Whizzwheels wheel types

 I almost bought some 1:36 models yesterday. I am still trying to convince myself that I shouldn't. It's a similar feeling to that which I had about 8 years ago when I was building my collection of what I call 'the originals' in 1:43 or thereabouts and reached 1969 and had to decide what to do about Whizzwheels. Initially I told myself that I would stop with September 1970's 513 Citroën Alpine Rescue but then I saw a Ford 5000 Tractor in January 1971 and a few months later a Citroën SM with quite attractive wheels would be issued. That looked eminently collectible, especially as there would be four to collect with the two colours and two types of wheel and I told myself that I could live with the few models with ugly Whizzwheels that I'd need to obtain as there would be little logic in excluding them.

Later I began to quite like some of the Whizzwheels models after all, especially the rare ones which seemed impossible to find at a price I could afford. And when I did find one I'd snap it up and finish up with several. I have since sold most of what I regard as the common Whizwheel editions but have kept a few scarce items. Even now I still have three pink Chevrolet Corvette Stingrays.

As can often be the case, the ones I liked the least can turn out to be the most valuable. The Mini Marcos GT850 was reasonably attractive and well-finished in metallic maroon but downright ugly in white with stickers for stripes, and doors which flopped around loosely. The white one was expensive enough too but try and find a blue one . . . So far I have managed to acquire two wrecks but, once you start collecting it is simply essential to keep going until you have everything. I'm addicted, I suppose, and now I am even looking at the different ugly wheels put on those models in the 1970s. Early models start with the pepperpot style and then we see the four crowns style. For a long time I thought there was also a quite neat eight-spoke wheel but eventually it dawned on me that this was just the four crowns with the silver and black sections appearing to create continuous spokes.

The first 'pepperpot' style

The later 'four crowns' style

An example of how the 'four crowns' can appear to be 8-spoke

A more attractive 8-spoke wheel in mid-1971

A closed 8-spoke design

The filled in 12-spoke design from around 1973

A larger 12-spoke design in gold on a Rolls Royce

Unfortunately, an ugly design returns on some late Rolls Royces and one of two other models

Late Minis get another ugly double-5 spoke design

So you can see how one can get pulled in to collecting these things. It occurred to me that I had not provided a definitive list of the different types of Whizzwheels and so I have now done that and you can see the table on my Corgi Catalogue website. It is work in progress, of course, and if you know of others that need to be added then please send me some pictures. As always, I have to warn people not to pay a fortune for red spot wheels on later models. They're very easy to change and disreputable dealers do so and then even auction houses who should know better sell them as original for vast sums.

Now, all this started because I have been working on a catalogue of the 'later models', the ones I don't collect - and still don't, as I am resisting the temptation! I have, however, been distracted into talking about Whizzwheels so I'll not complicate matters and end here. The 'later models' article will follow separately.