I have for a long time been confused about a model that occasionally appears at a huge price. It is said to be one of those 'promotional' models that Corgi made, most of which were produced in comparatively minute quantities and now are, understandably, very scarce and much sought-after.
The listed 462 Commer Van advertised Hammonds and, I believe, you might have bought it in the local shop (although it didn't feature in catalogues). Although fairly expensive, the blue green and off-white vans can be found relatively easily and mostly for under £100 in reasonable condition. Corgi never actually issued a 'normal' Commer van. You could make one up for yourself using the red rear section in Gift Set 24 but that was all.
462 also gets allocated to a Co-op van, the one that I wrote about recently that you could get if your mum sent off some coupons. That is Co-op blue and white and has cast wheels, Co-op stickers and came in a piece of folded card with 462 stamped on it.
And then there's the Combex Commer van. It is all a dreary, quite dark grey with no stickers at all. So quite how this is associated with a firm called Combex Ind. Ltd., as noted on a small folded piece of paper that often accompanies the model, is open to imagination.
Perhaps the company colours at Combex were that shade of grey. You may recall seeing some vans in and around Birmingham, perhaps, or visiting Swansea or Northampton, and being struck by the distinctly Civil Service shade. In the 1970s, when this is said to have been produced, orange was all the rage but Birmingham always was a bit behind the times.
Try as hard as I might, however, I cannot find any Combex Industries Limited in Birmingham. There are references to Aston, Birmingham and Combex on adjacent lines in Who Owns Whom, a 1977 book about corporations but the Aston is the address of another company that has nothing to do with the one that has the Combex reference.
When one encounters things like this, it is very tempting to wonder whether someone, trying to invent an interesting and rare model for collectors, might have put Combex and Aston together. I am, though, told that Combex was a company that had been going for many years, originally Combex Ltd. had made combs and assorted hair care equipment and may have developed some electro-plating skills along the way which subsequently proved useful to the motor industry. Perhaps that Combex was responsible for some of Corgi's electro-plating? That was, though, Combex Ltd. and not Combex Industries Limited.
Looking up official records of Combex Ltd., I see that the name was registered again in December 1980 and that company later became Wembley Playcraft Sports and Toys Ltd., with addresses in Exeter, Devon. Wembley Playcraft Ltd. was also a company based in Exeter, Devon in the mid 1980s, and appeared to have similar directors. Wembley Playcraft Ltd. registered again in 2013 was based in Swansea! That company was dissolved in 2015 but in 2017 Playcraft Ltd. was registered by the same directors and also in Swansea. Another trading name of Combex Ltd had been Tamwade (Northampton) Ltd. which rather squares the circle!
There is also a Combex in the group called Dunbee-Combex-Marx Ltd., which had considerable interests and brand names in the model toy industry. Whilst I cannot pin down Combex Industries Ltd. itself, it does seem reasonable to assume that there may well have been a Combex company that had a close involvement with Corgi and that a few promotional vans may have been made.
Unfortunately, in 1970 pretty much everything that could go wrong with the finances of one or other of these firms does go wrong. Loans are outstanding, new finance doesn't appear and the workers are revolting. So my guess is that whoever Corgi did make these things for went out of business. What hadn't been delivered, or even the whole stock perhaps, seems, according to some reports, to have been bought by a Masonic Lodge. Now that's a bit of a diversion but I can understand one of the senior staff at one or other of the firms involved having some connections and deciding to do some trade with the nice deep grey, unbranded vans. The colour certainly suits the Lodge.
Now they are gradually falling out of people's attics or boxes in garages and they are fetching very large sums, some even four figures.
I had a spare Commer of the correct construction lying about and had wondered what to do with it. A Hammonds job was far too complicated paint-wise (although the stickers are easily obtained or even made). It was nothing special, though, and so I thought I'd have a go at the Combex instead. I had some grey paint to hand - not the right shade but it will do for the time being and I can use it as an undercoat for one day when I do get the right shade.
There was one big complication, though, that I didn't notice at first. The wheels. They are a dished 8-spoke type, very shiny. A colleague helped me out by noting that they were the same as fitted to some GP Beach Buggies so I bought the first wreck of a Buggy I could find on Ebay. What my colleague didn't tell me was that the GP Buggy has two different sizes of wheel!! So I need another Buggy one day but, impatient to (sort of) complete the job, I used the two small and two big as a temporary measure.
That wasn't as easy as it sounds, though. Firstly the wheels are far too wide to fit between the wheel arch and the baseplate. Secondly, the thin Whizzwheel axles would flap around in the normal baseplate guides where the suspension wires retain them. The second issue was quite easy to solve. I cut a cotton-wool bud stick in half and used that under the suspension wires. The thin axle fits through that nicely. The first issue was much more awkward to deal with. Even the small wheels were too wide so, unless the real models don't roll very smoothly, Corgi must have adjusted the Buggy wheels or used another thinner variety.
I filed mine down, taking a good few millimetres off the big ones and a couple off the small ones. That was a messy job with black plastic powder all over the desk now and sticking to everything. The wheels do now turn and the big and small wheels are not that obviously different. The rather wide axles are, though, so that's another matter to attend to some day.
For the time being, however, I have an approximation to a Combex Commer van.
It seems that some of the 'genuine' models have rivets and some have screws. I am not so sure I would want to pay much for one with screws. That sounds very much like either something someone like me has put together (but better!) or a pre-production sample. With no way of knowing which was which that is not something to pay £1200 for. On the other hand, with some evidence, confirmation of source then it may be. We would then have some answers for the Combex mystery too. Maybe I should ask whoever did pay £1200.
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