Corgi Toys @ 60: The Express Service Truck and another Land Rover

 

September 1965 brought us a model which has become something of a favourite amongst many collectors. This is the first appearance of the Ford 'H' series cab and it is a particularly attractive model with just enough features to make it interesting without getting too complicated.

The bits and pieces attached to the cab, though, are pretty vulnerable and few horns have survived without being bent down and you'll be lucky if the exhaust and mirrors are still well-attached. This is always finished in a rich metallic blue with silver plastic doors on a red chassis for the trailer. In the box there should be a mechanic who looks familiar from 1505, the Garage Mechanics set.

The original issue had the usual shaped wheels and large tyres, replaced at some point with the new standard Majors wheel, larger and more detailed in two styles for front and rear. The model has a long life, available through until 1971 when it was sold in a window box and can be seen with gold horns instead of bare metal.

The other model this month is a Chippefields Circus model, the Public Address Land Rover from September 1964 in Chipperfields colours - red Land Rover and blue fittings. In place of the politician is a clown (which always makes me smile!) and a monkey takes the place of the girl assistant.

You will find this model with or without a label on the bonnet and also with or without a hook at the back. Editions with a hook appear to be rarer.

The plastic elements may sometimes be seen in different shades of blue-green as several batches appear to have been issued with a quite different colour to either the blue or yellow. I thought that an example I have might have been due to fading in sunlight but the colour is consistent in areas here the sun wouldn't have reached and inside, visible where a corner had broken.

The odd Chipperfields Parade Vehicle

 

You may remember that a collector wrote to me some time ago about this Chipperfields Circus Parade Vehicle with its odd olive green rear section. I hadn't seen one before and, as this appeared to be an all original model, I wondered whether it might have been an early sample.

Then the one shown below appeared for sale on Ebay last week.

The seller did mention that it was different to the usual models but he was referring to it being a blue Land Rover and not red! The blue was some really bad painting that someone had done. As the base was still intact I decided to try and see if I could get the blue paint off and, with some scraping, I've managed to get most of it off, although some splodges remain on the rear section. I shall attempt to mask everything like the windows, wheels and that rear piece and restore what should be red and add a sticker to the bonnet. I can't do much about the missing speakers, of course, and it's never going to look that great but it's worth keeping. I may even install a clown if I find one that's complete and inexpensive in a wrecked normal model somewhere.

So it may be the case that a batch of these were made with that olive plastic rear section. I can only imagine that this would have been an initial issue (assuming it isn't a factory sample) and that there will be a few around, although, from my experience over the last 10 years or more, they're by no means common!

I've never been a fan of the Circus models and I had to go back to 2014 for a photo of the normal #487 issue from my own collection. I did wonder whether the Chipperfields blue plastic might fade in the sun to that olive colour but this seems not to be the case. Where a piece has broken I can see the same shade of green inside and even areas which would get no light are the same colour. So I am now hoping to find a little more information about this one. Whether a factory sample or an early issue to dealers, this would seem to be quite a valuable model if you have one in reasonable condition. Mine will probably remain in a collection of oddments without any significant value but too mysterious and, maybe, rare to discard.

Oddities

 

I have had a couple of interesting queries in the last few days and maybe some readers will have some useful advice to assist in reaching a conclusion on them. Usually the 'odd' models which collectors show me have a pretty obvious explanation but these two have troubled me.

The first looks really quite simple at first glance. You might also jump to the conclusion that an owner of the Commer Construction Gift Set 24 illustrated below has simply remodelled the right hand section in the middle to incorporate some tyres.

If you look at the original issue, as shown first above, you'll see that there are two problems with that conclusion. First, the centre 'posts' for the tyres do not appear to be in line with where the dividing piece of polystyrene might have been and, secondly, the depth of the right hand section there looks much less than it would be on an original piece.

In favour of someone remodelling the polystyrene, it isn't a particularly neat job, although cutting a circular section and leaving a pillar is not that easy, and there is no room for the bench and milkman on the left. I cannot imagine any official Corgi production or sample with those two pieces fighting for space, nor do I see any point in their including tyres, which might even be the wrong size anyway (although I am not sure about that). The white tyres are, of course, definitely not Corgi but I allow for the possibility of someone replacing those two at some point.

