The Corgi Model Club : a taxi while we wait . . .

 

1962 was a good summer for fans of the Ford Thunderbird. Corgi had issued the Hard Top and Convertible 'S' upgrades with suspension and new colours in June and in July they had another go at the Convertible and added a strange-looking roof, stickers and a driver to a new issue #430 called a Bermuda Taxi.

It would have been a relatively inexpensive set of changes at the time and I am sure the same consideration was persuasive when deciding on this month's release from the Corgi Model Club. It's a cheerful model and brightened up a gloomy November morning when it arrived.

You'll see some additional packing with this one - a quite solid bit of card protecting one end, as well as the now familiar chunks of white foam plastic. The cars are also now being wrapped in thin white paper. I can only assume that some people have complained about some scuff marks on unprotected models that allowed a little movement in the past. It's a good idea but I do have to say that in the old days we had the box, the car and a membership certificate and that was it in the vast majority of cases! 

It is another excellent reproduction all round. I don't have my original to hand to make comparison photographs but everything is pretty much as for the re-issue of 215S which you can refer to.

The additions will be the roof, stickers and the driver. The stickers are not stickers so don't try to peel them off as you could with an original model. Whilst I appreciate that these transfers, or maybe they are produced as part of an advanced printing process now, look good and will be cheaper to produce than separate items which then have to be stuck on, and this is not like other issues where we were given the stickers on a sheet to apply as and where we wanted, I would have preferred stickers to make this that much closer to the old #430.

The driver is the one I am familiar with in these models. I have encountered, and written about, another with bigger yellow boots and one or two other differences but I have no idea if that one ever appeared in an original #430 or was something a parts firm had created. This chap looks fatter than I remember the original being but I really cannot be sure about that.

As always, the box is very shiny and I still have an issue with some of the fonts used but the main appearance is very good.

As something to keep us amused for a while this is fine but you know, and I am sure the Club knows, that we are really holding our breath for the much more exciting things due in the next two or three months!

Original Steed brollies and how not to pack a Corgi Gift Set

I seldom win at normal auctions. That is because the amount I am prepared to spend is too low and that is, in turn, due to the extraordinary additions for fees, tax, packing and more tax. A £200 bid turns into an invoice for £348! (30% fee, £30 packing/delivery, 20% VAT). Now £200 might have been a good price, a bargain even, but £348 more often than not isn't. So I do the sums and set a maximum to take account of all this - and lose.

Just occasionally, on a rainy day at some village venue with no internet connection, I am successful and once or twice I do win over the internet just by good fortune. Two of these occasions have been when I've won an Avengers Gift Set, each with the early green Bentley, original boxes in reasonably good condition but lacking the original packing pieces.

Whenever I send this set to customers, whether the models are lovely or chipped or the boxes reproduction or original, I wrap the cars separately and placed away from the box which, itself, is wrapped to prevent damage. I know what damage can be done if this is not done as the first set I won some years ago arrived and I found the box card had been pierced several times by a Bentley mudguard moving around and chips had been made to the white Lotus paintwork.

So on this second occasion I wrote to the auction house and the packing company they recommended, very clearly requesting that they take care to separate the models and the box.

Here's what arrived:

Although they had gone to great lengths to protect the exterior of the box from damage from the outside, I could see as I opened the box that everything was inside the GS40 box. The reason I started taking photos at this point was that I could hear and feel a rattle, movement inside the box, so was already concerned.

Inside the well-wrapped outside packing you can see here that the two models are not where they should be and seem free to move around.

All that had been added to the box were two loosely crumpled pieces of thin white paper, leaving the models plenty of scope for movement.

As it happens the damage was nothing like as much as I had feared. The cars had uprooted Mrs Peel and that had torn the flap where she stands, worn some of the wheel placement holes more than they were before and produced a small chip on a rear mudguard of the Bentley. I also thought that movement had rubbed some paint off the Elan S2 text in the casting but I think that had been deliberately done by the owner. It actually looks quite good and I thought it was a transfer at first, before I looked more closely.

The box appears to have survived. It was already a little worn but has all its flaps and, apart from some possible dents here and there, I cannot really complain about anything in that respect.

I have written to the people concerned and expressed my annoyance that my instructions were not followed and hoping that they'll be more careful when packing similar items again. I'll ask for a little compensation but don't expect much as with models that have been played with it is always difficult, in the absence of good auction house photos for comparison, to show fresh damage.

