Corgi Model Club - the other Cadillac Superior Ambulance

 

You will remember that the Model Club issued their version of #437 quite a while ago in August 2022. That was the later version with cast wheels and the second system for operation of the lights.

I think they had probably decided to make that version because the early system may well have been pretty fiddly to reproduce and still not functioned very well. So that was a sensible decision and meant that they could continue to claim to be reproducing the original models as closely as they could. 

The red and cream issue that is now available retains the later system that was fitted to the blue and white model. So, for the organisation, this entails just a few fairly simple changes and will be somewhat more profitable as a result. It's really just a change of finish and new decals and wheels, plus what look to be different coloured tubes for the small lights.

Corgi Toys @ 60: An ambulance, lights, new cab and a long-lived horse transporter

October 1962 sees the arrival of two new models on the local toy shop shelves, a Chipperfields Horse Transporter and a dramatic-looking American ambulance.

The Horse Transporter is the Corgi Majors model 1130 featuring the new Bedford TK cab with its nice wing mirrors and suspension. This would be the first appearance of this cab, later to be linked with a whole range of old and new trailers. The cab is always red and the trailer is in Chipperfield colours. The upper section is rather cheaply produced in plastic, something else new for Corgi.

Inside the trailer are six white horses, each carefully separated by cardboard in the original packing. The whole model sits on a tray and there is a familiar piece of white corrugated card wrapped around the sides and roof in the outer thin card box.

The trailer has suspension and you'll see this again, many years later in 1973, in green and yellow in a Racing Horse Transporter 1004, still with a Bedford TK cab (but the economy version without mirrors), and again, attached to a Berliet cab in 1976 in brown and white. That's 14 years for the trailer casting with just a change of paint and plastic colour.

The ambulance was billed as a 'Superior Ambulance on Cadillac Chassis'. I am assuming that Superior was the brand name of the bodywork conversion people. This is another 'first' for Corgi with the inclusion of a battery in a compartment underneath which powered a 1½ volt bulb and some tubes also conveyed the light to two 'lights' front and another two at the rear. Maybe this gave developers the idea of the 'Trans-o-lite' system and similar use of light via some plastic on a few other vehicles to follow.

This was the first version of the Superior Ambulance. Like the Commer Police Van and Military Police Van to appear later, the rear axle had a cam which pushed a thin piece of copper to complete a circuit and light the bulb. The faster the ambulance ran, the faster the bulb flashed (in theory). In practice, this resulted in the merest flicker when the driving was enthusiastic along the carpet and the connection was often a bit scratchy too, resulting in a less than clear 'flash'.

The system would be updated across the range in a few years with a simple on-off switch and a 'flashing' bulb, operated by a filament which connected and disconnected with temperature changes inside the bulb itself.

The ambulance would be re-issued with the same 437 catalogue number but will appear in a totally different colour scheme of blue and white with different decals too.

Once again, the Corgi model Club have also almost matched a new release with a 60th birthday of an original, as their reproduction of the 437 model has recently reached our doorsteps. Theirs, though, is the later colour scheme.

The first 437 may have slightly different design and colour for the four plastic 'lights'

This edition has distinct yellow conical shape instead of the white sharper triangular shape.

All 437 models that I have seen had fixed shaped wheels. The rear wheels would have to be fixed to ensure the cam rotated. Later blue and white editions will have either shaped free spinning or cast wheels.

Corgi Model Club shine a light on the Cadillac Superior

 

The latest model which has been arriving in subscribers' letterboxes recently is the 437 'Superior Ambulance on Cadillac Chassis'. It's the second edition, rather than the first which is what the box shows. This is all quite accurate, if confusing, as Corgi didn't change the box when they revised the original.

In the package you'll get the model in a box with a certificate. The box is well-made and a good illustrative reproduction insofar as that is possible, bearing in mind the necessary changes and the panel which incorporates all that is necessary to be incorporated in a panel nowadays to satisfy committees across the planet.

I do find the fonts used are still not as accurate as they could be. So much else is well done but whoever is in charge of the text side of things needs some advice. the big catalogue number is also quite different to the original. I also found the panel which shows the special features had a strange pink tinge instead of the original simple red.

However, it is really the model itself that should be under the closest scrutiny and this one passes with quite a few flying colours.

It is well-packed with a piece of foam plastic protecting the roof lamp and I had another piece the same size in the box which I think was protecting the rear end with the sharp fins.

The difficult bit comes when you want to insert a battery. The Club was obliged to include a screw to prevent babies extracting the holder and eating the battery. To be honest, even with the screw removed, I challenge any baby to remove the battery holder! Or a good number of adults, for that matter. The instruction sheet tells us to squeeze the thing and pull but if you have no finger nails then you'll have no chance of squeezing anything as there is simply nothing easy to grip and pull. I finished up prising the battery holder up with a screwdriver until I could grasp it.

One way or another, you'll get it out, insert an AA battery and pop it back together again. Then turn the tiny switch and, yay! The lights come on! Nice. The top is quite pleasantly bright but the others front and rear seem a bit more dim than my original had been. Maybe in a dark room they'll look better.

The light does stay lit rather than flashing. The original, first edition 437 had a device on the rear axle which interacted with a plate as it rotated to connect, disconnect and connect again as it was pushed along. This proved a bit unreliable over time and a second edition was produced with a flashing bulb. The filament had some clever function which made it flash on its own once it had warmed up. You can still buy bulbs like that and I do think the Club should have sourced these for this model as they cannot have been that much more expensive in comparison to the model as a whole.

This model had cast wheels and they have been very nicely reproduced. This is the first time we've seen these wheels on the Club models. The text is accurately reproduced too. They were, I understand, tempted to make it rather more realistic but that was how the original appeared and so too should the reproduction. Well done, Corgi model Club again in this respect.

Otherwise, as you can see, this is a virtually faultless copy. OK, so the suspension is very hard and we might have liked a coloured lamp and that silver surround but a little blue paint will partially fix that, I suppose.

I wonder whether we'll see the red and cream one in years to come? Obviously with the later style battery compartment and mechanism but I can see this being popular and the casting is already available.