Original Steed brollies and how not to pack a Corgi Gift Set

I seldom win at normal auctions. That is because the amount I am prepared to spend is too low and that is, in turn, due to the extraordinary additions for fees, tax, packing and more tax. A £200 bid turns into an invoice for £348! (30% fee, £30 packing/delivery, 20% VAT). Now £200 might have been a good price, a bargain even, but £348 more often than not isn't. So I do the sums and set a maximum to take account of all this - and lose.

Just occasionally, on a rainy day at some village venue with no internet connection, I am successful and once or twice I do win over the internet just by good fortune. Two of these occasions have been when I've won an Avengers Gift Set, each with the early green Bentley, original boxes in reasonably good condition but lacking the original packing pieces.

Whenever I send this set to customers, whether the models are lovely or chipped or the boxes reproduction or original, I wrap the cars separately and placed away from the box which, itself, is wrapped to prevent damage. I know what damage can be done if this is not done as the first set I won some years ago arrived and I found the box card had been pierced several times by a Bentley mudguard moving around and chips had been made to the white Lotus paintwork.

So on this second occasion I wrote to the auction house and the packing company they recommended, very clearly requesting that they take care to separate the models and the box.

Here's what arrived:

Although they had gone to great lengths to protect the exterior of the box from damage from the outside, I could see as I opened the box that everything was inside the GS40 box. The reason I started taking photos at this point was that I could hear and feel a rattle, movement inside the box, so was already concerned.

Inside the well-wrapped outside packing you can see here that the two models are not where they should be and seem free to move around.

All that had been added to the box were two loosely crumpled pieces of thin white paper, leaving the models plenty of scope for movement.

As it happens the damage was nothing like as much as I had feared. The cars had uprooted Mrs Peel and that had torn the flap where she stands, worn some of the wheel placement holes more than they were before and produced a small chip on a rear mudguard of the Bentley. I also thought that movement had rubbed some paint off the Elan S2 text in the casting but I think that had been deliberately done by the owner. It actually looks quite good and I thought it was a transfer at first, before I looked more closely.

The box appears to have survived. It was already a little worn but has all its flaps and, apart from some possible dents here and there, I cannot really complain about anything in that respect.

I have written to the people concerned and expressed my annoyance that my instructions were not followed and hoping that they'll be more careful when packing similar items again. I'll ask for a little compensation but don't expect much as with models that have been played with it is always difficult, in the absence of good auction house photos for comparison, to show fresh damage.

On a brighter note, I now have three two original umbrellas! 

I had two one before and this set had the third another. It is not at all easy to distinguish originals but I think I can now do so. Replacements are either metal, which are obvious, or plastic and there are two things to look for in the plastic types: the detail in the furling. handle and the tip. Originals have quite fine and detailed furling marks where the material wraps around and the tip is well-shaped. The reproductions I've looked at often have almost no definition and poor finish at the point. Both appear to have remnants of plastic from where they were detached from a sprue. Originals at the top, many reproductions at the bottom.

You will see two originals on the left are quite clearly different under magnification. I have to admit to believing that the third was original too and only now as I study the enlarged images have I realised that is not the case. So I still need one more! (And I must edit the listing I made yesterday.)

Because it is so difficult to distinguish these in a display of a Gift Set I have offered a substantial reduction in the set price for anyone who is content with three reproduction brollies and maybe then I can keep the two until a third appears one day.

 

Corgi Toys @ 60: More Classics, a Commer and the first Monte Carlo Mini

 

It's February 1964 and two more models in the Classics series are added. Two Bentley 3 litres, one red with red wheels, the other in green with steel wheels.

Both have a full length hood which can be detached with a rather strange-looking driver, seemingly covered in white bandages from head to toe. It is the same chap in both the racing edition - the green one with RN3 decals on the front radiator and rear box - and the more sedate-looking red one. The green edition has the Union flag on the passenger door.

These were both initially catalogued as #900 and packed in a flimsy card box, mounted on a card base with a plastic mechanism securing the model to the base. Later, but I do not know when, they were numbered #9001 and #9002 and supplied in much more practical stiff card boxes with separate lids and foam protection.

We shall meet the Bentley again in a few years' time!

Next we have the delightful Mini-Cooper, now in Monte Carlo mode as Corgi celebrates the Mini's success at the 1964 Monte Carlo Rally. It gets a search light on the roof and is the Morris-badged casting as for the 227 model, with two headlamp jewels and a RN37 decal on each door.

There are no variations of this model that I am aware of but I guess there could be some different base types, just as there were with the #227 models.

The final addition to the shelves at your local shop would have been the Commer Ambulance as a complete model #463 and distinguished from that which could have been made with the earlier Gift Set 24 by the base, lacking the device to remove the rear section.

