November 1958 brought the big and very heavy 1102 model Euclid Tractor / Bulldozer to the Corgi Toy shop shelves. At 17/6d (£0.87½) this would have been an expensive item for someone to buy and a heavy one to carry home too. It stayed in production until 1963 when it gets revised slightly with a lever to raise the shovel part and a driver and that model, catalogued as 1107, lasts until 1966.
If you carefully remove the shovel section you have the 1103 model which doesn't actually get issued until 1960 and that only lasts until 1965. All the Euclids had modest sales and are now quite difficult to find.
The 1102 can be found in two quite distinct colours - lime green and a greenish yellow. The black rubber tracks seem to last well but you would need to remove the shovel unit to fit replacements. The most common fault with models available is broken or damaged exhaust pipes. These are plastic and in a very vulnerable position, sticking up near the front of the bonnet. I haven't seen any replacements available so check these before buying.
The other November issue was also an expensive item, the fourth Gift Set. This puts all the Bloodhound Missile bits together. You get a missile, launcher and trolley together with an RAF Land Rover to pull the trolley along. The Missile was available with the launch ramp last month but this is the first appearance of the trolley. Later is is available with just the missile and, in December of the following year it is also available individually. Those individually boxed items had one of the lowest production figures of the Corgi range and so boxes are well worth seeking out.
The Land Rover does look a bit strange pulling the large trolley affair and one colleague prefers to display the Trolley being pulled by the Army International Truck! That would, of course, have to be a slightly later issue of the Trolley as the International Truck doesn't appear until 1959! At this time, therefore, the Land Rover must have seemed the best, if not only option.
