Corgi Model Club: Chevrolet Impala Fire Chief Car

 

The latest issue from the Corgi Model Club is here and it is yet another superb reproduction. 

It arrives with two pieces of hard foam plastic to prevent movement in the box (one piece I only realised was there after taking the photos) and some thin paper protecting the chrome at each end and the transfer on the bonnet. Unfortunately, the chunk of plastic has pushed the aerial to stand at an unnatural angle and, unlike the original, you can't twiddle it around.

This is otherwise a stunning model and I cannot fault its paintwork, wonderful chrome and the accuracy of every casting detail. They will have had the #480 to work from, of course, so the Club will have made a little more profit from this one.

I look at these images and I'm taken back to that feeling when I first took original models out of the box. I can seldom afford to have such 'new' and shiny original models these days so the Club do us collectors a great service.

My own #482 is a cast wheel edition which is rather more common, this and the Police version being around for quite a while. I do have a shaped wheel edition somewhere but in my recent move it has taken a long time to find anything so I used the first one I came across! They're both identical in all other respects so it serves its purpose here just as well.

You will notice that there is a small difference in the font used for the bonnet text, the Club edition being just a little too fat. The only other differences that I see are the lack of a silver ring around the base of the beacon on the roof and the original Impala rear lights have a sort of sheen which the people in China have been unable to replicate on this, as also for the earlier #480.

Corgi Toys @ 60: The Classics and Another Citroën

 

It's January 2024 and your local toy shop has something completely different, the first of a short series of Corgi Classics, vintage cars from the early 20th Century. The first two released this month were the Ford Model T in black as #9011 and in yellow as #9012. Each had a couple in the front and I believe it is the same couple each time.

The detailing is excellent and the intricate models, with many vulnerable features, were packed in a sturdy, thick card box with a separate lid, protected by a piece of foam rubber and an information leaflet.

These models were not cars to be played with, though. They were for display only and it was a quite different market that they would have been intended. They had no suspension and, whilst one or two might have been added to our layouts in the 1960s they were not really 'Corgis' as we had come to love.

Sales were modest but nothing like as successful as the normal range and at 8/11d they were expensive. You could have bought the Routemaster bus for 2d less or a Tractor and Plough set for 8/6d. Most model cars were four or five shillings, half the price of the Ford Model T. They are now very easy to find for just a few pounds and you should have no trouble finding models with intact windscreen and in original boxes with figures should you wish to build this collection. Maybe now that all Corgis from this era are just for display, these Classics will not appear so out of place and become more desirable after all!

Also arriving this month is the second appearance of the Citroën ID19, now in white with a ski rack, skis and skier character, a Winter Olympics transfer on the bonnet.

This is the April 1963 model but with a new fitting to the roof. This is usually red with yellow skis and poles but it also seems to have been issued with a yellow ski rack and there are red skis and red ski pole too. Perhaps every conceivable variation was available at the time or have items since been swapped around? The rack is not easy to replace, however, and both colours do exist. (There will be another, also numbered #475 but with a Corgi Ski Club motif on the bonnet issued in 1965, just to confuse us all!)

This model and the extras all came in a fairly normal-looking box. It is only the second to feature a separate character other than a driver or animal inside. (The first was the Jeep F150 with Tower Platform which had an electrician chap - but even was in the basket and not a standalone display like this one).