In due course the Milk Float will be issued but the plain Van never gets an issue on its own outside the Gift Set other than as a branded model, 'Hammonds' being the #462 catalogue issue. 

Changing wheels - a few projects to make some models a little better

 

The Ford Cortina MkIII GXL was issued in 1971 with a Graham Hill character holding a football. It came in metallic blue, metallic bronze and a solid mustard colour, the latter being available, remarkably, with both right and left hand drive interiors. The mustard ones are really quite rare and seem to have been exported and not sold in the local toy shop.

One of the blue ones came effectively free with some other models a while ago and was in a very sorry state so I decided to see what it would look like with normal wheels. For me, this is a great improvement!

I need to redo this one day as it needs another coat of paint and even the original didn't have door inserts so they look a bit bare. It did have twin jewelled headlamps and opening doors with tilting seats and is an accurate model of a popular car in those times. The released issue had a black 'vinyl' roof which I may need to add too. More in a while on this project.

Another Whizzwheels model - one that did not need much outward attention - was this lovely Toyota 2000GT, a car that, strangely was not something you could buy from the Toyota store. This was Corgi making good use of the casting for the 336 James Bond model with Aki at the wheel. This car is crying out for the wire wheels to be refitted! So I'll see what I can do as this is a spare with virtually non-existent suspension.

Also available in bright metallic purple!

And, on the subject of making Whizzwheel models look better, here's another look at the much-improved Bentley I created last year.

A Bentley 1927 3 Litre in Pewter

 

This Pewter Edition Bentley 1927 3 Litre arrived in a bundle of Corgi Classic models a few days ago. I was surprised to find that it appears to be an exact copy of the 1965 Corgi model in virtually every respect. 

Even the seats and windscreen are produced in pewter metal. I might have preferred the windscreen left as a piece of perspex but at least this one is less likely to break! The wheels turn too and, again, might have been better left as the nice wire variety with rubber tyres of the original models. It is, though, obviously not something to be played with but an item to be displayed in a cabinet.

I cannot find a great deal about this online. Some information appears to identify it as a Corgi premier Collection model that was produced for mail order in 1989. Another source suggests that it had a limited production run of 800, using the casting tools for the 1985 C861 editions.

This could be the highlight of someone's Corgi Bentley 1927 3 Litre collection but I have no idea what price to ask. I simply have never seen anything like this before. Were there other Premier Collection models? How were they packed? Information gratefully received from anyone who recognises this. Looking at the lack of response that similar requests have had over the years on the few places Google found for me, however, I am not expecting a flood of replies!

The Avengers: Toy Trap

As well as being the title of a 1961 episode of the classic TV series, there are certainly traps that some people may lure you into in connection with these toys. The Gift Set 40 is a wonderful presentation of John Steed in a 3 Litre 1927 Bentley and Mrs Emma Peel standing next to a Lotus Elan S2.

Three black folded brollies complete the scene with which I am sure all collectors are very familiar.

Above are illustrated two sets which I can vouch for as being totally original and unchanged since they were first bought in 1966 when they were first sold. They came out a couple of years after the 9001/2 Bentleys and I have often wondered whether their conception had been at a committee meeting to decide what to do with what might have been a large stock of unsold classic Bentleys.

Having said that, the green Bentley issued was a distinctly different shade to that of the 9001 issue. Both the red and green also had a change of wheel, the red 9002 getting steel or slightly gold-tinted wheels and the green sporting extraordinary red wheels. Now, you might be tempted to assume that Corgi simply put the steel wheels from the 9001 on the red set Bentley and the red ones from the 9002 on the green one. The steel wheels were pretty ubiquitous, accepted, but the red ones are a different, brighter colour and that still doesn't account for the noticeably gold-tinted wheels. Furthermore, the 9002 model invariably seems to have a quite gold-coloured radiator surround and lights which does not seem to have made its way through to sets which I believe are all showing the silver colour, whether red or green Bentley body.

There is a third and very scarce Bentley.

This time it is green but with black mudguards and running board. I have only just acquired this one (and the box illustrated here is a reproduction that I have put the original models in) but I have been aware of its existence for many years.

original rivets intact

Side by side with a 9001 - interior identical

This is not, as many people will think, the 9004 World of Wooster edition. That has a dark grey, not black section that provides the running boards and mudguards. It is also a quite different shade of green and the most obvious difference if those are missed will be the fact that the 9004 has a red interior, not brown as all the Gift Set 40 models do. Amusingly, someone had moaned at the seller of this model and said that it was a 9004 and this had led the seller to include the other person's remarks! This seems to have put off other bidders and I was able to win this at quite a modest price, thanks to the person who likes to criticise listings.

