It's an ugly little car . . .

It's an ugly little car, in a fairly boring solid blue with Whizzwheels. But this is worth several hundred pounds. It's the scarcest Corgi from the era I collect which one could have bought in a local toy store. 

This one is nearly complete and all original. I say 'nearly', because the passenger seat is missing. That, however, is a simple fix and the interior is identical to the white issue so I just need to find a cheap one of those and swap the seat to this one.

This blue edition of the 305 Mini Marco GT850 was only issued with the Gift Set 20 Transporter Set and that had a very limited production run in 1972 with several changes in the components. I have no clue as to the number produced but after seven or eight years of fairly constant observation of what has appeared on Ebay this is only the second that I have seen that is definitely the real thing. The other I also own and wrote about in June last year - a bit of a wreck but a real one at least!

I had a pristine-looking example some years ago which looked very good but the shade wasn't quite right, there was no transfer on the sill and the rivet, while very well-made indeed, was a slightly different style to those shown on the few illustrations I was able to use to compare. It was a superb copy and someone in Japan liked it enough to pay £515 for, aware of my full description too. So I shudder to think what I might have to pay for anything like one in excellent condition and original.

This model would have been sold with the 1146 Scammel Tri-deck Transporter in late 1972. I have seen just one set sold and that was this one in less than perfect condition, costing over £1500 in 2014. Now I think the set would make over £2000 and the car on its own £1000 if not more.

Over the period since, only the 351S RAF Land Rover has been anything like as rare to see. Yes, there are models with even lower production numbers, like the special editions made for a particular firm's promotion and there will always be the minute numbers of models with errors and, of course, production samples. I suspect that models like the two-tone re-issues of the original range with shaped wheels (and some later models where just a few were issued with cast wheels, like the Rover 2000 and Hillman Imp) may prove to be at the very top of the Scarce Tree but this one is definitely up there and not far from the top. The other special issues, variations and errors are great and may be super scarce and much sought-after but I am referring here to models that you or I could have bought for simple pocket money at the time.

I shall list these models in my store but I would very much prefer to keep them in my own collection so the cost of persuading me to part company with either will not be cheap!

And yes, these really were most unattractive in 1:1 scale too!