You may have been confused by a recent note from the Corgi Model Club, encouraging us all to buy the #270 James Bond's Aston Martin with silver grille and bumpers, having had one encouraging us to buy the #270 James Bond's Aston Martin with gold grille and bumpers just a short while ago. I had ordered the one with a gold bits in November and, quite frankly, forgotten all about it so I rushed to order the one with silver bits just in case it sold out as these things tend to. Luckily I remembered that I had also had a list of items I should be getting as a member and, indeed, the one with silver bits should be arriving sometime in a few weeks. The one with gold bits is, I assume, on its way too.
I had thought that the masses were going to get the gold edition from the shop, with the silver edition being just for members but I see now this is not the case. There is no asterisk on the list and so lots of people will be getting this before I do as I seem to be a few weeks behind with my Club arrivals, the Ecurie Ecosse Transporter still to reach my village.
So, if you are a member, and only want one silver edition, you don't have to do anything. No need to panic. It will come in its own time when you reach that point on the list. If you want the gold one, though, you need to buy it from the shop and, despite the claim that members get a nice discount, they pay the same price as everyone else for anything other than their single monthly Club items.
Coming up soon you will see two issues that will be for members only and not available in the shop. These are an orange #233 Heinkel Bubble, sorry, Economy Car and a #302 MGA in teal. I expect there will be a red #233 in the shop which we'll need to buy at the normal price but maybe no further MGAs, the red one being available already. Perhaps the Club will hang on to some teal paint and use some for a #300 Austin Healey at some point. That's a model that's very hard to find as an original. I think teal would be about right. I have two originals but both had been frustratingly overpainted with a slightly different shade of blue for reasons I fail to understand.
This one has a new steering wheel and screen too.
This one has a complete covering of the new blue, with silver bits added here and there, as well as a silly screen from Mr Flowers.
Neither base seems to have been removed, though, and there's blue in places a paintbrush wouldn't reach.
I feel confident that both are the scarce blue issue but it is such a pity that they received this later treatment. A lesson for us all, of course, as more and more models are getting 'restored'. Maybe you good restoration artist people could just stick to restoring the common ones and leave something scarce alone. I am amazed at the skills some people do have but I would much prefer a bashed-up old original to a pristine-looking model with shiny rivets (or glue!)
By the same token, however lovely the Corgi Model Club models will be, whether with silver or gold bits, I'll be selling both of them and happier looking to spend the money on a fair to average original. For those who like to display their models, however, there is a lot to be said for the 'bubble-style' boxes that come with the Club models. Good reproductions of these are not cheap.
This one is very good but nearly £50!
The bubble bit is not easy and all the usual suppliers offer just the later window box types.
So, if you 'don't look back' (or maybe under) the Corgi Model Club editions may be worthwhile after all! Flog the car and keep the box.
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