On a brighter note, I now have three two original umbrellas! 

I had two one before and this set had the third another. It is not at all easy to distinguish originals but I think I can now do so. Replacements are either metal, which are obvious, or plastic and there are two things to look for in the plastic types: the detail in the furling. handle and the tip. Originals have quite fine and detailed furling marks where the material wraps around and the tip is well-shaped. The reproductions I've looked at often have almost no definition and poor finish at the point. Both appear to have remnants of plastic from where they were detached from a sprue. Originals at the top, many reproductions at the bottom.

You will see two originals on the left are quite clearly different under magnification. I have to admit to believing that the third was original too and only now as I study the enlarged images have I realised that is not the case. So I still need one more! (And I must edit the listing I made yesterday.)

Because it is so difficult to distinguish these in a display of a Gift Set I have offered a substantial reduction in the set price for anyone who is content with three reproduction brollies and maybe then I can keep the two until a third appears one day.

 

Blue Beauties

 

I had this selection of recent additions to my collection on the shelf next to where I write and it just occurred to me how lovely they are and, in particular, how I have liked blue editions of many in the range. I was going to write about some annoying careless packaging but instead decided to be more cheerful this morning and leave that until later.

The Oldsmobile Super 88 is a very plain Corgi. Nothing opens, no suitcases or jewelled lights and the huge white stripe always strikes me as odd but there is something about this model in this colour that makes it one of my favourites and I was so pleased to find this lovely example recently. The shade is typical mid 1960s and you can almost hear the Beach Boys record playing in the background.  The more common metallic shade seems quite boring in comparison.

Now you don't need me to remind you that the Jaguar Mk X can be found in a really large range of colours, including several variations of blue, from solid sky blue to what is often called 'kingfisher blue'. This deep metallic blue is one of the best I have had and even the paint around the headlamps has survived the last 60 years (and a trip from Germany where my friend Andi found it). 

As a child I had the rather unpleasant pale green version. All the first issues were either solid sky blue or that green but I can only imagine I didn't have any choice when I bought mine. I remember returning to the toy shop a couple of years later when working for a local farmer meant that I had some money to spend each week on Corgis. There on his counter was a metallic cerise Jaguar Mk X that he had been showing to someone else and it was such an improvement that it was the first 'duplicate' I acquired. It is only over the last ten years or so that I have realised just how many colours that were issued. If I had known I would have asked the shop owner to look out for this one, for sure.

Another model with a fair range of colours is the Ghia L6.4. My first one was a strange, darkish turquoise-blue shade with a red interior but the duplicate I acquired in sage green was my favourite at the time. I was particularly fond of the cream interior and delighted to find a more normal metallic blue version with that cream interior some 50 years later! Of course, I now appreciate that there are many shades of the metallic blue and the model I should have illustrated here is the one with matching door panels as opposed to the odd red ones in this example. They are original, though, but I have never seen red door panels in the sage green car. They do appear in some gold cars with cream interior. The few bronze editions that I have had have only had all cream interiors too.

This was the first Corgi to have opening everything and it was a delight to own and play with. I shall probably always have one of these to look at somewhere around me. People do buy them every time I advertise them and then I have to start looking for another but, luckily, they are a bit easier to find than the Jaguar!

The Oldsmobile Toronado was after my time, to coin a phrase, in that by 1967 I was listening to Radio London, collecting 7" singles and albums by the Byrds and The Mamas and The Papas, singing Monkees songs and writing poems to possible girlfriends. It was one of the first 'new' Corgis that I found when I started all this Corgi stuff in 2012 or thereabouts. Again, that lovely metallic blue finish and very bright and clean-looking, almost white, interior appealed to me. The opening twin headlights were nice, especially with the chromed finish and operated so much better than those on the Chevrolet Sting Ray of earlier times.

It didn't do much else than flash its headlamps and shine with all that glorious chrome (the chrome sills were great) but the design just works for me. 

For a long time I was confused by what appeared to be variations but eventually I realised that the #264 model in a box did not have a tow bar and those that did were from Gift Set 36 with a Glastron Speedboat. I did, however, much prefer the look of the early and quite scarce editions with normal wheels as opposed to the more common cast variety.

