00101 Bentley

In my haste to locate pictures of each of the Corgi Bentleys that could be suitable for John Steed in The Avengers Gift Sets the one I posted for the 1998 gift set was something that someone had made up. It's fair enough but not what was actually in the 1998 box. That had the excellent green car, as above and shown in the photo, with very nice wheels and a generally super quality all round but the figure is just Steed. In white metal and very accurately painted, this is a first class model. The only shortcoming is the way he clasps his brolly and appears to have bent it! I suppose he is also a big big for the car but no-one will try to sit him in it anyway.

This is the proper 'set'  that this version appears in, in its box. 

Clearly, the previous photo has reproduction models of Mrs Peel and Steed included with the 00101 Bentley. I will consider including this car in a reproduction Gift Set 40 box set just because it is so good - perhaps with a powder blue version of the Lotus for Emma. That's unlikely to happen soon, though, as virtually all the 00101 Bentleys are still wired in their boxes and selling for considerably more than the others. Lotus #318s are also holding their value well but if I can find some with poor paint and missing or damaged Tiger transfers at low prices then they would be worth buying as everyone will know they'll be restorations in the powder blue colour which was not produced by Corgi or, for that matter, anyone else I have seen to date.