It's April 1963 and along comes a new Citroen, this time the ID19 Safari as #436.
This was quite an exciting model with its opening rear hatch, making it the first car we could put things in or pretend to drive from the inside. The Ford Thames 'Airborn' Caravan had opening rear doors but this Citroen was more like a normal estate car. As well as a plastic luggage shape on the roof which could be detached, this has a very new feature - folding rear seats. You moved a small cog wheel near the rear wheel and the contrasting green seat would fold to make a usefully large and flat space at the back.
It had a Wildlife Preservation transfer across the bonnet to help register the 'Safari' title but mine spent all its days on my layout roads in Hertfordshire.
This Citroen would be a popular model and expect to see it again as Corgi revived the casting again and again right through to the early 1970s.
The other arrival on the shelves of your local toy shop was the second appearance of the big American Plymouth Suburban Sports Station Wagon, now as #443 with suspension and a new colour scheme of blue with a red roof.
Both the Citroen and Plymouth have free spinning shaped wheels.
Each of these models also had no variations issued, all having the same colour scheme and features throughout their production. I have often thought that there might have been some #219 models issued with suspension but I have never found any so I imagine they would only be factory samples if any did appear.
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