Simple memories

 

I just glanced at my desk today and realised how lovely ordinary, not quite perfect, played-with every day Corgi Toys can be. I had been cleaning a few recent arrivals. None would satisfy the purist collector who requires a model to be flawless and, ideally, still in its original box and packing with a membership leaflet too, of course. For me, though, these arrivals are a pleasure to see. I don't know why but perhaps seeing models with signs of wear sparks something in my memory and takes me back to sometime in 1964 when a 12-year-old me would have had these lying around on a layout his dad had helped  build.

In the house where I lived at that time there was what we called a box room. It was about 6 feet square and half the room was occupied by a bedstead. That was almost never used as a bed, however, and instead of a mattress there was a piece of hardboard that fitted across the whole of the bedstead. Onto that I had used strips of masking tape to create road markings, Bayko buildings provided some buildings where I could park some cars and Floral Garden items made everything quite attractive with their trees, walls, fences and paving cards, of which I had a large quantity as they were so useful in making road edges.

The nice thing about this layout was that I didn't have to tidy the cars away every evening. So they survived pretty well with only minor chips from time to time. I did keep quite a few boxes but all the models I liked would usually be out on the layout somewhere.

I remember now how much easier it was to drive the models around where they had free-spinning wheels. My Morris Mini-Minor had these but the Austin Seven had fixed wheels and was much less fun. Now I think about it, the only other models I had with fixed wheels were a Renault Floride and an Austin A40. I had bought the Austin A40 because my dad had one. His was all red and was the 'Countryman' type with an opening window and boot at the back. I didn't know about the Mechanical models and I guess I was too late for these anyway when I started buying Corgis for myself so I had bought the two-tone blue 216 model and used some Massey-Ferguson red paint to try and get closer to my dad's car in appearance. (He worked for an agricultural machinery depot so we always had paint in machinery colours!)

So the Citroën in the picture here would not have been on my layout and I completely missed all the original 1950s issues. My friend Andi in Germany had spotted the Citroën at a very reasonable price and I was lucky to win that one. Both the green / black and yellow / red editions are hard to find in good condition nowadays, the yellow one showing little marks much more obviously than the green. The Citroëns make quite a little collection on their own as you need to find two versions of each - early editions with 'differential' bulges and the later smooth base variety. Then there are the blue-tinted windows and plain windows, probably for each type too. That makes 8 models you need to collect! And you thought that was a simple model in just a couple of colours!

There may even be some variations in the base that someone can tell me about. I seem to recall spotting something (other than the differential or a hole where the revised smooth casting has malfunctioned) but can't recall what now. It may have been that some bases are silver and others grey but I cannot be sure about that.

Somewhat simpler indeed is the E Type Jaguar. As a child I only knew about the red one. I liked this car a lot, much better than the later 335 issue which was annoyingly too big and just didn't look right sat next to the 307. The metallic grey is lovely, though, and I would definitely have been to the shop and bought one had I known at the time. I always found the red plastic top a bit odd and felt it should be black and, of course, you can now buy black replacements which look great. As it was, the top usually was left to one side and I played without it. You could sort of 'get in' with your fingers and drive around that way.

That reminds me of one of my favourites for playing with - the Austin Mini Van. I had two of these and you really could whizz these little cars around like mad, 'driving' them from inside the rear section. You could put things in the back too, although I always wished there had been windows on the rear doors. I think I put some perspex on mine which improved their appearance a bit. I was always impressed that Corgi had put jewels on this lowly van! They made it a bit special.

Back to the E Type, you will find some variations in the intensity of the metallic grey finish, some being quite distinctly black as opposed to grey in my view. The plum red always seems to be pretty much plum red, however. Otherwise I did read some time ago about there being bases with one rivet as opposed to two but I have to say I have not yet managed to find any of the former.

The car most well focussed by my camera is the delightful Chevrolet Sting Ray, here in that gorgeous metallic cerise colour and plain shaped wheels. I know it also looks lovely with the wire wheels but somehow this one always catches my eye and I find them very hard to resist when they come up for sale. Mine as a child was in this lovely shade but I had the wire wheels. The Buick Riviera was the first model to be issued with wire wheels from the start but I have a feeling the Chevrolet may have been the first car we could buy with them if they were fitted before June 1964.

This particular example that I have acquired has lights that look really nice and in line with the front and top edge. Most get loose and never sit quite right. They can also look a bit awkward when open and viewed from the front but this one actually looks fine. I may well hang on to this one in my own collection. Having twin jewelled headlamps was a bit special too. We had had four jewels on the Jaguar Mk X earlier but here we had two full-size side by side. Nice. I did like those jewels and I am very surprised that the Corgi Model Club has been using quite dull plastic instead.

Elsewhere in the picture you'll catch a glimpse of the lovely Rover 2000, the original model in metallic slate-blue. I have written before about this model and the small casting differences in the badge and grille. The colour always seems to be consistent, though, so, apart from the maroon edition and the very scarce cast wheel maroon model, there are not too many to collect of this one. The 'Trans-o-lite' dual headlamps are great and I had no end of enjoyment at night with a torch making beams from the front.

Because the Volkswagen 'Toblerone' Van had completely passed me by I was not aware of these lights until I got the Rover. I must have had some catalogues at the time but I really don't think I spent a lot of time studying them as I simply didn't know about several models. The 253 Mercedes 220SE was a surprise to me when I re-started my collection. I'd always thought there was a blue edition of the 230 model! Something else which I would definitely had bought had I realised it was available was the Oldsmobile Toronado in its first outing as 264 in super metallic blue and almost pure white interior. It didn't do much but looked wonderful and is another I find hard to resist now.

On the subject of Oldsmobiles the last models in the picture are a pair of 235s, one in the more familiar metallic slate-blue (very similar to the Rover colour) and the solid sky blue colour. I didn't have these as a child but would have been very happy had someone bought one for me. They're very simple - and you only need the two for a complete collection - and they're nice to drive around. One of the problems with the Jaguar Mk X and Ford Consul Classic was that their bonnets often opened when you hit the brakes! The Jaguar was hard work driving around corners too. I had one in a terrible shade of pale green which I was never particularly happy with (although I would be very glad to have one in that rarer shade now!) and, as soon as I found the new metallic cerise shade in my local shop, I bought a replacement for the chipped model I had on the layout. Again, I had no idea just how many different finishes that model was produced in. It's probably just as well as my earnings from helping out at a local farm and a bit of lawn-mowing probably wouldn't have been enough. By 1966 it would be records that I spent my money on too, or tapes on which to record tracks from the radio. 

So forgive me for my simple memories from some very ordinary models rather than writing about some exciting new discovery or variation. In a couple of days it'll be March and I'll have nine issues to tell you about so that'll keep me busy tomorrow!