June 1965 saw just one new release - the quite dramatic-looking Rambler Merlin Fastback.
Not something you would see on British roads but an impressive addition to my collection as I recall admiring the shiny black descending from the roof down to the back and flashes around the windows.
The first issues had normal shaped wheels but these were replaced by the cast wheel with spoke effect and the majority of models now available have the later style.
I think I am correct in saying that this was only the second car to have a tow-bar. The first was the Buick Riviera some two years earlier, for which we eventually got a boat on a trailer to pull along. Otherwise apart from some old trailers and a horse box there wasn't much in the Corgi range to pull.
It would be two years before the Rambler gets a fresh coat of paint and a revised Pennyburn Trailer to pull with Kayaks aloft in Gift Set 10. In the meantime you'd have to use the boat if you had one or, perhaps, the Racing Trailer from Gift Set 13, although I am not sure that would fit over the button-style hook.
With chunky opening doors and a beautifully clean-looking white-cream interior, with folding front seats, this was a pretty car and one where keeping the chrome front and rear nice and complete and shiny was important.
The suspension on these can fail, many models now looking much lower-slung than they were when they were new.
The cast wheels may have been bright when first issued but they quickly lose that shine and become quite grey. So despite the more realistic design, I actually prefer the less common model with the good old shaped wheels.
