Corgi Catalogues 1958 to 1972

You may have noticed that I have changed the site's home page. That has been necessary because I would like to be easier for collectors to find when they search for Corgi Toys. Google now say that web sites should adjust automatically to match the type of device they are being viewed on. So there need to be different versions for big desktop monitors, large tablets, small tablets and phones held one way or the other. They punish those sites that don't comply with low rankings. It's annoying bvut that's life these days. You can imagine that the coding for all that can be something of a nightmare!

Luckily, there are some nice people out there who not only make templates we can use but they also include code that detects the type of device and makes all the adjustments automatically. It's all quite impressive. I can just about manage to figure out most of it but it isn't that straightforward to transfer data from one place to another. So I found it considerably simpler to make a few new pages with the new style and leave all the rest as it was.

I am really hoping that Google will now start giving me some credit for this, although there are still 1000+ pages that do not comply with their requirements. The chances of me ever changing all of them are extremely thin unless someone out there has a particularly bright idea and some spare free time!

The new home page does enable me to show some nice images in king-size view and each one relates to a different section of the site: British cars, American cars etc.

The new 'latest additions' page works in a similar way, with links on the big picture page to the main site description etc.

While I was at it I decided to make the catalogues more accessible to collectors. These are great sources of information and just lovely to scroll through for hours on end. I still feature them under Lists in the main site but they can now be seen directly from the Corgi Catalogues link on the new home page. I have published nice quality pages from complete catalogues from 1958 all the way through to 1972, which I acquired recently.

I used to offer to supply digital copies of catalogues at a small fee but now you can download images as you wish without charge. A customer did ask me if I could make printed versions of these and I can imagine that they would be very popular. However, with many having 40 or more pages I would have to pay for at least 10 double sided pages. In small quantities they would come out at about £8 and setting up the pages in the right order so that they make a booklet at the end of the day isn't as simple as it sounds at all! So they would have to cost at least £10 and, guess what, that's about the price you can buy originals for if you look around! So, until I can find a cheaper print solution I will leave it to people to print their own if they wish.

Some of the catalogues are American or European versions. Sorry if the prices are confusing but these are the best I have at the moment.

Corgi Toy 1969 Catalogue

If you thought the 1967-8 cover was a little strange then here in 1969 you might become seriously troubled. On the back is a gloomy drawing of part of a city in flames which I cannot see inspiring many youngsters to buy the American Lafrance unit which is a massive thing and expensive too. On the front, a Chevrolet Camaro is in a lay-by with some guy changing a wheel has his attention distracted by something in the sky.

Now being waved at by ladies in Victorian dresses may not have seemed such a bad thing once you've got over the fact that they're in an ancient car that appears to have gone a little fast over a nearby hump-back bridge. However, if he'd looked elsewhere in the sky he would have noticed a very strange device approaching and a distant city that has a distinctly odd look to it.

I have no idea what the sky scene is supposed to represent but with models featuring Batman, The Green Hornet, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., the Saint, James Bond and The Avengers then virtually any premise would be justifiable.

Inside you will be wondering just what has happened to Corgi Toys with the first six pages solely occupied by media models, first Chitty Chitty Bang bang and then The Beatles' Yellow Submarine and then all the other TV / Film models you'll be familiar with. Next you get introduced to Take Off Wheels and Golden Jacks in the shape of the Rover 2000TC and Oldsmobile Toronado. Finally you'll arrive at a page with two blue British cars - appropriately the new Mini and the better colour of E Type and may think you can relax a little as three more minis and a Cortina appear. But no, more Take Off Wheels, this time it's the cover car Camaro and a Pontiac Firebird. Pontiac Firebird? Look back a few pages and you'll see that the Pontiac is joined by a Ferrari Dino and Lamborghini P400GT and a Mini Marcos in the Golden Jacks group. As you'll know now, the Mini Marcos makes it but the others don't.

This really does have the look and feel of an end of an era about it. Despite the excitement about such a great innovation that did actually work very well, a decision was made not to continue with Take Off Wheels but instead switch to Whizzwheels which would better compete in terms of running speed with competitors. There is no mention here, though, of that. But you kind of know something's happening, even in late 1968 when this was printed.

In fact, March 1969 was when the big fire at the Swansea factory destroyed virtually all the company's stock. I can only assume that this, as much as anything, led to a major reconsideration of the models and their future production and features.

An MGC GT is still illustrated in blue and white and shown as 'available later'. The Marlin Rambler appears with its Kayak trailer and is described as 'available separately without kayak or roof-rack' although whether this was in the nice blue and white I still have to discover. In that colour scheme, though are both the Citroen le Dandy Coupe and a Chrysler Imperial-based 'Bermuda' Taxi and a Lincoln Continental. This is a significantly rarer colour for the Citroen and Lincoln and the Chrysler never made it although I have heard reports of the Imperial normal car in blue and white.

Also in blue is the Renault 16 which actually only made it in red with cast wheels! There's a DAF City car shown with ordinary cast wheels too which never made it in that form. The Ghia L6.4 is still there but now with cast spoke-effect wheels and in the lime-gold colour.

Gift Set 36 is illustrated with a blue Oldsmobile Toronado towing the Glastron speedboat. No mention of Golden Jacks so there will have been a period when both types were on sale. I have #264 Oldsmobile with and without tow bars but all the #276s have tow bars. Oddly, I haven't ever seen a Gift Set 36 with the newer Toronado so I'm not sure quite what the tow bar was for.

There are six pages of Agricultural models, including a full ape for the Combine Harvester but, for the first time and very indicative of the times, no military models at all. Fascinating. All in all these 49 pages tell quite a story that you'd never guess from the cover.