Corgi Toys @ 60: The Sting Ray and two Gift Sets

 

It's August and, as a child starting a long school holiday, you can imagine the delight at seeing this in my St. Albans toy shop in French Row! The Chevrolet Sting Ray was a smart model you just had to have, with its twin jewelled headlamps which could be opened up and closed. This was the first to have twin jewels. The Jaguar Mk X had four jewels at the front but two were smaller and not quite the same as twin headlamps like these. This particular model is in a scarce bronze finish and will have been issued a little later, always having wire wheels.

Now this is an imposter, I add quickly before you all write in and tell me that's not a Corgi. Look closely, though, and you'll see that this is an exact copy of the Corgi from Auto-Pilen in 1970. They added opening doors and a better quality interior but otherwise this is the Corgi casting (or a made from one!)

This metallic pink-crimson edition was the first on the scene, with normal wheels when first issued. It would get wire wheels a few months later.

All the silver models appear to have wire wheels. there are two editions in silver. One is a quite thin, metallic silver finish similar to the James Bond Aston Martin. The other has a more pearlescent finish - I call it champagne silver and it can display a slight gold effect in some lights.

These Sting Rays did look rather better with their lights closed. The device that holds the jewels never quite sits as nicely as it should when open but it was nevertheless a super model and very popular.

Also in August 1963 the Commer Construction Gift set 24 was released.

This was my own set and note the coin that I used to release the different sections. This is a super set and provided us with all sorts of possibilities - four different vehicles with a red base and four different vehicles with a white base. If you happened to have the Police Commer Van then you could extend the range even further as that had the same release on the base! 

The red chassis always had Trans-o-lite headlamps, the white chassis did not.

The last addition for August 1963 was the Gift Set 27 with a Priestman Cub Shovel on the Bedford Machinery Carrier.

This was a long-running item, as can be evidenced by the wheels on the Carrier. Initially issued with normal shaped wheels it gets the louvre-type spoke effect wheels in around 1967 and then the larger commercial truck wheels in 1968.

Whilst I am sure there must be some other small variations in these models, all that I have encountered appear the same, with yellow interior to the light blue cab and a black removable rear axle.

The rear Chevrolet Corvette Stingray! Corgi were not wrong with their choice of colour for the first issue!