The 1966 catalogue. Another cover to make us smile. The wonderful James Bond Aston Martin had been released and naturally deserved front page treatment but quite what was in the artist's mind when he put this illustration together I am not at all sure!
With the wheels angled that way disaster is imminent and I suspect the guy doing a backward somersault may be safer than anyone providing he misses the Mercedes following.
Not so many changes this year after quite a big number of changes in 1965's issue. This year sees the introduction of the VW1200 with steering in East African guise and a second ice cream van. I must have missed the first one. Neither of these ever managed to attract my attention and, to this day, I have never seen one and don't really feel like paying a great deal for one either so it'll have to turn up at a boot sale or be part of a job lot if either ever get into stock and on to the site.
The Chrysler Imperial appears with the mystery surrounding what it might have in the boot. You do have to wonder just how many really interesting things could be lurking in a Chrysler boot and I was a bit disappointed to discover it was a set of golf clubs. It's one slab of a car and never struck me as one of their best engineered models. Luckily it only ever appeared in a boring red colour so I only need the one item in stock.
There's also a pencil sketch of the Ford Cortina Estate, also offering us a surprise feature. I'll leave you dangling in anticipation as to what that could possibly be.
A good-looking truck gets pride of place on page 3 this year. At 25 shillings, though, that would have been something for a birthday or Christmas. My favourite new release would be the Ford Mustang, a great-looking model, albeit with clunky doors. There's a corgi on the back shelf too like the Ghia. These were the days before safety belts and baby seats so a small dog hurtling through the car when it suddenly brakes was not really a big thing.
The Monte Carlo trio set is there for the first time, although the Mini appeared last year. Little did we know how valuable that set would turn out to be!
The illustrations are mostly very similar to the previous year, with drawings of models throughout except for the kit photographs as last year. The new additions, though, are quite markedly different and very photo-realistic. Look at the wheels on the truck or ice cream van, for example. They could have done with that chap's work on the front cover!
Thank you, I love Corgi's too
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