Whilst on the topic of attractive 'blue' Corgis, I have written before about how I searched for a metallic blue #230 for  while before appreciating that Corgi had revised the Mercedes 220SE as #253 without steering and modifications to the boot and pillars. I did love the steering on the #230 model and the black model is likely to rank in my all-time Top 20 but I do like the blue #253. It must be that cream interior again!

I cannot allow any text on this topic to be published without reference to what could be my favourite Corgi - the metallic blue Ford Mustang.

Here it has wire wheels as that was the first photo I found. I think the one with plain wheels may be the one that actually tops my own poll. I will have to write a note to myself not sell the next one I find in good condition! Maybe this article will do.

For now, though, I hope you will excuse my rambling about some not particularly different or hard to find models but, instead, remembering just how nice ordinary Corgis can be.

I am aware that I have not mentioned a whole host of other models in blue that may or may not deserve mention. These few just happened to be next to me.

Corgi Toys @ 60 : the Wickerwork Mini-Cooper and a Beast Carrier

 

November 1965 brought us the Beast Carrier in an individual box. Previously it had only been available in Gift set 33 with a Ford 5000 Tractor. It still has the four different calves inside on a card 'straw' base and a green plastic mesh above.

I am not aware of any variations to this model in its life from 1965 to a quite extraordinarily late 1972.

Also lasting quite a while in the catalogue will be the Mini-Cooper with deluxe wickerwork as it says on the box, with Morris Mini-Cooper on the base, this being essentially a way to give the #227 model a longer life.

It starts with the old type 1 casting and normal shaped wheels. Later the Type 2 mini casting is used and then cast wheels get added too. I seem to recall that I have had both transition models - type 1 with cast wheels and type 2 with shaped wheels - but I may need to check that before you go looking for a missing variation! It would seem unlikely that both exist but that did turn out to be the case with the #416 RAC Radio rescue Land Rover with the headboard and wheel types, so who knows what was possible?

The 'Wickerwork' comprises plastic panels which were quite easy to remove without damaging the black paintwork. So you may well encounter many black Mini-Coopers with red roofs! 

The later models are often used to make reproductions of the Pop Art Mini as they have the right casting, jewels, interior, wheels and base.

The film Shot In The Dark was released in the UK in 1965 and starred Peter Sellers and this gave much publicity to the stylish (for those times) Mini - something upon which Corgi were particularly good at cashing in.

Some interesting little Imps

 Many, many years ago I came across a #251 Hillman Imp in bronze with jewelled fog lights. This week another one arrived and, unlike the first one, this is in pretty reasonable condition.

It is a strange model. It has the same jewelled fog lights as were added to the first Monte Carlo Hillman Imp #328 but the windscreen is the later style with two horizontal lines as was fitted to the second Monte Carlo (Sunbeam) Imp #340.

It is the same bronze colour as was used for the Transporter Gift Set models, which were also available individually in boxes for some lucky buyers at the time. Although this one came with an original #251 box I have no idea whether that was added later and believe this would have been part of a late set and not issued individually. With its normal shaped wheels it is not the last of the #251 production as I also have the delightful and very scarce edition with cast wheels.

The timeline for Imps starts with the blue (and maybe individual bronze) issues in November 1963.

These were withdrawn from dealers' order lists in 1966 and were absent in the 1967 Corgi Catalogue.

The Car Transporter Gift Sets 41/48 were available from December 1966 to 1968 and these contained the bronze edition.

The first rally edition, #328, had a short life from January 1966 to February 1967 with the #340 edition appearing in March 1967 and staying around until quite late in 1969.

All #328 models had shaped wheels and no lines on the windscreen. They can be found with either yellow or white interiors.

The double lines on the screen were absent from the #328 model but do appear on all #340 models, even the early ones with normal shaped wheels. Later (and most) #340 models have cast wheels.

All the 506 Police Imps were the Sunbeam version, using the #340 style of base, and all these had the double lines on the screen and cast wheels.The Police models often display marks at the front where the holes for four jewels were filled in.

So it would seem that cast wheels were first fitted to Imps in late 1967 or early 1968 and the one I have in bronze would have come from one of the last Transporter sets in 1968.

The bronze edition with jewelled fog lights is likely to have arisen when the #328 was replaced by the #340 and bodies given a bronze coat of paint instead of the metallic blue and, as this would have been in early 1967, I can only imagine the small batch getting this treatment were sold in a few Transporter Gift sets in early-mid 1967. Although it is possible that they were sent out to dealers as a sort of one-off addition, maybe free to them, I suspect the box with this one has been added at some time between 1967 and 2025.

