New arrivals and fond memories

 

Here are some of the recent additions to my shelves, all from the best Corgi Toys era and each provides a fond memory of the layout that I was fortunate to have at home in the mid 1960s, which would have had all of these at one time or another. When my brother went to start his apprenticeship with Bamfords in Uttoxeter, a small spare room became available. My dad cut a piece of hardboard to fit over the iron bed frame occupying half the room. On this huge space I could mark out roads with Floral Garden fences and pathways and place Bayko houses and garages here and there. I remember how much better this was for driving models like the Mercedes-Benz 220SE, VW1200 and Austin A60 which struggled on carpet due to their very low ground clearance.

Whilst I managed to build up a monstrous pile of Bayko bits and pieces, the Floral Garden items were much too expensive. The few trees and flowers did look lovely, though, but I never did get enough for a good display. I still have the Bayko pieces, and sets do come along from time to time at quite reasonable prices. Floral Garden items are also available but, with one or two exceptions, can be very expensive as you need several items of the right sort to make a useful contribution to a display.

The scarcer blue and white edition of the beautiful #259 Citroen 'Le Dandy' Coupé, in excellent condition and with a lovely original box too.

The #477 Land Rover breakdown Truck, indistinguishable from #417S other than it now gets a big, plastic canopy. This example is in excellent condition.

I finally got round to removing the old transfers, which had been printed with an annoying white background and never looked right, and applying some much better ones to this maybe a little worn but otherwise original 'Pop Art' Mini.

A nice, clean Gift Set 40 with original models and characters in an excellent reproduction box and tray.

A very clean early #210 Citroen DS19

A lovely example of the scarcer cream edition of the #200 Ford Consul.

A rare #252 Rover 2000 with cast wheels from a late Transporter Gift set.

One of my favourites - the Mercedes 220SE in black, as first issued with steering as model #230

A nice late edition of the #222 Renault Floride in metallic blue with a red interior and free spinning wheels

A very good example of the first #303S Mercedes-Benz Roadster with free-spinning smooth wheels and a white interior, a scarce variant.

A working #1401 Service Ramp which is pretty much unmarked. This was issued in April 1958 and did not sell particularly well, being discontinued a couple of years later. It was brought into the Corgi range as it had previously been a Mettoy branded product in red back in the 1950s.

I also now have here in England some marvellous US Army models which I shall feature in the next post.

Corgi Toys @ 60: lots of valuable issues (if you had the early ones for Christmas!)

A huge number of new issues arrived in the shops in December 1965! I'll list them in catalogue number order, starting with the second appearance of the #242 Fiat 600 Jolly Ghia. It has lost the roof and comes only in a solid but cheerful yellow. Now with two people and a Corgi dog on the back seat too. 

This was not a particularly popular model and the attempt to make a few more sales from the casting was not very successful and it was quietly withdrawn from dealers' order forms after a few months. Really quite hard to find now.

Next is #256, the VW 1200 in East African Safari trim. This was a great model and something I was delighted to play with as it had really good steering operated by a spare wheel on the roof. So much more realistic-looking than the Austin A60 had been and with better ground clearance from the normal size wheels as well! The model came with a baby rhino about to attack the car on a pleasant scenic tray. The sticker on the bonnet was inclined to lift off but that didn't really bother me and I was more keen on things like the jewelled headlights and opening engine compartment at the rear and bonnet at the front. There was no space to carry anything so they seldom did get opened. I was also impressed by the use of a lovely bright silver base-plate to incorporate attractive bumpers and, remarkably, rear mudguards too!

The first issue was left hand drive but you will also find this in right hand drive form. There is also a very later edition where the jewelled lights have been replaced by rather tedious silver blobs. That's not an easy find either.

You may be beginning to see a trend here in these December 1965 issues.

Next is another casting re-use in the form of #325 Ford Mustang 2+2 Fastback Competition Model. Corgi have added bright red stripes and a coat of white paint to the lovely #320 model and it gets a fresh lease of life. There was a set of peel off numbers in the box but the RN2 shown here is not at all common. Nor are the very early models with shaped wheels as illustrated here.

This model can be found with the fullest range of wheels of any Corgi. First it had shaped wheels but only for a very limited time before wire wheels were fitted. Then detailed cast wheels appeared, the ones with fine spokes, before a chunkier style of 8-spoke cast wheel started to be fitted and, just to add more for a complete collection, these came in a gold finish as well as the plain cast silver-grey colour. Finally some wire wheel models had a red sill added! (The Corgi Model Club made a mistake in adding the red sill to their chunky 8-spoke wheel version.)

You will also have fun seeking out the different interiors. Whilst there was no Corgi dog in this issue, the interior was initially the same as was being fitted to the #320. Later the interior is redesigned and you'll find both chalky blue and chalky green versions.

Next on the list for December 1965 is the #468 London Bus, identical to the original issue other than its advertising which now features Outspan Oranges and this will be the most common version of the #468 model.