All in all I do think that this must be something that someone has worked on. It might have been a factory worker who had a piece of polystyrene rejected because it hadn't been formed quite correctly. He or she made some adjustments and added some tyres and found a box lid, took it home and somehow it gets on to the market. (The owner doesn't know whether it was bought new or not but does assure me that it was his brother's and believes it to have been bought in the 60s or 70s). It could also be what I first thought - his brother managed to reshape that area and somehow move some of the polystyrene to create the pillars and more shallow profile in places.

It's not obvious though, so views welcome!

The next one is more intriguing. A Chipperfields Circus Public Address with a dark olive rear section.

My first reaction, looking at the dark colours of the box, a somewhat fuzzy image in places and what looked like flaws in the casting and paint work, was that someone had rebuilt a model and the rear section must have been the colour available from a parts supplier.

When I asked for some better photos, however, I had to rethink this. Firstly the rivets appear intact and are very much like one would expect to find on this model. Secondly, what I thought was some non-Corgi silver painting due to some splashes underneath the front bumper may be original after all as I have since seen many with a similar slip of the brush or masking.

There does appear to be some missing red paint inside the rear of the wheel arches which was one of things which made me initially suspicious that this had been repainted but the rivets really are sound and, although it is not easy to see, I am pretty sure I have noticed similar lack of red paint there on some others.

I took another look at the box and it does seem to be quite dark compared to all the boxes I have encountered but all originals have the same fuzziness in places in the image and I have to conclude that the box is OK. The genuine-looking label looks real and a reproduction box wouldn't have the partially erased number. It looks like a $US price label (although I have no idea what currency 52.00 might have been!)

So perhaps a batch of boxes for export were made in a bit darker colours. The box is hardly relevant but had it been a reproduction that might have supported my view that this had been constructed by someone.

The current owner says that he acquired this in the late 1980s or early 1990s - rather earlier than most restorations, I think, so I am inclined to discount that.

One possibility is that this could have been a Corgi production sample but weighing quite heavily against that conclusion is the fact that this comes many years after the colour scheme of Chipperfields blue and red had been settled. So to have this strange dark olive colour for a sample seems unlikely. The section does appear to be identical to the blue or yellow ones with similar type of plastic. The green colour is in the plastic not painted on it. Both characters look original and the clown can really only be replaced by dismantling the model. (I suppose he could have been broken off and reattached with glue.)

Factory samples, however, tend not to appear in a box, usually being kept in a drawer or a box of other samples - and certainly not in a box from an American store! So I am not keen on that explanation.

I did consider a colour change through exposure to light or even some liquid. That would not have left such a consistent colour, though, and somewhere we would be able to detect a little light blue or a shade more in that direction. So I feel the colour is as it was made.

All that remains are two possibilities. One is that, at some point, someone decided to repair a broken model and managed to replace that plastic element and the clown with a part that he or she obtained which was in this strange olive colour. The other is that Corgi had a batch of these rear sections supplied in the wrong colour but they went ahead and used them. One would have expected to have encountered another in such a case, although, if they did all head west across the Pond then it is just about feasible that we might not have seen any. Neither of these appeal to me as great solutions to this mystery so, again, any ideas welcome!

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 Toys @ 60 : Jaguar Mk X and two big Gift Sets

 

September 1962 brought the magnificent Jaguar Mk S Saloon to our local toy shops! This was an exciting model with an opening bonnet as well as an opening boot in which there were two suitcases and one of them was huge and could be opened! I never actually put anything inside the big one but there was something nice just about the fact that we could open it. There were also four jewelled lights at the front and a design which produced a silver metal front bumper section. This was never particularly bright but it was solid and stood up to the occasional crashes better than the chrome or silver paint.

Illustrated above is my own Jaguar, purchased as soon as it came out, and you'll see that it was a weird shade of green and a solid colour. There was also a pale solid blue at the outset.

When I was a little older and had pocket money to spare I bought the cerise model - a much classier metallic finish - as I had never been very happy with the pale green for such a quality car in reality. This was the only other colour that I knew about until I started looking at Corgi Toys afresh in my 60s! Now I realise that there was a large range of metallic colours issued during the mid to later part of this model's production. I have done my best to obtain and illustrate here as many as I can find but no doubt one or two more will appear! The metallic cerise colour is the most common by some margin, but be careful with this colour as sunlight fades this particular shade remarkably and you will find several pale metallic grey-pink models around as a result! Look under the wheel arches, however, and you'll see the true original, lovely dark cerise.