I shall, therefore, put this one with the cast wheel edition in my own collection cabinet and transfer the box to one or other of my #251 models that I have available for sale. I might sell the other two but they will not be cheap as I do think they're pretty scarce models and, at the moment, I have nothing to compare them with in terms of valuation.

I do seem to be accumulating rather a lot of models like this - genuinely very scarce ones for which I have little guidance as to what they may be worth. It is probably the case that values for items like these will very much depend upon the depth of the pockets of those who would like them. For my own part, my resources are quite limited and, even if something wonderful appeared on the market that I had always wanted but never owned, my limit would have to reside in the three figure numbers. For someone fortunate enough to have a far greater amount of funds available, and with other living expenses taken care of so that whatever he has he may spend freely on a hobby such as Corgi Toys, then should he wish to have a model, and that model is likely to appear just once in a blue moon, then he will pay a vast sum for the satisfaction with just a mere small dent in his bank balance.

Corgi Model Club Mini Magnifique again

 

The Corgi Model Club issued another Mini 'Magnifique' recently, this time in metallic green and with wide bands on the sliding roof.

It always struck me as a remarkably sold model, bearing in mind how many things opened or moved, and the Club edition has that same feeling of strength, with a high quality finish, inside and out.

The axle ends, as for the blue one, of course, look a bit large but not big enough to be hub caps and just look slightly odd. This is the case with several Club models.

Both the box and the certificate indicate that this is a different model to the blue edition issued in late 2023.

The blurb on the reverse of the Certificate reminds us that the first Mini had been issued in 1960 and remarks that this model had disappointing sales. The 237,000 that I have seen as recorded sales does not seem too bad, pretty much on par with many other models released in 1969 and 1970, if one ignores the favourites like police cars and racing cars. It was actually not issued until December 1968 so a withdrawal in 1970 would imply this model being available for dealers over a rather shorter period than two years, in which case the sales were not that bad. Indeed, they were four times the figures for the Monkeemobile. Read into that what you will!

It is a nice addition to the Model Club collection and might spice up interest in collectors now looking for the original in the many forms I discussed in a previous article.

Corgi Toys @ 60: James Bond and an Ice Cream Van

 

Yes, this is the month when, 60 years ago, Corgi's most successful model and probably the one they were to become famous across the world for, was issued. #261 James Bond's Aston Martin. It's gold and not silver and a DB4 not a DB5 but no-one seemed too bothered at the time.

You will. I am sure already be familiar with all the variations for this model and this is neither to time nor the place to repeat them all. Have a look in my catalogue where you'll see as many as I have listed. In its massive production quantities it would be inevitable that castings get worn, adjusted and so on.

The other issue was the second Ford Thames Ice Cream Van. #447 had been issued just 7 months earlier but now someone at Corgi decided that it should play a tune so they stopped producing the first one and adapted the second by inserting a device which played notes when an enormous handle at the back was rotated. 

Gone are the old chap selling the ice cream, the young lad with one and the pretty display plinth that came with the first. The music device comprised fine tines that were 'plinked' as a shaft with cam extensions in different positions rotated and many have since got broken tines so the tune doesn't quite work as it should. 

This was, incidentally, the very first model that the Corgi Model Club people decided to make again from scratch. They made a super job of it, so accurate, in fact that the tines break on that model just as quickly! 

Good working models of both the October issues in original boxes with instructions and packing are both very expensive now. Considering how many of the Bond models were made and how many there must be in good working order still in circulation, I am always amazed at the prices they fetch. High prices for the Ice Cream Van are perfectly understandable. It sold only 146000, not a lot in those days for a Corgi issue and very few will have either a box or a working music device, even fewer with both.

The Aston Martin, however, sold nearly 4 million, nearly 27 times as many and, whilst it was a complicated bit of equipment, the features have been remarkably resilient to young people's play. Whilst there are plenty with seats that don't eject very well or at all, there are also many that do still work well. Suspension fails on these and as they get older the plastic becomes ever more brittle and liable to fail so numbers of top quality models will diminish but I still maintain that it's a lot easier to find than a nice Ice Cream Van with working tunes.

I guess there are simply so many fans of film and TV-related models that there is a far wider and better moneyed market for Bond than Wall's Ice Cream.

2³ Magnifque variations

 

An update on future Corgi Model Club issues:

It looks like the green #334 Mini will have the wider stripes. For many collectors, I suspect this will be the first they knew about there being two versions of the sliding roof. However, I have to admit to learning for the first time that their blue issue with a silver steering wheel and green one with a gold steering wheel reflect the different components in the original.

Despite my passion for 'variations' in the original models, I have tended not to be too concerned to date with the colour of a steering wheel. This one is a little interesting, though, so now I need to establish whether each colour can have each colour of steering wheel. I have already established that there are both green and blue models with each type of sliding roof. If there is no correlation between colour, roof and steering wheel (and I have no reason to think there should be) then we'll have 2³ different models, that's 8 in plain English, to find! Oh dear!

Back in Model Club land, the models I will be adding to my collection will be the silver grille #270 which, although not marked as a 'member's only' edition was announced as such originally, with the plebs only getting the gold-coloured grille on an order from the shop. I am wondering now whether both might, in fact, be sold via the shop? I shall also get the MGA, suitably clad in Reform Party colours, as I quite like these 'different' models. (OK, I know that all the Club issues are different in one way or another - I am referring here to a totally new colour).

The Aston Martin could be worth getting for the packaging alone, especially if the printer switches to a matt ink (I assume it is the ink that has to change or is it the card's coating?)

Corgi Kit 601 re-issue: the Batley "Leofric" Garage

 

The Corgi Model Club garages arrived a few days ago. This is the first Corgi Kit from the Club and, whereas I am not too bothered about their cars nowadays, I do like the idea of being able to complete my Garage Set, the Batley Leofric garages being the only items missing from that wonderful Gift Set. It would be particularly wonderful if the kits required for the Silverstone set also become available one day. These are so difficult to find these days, and always so expensive. The good Silverstone kits that I have had I have not wanted to open to make up the model and you will definitely not find a single nice made-up one that has survived intact in a hurry either! So, whereas we can buy most of the re-issued cars as originals in pretty decent condition for not much more than the Club price (notable exceptions understood), these kits are another matter altogether. So well done, Model Club folk!

So let's see what we've got.

It's all really nice and just like the original in almost all respects. The box is the only disappointment, being as shiny as anything and this is all the more noticeable due to its dimensions. I am quite sure a word with the printer would lead to a more matt finish and all would be well with the world in that respect, at least.

The individual pieces are all nicely finished, no sanding or removal from sprues here. I even appeared to have three of the very tiny 'bolts', two being required in the mechanism for the door which could easily get lost. I use the past tense because now I look for it, it is nowhere to be seen! I suspect I have knocked it down the back of the immovable unit upon which I made and photographed the construction illustrated.

The Assembly Instructions are a very close copy to the original, with just references to the Club in place of Corgi Toys. Nicely done. I was concerned that, in this present age of control by one or another government department, who appear to assume that few have any common sense and even those few may have some allergy or tendency to get injured, over-anxious or just generally upset from involvement the product, we might have had DO NOT EAT THE PARTS or BEWARE GLUE IS ADHESIVE or DO NOT PUT HEAD IN BAG included in the text to comply with some EU regulation that, despite not being in the EU any more, we still need to be told. 

I smile at the instruction to 'Recycle' the box. I am so glad that we were not so encouraged with the originals, the packaging often now being worth as much as the content, notably significantly more in some cases. The 1965 Monte Carlo Set springs to mind, with the cardboard regularly making a cool £1500 or more at auctions than the models inside. I shudder to think, in fact, how much the outer cardboard for the Garage and Silverstone Gift Sets would be worth, as they make several thousand pounds as complete sets and the contents, whilst not as easy to find as the three rally cars, would still total only hundreds not thousands. But that's another story . . . maybe an nice idea for one or two Christmas Club re-issues? (Just not shiny, please!)

As you will have seen at the start of all this, I have successfully completed one of the three I need to make. It is quite fun, but the door mechanism is tricky and you may need the assistance of a child with small fingers or some tweezers. My glue does not set quickly and I should really have followed the instruction to take my time. Trying to attach the very last two pieces, gable covers or whatever they're called, the whole affair objected to being squeezed in a particular direction and I was very nearly back to square 1½. I can see a small gap  which I need to address but otherwise I was quite pleased at my progress and doubt you'll struggle unduly.

At just a few pounds too, you can always get another if things do go badly wrong! That simply is not the case if you were trying to make an original!