9397 B-Model surfaces

Today, on a German toy store's site, the first picture of the 9397 Logging Truck appeared.

The previous description we got, about a “snow shovel vehicle”, turns out to be correct: a road truck with a snow plough in front and a bed, possibly for salt, in the rear. Too bad my hopes for a more esoteric kind of vehicle were in vain...

Clearly the bed can tilt via an LA, and the plough assembly looks complicated enough to suggest at least two degrees of freedom: probably raising/lowering and turning side to side. There’s also a hint of the two rear axles being longitudinally pendular, like on the 8273 Off Road Truck and the 8264 Hauler.

There's a curious detail about this model: there is a red lever at the vehicle's mid-length surrounded by light grey beams: this structure is the same as in the set's A-model. The same may be said about the mudguards (excepting the detail of a blue pin) and, by extension, the general proportions of the chassis. This suggests that the A- and B-models share the same chassis and core mechanics, and only differ in the "topping" and end mechanisms.

On one hand, this is a bit of a let down because the set becomes less of a "2-in-1" than a "1.5-in-1", like the 8466 4X4 Off-Roader, which similarly shares its chassis between models, and, more egregiously, the 8288 Crawler Crane, whose difference between models is just the placement of one of the booms. On the other hand, the fact that the Logging Truck's chassis has four functions all stemming from the same motor and is capable of having different bodies is a sign of modularity, which potentially makes it a good base for modifications. This is also happening with the 8110 Mercedes-Benz Unimog U400 and its front and rear mechanical and pneumatic PTO's with fans coming up with different attachments of their own. Also, considering that the A-model has four motorised functions and there are only three immediately visible functions on the B-model, either there's a fourth hidden function (the only one I imagine is a 3rd degree of freedom for the plough, but, at this scale, it looks unlikely), or the core multiplexing mechanism is underused.

Thanks to Eurobricks user Totenkopf for the discovery