All the other colours (and the early pale blue and green) are difficult to find now and some are particularly scarce, with many being available with red and lemon interiors too. You could have good collection that would take a while to gather by looking just for this model alone!

dark silver-blue

pale silver blue

silver

solid dark blue

metallic dark blue

turquoise-blue with red interior

turquoise-green with lemon interior

metallic bright emerald

gold-plated (very few made for VIP guests and Jaguar directors)

This month was a busy month for shops as there were also two large Gift sets issued in September. These were Gift Set 22 Agricultural Set and Gift Set 23 Chipperfields Gift Set.

The Agricultural Gift Set 22 was quite an important one in that it was the first to feature a green Land Rover Series II with suspension. The early sets had a distinctly different and lighter shade of green Land Rover to the deep green that would be issued later as 438. There was also no canopy on the model and I am inclined to list this as 406S rather than 438. It is pretty academic, though, as the 'farm green' Land Rover with suspension and interior only ever appeared in this set.

The set also featured an all yellow 101 trailer which would not be issued anywhere else either. 

Later in 1962 the deep green 438 Land Rover would be used, but still without a canopy, as in the illustration which shows a later set. The all-yellow 101 trailer continued to be included, early sets having one with fixed shaped wheels, later sets having the free-spinning variety. All had the fixed drawbar.

The other components are as shown in the top illustration above. Later the set gets revised with the later components in the lower picture.

The other set was the Chipperfields Circus Gift Set 23 which was the second outing for the Land Rover in Series II guise, still with a tin canopy in the early sets.

The other components in the original issue are as shown above. Later they would be changed, with a Bedford Giraffe Transporter replacing the Booking Office.

Red Land Rovers

"Are the Chipperfields Land Rovers a different colour to the Ferrari Set ones?"

My good friend and collector in Germany asked me the question. I knew that I had seen two distinct shades but whether they could be specifically allocated to one or other I couldn't say. So I've been thinking about it and would welcome any actual knowledge about this either to support or counter my conclusions.

He sent me the photos above which do show quite clear differences. Whilst there are shades in between, there remain two that stand out for us - the dark shade and the brighter red shade. My inclination was first to see the the darker shade as Chipperfields and the brighter one as Ferrari. I am not entirely sure why, especially as I am not a big fan of the Circus models and tend to have avoided them over the last few years, but some impressions of colour seem to have remained in such brain as I have left and the darker one really did say 'Chipperfields'.

Then I looked at a pile of other models, mostly pretty new and in boxes for GS19 or GS17. Now I know that just because a model is in a box now does not mean that it was in the same box at the start of its life at the factory but bear with me on this for now.

These are two 'Chipperfields' models. 

Here are two Ferrari Gift set models.

Another two Chipperfields models.

Two unallocated models I had lying around.

Yes, there were both bright and dark in each case! So that didn't help at all.

Thinking about it some more it occurred to me that it is unlikely that Corgi would have been spraying the same Land Rover casts in slightly different shades at the same time for the various Gift Sets. While they were packing both the Chipperfields and Ferrari Gift set boxes I would have expected the production people to be providing just the one batch of painted Land Rovers.

The first appearance of a red Land Rover was in April 1962 for the Gift Set 19 with a trailer and Elephant Cage. So I can imagine that a colour was decided and all Land Rovers for this set and the following Gift Set 23 in September 1962 would have been in that colour. Generally, Corgi were good at being consistent with colours over a short period and let's say that the dark shade was thus utilised for all the Chipperfields items through to early 1963.

Then the Ferrari Gift Set is devised and, again, the same darker shade is included in this Gift Set 17 too for a while. Then, some time later, and I have no idea when, there is a change of supplier of paint or even a deliberate decision to have something brighter and along come batches of new, brighter red Land Rovers and these are available for use in whichever Gift Set, Chipperfields or Ferrari, as the ladies in the factory need them for.

That then is how, in my view, the different colours have been distributed at the start. Early Chipperfields models have the first shade (to which I have allocated the darker one) and all later models are brighter red, whether Ferrari or not.

We did, of course, wonder whether Ferrari had had a hand in determining the shade but decided this was unlikely or, even if they had, it was not exactly followed!

It would be a fair criticism of this brief research to say that the images provided here could all be of the same red shade but varying light and processing have resulted in their now appearing quite different. I don't think that will be the case but I'm happy to read any alternative suggestions, or knowledge even, that someone may be able to contribute.