Corgi toys @ 60: A bus, a Buick, two giraffes and a Driving School car

 

June 1964 was a busy month for your local Corgi toy store.

Chipperfields Circus fans had something they'd need to collect when Corgi found yet another use for the Bedford cab casting and added a large and small giraffe to the box as well. This would later appear with the bigger truck-type wheels as well as getting a change of colour for the Big Daktari set many many years later. An odd little model that would stick around for ages, #508 Bedford Giraffe Transporter.

This was the month when a double decker bus would appear on many of our layouts and displays. #468 would be around about as long as the Giraffe Transporter. The first issue was the one with the Corgi banners and normal shaped free-spinning wheels. Whilst most of the world got the red London bus, Australians got a three-coloured #468, a very hard to find model now on this side of the planet, and probably there too.

In future years the red edition would get cast wheels and a whole host of other banners, the most common one being Outspan Oranges. It would retain the two jewelled lights for many years too, losing them at around the time that Whizzwheels get fitted but you will find editions with and without them but still with cast wheels. The lady conductor stays until the later Whizzwheels days too. 

A big favourite at the time was the Austin A60 Driving School motor, #236. You could steer this, with proper steering as on the Bentley and Mercedes, far superior to the swivelling axle affair that Dinky made, and it made a great toy. You really could 'drive' it, although preferably on hard surfaces rather than thick carpet as it had one of the smallest ground clearance of any Corgi Toy! The small wheels and the room needed to house the steering mechanism meant that the bottom of the car more or less scraped along the road and the poor suspension at the front didn't help.

That big red thing on the roof did look a bit ridiculous but worse was to come in future years with Corgi's Driving School motors.

Here in the UK we got the RHD version in pale blue and it was some considerable time later that I discovered that most of the rest of the world were getting a darker blue edition, #255, with left hand drive!

Lastly, June 1964 sees a real classic Corgi issue - the beautiful Buick Riviera. The previous American motor had been the Chevrolet Sting Ray in August 1963 so it was a big thing to have another remarkable looking model on the shelves. We also get those lovely spoked wheels again and lots of chrome and wonderful lights! Well, Trans-o-lite lights, that is. This time we get them not only at the front but red ones at the back too with the inside of the car hidden by the interior probably filled with pieces of plastic tubing. This was such a cool idea and we would spend ages hold our fingers over the panels back or front to turn off then on the lights. Nothing opened on the car but we didn't mind. It had nice soft suspension and felt like it was going really fast as it was pushed along.

First #245 issues were in pale solid blue and metallic gold. Later we would see metallic blue, all with spoked wheels until the later 1960s when cast wheels started to be fitted. It will be mostly the metallic blue or a more turquoise shade that gets the cast wheels. Gold models with cast wheels are to be found too, although not as common but the real surprise for me was to find some pale blue models with them too. They are definitely scarce.

All the Buicks had a grey plastic towbar. The first issues had a complex-looking 'grab' type which, in theory, could attach itself to tow something by reversing up to it. That was replaced at some fairly early point with a button style, used on several other models too, and less prone to getting damaged. Many models lose their hooks as there was not a great deal that the Buick could tow at the time. There would be a Riviera Gift Set in December but if you only wanted the boat and trailer you'd have to wait until this time next year! As a consequence, many hooks got bent, broken or deliberately removed as the car looked so much nicer without one!

There are also a few around with gold grille and bumpers and, in this instance, probably a factory sample in a much deeper metallic shade.

Corgi Model Club: Austin A60 Corgi Motor School

 

The Corgi Model Club's release for April 2024 is something even us oldies will not be able to resist playing with! It's the Austin A60 De Luxe Saloon as the Corgi Driving School car complete with the enormous red thing on top which is not really like anything I remember seeing on driving school cars in those days but it does serve the purpose of allowing us the steer the car around our layout roads.

It was nearly 60 years ago, in June 1964,  when the original was released and it was very popular. We had had steering on the Bentley and Mercedes-Benz 220SE, far superior to anything that Dinky could offer, but this was one further step forward.

The re-issue is excellent and nothing strikes me as incorrect other than the prefect painting by Chinese children. The pleasantly pale blue colour is spot on and every aspect looks great. It even has the poor suspension at the front and very low ground clearance which, with the small wheels, made use on anything other than a smooth surface hard work.

The L plates are transfers not stickers and are exceedingly cleaner than any I have ever encountered! The letter L also looks slightly taller than it should be, or perhaps it is positioned closer to the edge and Corgi logo than on an original. I do not have an original to hand but it doesn't look quite right to me. These are minor points and do not detract from the overall excellence of this issue.

When I decided to spend a little money rebuilding my own collection in 2012 I knew nothing about Ebay and the only place I thought I might be able to buy models was the NEC, where model toy events were held from time time. I visited one with a friend and this Austin A60 was one of the first two models I bought. An original in very good condition but no box cost me £25. The other model, incidentally, was a Bentley Continental in black over silver, excellent and with a decent box but I paid a crazy £225 for that! But that's another story. I eventually discovered more reasonable prices.