It may have been the same person who wrote to me about a set I had for sale last week. It was clearly described as featuring an adapted green Bentley and not an original component but I guess he had just seen the pictures and fired off the missive telling me that the green Bentley could only have red wheels. I replied to the effect that, whilst the vast majority of Gift Set 40 green Bentleys will have had red wheels, I was selling a set that I knew Avengers fans liked and was not trying to pretend it was original. I also made the point that on a Friday afternoon shift we could never be sure, and Corgi production managers could never be sure, quite what may have been popped into the box! I am sure there will have been occasions when the supply of the 'correct' green / red or red/ gold Bentleys dried up some green/steel or even red/red that happened to be lying around may have been used to make up the numbers. Speaking to a lady who did work there in the 1960s and remembers some of the antics that they got up to and the lack of quality control some evenings, I am surprised these sets and others had such consistent contents as they did!

Incidentally, that set had been sold by the time I replied and the new owner has taken the trouble to say how delighted he is with it.

This latest set, however, will probably not find a buyer just yet as the Bentley has a chunk missing from the end of the offside front mudguard. I have a piece that can be used but need to figure out how to attach it as neatly as possible. I did want to bring this to the attention of collectors, though, so in the meantime, some black tape is holding it together! It will appear in my store but at a pretty silly price as I'd like to hang on to this one until another with an intact mudguard appears.

The rest of the car is excellent and unmarked. The rivet has not been tampered with and the rest is entirely as it should be. The Lotus is very good but has a few chips at one corner. I added HNK 999C registration plates to it. Steed and Mrs Peel are, of course, both original as I felt they should be to accompany such an unusual set.

As I write this it occurs to me that I mentioned an episode title from 1961. But a C registration Elan would have been from 1965. Mrs Peel did not appear until late 1965, when Diana Rigg entered our screens. That explains that. I have no idea what her predecessors drove. That's something else I shall research one day - and whether there are relevant Corgi models.

Better Bentley

Still lacking a passenger seat back, but looking a lot better than in pink with the very ugly Whizzwheels.

The original Whizzwheels base has excellent suspension, using wires, harking back to the Renault Floride days. That's probably the only thing it had that was better than the Rolls Royce with Golden Jacks. It's not easy putting these things back together with more than two hands often required. The finish on this one isn't that great so I'll see what I can do with the next one. A definite improvement on a pink wreck, though.

The tyres are Land Rover size and suit the car much better than the normal size. This really does seem to be a good example of a 'Corgi-That-Never-Was-But-Should-Have-Been'.

Bentley bits

​This was a pink Bentley! It was quite difficult to take apart and I am going to have trouble putting it back together again. But I have plenty of time. ​There is a missing part on a front seat but I can add that later, after it has been re-built as and when I find another.

The body is beginning to look good in the new colour, a far more suitable colour for such a grand car. 

And, of course, the Whizzwheels have gone! They were terrible! Interestingly, the window unit has the inscription Rolls Royce. The two models are identical apart from paintwork, interior colour and grille.

The grille is actually a separate piece of metal that fits into the main front chrome unit with the double jewelled lights. In this picture it is in place but it comes out easily and could be replaced by the Rolls one, which has an emblem, unlike this Bentley. I was going to buy another wreck that had decent chrome but I have discovered that the front and rear sections are metal and seem to polish up well. A bit more work required but I shall stick with the original parts after all as they seem to come back to life quite nicely.

This was an early edition. Later editions of the Rolls Royce lose the quarter light window on the doors. I don't think the Bentley lasted long enough to get the change but I need to check that. 

Although this one gets 'normal' shaped wheels, I might see if I can find a Rolls base one day with the Golden Jacks as those wheels do suit this model well. Only around for such a short time in 1970, though, the Rolls Royce 273 model is quite scarce (but still at a reasonable price in most places - except for the very rare metallic blue and silver version).

I will post a photo of the finished Bentley when I manage to put it back together.

New arrivals in April

In an attempt to raise some money to buy some of the more expensive items on my Wanted List I make only a small apology for using the News blog to display some of the models still available that have arrived on my desk during the month.

466 B £45

205 A £80

238 D £35

9001 + box A / B £60

9002 + box A / B £54

214M B £95

490 C £40

1148 B £100

GS36 A / B+ £220

1161 B £42

900 + box A / B £60

1109 £75

1160 B+ £30

418 B- £20

322 B+ £80

359 B £45

210S B- £160

417S D £30

438Quake-Up! C+ £30

322 (near copy) R £49

318 A £50

383 B+ £25

308 B £50

277 B+£80

241 C+ £50

348  B £75

348  B £80

200 B £55

GS22 (part) B / C+ £110

For full details of any item in stock can be found in my store or just get in touch. The condition estimate letters range from A (near mint) to E (suitable for parts or repair only). R means it is not original.

Prices include UK postage. Items can be posted abroad - just ask for the rates. Payment can be made by PayPal, bank transfer or cash in an envelope. Ask for details. 

Subject to availability as these are also listed at various stores on-line.