A fire truck Friday offering!

I recently received this model by Hachette, a Seagrave Marauder II pumper in the livery of FDNY Engine No. 9.

Now usually I try to get an Ixo-branded vehicle instead of the cheaper partwork model they make for others, in this case Hachette. Ixo has a fire truck series, prefixed TRF, and they have made two Marauders. TRF003 is in the Streamwood IL black/red scheme while TRF006 is in the red/white Charlotte FD livery. As I contemplated which to get, I kept wondering about the gold emblem on the front, and zooming in I found it was a Chinese dragon. So I Googled "Chinatown FDNY" and sure enough, images of Engine 9 showed up. That station, with its associated ladder company, is known as the Chinatown Dragon Fighters. Cool. 

However I couldn't find a Marauder II, just an earlier similar Seagrave (no dragon on grille) and a later KME (with dragon). So I think Ixo/Hachette mixed up a few details. But the Ixo TRF units with Chinatown dragons on the grille are certainly way off base, so I'm happy with this one.