Tuesday 1 May 2018

Corgi Toys @ 60: The RAF fly in.


It is May 1958 and CND are demonstrating in London but at your local toy shop you could buy a Thunderbird Missile on a trolley. I cannot imagine many children walking out clutching only the 350 model; no doubt they persuaded their parent or older brother to buy the 351 RAF Land Rover too.

In a few months they'd be able to buy them both as Gift Set 3 but they wouldn't know that then.


The 351 Land Rover is a 406 model in RAF blue with a matching tin canopy. It also has an RAF roundel on the front wing.


The 350 Thunderbird missile is Corgi's first military model, produced in silver-painted metal with a rubber nose cone. It is held on the trolley by a couple of clips. the trolley itself has a very long tow bar, necessary to reach the hook on the Land Rover.


It looks pretty much as it should do, other than the colour. I rather doubt that these would actually have been drawn by a Land Rover but I'm no expert. The Corgi 350 I have seen in a pale duck egg blue and also a creamy white colour, as well as silver.

This would be the first of a series of increasingly big missiles Corgi would release in what is now a much sought after group of military vehicles and equipment.



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