Nice little mistakes

So what's special about this quite battered old Mini? Looks like a pretty normal Austin Seven . . .

Take a closer look at the bonnet. Ah, that's the Morris badge. And the Morris Mini-Minor radiator grille too.

This is one of those lovely mistakes where a #226 body (or probably a whole batch of them) has been sent through to be sprayed red instead of blue and then the bodies have been matched with #225 bases and then continued their journeys into boxes and, 65 years or so later, arriving on my desk here.

This and the 'blue Austin Seven' are two of my favourite mistakes. My friend and collector, Andi, spotted this one and let me know so that I could quickly buy it. Luckily, it was just a few pounds and not looking particularly attractive as it had no tyres and was a bit dirty in the advertisement photos. 

Here is a photo of Andi's own models. He was lucky to find the 'blue Austin Seven' some time ago but I remember it was expensive.

I have had Morris Mini-Minor bodies on Morris Mini-Cooper bases before but they're not as impressive as the badges remain the same and they don't look anything different at all until you look at the base.

I suppose it is possible that we'll find the ultimate 'mistakes' soon where both body and base get the same 'wrong' colour, so we get a blue #225 with Austin Seven on the base and a red #226 with Morris Mini-Minor on the base. Now that would be marvellous!