Corgi Model Club: Volkswagen Breakdown Truck

 

This month the Corgi Model Club issue the latest model to be 'revived'. This is #490 the Volkswagen Breakdown Truck. 

This is a very detailed model with many features and it must have been much more of a challenge than last month's MGA. As a result it does have some noticeable differences. The first is simply how shiny the device installation is at the rear. Mine was a rather tired-looking grey even when new and I am not aware of any shiny silver variations.

The ratchet which should prevent the hook from becoming free is very weak on the re-issue and it was quite difficult to keep it back in place. The grey plastic hook is made of stronger stuff than the original but looks pretty much identical.

The greenish olive colour is good, maybe a little on the brown side but acceptably so. As always, the silver paintwork is very precise and bright when compared to the original. I see that the bottom of the V shape design in the front panel appears much less sharply defined than the original. I expect to see the bright silver and some shinier materials here and there but this front end is one that I would have thought the inspectors would have rejected.

The side view and dimensions are excellent and accurate. You will find the rear tool box and compartments constructed from much harder and shinier material than the softer plastic of the original and they have a darker colour too. The tool box does open and close satisfactorily - something that the original didn't always do as well!

It contains the usual bright chrome tools and a couple of small-size tyres.

One thing I have noticed with this and several previous models is how the shaped wheels aren't right, the inner convex element being too small and giving the appearance of something more like a Dinky wheel than a Corgi. Perhaps the Chinese factory is using wheels produced for Atlas Dinky reproductions or something like that. These need to be revised and not just accepted as 'nearly' right. they're not, as the images below show.

In many early articles on the Corgi Club Models I have been critical of their lack of attention to the font style used on the boxes. They're still in need of attention but they do seem, at last, to have got the numbers at the end right. One step at a time, I guess. It would be so simple to get the small text right, though, and this would make a big difference

This will arrive in the usual flat box with minimal outer packing but inside the box there's a big piece of tissue paper wrapped around the whole model, protecting the box against all the pointy bits and a small square piece of foam which, I think, is added protection for and against the rear end.

Overall, I was not disappointed by this model and I recognise the good work done in getting the majority of it right. It has plenty of  'play appeal' in that one actually do something with it although I suspect that all these new editions will seldom leave their boxes.

Update 8 March:

My good friend Andi, expert on all things VW (he is one of their senior staff so that's useful!) reports his findings on the position of the VW emblem on the front as being incorrect whereas the original Corgi had a much better placement that closely matched the real thing. He kindly provides these illustrations for us: