There is something about the #248 Chevrolet Impala that takes me back to the 1960s and how I admired it in my own Corgi collection. I remember my dad telling me that the man in the shop in French Row, St. Albans had told him this one was worth looking after as there weren't many issued. Now, I guess that he wouldn't have known in August 1965 that, along with the #480 Chevrolet Taxi, production would only be for a year at most. So it may have been later that year or early 1966 when I got this one and then the chap in the shop would have seen it deleted from his order form. The colour scheme is just right - I called it coffee and cream - and, despite nothing opening and no jewels, it really did stand out in my layout and has always been one of my favourite issues.
In particular, I now cherish the cast wheel editions which seem particularly scarce on the saloon and taxi models. So it was with some delight that I heard that the Corgi Model Club would be releasing this, with mine arriving (a little late) yesterday.
As the Hollies sang, just one look was all it took to see a quite different model to what I had expected. Yes, it is beautiful and the chrome and details are stunning but that matt or satin finish . . . no, that's not how the original was produced.
The Club people tell me and anyone who asks that the satin finish is a deliberate choice they made to reflect the finish that they declare many originals had. I have to challenge that and wonder just what model they had been supplied when they set out to reproduce this. I know from looking at several photos they have released in the past that they either dig out old models or ask people to send in theirs and I can only guess that they have been rather misled by someone sending in a decidedly less than shiny model. I am quite certain that all the original issues of this model had the usual quite glossy paint finish. None were issued in a satin or matt finish like this, however lovely it might be. It simply didn't happen and it really would have been best for the Club people to say so and just say that when the models arrived from China they decided to stick with them or, indeed, that they chose the satin finish but accept it was not as the original.
We can live with that. But not with an assertion that there are a few extremely rare #248 models out there that we all now need to go searching for as there is now a gap in everyone's collections - maybe two gaps if we also have to have a satin edition with cast wheels!
So, now for the model itself - it is, as I have indicated, a thoroughly excellent reproduction in most other ways and is a delight to own. The interior is the wrong colour, a much darker colour than the original and, as always, the shape of the wheels isn't right. One day maybe they will tell China, or Bangladesh to have another go with the wheels but, for now we have to put up with them always being not quite as the originals on all the issues with shaped wheels.
Once again there is a howler in the text on the Certificate card accompanying the model. When talking about the split casting for these second generation Impalas, they refer to the #221 Taxi. That, of course, was all beige and didn't have a split casting, nor any chrome for that matter. They meant #480 and this is another example of both poor editing and a little less than the sort of knowledge one might have expected from the Club staff claiming to be such enthusiasts. One wonders whether the success of the series has brought many inexperienced people onto the team to assist with the volume of work and not enough with the knowledge or research skills in quality control.
I am pretty sure that, if we could listen to some conversations behind the scenes when the first satin models appeared, we would here a suggestion that staff counter objections with an assertion that this reflects a scarce early original finish and that this was the Club's choice, not in any way an error. Standard responses to queries prepared, on with the show. People can return them if the wish but no replacements.
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