The giraffes return . . .

 

Well, maybe they never went away. June 1964 had seen the arrival of mother and junior giraffes in the back of a Bedford TK cab with a blue plastic box attached to the place where all sorts of rear sections had been attached in the past (and would continue to be attached for several more years, but that's another story).

In 1969 they re-appeared in the Giant Daktari Gift Set 14, in a similar box, now brown, and with a cab painted beige, and then again in the same year with a strong metal enclosure on the back of a Turbine Truck in a considerably larger scale to the Bedford, not that a scale can actually be applied to a model of something imaginary - but you'll know what I mean.

This is the Qualitoys #406 model from the very limited series I have been researching, much to the frustration of collectors who don't like these very much but, fortunately, of some interest to those who do (as there is precious little information published about this range).

Whereas the folk at Corgi decided that they needed a bigger pony than the ones issued either with #102 or #112 trailers for the Horsebox, they seem have concluded that the giraffes were fine as they were. Finding a model that had them and that was not sealed in a pack took a while but at least this one has only appeared as a truck and not a trailer.

I am still waiting to see, never mind acquire, the #709 Horsebox Trailer. If anyone has decent Dump Truck, Fire Trailer or Jumbo Dozer then I need these and they ought to be reasonably readily available. The problem with these toys is that they did get played with a lot so those I encounter are nearly always either wrecks or in original sealed packs which I don't really need.

I still have no idea what #713 might be - or even whether it exists.

Corgi toys @ 60: A bus, a Buick, two giraffes and a Driving School car

 

June 1964 was a busy month for your local Corgi toy store.

Chipperfields Circus fans had something they'd need to collect when Corgi found yet another use for the Bedford cab casting and added a large and small giraffe to the box as well. This would later appear with the bigger truck-type wheels as well as getting a change of colour for the Big Daktari set many many years later. An odd little model that would stick around for ages, #508 Bedford Giraffe Transporter.

This was the month when a double decker bus would appear on many of our layouts and displays. #468 would be around about as long as the Giraffe Transporter. The first issue was the one with the Corgi banners and normal shaped free-spinning wheels. Whilst most of the world got the red London bus, Australians got a three-coloured #468, a very hard to find model now on this side of the planet, and probably there too.

In future years the red edition would get cast wheels and a whole host of other banners, the most common one being Outspan Oranges. It would retain the two jewelled lights for many years too, losing them at around the time that Whizzwheels get fitted but you will find editions with and without them but still with cast wheels. The lady conductor stays until the later Whizzwheels days too. 

A big favourite at the time was the Austin A60 Driving School motor, #236. You could steer this, with proper steering as on the Bentley and Mercedes, far superior to the swivelling axle affair that Dinky made, and it made a great toy. You really could 'drive' it, although preferably on hard surfaces rather than thick carpet as it had one of the smallest ground clearance of any Corgi Toy! The small wheels and the room needed to house the steering mechanism meant that the bottom of the car more or less scraped along the road and the poor suspension at the front didn't help.

That big red thing on the roof did look a bit ridiculous but worse was to come in future years with Corgi's Driving School motors.

Here in the UK we got the RHD version in pale blue and it was some considerable time later that I discovered that most of the rest of the world were getting a darker blue edition, #255, with left hand drive!

Lastly, June 1964 sees a real classic Corgi issue - the beautiful Buick Riviera. The previous American motor had been the Chevrolet Sting Ray in August 1963 so it was a big thing to have another remarkable looking model on the shelves. We also get those lovely spoked wheels again and lots of chrome and wonderful lights! Well, Trans-o-lite lights, that is. This time we get them not only at the front but red ones at the back too with the inside of the car hidden by the interior probably filled with pieces of plastic tubing. This was such a cool idea and we would spend ages hold our fingers over the panels back or front to turn off then on the lights. Nothing opened on the car but we didn't mind. It had nice soft suspension and felt like it was going really fast as it was pushed along.

First #245 issues were in pale solid blue and metallic gold. Later we would see metallic blue, all with spoked wheels until the later 1960s when cast wheels started to be fitted. It will be mostly the metallic blue or a more turquoise shade that gets the cast wheels. Gold models with cast wheels are to be found too, although not as common but the real surprise for me was to find some pale blue models with them too. They are definitely scarce.

All the Buicks had a grey plastic towbar. The first issues had a complex-looking 'grab' type which, in theory, could attach itself to tow something by reversing up to it. That was replaced at some fairly early point with a button style, used on several other models too, and less prone to getting damaged. Many models lose their hooks as there was not a great deal that the Buick could tow at the time. There would be a Riviera Gift Set in December but if you only wanted the boat and trailer you'd have to wait until this time next year! As a consequence, many hooks got bent, broken or deliberately removed as the car looked so much nicer without one!

