February 1965 is when the Ferrari 250 Berlinetta Le Mans arrived on the shelves at your local toy shop. Only the third model to get nice wire wheels from the start and always finished in red with RN4 decals.
This can be found in two editions, the difference being on the base, later models having angled ends to the raised lines. A pretty inexplicable change! This was a long-running model, staying on the production list until 1972.
I was lucky to acquire this gold-plated edition from Percy Wilford's grandson several years ago.
I have read that Ferrari were not particularly happy with the representation of their car by Corgi. The front end does look quite different but often Corgi worked from very early design releases by manufacturers so who knows what they were provided with.
Another appearance in February 1965 was the wonderful Mini-Cooper, this time the 1965 Monte Carlo winner.
This photo of the real car comes from Mini.com and I hope they don't mind my reproducing it here as it shows how well Corgi interpreted the model this time, even creating a revised casting to include two lamps above the grille and some other differences, quite different to the 1964 Monte Carlo issue and, indeed, all the subsequent rally issues. Replaced in 1966 by another Monte Carlo Mini-Cooper, this one is now quite sought after.
This would also be the first of three 1965 Monte Carlo entries which would be combined in Gift Set 38 as you'll read about here next month!
The last release for February 1965 is a new trailer for the farming collection. #62 is a Tipping Trailer with Raves (the pieces that can be added at the front and back to help retain a higher load). This will also be available in Gift Set 32 and later editions of the Agricultural Gift Sets 22 and GS5 (1967 issue).
