Where have all the layouts gone?

 

No, it wasn't me who paid what would have been at least £2700 including delivery for the Silverstone Gift Set 15 earlier this week. As I said in the article at the time, something like that is going to be purely for resale, hopefully at a profit, to be tucked away in a cupboard and probably for quite a while too. It's not even very nice to look at with that rather dull old cardboard outer box, so hardly something to put in the front of a cabinet either. It wasn't a bad price, though, but not something I can get excited about.

What I have very much enjoyed, however, has been seeing my Garage Layout display every morning and doesn't that just demonstrate the difference between a tedious box and a real display and represent just what we remember by way of emotions and enjoyment from Corgi Toys all those years ago.

Regrettably, I have had to put it all away now as my wife is returning from Ukraine at last and I had set if up somewhere most convenient for me but rather not so for her. So, if it is not going to be displayed it occurred to me that it might be something someone might like to buy. I don't particularly want to see it go but the funds would help me acquire the elements I need for the Silverstone Set which is my next big challenge. 

I believe that the only items missing are a tiny oil can and I seem to have a different chap squatting next to the Ford Consul. Corgi's catalogue has someone in blue overalls and mine may be from the Racing Characters Set in a slightly different position. The shop building does have its rear drainpipe - it fell off and I have only just noticed - which I will reattach and it is undamaged. The two Fords have plenty of playwear so, if the cars were needed I would have to replace those. I genuinely have not seen this layout (or a Silverstone one come to think of it) in all the time I have been doing Corgi things so it seems to be something a little special and that someone out there might appreciate.

Further down I have added a link to an album of lots more photos which are better than the previous group.

On the subject of layouts, here are the two mats I have.

I am unable to get any more of these but will investigate whether it might be worthwhile having a batch produced. These are a flexible but quite thick plastic and lie nicely flat (the Silverstone one has only just been unrolled and that small curl to the left will go after a while) but I suspect they will be expensive to make. Rather less expensive would be card but that would need to be thick and have some well-engineered folds so that it can be stored easily but still lie flat when opened. I would appreciate hearing from anyone who might be interested in buying these mats and what they think about the material to be used.

Having said that, I am reminded of my own declaration that I have not seen a display in all my days - and how unwilling I imagine people would be to break open new kits, even if they could find them, never mind attempt the task of painting which requires a somewhat steadier hand than most of us may now possess! I may, therefore, have just succeeded in making my mat business idea a failure from the start!

However, in the event that there are a few people with all the bits but nowhere to put them, or prepared to bravely go where no adult other than some Corgi promotions staff have been, and make up all the components, I will carry on making some enquiries.

Click this picture or here to see my album of Garage Layout photos.

Going Going . . . Gosh.

 

A colleague mentioned an auction that will end as I am writing this. It was for a very nice, complete Gift Set 15 Silverstone Set. I say 'complete' but I read that it lacked one of the six tubes of enamel paint! The glue is present, though, so I think we can call that as complete as complete can be for this set. It all comes in a big cardboard box which never looks very inspiring but now costs rather more than the 72/6d it did in November 1963. That was £3.62½ for those readers who wonder what on Earth that price denomination means. And that's just short of £100 in 2026 money terms, so that set was not something you could have popped out and bought with your pocket money, nor even something most of us would have been likely to receive as a birthday or Christmas present. Whilst around 8000 did get sold, you can imagine how many now exist in any vague form of completeness. Indeed, I think the only sets that we find coming on the market now will be ones that didn't get sold but were discovered as good old 'old shop stock'.

Anyway, that one particular £3.62 and a ha'pence-worth is now at £2200 and I would expect it to have some way still to go in an upward direction after I publish this. My colleague sent me a message when it was a mere £925 and I have to say I was most tempted. Despite having had a very successful week with lots of customers apparently discovering my website and my own store, (as opposed to Ebay where I have to charge at least 15% more to receive the same net amount), I have a suspicion that I will not be able to afford what this eventually goes for.

I also have to ask myself what I would do with it. I have written before about how much enjoyment I have had by recreating the Garage Layout from all the Gift Set 25 components that I now have, and how I would love to do the same with the Silverstone set. But there is no way that I could envisage opening up all those kits . . . well, if I had two sets then I could, especially if one of them had a really grotty old outer box, missing cars, paint, glue and brush. Then I could, as long as my wife agreed to do the painting. (She's the Ukrainian artist, brilliant with tiny detailed work who painted the most impressive lady in the Telephone Box that I have ever seen, if you missed a previous article).

