Mr Softee was a well-known brand back in the 1960s and Corgi used this brand for their first ice cream van. You can get a set of replacement transfers and stickers to convert it to another brand, Mr Whippy, from the Model Supplies people and I have seen many of this 428 model in pin and white with the different brand too. There was, however, just the one original issue and, as far as I can tell, all these models had free spinning shaped wheels with suspension. The same van is used later in khaki and army decals for a Military Field Kitchen.
Also issued in March 1963 was the Elephant and Cage kit #607. The cage looks the same as the one in the Gift set 19 issued in the previous year but the elephant is different, coming in two parts and in brown plastic.
The last new item for March 1963 was the splendid Gift Set 17 combination of a red Series II Land Rover pulling a yellow Racing Car Trailer with the 154 Ferrari (amusingly with its driver still in place!)
The first editions of this set would have the Land Rover with a 'frame' in the rear window, the window unit fitting to provide a flush rear surface with the back of the cab. As this set ran through to 1967 later examples will not have this window unit but whether a later casting with different vent levers was used I am not sure. They will all have had cream plastic canopies and shaped wheels.
As I have mentioned in another recent article, the Ferrari was a long-running model which outlasted the set. There are two types of casting and I believe these match the different style of transfer characters too. Both appear with the shaped wheel editions. Unlikely to have been in a set would be the cast wheel editions, although it is virtually impossible to know now whether a set advertised with one is genuine as it is simple just to swap them over.
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