In the box with this model you will find two chunks of plastic foam to protect the bonnet and boot and the car itself is wrapped in a larger piece of thin soft paper. There is a single-sided sheet with instructions how to steer the model and another with red highlighting, entitled the Corgi Junior Highway Code, with some examples of how to do something, just like was illustrated in the real Highway Code in 1964. There is even a guide to indicate the width of a typical road in the same scale as the model so you could make your driving tests more realistic for activities like three-point-turns and reversing around a corner.

I honestly don't remember seeing these documents when I had mine at the age of 11. I did manage to hang on to most of the boxes in those days but seldom the documents included. 

How long, I wonder, will it be before we see a 255 edition in Left Hand Drive and a darker shade of blue? As I recall, the L boards are in the same position so it is merely a different interior and finish that is required. Of course L may not mean a great deal in other countries other than America and the British Commonwealth but it still sold pretty well abroad from the figures I have read. About 1 million were made of both types and a third were LHD. Despite that number, they're quite hard to find now in the UK in decent condition although I suppose if you have a friend in Europe they'll be able to help.

Bits and pieces: an Austin A60

I think I have finally found a decent 255 Austin A60 in Left Hand Drive form and this should appear here in a while. As it happens, a very poor 236 A60 arrived this morning along with some others I had bought. Often the best buys are when you have a bundle of models - one jewel among the wrecks. Well, this A60 was one of the wrecks and so it needs to be re-built and will eventually re-appear in my Black List.

While the body is sizzling in some caustic soda I thought I would have a look at the components and, remarkably, this one has survived well. The screen cleaned up really well and the suspension arms on the red plastic unit are still pliable and not bent up like so many become. When that happens the car, which already has a very low ground clearance due to its tiny wheels, loses almost all its suspension and scrapes along the ground and cannot handle anything other than the smoothest of surfaces.

So I should be able to make something nice out of this one after all. The mechanism for the steering has the same two posts as the Bentley and Mercedes-Benz where the front wheels are mounted but without the coil springs. The control is quite a sensible and strong post that slides a metal plate from side to side, providing realistic steering.

It is a pity that the external control is such an ugly ashtray affair on the roof. 

Apart from the small wheels, the Corgi model was a great representation of the real car.

Learning to drive on the wrong side of the road in Manocalzati

Three cars on their way to Manocalzati in Italy. Learners in the right hand drive Austin A60 might have a bit of trouble but the old Morris Cowley and Thunderbird look content.

I am still looking for a reasonable first type (single colour) Morris Cowley, by the way. 

Someone else's collection

A collector has asked me to find good homes for his small and varied collection. As he had some very nice Corgis in amongst them I couldn't really refuse but there are also one or two items that I may have to pay someone to take away!

The priciest item will probably be the 339 BMC Mini Cooper S Monte Carlo. I don't know why as it is an odd looking thing with that enormous roof rack but it is in exceedingly good condition and people do seem to like minis.

My personal tip would be to get the Austin A60 Driving School car. This is really clean and tidy with almost no flaws and the only dot I can see is probably a factory thing anyway. It may not have a catalogue value as high as some others but you try finding a good one of these that still has some semblance of suspension!

The other Corgis are a beautifully clean and probably A+ rated Mini Marcos GT850 (rare as the paint usually chips when you look at it) but with a D rated box, a pretty nice Saint's Volvo with a nasty side scratch making it a bargain for someone skilled with white paint, a splendid Ghia L6.4 with the scarcer all cream interior and bonnet and boot fittings that would be the star of the show had it not got cracked front and rear windows and, of course, a gold 261 Aston Martin. That's in pretty good condition with a few scratches and a slightly grubby look to the actually clean paint and with all working features.

You can see them all in more detail here and they'll be on Ebay in a while.

One interesting 'other' model is a bright metallic orange Jaguar E Type roadster by a Spanish company called Joal. Apparently they used Tekno moulds and that makes them a bit more sought after. the company has just gone bust, I believe, and had kept going with a respectable range of commercial stuff. The Jaguar is quite an early one with opening everything and, apart from rather thick paint, it is quite appealing. I have no idea what it will sell for. there are one of two available but prices fluctuate widely.

Joal 100 Jaguar E Type + box  £40

339 BMC Mini Coopr S £80

341 Mini Marcos GT850 + box £50

236 Austin A60 £55

241 Ghia L6.4 £15

261 Aston Martin £30

258 The Saint's Volvo P1800 £40

[Prices exclude postage]

On the right side of the road

Finally found a left hand drive Austin A60 #255 which wasn't crazily priced. It isn't in particularly brilliant condition but it all works and fills one more of the few remaining spaces in my list.

The seller had actually advertised this as the normal #236 model and I only spotted it when looking through a page of items for sale that included something else that I was interested in. The distinctive darker shade of blue made me take a chance although I couldn't make out from the photos whether it was LHD for sure but I felt it really had to be.

Some white models on the Black List

Four new items on the Black List at £29 each. Each was a very untidy and messed-up model that I have taken to bits, repainted and put back together again. This time I used white which I needed for the Lotus Elan so carried on spraying that colour with the others. The Land Rover looks quite cool. 

The Lotus will also be offered in one of my alternative sets for The Avengers which I sell for just £120. That includes an original Steed's Bentley in either green or maroon and either the Black List Corgi Lotus or an original Vitesse Lotus, as well as the usual three brollies and Steed and Mrs Peel figures.