Corgi Toys @ 60 Many upgrades and a Lotus-Climax Racing Car

 With Christmas fast approaching, your local Corgi dealer had a huge number of new models available to order. I say 'new' but actually only one was a really new issue. So let's see what's in the December 1964 list.

Nearly new issues #60 and #61 are reworking of the Fordson 'Power Major' Tractor and Plough. The Fordson is very similar to the #55 issue but with headlamps now incorporated within the radiator grille. It also gets better steering and a driver. The plough looks very different from #56, now in blue with chrome-plated shares and it has lost the attachment pieces which were very fiddly to work with before. Now it simply rests on the rear element of the tractor.

Another model that is not really new is the Mercedes-Benz 300SL, issued in both roadster mode as 303S and with a  hard top as 304S. The difference here is the type of wheel. The details published by Corgi talk about the model getting 'spoked' wheels. My experience has been that these models with spoked wheels are extremely scarce. Models with cast spoke effect wheels are not common but definitely much easier to find and it may be that these are what the Corgi information was meant to refer to.

The next 'nearly new' release this month 60 years ago is #309, the Aston Martin Competition Model. It's the 218 model with a fresh turquoise-green and cream paint finish, jewelled headlamps and flags on the bonnet.

The first editions had an open vent on the bonnet. Racing number decals were put on the doors and could be 1,3 or 7. Later editions had a closed vent.

Another existing model revised is the Minivan, #450. This is the Police Minivan from a few months earlier now as just the van. Always in an accurate for the time but rather dull shade of green this can be found with three variations of the treatment of the grille. The 'correct' and normal edition has the simple van style of grille in the same colour as the rest of the van. Variations are models with silver paint on the grille and those where the Austin Countryman grille has been inserted. This has a different window unit which does not have the rear cross-hatched section of the Police version. It also does not stay in production for long enough to get cast wheels.

There may be variations in the text on the base MINI VAN and MINI-VAN.

Two gift sets were issued in December 1964.

Gift Set16 now has three racing cars with suspension, 150S, 152S and 154 replacing the previous content. The box and packing remains the same and I think the Ecurie Ecosse transporter itself is the same. It does get a lighter blue finish and different colour interior but I doubt that coincides with the upgrade of the set.

The Riviera Gift Set 31 does introduce a new model and that's the Dolphin Boat on its Wincheon Trailer. The boat doesn't appear on its own until 1965. The set features a Buick Riviera towing the Boat on a red trailer with a Captain at the wheel of the boat and a girl on a surfboard being pulled along behind the boat.

The Boat and trailer seems never the change but you'll find different Buicks in the set. Most of the original 1964 sets had a solid pale blue Buick with spoked wheels and this would have had a 'clutch' type of hook which grabs the tow ring of the trailer. Later editions have a different 'button' style of hook and there metallic blue or, much later metallic turquoise-blue models were used with cast wheels. A solid pale blue Buick with cast wheels would be a very scarce variety to find.

The girl is always wearing a red swimsuit in the original sets but replacements with a blue swimsuit are available. The 'rope' is a thin black plastic, similar to that sued for the Police Minivan a few months earlier and just as difficult to affix.

Finally a really new issue! This is the Lotus-Climax Formula 1 Racing Car. Whilst I have seen one of these with RN2 decals it is my view that this would be a factory sample or something someone has changed. The normal model has RN1 decals and will always be in British Racing Green with a driver with blue helmet. The tyres at the front are normal car size but those at the rear are bigger 'Land Rover' type.

Late model differences

 

A 413 Mobile Butchers Shop came this week and prompted me to write about the small but important differences that you may find in models issued at the very end of their production period. The Karrier is a great example as it must have looked so dated on the shelves in 1964 and to discover that there was actually one of these old things with suspension was quite a surprise a year or so ago when I first found one. I now see that there is a reference to 413S in some Corgi documents although the boxes still read 413. This is certainly a rarity.

Another scarce one is this 210S Citroën DS19. It seems that Corgi decided to continue to produce these after having adjusted the casting for the 1965 Monte Carlo version to provide holes for the four small jewelled fog lamps. Instead of fitting jewels, though, we get some bright metal blobs instead. I have seen these fetch £150 or more at auctions but they do seem to appear regularly and maybe are not as scarce as I had originally thought. I now have four in stock although this latest addition is by far the best. Interestingly, only these models with the fog lamps have free-spinning wheels.

Free-spinning wheels are the difference on this late edition 223 Chevrolet Impala. It was a popular model, the very first Impala issued, in fact. and stayed in production for a long time before being sliced in half for the MkII version. Shortly before that some models got free-spinning wheels fitted but these are not at all as common as you might expect.