Later this will get cast wheels, lose its jewelled headlights and then Whizzwheels as well as a wide range of other advertising banners, some of which are hard to find now. Look out for transition models which have cast wheels but no jewels.

Another re-use of a casting is the Citroen Safari model which is basically the same as the January 1964 issue, also #475, but now Corgi Ski Club stickers replace the 1964 Winter Olympics ones.

The skiing character is the same, as are the skis and ski poles. You will find red and yellow with both #475 models. For a change, that's the only variation!

Now for another 'new' model that isn't really new at all. The #477 is identical to the later issues of the  #417S Land Rover Breakdown Truck apart from the new plastic canopy fitted to this one, replacing the tin affair that had been fitted since the #417 was issued way back in 1960.

This another of Corgi's very long-running editions and stays in the catalogue for many years, getting cast wheels, transfers instead of stickers and, of course, Whizzwheels in the 1970s.

Something else with some play value was the #478 Jeep FC-150, although this is yet another re-working of an existing model. The same Jeep in red and lacking suspension or interior was available as Gift Set 14 in 1961. Now the lamp standard has gone but the character still remains (for a while).

The boom can be found in painted silver, plain metal silver and also gold-coloured metal. There is a variation with a red interior and the wheels become cast later in its long life, although it never gets Whizzwheels, oddly enough.

Two more very simple adaptations prolong the life of a couple of other old models. The #1110 Mobilgas Tanker was first seen in 1959 with the Big Bedford cab. All Corgi have done is add the new Bedford TK cab and changed the number to #1140.

The same trick was done with the #1129 1962 Milk Tanker.

Add a Bedford TK cab and call it #1141. Corgi didn't even change the trailer component. Well, they may have changed the coverage of the light blue colour on the tanker towards the rear but, as it is so simple to swap things over, I cannot be absolutely sure. #1129 models seem all to have the blue colour all the way along the lower half whereas the #1141 stops in a 90° corner.

Both these models had very short period of availability for dealers to order and are hard to find now - but do beware of an old rear section hitched to a new front one. With the Milk Tanker, that's not so easy as the 'milk' blue is not the same as the other blues used for the cab. The red for the Mobilgas Tanker, though, is more readily switched.

Finally, for 1965, you could have been one of the first to have bought a Gift Set 32, the #53 Massey Ferguson Tractor with Shovel attachment and driver, towing the #62 Tipper Trailer (with raves) issued in February. The #53 is the last of the shovel attachment types in all bare metal.

This is yet another hard to find item now and a valuable Gift Set when in good condition with its original, nicely illustrated box and display.

If you had been lucky enough to get this lot, as shown here (apart from the late #256) in your Christmas Stocking (well, you'd have need a pillow-case!) then your parents might have forked out 87/2d (that's 4pounds, 7 shillings and 2 pence). Now, however, you'd be able to sell them for £1500 if you' d managed to keep everything nice and original, as well as the boxes, of course. (For reference, inflation between 1965 and 2025 would make the original price around £120 in today's buying terms. So definitely an inflation-busting investment that you could also have had a lot of enjoyment from - on the carpet in the 1960s and in cabinets in the 2020s (and probably the loft in the years in between!)

The Curious 700 range.

The 1974 Corgi Catalogue had a couple of odd additions, a 'Motorway Service Ambulance' and an 'Inter-City Mini-Bus', with catalogue numbers 700 and 701 respectively. Issued in February 1974, these are a curious thing to arrive just as Corgi are going 1:36. (The Breakdown Truck, 702, shown above appears in April 1975.)

These have no make and resemble nothing on our roads at the time or, for that matter, at any time. They're a big ugly with design features I cannot even imagine even the worst of vehicle designers in the 1970s coming up with and the scale is strange. The steering wheel on the Mini-Bus is tiny, half the size of the one in a normal 1:43 Corgi but they're not Junior size either. They have no suspension. The wheels are the ubiquitous 'four crowns' style Whizzwheel of the day but they are not branded as 'Whizzwheels'. Quite where they were intended to fit in the range I have no idea.

The Mini-Bus had two variations - a white or brown interior.

It is clear that these models do not in any way sit comfortably with anything else in the Corgi range, as is amusingly illustrated by this illustration from their 1978 catalogue!

702, a breakdown truck with the same front end as teh Ambulance and 703, a Hi-Speed Fire Engine with a similar front end to the Mini-Bus, would appear in 1975 and, in December 1976 a Security Van comes along with the same front end as the Ambulance but with a number 424. From what I can see these six models are a group of their own. But I have not a clue as to the point of making them.

They are most certainly not Corgi at their best and really would be best forgotten. I have only acquired them because I thought they were 1:43 or thereabouts and had only put off adding them to my catalogue because they looked so awful in the pictures. Now I see that I probably don't need to add them in at all (but I probably will).

The entire range of these oddities can still be purchased for a song today as they are not very popular.