine trees that were assembled by Faller homeworkers.
In 1976 the number 1 was added, 320 became 1320, and from now on the trees came in a blisterpack.

The trees in my blisters are the marbled green plastic type, but I have also seen 1320 packs on Ebay with non-marbled plain green plastic trees, I avoid those, the marbled ones look much nicer and have the 1960s Faller charm a little bit more than the newer ones.

On the bottom right side of the blisterpacks that I have, is a (very) small code printed.
The white blisters have the code '7605 br' and the red blisterpacks '78 br'.
Probably meaning (in my opinion) produced in May 1976 and in 1978, in Faller Austria, in the Braunau facilicity (the former Hoffmann Austria company that was taken over by Faller in 1963).
But maybe could also mean that just the blisterpack was made there, not the trees and maybe 'Br' does not refer to Braunau at all.

Marco

Thanks Jean !
You're right about the Heki trees. The Faller pine trees may look a bit too plastic for some.
But I'm looking for 1960 nostalgia, and not after achieving realism on my layouts.
(Achieving realism is impossible for me anyway, as I run my trains on pre-war TE bakelite track)


I took some pictures to show the differences ...
Left the unmarbled 181604 plain green trees and right the old marbled (1)320 trees.
The base is also different.

Thanks Bob, I've never heard of Merit, so I learned something.

The Hoffmann pine trees from Hoffman kit B 803 (with inspection sheet stambed "1963") are also the same as the Faller trees.
Not an exact copy, the leaves are slightly different and the base is bigger (which is good, less likely to tip over).
The Hoffmann's are not marbled and the color is slightly lighter green than the Faller trees.

I assembled one. The last photo shows 1 Hoffmann tree on the left side of 5 Faller (1)320 trees.

Marco