Grumman USPS LLV

The Grumman LLV has been the standard mail delivery vehicle in the U.S. Postal Service since the 80s. It was preceded by the Jeep DJ, and is currently undergoing a glacial process of being phased out for the Oshkosh NGDV.

For some reason, I can't seem to recall the jeeps even though I'm sure that I must have seen mail being delivered during the time they were in service. All my memories seem to be of the LLV, but maybe it's just recency bias.

Even in 1997, over a decade after postal jeeps had been retired, they were still fresh enough in the mind of most people (other than myself) that the movie The Postman retained the Jeep DJ from the book, instead of updating it to a LLV.

KiNSMART makes an officially licensed keychain model of the USPS LLV with pull-back motor in 1/72 scale. I ended up buying a box of 12 because at the time, the price was practically the same as buying two single models.

As far as dimensions go, the length and height are pretty much spot on for 1/72 scale. The width measures about 29mm but should be about 26.4mm, so it is too wide. The wheelbase is also too long at 37mm instead of 35.4mm.

The models do not have the front and rear crossview mirrors that are installed on the USPS LLVs. Also, from what I understand, there are no USPS LLVs with an identification number that starts with "5".

It would have been nice if they made opening doors like on their larger scale versions instead of having the pull-back feature, but all in all, it is still a decent representation of a USPS LLV.