So, not envisaging doing anything with this large cardboard box other than admiring the label and wondering how one could flatten out the layout mat, I would have to hope to find someone willing to pay even more than the vast sum I would have had to shell out, not forgetting the auction house fee which will add another few hundred. So it would all be rather pointless and if all I am going to do is make some money then I would probably be far better off investing in some scarce variations, which is what I had intended to write about in the first place.

Look at these - all recent completed sales, not wild hopeful estimates, for models which I actually already have in stock myself (in most cases). I was so surprised at the prices realised that I have had to look again at what I was selling mine for and adjust accordingly, very much upward.

That's £1063, including fees and tax. Now mine is by no means mint. It has lost some paint but is quite sound otherwise. Photos do seem to show up the faults, though, and the car sitting on my desk looks very attractive still. And it isn't £925. or even £1063.

That is a staggering £2185 to get it into your cabinet at home. Again, mine has seen better days but may well have better rear suspension than that one. It has lost paint - not so obviously in this colour, so still looks nice on display. This isn't £2185 either.

Extraordinary. This one breaks £3000 once you've paid your fees and tax. Now I have to admit that I don't have one with a lemon interior. This price, however, is more than I would have expected for a factory colour trial. I can only assume that there is a collector who is trying to get one of every Jaguar Mk X and money was simply no object for this one. Well, if you happen to be missing a quite scarce kingfisher blue variant with red interior, here is mine. And it isn't even 1/10th of the price of that one.

The Jaguar 2.4 seems almost cheap at what would have been a total of £575. I have one with a grey base and did wonder whether it might be a little scarce. I wasn't thinking £575 scarce, though. 

Another one that is almost affordable at their auction! A mere £536 for what I found a most strange model when one turned up amongst some I had bought some time ago. I came to the conclusion that Corgi had the white bodies for the 211M lying around when the M models were abandoned in late 1959 but in early 1960 only had the 211S bases available as that would have been ready for distribution. So a batch of white bodies got attached to a 211S base but got no suspension or interior so remained as a 211 of sorts. It didn't occur to me that anyone would pay that much, however. It does now, of course, and mine is nearly a match for theirs - but a lot cheaper.

You may have noticed that the boxes for these models are all pretty standard. Whilst the Rover does appear to have a generic box with a stamped number I am pretty sure that there would have been that edition in a normal 252 box. I shall have to find the Jaguar one. The others should be around somewhere.

These are just a few of the wonderful variations that I have in stock and I merely show these because I saw how similar items sold for so much. I shall have to feature a few more before long and try to encourage collectors and investors to check with me before parting company with huge amounts of (not necessarily in the case of the latter group) hard-earned money to line the pockets of QDT and Vectis directors.

I mentioned the layout mat along the way. That is something I shall be writing about soon, along with some more views of the Garage layout (which will have to go back in its box next week before my wife returns from her trip home).

It's 7pm and I need to go. Please someone bid more than £2200 or I shall be very tempted . . . just because I am sure it would sell for around £4000 with some more effective publicity. For the auction house, though, there's not much incentive to do much - they'll only get a few hundred more at best.

Corgi Toys @ 60: Ford's Tractor and Conveyor Set and Cortina alone

 

It's August 1966 and Ford is the brand for both the new arrivals this month 60 years ago. The first is the reappearance of the Ford Consul Cortina Estate. This was first issued in January 1966 with golf trolley, golfer chap and caddy on a nice tray. Now it's  catalogue number #491, just the car, and 2/1d cheaper (that's two shillings and one penny less than the eight shillings for #440).

It's a very pretty model with its clean-looking almost white interior and lovely metallic blue, red or dark grey paintwork and chrome front and back. 

Most issues had small shaped wheels but towards the end of production cast wheels were fitted. These are not particularly rare on the metallic grey models but quite hard to find on red models and vey rare on blue models.

The second Ford was the 5000 Super Major Tractor, now towing a trailer to which the elevator mechanism first seen on #64 Jeep FC-150 in June 1965.

In the attractive box the models sit on a nicely illustrated display with a driver on the tractor and a bag of six plastic sacks. Turning the handle moves the black rubber belts to transfer items from one end to the other. These belts may often have become brittle and broken by now and, whilst replacements are available, they cannot be fitted without cutting and then somehow joining the ends together again.

This stays in the order lists through to 1971 and can be found with both variations of the Tractor's rear equipment design.