In a busy week for both Corgi and my postman, the Oldsmobile Toronado now arrives in Golden Jacks style as the Model Club's re-issue of #276. They chose the scarcer amber-yellow colour and it looks lovely. The Oldsmobile Toronado first appeared in a delightful shade of metallic blue with the very nice pale cream interior and with normal shaped wheels and without a tow bar. I missed this model when I was collecting Corgis as a child and was most impressed with it when I started to rebuild my collection. That was one of the first 'new' models that I bought.
It gets cast wheels shortly after being released and then a red and this amber-yellow editions come out with the Golden Jacks wheels.
Once again I have to take the Model Club to task on the text they write in the accompanying Certificate of Authenticity!! They say that this model with a tow bar appeared with the Glastron speedboat in Gift Set 36. No, only a version of #264 was issued in Gift Set 36, not the #276. The boxed edition of #264 did not have a towbar. All the Golden Jacks #276 models did have a towbar but they did not pull the trailer with a Glastron speedboat although, I suppose, there was no reason why collectors would swap them over.
Quite what the model was supposed to tow I am not sure and I have written before about Corgis with hooks and towbars and the comparatively limited things Corgi issued which they could attach.
However, that's another story. Maybe this Certificate will get replaced like I have suggested the Batmobile one may too, in which case those getting these early issues may have something a little scarce. We shall see.
So here is the new issue in all its glory:
I don't remember having the header card with any of mine. It isn't as pretty as Corgi's usual header cards but If that's what they did then OK, never mind, and it's nice that the Club decided to include this.
I have to smile at the reverse of the box where the artist must have only had on old #264 with cast wheels available when doing the illustration!
You'll see that the model itself is, as is now customary for the Model Club issues, very accurate. I cannot fault the bodywork, chrome, interior or wheels at all. Really well done.
Even the tow hook is accurate (and usefully a bit stronger too!). But then you turn up the lights . . .
Oh dear. They don't look right. Neat as they may be in comparison to the originals, they're just the same old plastic things which the Club are using whenever jewels were fitted originally. This is simply not good enough. The price of the small jewels can surely not be prohibitive in relation to the overall cost and we know that they're available in bulk from the same places that Model Supplies get all theirs.
I id not choose the best edition of the originals that I have in stock for this photo so the old jewels don't look that great either but, for me, it does have to be the glass, not plastic.
As the photos of the two side by side show, the colour is pretty much spot-on and the whole model is a very accurate reproduction indeed.
Here's the certificate with its error.
This is another model that is worth a little more than the normal re-issues in that the wheels are far better than those available from companies supplying spares. So if you need any, it might well be worth buying this just to get these excellent copies, especially as they come with the right type of tyres too.
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