June 1964 was a busy month for your local Corgi toy store.
Chipperfields Circus fans had something they'd need to collect when Corgi found yet another use for the Bedford cab casting and added a large and small giraffe to the box as well. This would later appear with the bigger truck-type wheels as well as getting a change of colour for the Big Daktari set many many years later. An odd little model that would stick around for ages, #508 Bedford Giraffe Transporter.
This was the month when a double decker bus would appear on many of our layouts and displays. #468 would be around about as long as the Giraffe Transporter. The first issue was the one with the Corgi banners and normal shaped free-spinning wheels. Whilst most of the world got the red London bus, Australians got a three-coloured #468, a very hard to find model now on this side of the planet, and probably there too.
In future years the red edition would get cast wheels and a whole host of other banners, the most common one being Outspan Oranges. It would retain the two jewelled lights for many years too, losing them at around the time that Whizzwheels get fitted but you will find editions with and without them but still with cast wheels. The lady conductor stays until the later Whizzwheels days too.
A big favourite at the time was the Austin A60 Driving School motor, #236. You could steer this, with proper steering as on the Bentley and Mercedes, far superior to the swivelling axle affair that Dinky made, and it made a great toy. You really could 'drive' it, although preferably on hard surfaces rather than thick carpet as it had one of the smallest ground clearance of any Corgi Toy! The small wheels and the room needed to house the steering mechanism meant that the bottom of the car more or less scraped along the road and the poor suspension at the front didn't help.
That big red thing on the roof did look a bit ridiculous but worse was to come in future years with Corgi's Driving School motors.
Here in the UK we got the RHD version in pale blue and it was some considerable time later that I discovered that most of the rest of the world were getting a darker blue edition, #255, with left hand drive!
Lastly, June 1964 sees a real classic Corgi issue - the beautiful Buick Riviera. The previous American motor had been the Chevrolet Sting Ray in August 1963 so it was a big thing to have another remarkable looking model on the shelves. We also get those lovely spoked wheels again and lots of chrome and wonderful lights! Well, Trans-o-lite lights, that is. This time we get them not only at the front but red ones at the back too with the inside of the car hidden by the interior probably filled with pieces of plastic tubing. This was such a cool idea and we would spend ages hold our fingers over the panels back or front to turn off then on the lights. Nothing opened on the car but we didn't mind. It had nice soft suspension and felt like it was going really fast as it was pushed along.
First #245 issues were in pale solid blue and metallic gold. Later we would see metallic blue, all with spoked wheels until the later 1960s when cast wheels started to be fitted. It will be mostly the metallic blue or a more turquoise shade that gets the cast wheels. Gold models with cast wheels are to be found too, although not as common but the real surprise for me was to find some pale blue models with them too. They are definitely scarce.
All the Buicks had a grey plastic towbar. The first issues had a complex-looking 'grab' type which, in theory, could attach itself to tow something by reversing up to it. That was replaced at some fairly early point with a button style, used on several other models too, and less prone to getting damaged. Many models lose their hooks as there was not a great deal that the Buick could tow at the time. There would be a Riviera Gift Set in December but if you only wanted the boat and trailer you'd have to wait until this time next year! As a consequence, many hooks got bent, broken or deliberately removed as the car looked so much nicer without one!
There are also a few around with gold grille and bumpers and, in this instance, probably a factory sample in a much deeper metallic shade.
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