Transition and export edition in 1971

 

Two lovely models arrived from Germany today. Each illustrates how the words transition and export edition add massively to the value of a Corgi model. And they each happen to come from the same era around 1971.

I now have two of the 'transition' 387 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray models available. Both are the metallic blue colour. I have still to find one in pink, the one in my collection just having the rather sad 'blobs' in the holes

One is now for sale, therefore. A very scarce item and in superb condition with both plastic roof panels in place.

From my friend in Germany also comes this super VW 1200 ADAC edition, only available as an export edition in some European countries for a short period in 1971. This one is in very nice condition and has all the original stickers, which have usually fallen off or become damaged over the last 50 years! 

Both these models arrived today and, despite having the dreaded Whizzwheels, will find a place in my display cabinet!

Surfing in Cornwall, a Circus in Surrey and a Marina in Wales.

Luxulyan sounds like it ought to be in some exotic place like Burma or Paraguay but it is actually a Cornish village. The delightful little Austin Mini Countryman has arrived, complete with surf boards but not the slightly scary-looking surfer. Cornwall has some smart surfing spots so it is sort of the right place to go and, although Luxulyan is inland, nowhere in Cornwall is far from the sea.

Tadworth welcomes Chipperfields Circus with Gift Set 19 and the Horse Transporter having plenty of room in the leafy Surrey outskirts of town. These were boxed items from a Derbyshire collector - the models being in super condition but the boxes had suffered a bit over the years. Either that or the elephant and six horses had been tucking into the flaps!

Now, much of Wales is beautiful but this little Wrexham street doesn't show the nation's scenery at its best. The bright lime green metallic paint on the old Marina does, however, brighten up the place a bit! Yes, Corgi did make a Morris Marina. They probably regretted it later, especially with those awful Whizzwheels! I am trying imagine a child in 1971, walking into a toy shop clutching 50p and choosing to walk out with this in a bag rather than a Porsche 911 Targa which was the same price and new on the shelves that year too.

An extra 6p would have got him a Beach Buggy and Sailing Boat Gift Set 26 (which, incidentally, I am still trying to find for myself forty five years later!)

To be honest, there wasn't a great deal of choice in one of the bad years for Corgi. 1971 was the year of ridiculous dragsters, the dreadful Ford Mustang 'Organ Grinder', the appalling Mercedes C111 and thickly orange painted Bond Bug as well as strangely sized models of a Marcos Mantis and the DAF City Car, which might have been management's way of preparing kids for the 1:36 stuff that would appear the following summer. 1971 did see the lovely Citroen SM emerge to rescue the Corgi image a little but it had to compete with Basil Brush's horrid adaptation of the #9031 Renault 12/16.

Writing this I think I might take a look at each Corgi year. That would be a nice way to mark their 60th Anniversary, especially if I stick to the best of each year's releases!

The 1970s were very orange

I've added numbers for all the models featured on the cover of the 1971-2 Catalogue. Note that the only non-Whizzwheel survivors at that time were the Mini (in dark red-purple), the Bubble Car (why??) and the everlasting Batmobile, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and the illustrated James Bond Aston Martin still has spoked wheels and tyre slashers.

161-6 are dreadful dragster models (165 isn't shown) which I really didn't want to include in my lists and certainly din't want to spend money acquiring. 163 is a revision of the Capri, making three versions around at this time and 166 is a disastrous wreck of the ancient Ford Mustang that used to be so cool. So those two will get into stock lists and I hope I can find a really cheap model of each for stock. The dragsters, though, I shall ignore and treat like the aeroplanes and other odd stuff so don't ask me any questions about them!

Following my previous musings on when to stop, I have now got lists of everything issued by Corgi from Marcel Van Cleemput's Great Book of Corgi and Andrew Wood's great summaries at Little Wheels. As so many casts were re-used in later years it seems sensible to take things up to the end of 1:43 scale. Ignoring farm machinery and commercial oddments, that would appear to add just one in 1974 (yet another VW Beetle!) and three in 1973 (Lamborghini, Datsun and Capri) as well as several more from 1972.

I have already included the later 1:43 versions of the James Bond Aston Martin and Toyota 2000GT in my stock lists and this will bring in the red Mustang #291 from 1972 and I may have to consider later versions of that. There have been many later 1:43 models but not until much later and after the listings I've got expire in 1983 so I think I can safely regard them as a whole new venture for another day.

I do finally have something approaching a complete catalogue to work to now. I had been worried about just what extending past 1969/70 would bring and there had been some sense in stopping at Whizzwheels, i.e. not including any, but the extra 56 cars is a manageable number and it will be quite fun tracking some down, looking variations and seeing how cheaply I can get the awful ones.

I shall add an on-line list in a separate post as it is likely to be something people find useful without wanting to read through all my ramblings on the topic.

The 1970s were very orange.