Update on Corgi Model Club issue plans

 Here are the next few months' models, as proposed by the Club:

492		VW 1200 European Police Car (Dutch edition)
107		Batboat + Trailer
334		BMC Mini Magnifique (green)
430		Bermuda Taxi
348		Ford Mustang Flower Power
1126		Ecurie Ecosse Racing Car Transporter
270		James Bond's Aston Martin (silver grille)
270		James Bond's Aston Martin (gold grille)
233		Heinkel Economy Car
248		Chevrolet Impala

and here are two further issues to be added to the list:

268 The Green Hornet's 'Black Beauty'

416 RAC Radio Rescue Land Rover

The earliest dates that anyone will have received the #406 Land Rover in yellow with a black roof will have been mid-June so add a month for each row and that'll give you an idea of the when you should see these first appear.

So there may be some lucky people getting an Ecurie Ecosse Racing Car Transporter for Christmas!

With the Batboat will be the device issued originally to connect to the first issue of the Batmobile, fitting over the flame-thrower at the back. These devices are very hard to find as originals as you can imagine how easily they can get lost so expect sales for this little boat to soar. It will, of course, also attach as normal to the second issue which is also available from the Corgi Store.

The two silver Aston Martins are expected to be issued at the same time in January, members getting the one with a silver grille and the other version being available for anyone to buy from the Club Store. As for the matt black Batmobile, expect to see several appear at high prices for the member editions as they will be in comparatively short supply, certainly at first. The matt black Batmobile still sells quite easily at £100.

The Mini will be a green edition of the blue one issued in November 2023. I rather suspect that it will be no more than a fresh coat of paint at the factory with the sliding roof remaining with narrow bars and not the wider variety, so you'll still have to search for an original of that one!

The Dutch edition of the VW Police Car is all white and a good-looking model that is hard to find and usually expensive if you do. It's a model I have never had myself so I won't be able to do a side by side comparison. It will, no doubt, be just the May 2023 issue with different paint and decals.

The Bermuda Taxi will be the November 2021 issue with some fresh paint, a change of driver and a funny roof. That could be a useful addition as many collectors will have lost the driver and roof from the original or may even need the roof for a Ghia Jolly. There appear to be two different drivers for the Thunderbird in its Bermuda Taxi guise so it will be interesting to see which survives through to 2025.

The little 'Bubble' car was issued in a few colours: red, shades of mostly pale lilac, metallic blue and orange with either fixed smooth wheels or free spinning cast wheels. I have only seen the orange edition with both types, the other colours having only the fixed smooth type. I wonder what the model club will provide us with? 

I am a big fan of the coffee and cream Impala so look forward to that one. The Club are certainly making the most out of the split casting but one can hardly blame them. I just hope the price reflects the fact that they have had a lot less work to pay for in its production (although I would be delighted if they changed the wheels for some cast ones). In contrast, however, the Ecurie Ecosse Transporter, their first Corgi Major, will have cost a veritable fortune, even in Chinese yuan. So that's not going to be cheap but perhaps by charging the 'normal' £30 or so for the Impala and some other relatively cheap variations the price of the Transporter will be reasonable. Needless to say, I see it being extremely popular and is typical of a model which many of my generation will have had on their Christmas lists for a few years but not received.

There are many variations of that model too but these are early days. There will be some previews in a while but my money is on the darker shade of metallic blue with yellow lettering and a lemon interior. As for the extent of silver paint around the front, I have no idea and can hardly recall the different editions as I write! My guess is that the precise silver paintwork will be like none of the originals at all.

Update 5 July:

I have just noticed two more proposed issues that I have now added to the text above.

Black Beauty is probably one I shall not be too concerned with although I can see it will be poplar amongst the Film and TV-related model collectors, especially if the grille stays closed!

The Land Rover casting gets another outing with what appears to be the early edition of the RAC Radio Rescue Truck. Now, will it have a headboard? Smooth wheels or will we finally get to see some fixed shaped wheels? A clean and well-shaped tin canopy will be useful to replace a worn one, or more often missing) on an original!

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.

Corgi Toys @ 60: Ecurie Ecosse Racing Transporter and a revised Bluebird

 

October 1961 sees the arrival of an iconic Corgi model, the Ecurie Ecosse Racing Transporter. This was a lovely looking model and it had steering! Proper steering, not the silly Dinky sort. This is a model that I always wanted as a child but it was expensive at 17/6d and, to this day, I have never owned one. and they're still expensive today - I think I'll have to spend £200 to get a good one and, as you'll see there are several variations too!

