The sliding panel is gone, as is the headlight. The wheels also lost the rubber treads as the wheel on these cleaners is a one piece moulding now. Older models had a clip on rubber tread. These Major cleaners did have a much easier arrangement of disconnecting the bellows though, as there is an access panel on the back of the main body. This was not present on earlier cleaners and wasn't there on the Master, which was the blue none cordwinder version of this Major cleaner. To be pedantic, this is the third style of Moulinex upright. The first two looked more or less identical to the naked eye, but where the first range of cleaner had a screw down hood, the second range had a clip-on hood, the same fitting as used on what I am calling the third range here. Also, the roller brush on the first range was much more sturdy than the later style.
You can easily tell which is first and which is second range, as both the Master and Major of the first range were brown and white. The second range Major was the same colour as the first, but had much more writing on the door of the bag compartment. Same as pictured here, except the writing was white, not dark brown. The second range Master was white and yellow, again with more writing on the bag door.
The third ranges are what we see here. What is strange is that the softbag cleaner went on sale almost at the same time as the Hoover Turbopower Junior. They were always such similar cleaners in terms of style. The Hoover Turbopower was a much better cleaner all round than the Moulinex and it goes without saying that the popularity of the Turbopower outstripped that of the Moulinex, which given the price of the Moulinex is a little surprising as there was a big saving to be made between the prices of the two brands. But then Moulinex had reputation for what one might describe as cheap quality products. However, their vacuum cleaners were not all that bad, especially for the price they sold for.
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