Corgi Model Club: 417 looking good but the Aston needs work.

 

Updated!

Here is an image of what I thought would be be the next 'new old' Corgi from the Corgi Model Club. It's advertised on the Corgi main website and you will see it is a 417S with free spinning wheels and the later type of jib. I have now learned that the Corgi Model Club issue is actually still the 417 model and the two are separate and different indeed! That's going to confuse a lot of people!

Also shown on the Corgi website is what they tell us is the 261 re-issue. However, whilst the box looks like the type we will recall (and not the fancy concertina type of the other recent issues), the model seems to have rotating number places which were not on the 261.

I may be wrong but it is certainly rather different to the 261 I remember and the paint looks very much like the rather unpleasant creamy gold that we have seen on all the other recent gold-painted issues, of which there have been too many already in my opinion! The wheels also are filled in and not attractive. I am hoping the web people at Corgi have simply taken an old issue image and used that and the actual model when issued will be a better copy. So far the Club has done extremely well and I do hope their careful recreation continues and that, like the Land Rover, there are actually two similar models being marketed. Christmas must be a tempting time for them and to re-issue the classic model at that time, as I suspect is the plan, makes sense but, seriously, if it does look like this image, cancel it now and think again.

I show below my own old 261 model and there is definitely something amiss with the new shape too.

Look at the shape of the area around the headlamps, the width of front wing in front of the wheel, the height of the passenger window, the shape of the grille, the bumpers and the split between cast and base at the rear wing. This is not good. Even at £31.48 (including UK postage).