It was first seen in late 1961 with a dark metallic blue finish and light blue lettering on the sides. The interior is known in tan, lemon and what appears to be a scarce red.

In 1962 sometime it gets yellow-orange lettering on the sides. There are also some editions that have the dark blue paintwork but the silver painting on the front does not include the top grille line. I have only seen lemon and tan interiors on this second edition. Maybe red exist, I don't know.

In late 1965 it gets a fresh coat of a paler metallic blue with red lettering on the side. The ramps or tracks on the top are also now picked out in silver and all these third types appear to have the reduced silver area at the front. These have been seen with all three interiors: lemon, tan and red.

The Great Book of Corgi indicates that this was withdrawn in 1965 but I think that will prove to be a mistake as this was still featured in the 1966 catalogue and I am inclined to think that date may refer to the first types and that this, in pale blue, continued for at least a couple of years afterwards.

At the same time, Gift Set 16 was issued. This included three racing cars, the recently modified Vanwall, BRM and Lotus Mk 11, 150S, 152S and 151A all, rather amusingly, with their drivers in place still!

In December 1964, the contents of the set were changed to include a 154 Ferrari F1 Racing Car in place of the Lotus. 

You may see all sorts of other combinations of racing cars offered by people with the Transporter in this set but these are really the only two known to be issued. So please try and tell those with the wrong combinations to get them right or buy them and correct them yourselves.

The Transporter is a fabulous model and there is even a little vice on the workbench inside the working area accessed via the sliding side door. The steering, however, is a little awkward, possibly because it is located so close to the front and it is not easy to press in the right way to get gentle turning as you can on the Bentley and Mercedes models. Nevertheless, I still want one.

Here's the real one. Note the much larger area that is occupied by the grille.

Also this month Corgi issued a revised edition of the Bluebird. They replaced the black plastic wheels of the 153 model with alloy wheels with a thin rubber tyre. This was now 153A.

Whilst the model looks better, the rubber tyres are impossible to change. So be very careful when buying this model!

Ecurie Ecosse Racing Car Transporter

Every year from 1961 to 1967 this would be on my birthday and Christmas lists but it has taken me until 2015 actually to have an Ecurie Ecosse Racing Car Transporter of my own.

It was an expensive item in those days. Quite frankly, it's not cheap now, either! I saw this going as a complete set - the Gift Set 16 with the later edition racing cars - and didn't expect my modest bid to win but at 2am not many others were around or hadn't set their maximum bids very high.

The transporter appealed to me at the time because it had steering and I loved how that system worked, something Dinky never matched, their steering being a most unrealistic whole axle rotation that just wasn't right! I also liked the idea of putting a car inside and carrying it around.

What didn't appeal to me at all, though, were the racing cars themselves. The BRM and Vanwall aren't too bad but seem very old-fashioned, even for those days.

Those two are in excellent condition, being the S versions with suspension added and slight changes to the paintwork, adding a silver nose cone and decals.

The Lotus is a weird looking affair that may have been what was racing around Le Mans in the Sixties but, in my view, it didn't make a very appealing model. This one is 151A, the A being the second edition which included a driver and a slightly different windscreen fitting. I think there were similar blue 151 models but most of those were silver. The paintwork isn't too bad on this one but those big wings fore and aft are very vulnerable and chunks are missing there. There was no space for suspension without major reworking so this never got an S suffix.

The steering wheel was broken on this one and the driver didn't look right. I have replaced the steering wheel and used another driver but I'm still unsure. I feel he needs to be leaning back further so maybe both are wrong. I think I'll leave that to a new owner to sort out. The steering wheel is simple to fit and a driver can easily be installed on this model too.

As I said, the thing I really wanted, though, was the truck and it has some delightful features, including the little vice in the workshop area. The windows are remarkably clear and the interior all good but the paintwork has quite a few chips. The top deck folds down very nicely with a clever mechanism and locks in place again when the tailgate is returned to vertical. Corgi were good at this sort of thing, although many examples have had to have replacement tailgates from what I can gather looking at others on sale. This one is all original.

The steering works but the turning circle is about as big as the real thing would have been!

I'm glad to have got this and seen it up close but I won't be sorry to see it or the racing cars go to a new owner. It will be quite a decent bargain: about £45 for the truck, £29 for the Lotus and around £40 for each of the BRM and Vanwall. I think the whole set could go for about £130 and I expect it to sell pretty quickly.

I guess I will still have to get the original racing cars, without the S or A suffixes, one day but I can't get too enthusiastic about them and, despite longing for the truck 50 odd years ago, now that I've seen it and checked it off my list I won't be that sorry to see this one go either. My dad was probably right not to buy it.