Re: But did these ever go into production ?……..

merc-blue, clones of earthmovers etc.. have been out for at least four months now. I found them here at Toys are Us. They may be at Target there (either in Aus or US). Not sure where you are from? I wanted a clone crane to lift the cars off the track:) I even saw a second line of movers etc out last week. I can try to find you pics/company info if you like. Was going to post when I first saw them but never got around to it:(

And from what I can tell the clones are multifunctional:)