I need help with this one. As a Curator of the HobbyDB.com Corgi database I get many items added by collectors which need to be verified. As I have added many variations myself when that project was started many years ago, most of the new additions turn out to be custom paint jobs or, at best, a production sample rather than a nice surprise of a new issued item I was not aware of. This one, though, is intriguing.
As you will see from the photos below, this does look pretty good, a 207 in the 203 2nd issue colours. The silver paintwork is possibly a bit too bright but it does appear to have been sprayed with a mask rather than painted as many later revisions tend to be.
The headlamps are very precise, more like the Chinese Re-education Camp models we see from the Corgi Model Club. I don't recall ever having nice near-perfect rounds on headlights on these models but I guess someone may have had a good day. (Incidentally, now we have another model and a blue box for some reason)
In its favour, there are a few flaws and chips which I am sure someone trying to create a variation would not have left. The box is also nicely worn as if it's been kicking around in someone's possessions for a good many years. Again, someone in the business of creating this would probably have found a good one and a factory sample wouldn't have had one at all.
Now here's another problem: the grey base. All the models I have encountered of the 207 with a grey base also have the later style of shaped wheels and the red paint on the roof does not extend down the pillars as this one does. A grey base on a model in a blue box is also not very likely so that odd one above adds to the doubts.
I would say that the base certainly has not been removed but that wouldn't preclude someone skilfully masking the wheels and base to create this. I'll also ignore the boxes as these could have been added by someone at some point whatever its origin.
As I have not seen anything like this in all the years I have been viewing Corgis from this era my first inclinations are to say that this is a smart creation by someone. There's good reason for someone to do so as it would be valued at getting on for four figures as a genuinely issued model and three figures as a factory sample. The person submitting it, however, believes it to be genuine and has submitted many good models in the past. He is not someone I wish to insult by not verifying this addition, and yet I do have doubts. These were enhanced when I saw he had added this initially:
The super-detailing on the bonnet emblem and door handles are classic signs of someone who has created a model with some painting and simply couldn't resist this little extras while he had the silver paint on the brush in his hand! Those headlamps, too, aren't right, nor is the rather bright paint and the way it very precisely follows the inside edge of the bumper. For this model, however, I have no more images.
It was the same contributor, however. This one, surely, is not an original and prompted me to respond as such and ask for more images and also one of the base. That was when I found he had published more images of what appears to be a second or even third model and which I have illustrated above.
For a while I have wondered whether, following my first comment, he has quickly covered the super-detailing, adjusted the silver paint on the lights and bumper and removed the wheel covers but the coverage of red paint does look different and I do think the three are different models. The last one above could be a factory sample as I have seen such additions on samples I can attest to being genuine but the other one has left me intrigued and needing some other opinions.
Perhaps you are aware of this variation and have seen a few which I have simply managed to miss in all this time. That would be a reasonable explanation and all will be well and this gets verified.
JKDiecast, a dealer, have one on their site at £1350 with a blue box which they describe as a 'factory error or rep special request'. The main images above are also featured on a Japanese web site - the same model and yellow and blue box - which is odd. Now it may be that the HobbyDB chap merely copied their photos or that the Japanese site copied those on HobbyDB so I am not a lot wiser there. The dealer model would tend to confirm this is real - although it would be very convenient to have a seemingly independent HobbyDB back-up of this to support the £1350 price tag. Maybe the contributor is the dealer? But then he would have used his own model, one would think. I don't wish to cast aspersions on anyone but we have seen reputable dealers selling 'factory errors' before which turn out not to be quite what they seem and not worth the vast sums often paid by a collector. The 'rep request' is a new one on me too.
So, to conclude for now, I may be getting sceptical in my old age but I remain reluctant to approve a value of over a thousand pounds for this one, which verification would effectively award when clever and skilled people can take a £30 model and create it, which can foil very nice, well-known dealers and, of course, their customers.
No comments:
Post a Comment