Corgi started fitting the shaped wheel in place of the smooth wheel in 1961 and some of the later editions of the 207 Standard Vanguard had them fitted. They also made another change that people may not have noticed, however, and that was in how the red paint now only covered the roof, not the pillars. Although shaped fixed wheels are less common on many models from this period (205, 209, 213, 214, 215 and 216 can be found, and 210 is common) only the 207 had this additional change.

Whilst late Buick Rivieras with cast wheels in metallic blue are quite common, and you find a few gold versions too, the pale blue Buick with cast wheels is very rare.

Wheels, again, are the thing to look for on the innocent and ancient-looking Jeep FC-150. This long-running model first appeared with fixed smooth wheels and the vast majority that you'll come across will have fixed wheels of one type or the other. Very few do exist, though, with free-spinning wheels and are worth picking up when you do see them as it is not something that sellers will realise is rare at all.

The penultimate one for now is the maroon Rover 2000 with cast wheels. Together with the equally rare gold Hillman Imp with cast wheels, it was produced for a Car Transporter Gift Set 41/48 which also featured the more common grey Ford Cortina Estate, Morris Mini Minor and Mini-Coopers all with cast wheels. Incidentally, a blue Cortina with cast wheels is also a desirable model.

Here is the Hillman Imp, which I had omitted from the article when first published.

There are, of course, many more models I could write about in a similar vein. I may return to this topic in another post. If you have any particularly interesting and rare late variations do let me know.

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 - a magnificent Mini Magnifique

 

The Corgi Club have really excelled themselves this time. Their reproduction is fabulous and, so far, I cannot fault it.

They have chosen the metallic blue edition which is my favourite of the two original colours issued. This is model #334 and was issued in a window box with a header card included in the design rather than as a separate insert. This has been very well copied, including the slightly awkward folds at each end of the tray! The model sits firmly in its place and there is no protective included this time anywhere.

This is an intricate model with everything opening and closing, and quite precise chrome elements. they looked good in the original model and, with new production techniques, are possibly even better now, with super grille and bumper corners as well as the strip running around the wheel arches and sills. I remember that this seldom stayed in place for long on the real Minis that I knew!

You'll see that the headlamps still have a rather too plastic-looking 'jewels', although I have to say that on this example one 'jewel' is remarkably better than the other, which makes me wonder whether they have found a new supplier or changed to something that looks more like the glass of the original, this one getting one of the new ones and one of the old ones.

One of the features which did cause trouble with the original is the boot. Often difficult to open or, in some cases, difficult to close. This new model does present a minor challenge and there is a knack to making opening successful by pressing in at the bottom to create a small gap which you may then, large fingers permitting, use to pull the top down. Mine worked well, if a little stiff, but I have read reports of people having trouble with this again.

The little cast wheels are super and look exactly right. I haven't counted the 'spokes' yet. I think this is the first Club model with this style of wheel. (No, the Ambulance had these, although they were larger).

The Corgi Model Club used the version with narrower stripes in the sliding roof which I believe to be the more commonly seen. There is a version of the original which has thicker stripes but I have only seen this in metallic green to date.

All in all, a great reproduction.

The Corgi Model Club: Buick Riviera

 

Here is the Model Club's latest issue, the beautiful Buick Riviera, first seen in June 1964. 

Once again, this is a superb reproduction and I struggled to find any difference other than the shade of paint and the slightly larger and very bright axle ends, which were all I could see at first. In the box there is now a piece of thin foam which should protect the car from rubbing in the box, a problem which several people have mentioned happening to some earlier models left free to wobble around on their way from China. There is also a useful chunk pf foam that is shaped to prevent the hook damaging the end flaps. As well as the certificate, you also get a reproduction of the small illustration of how the 'lights' work, something which is invariably missing from originals these days.

On closer inspection it dawned on me that the air vents at the rear of the bonnet are much more clearly defined than on the original models. Most of mine have paint that is thicker and does not show the separate grille elements at all. One or two pale blue models do have the feint indications of a grille but nothing like the preciseness of the new one.

Everything about this model seems right. It was a delight to own back in '64 and I am just as pleased now. It was always one of my Corgi favourites. The suspension seldom caused any trouble, the super spoked wheels were something special - the Buick Riviera was the first  model that we would have had them on - and, of course, we could have fun with the lights not only at the front but at the back too. (The Chevrolet Sting Ray did have spoked wheels but they came after it had been out for a while with shaped wheels. The Buick had them from the start.)

Congratulations and thanks again to the Corgi model Club team for a splendid production. I had told them about the tyres being technically wrong as editions with wire wheels would have had the earlier 'pre-1967' style but I have to say that I didn't notice when it arrived so it is hardly a matter for complaint and, of course, it is simple to change them if I really feel like it. But then this would no longer be the 'original' reproduction, if that makes any sense! No, I'll leave them as they are.