There are also a few around with gold grille and bumpers and, in this instance, probably a factory sample in a much deeper metallic shade.

Big Daktari (and a small elephant)

 

It has taken a while but I finally have all the components for the second Daktari Gift Set. This is Gift Set 14, issued in May 1969 and including some unique items.

By 1969, the normal Land Rover and Dodge Kew Fargo trucks would have been fitted with cast wheels but it seems that these sets often had both with shaped wheels, as I have here. I don't know the distribution but I would expect these sets to have had predominantly cast wheel editions of these two. You could imagine that Corgi had several boxes full of the Land Rover left over from its outing in Gift Set 7 but that set too was available not only with cast wheels on the Land Rover but with Whizzwheels too! So, if you read the books, you'll be told that Gift Set 7 ceased production in 1969 which was when Gift Set 14 started to be issued. Logically, there really should not be any Daktari Land Rovers with Whizzwheels but, clearly, there are, and many of them too, judging by the low prices most sell at. I think, therefore, we can take it that Gift Set 7 remained in production well into the early 1970s and that, in turn, is much more likely to justify the sales of nearly 1 million, according to the same books.

In this set, however, it appears that Whizzwheels were not fitted to any of the models, despite the books telling us that it ran through to 1973. Sales of a mere 100,000 or so, however, may have been just the first few production runs of the models and there was never a need to replace them. It simply did not sell as well and is now extremely hard to find, especially if you seek a box. I have seen two boxes so far in my several years of looking and there are no reproductions being made either, presumably because they cannot get hold of an original to copy.

The Kew Fargo Truck never got Whizzwheels anyway, this being its final appearance in new colours and the Daktari decals being added as paper stickers. Most models suffer from the usual suspension problem, resulting from a bent prop shaft. If you search this blog for Kew Fargo Truck you will find my instructions on how this can be repaired without taking the base off or spoiling anything.

The Land Rover, as I have said, is identical to that issued with Gift Set 7.

The third model is the Bedford Giraffe Transport vehicle, being the same thing as the June 1964 Chipperfields edition getting a fresh lease of life here. It now has nice pale brown paintwork and the carrier section has a two-tone brown giraffe pattern, bearing the Wameru Sub-District decal in red. As with later editions of the Chipperfields version, this truck has the attractive and quite realistic cast wheels as fitted to some later commercial vehicles.

All the Gift Set 7 characters moved to Gift Set 14 with the Land Rover; that's Paula on the lion and the lion has a pair of spectacles, together with the doctor wearing a stethoscope and with a chimpanzee on his lap. These are all present and original here - the glasses and stethoscope are tiny, easily lost and quite hard to find as originals now. Replacements are good, though, and that's what you'll find most people have and it isn't easy to tell without a magnifying glass, although the reproduction spectacles rarely stay in place on the lion.

In the back of the Giraffe Transporter you'll find the same mother and baby as were in the Chipperfields box. 

The Kew Fargo truck carries two elephants. The big one is the same as you find in Gift Set 19, the Chipperfields set with a ready-made elephant in a ready-made cage on the back of a trailer towed by a Land Rover. (In the 607 kit both the cage and elephant are in separate parts and, when made, may appear slightly different). The baby elephant is the part you may well find the most difficult to track down. It is noticeably smaller than the other one and has a quite chunky appearance, with trunk hanging down and turning back at the end slightly. It is a dark grey colour. It is often missing and, I suppose, gets mixed up with whatever other animals the owner may have had at the time and, when it comes time to sell his collection the baby elephant will, more often than not, finish up in a bag with several other animals of no Corgi origin. Once the connection is lost it will not be regained and, as a consequence, I spent many months searching for one.

Strangely, both that came to light were found by my German friend and collector, Andi. I have yet to see one for sale in the UK. (Of course, having said that, there may now be a whole herd of them tramping through Great Britain if not the Channel Is!) Many people, unable to find the correct one, have substituted another, and I have even seen imposters in place of the comparatively easy to find mother elephant. The trunk and how it is shaped is the best thing to look out for in both cases.

As they stand, the group is probably worth around £200, which at a mere £60 or so for each of the principal elements + their content, is not very much when one considers just how difficult is is to get everything. Add a box, however, and the price sails up to £600, (a lot more at one of the auctions I've seen!) So I shall not be selling any of these just yet. Indeed, I fear it may be some years before a box comes along but they'll still represent an excellent return on investment, I'm sure.