Corgi Chevrolet Impalas

 

You will, of course, be familiar with this recent issue of the wonderful #248 Chevrolet Impala, the second edition of the saloon model, this time in a butterscotch and cream flavour, as opposed to pale blue or salmon. What you will not be familiar with, however, is the finish on this delightful example, which really should be described as Impala à la Pearson, having being expertly polished so that what the Club sent us by way of a strange satin-finished model (and attempted to assert that this was how it was intended to be issued to boot!) now looks much more like it should.

My 'satin finish' Club edition placed next to Chris Pearson's shows the difference clearly.

Mr Pearson also likes to replace the rivets with something that better matches the originals.

Mr Pearson tells me that his Aunt Iris worked at the Corgi factory from 1958 to 1983 and he would sometimes accompany her as a child and he recalls seeing a number of 'prototypes', not that he would have known they would have been prototypes at the time. One was the #481 Chevrolet Police Patrol Car with a white lower section. The other was the #482 Chevrolet Fire Chief Car but with a black lower section.

As luck would have it, the two issued models can simply be taken apart and the sections swapped and there we have very nice copies of the 'prototypes'! It has since occurred to me that what he saw at the factory may just have been some 'mistakes' or someone having fun with the two halves with #481 and #482 probably rolling down the production line at similar times in 1965/66. I feel this is more likely, certainly for the Fire Chief model.

My research indicates that the Fire Chief car is unlikely to have existed in the 1959-style. In 1959, General Motors completely broke the mould with a wildly low, wide, and aggressive space-age design. The massive protruding rear "batwings" and sprawling trunk lines made it a styling masterpiece, but highly impractical for utilitarian city fleets. Because of the extreme rear fins, municipal fire and police departments overwhelmingly rejected the 1959 Impala sedan for official duty.

 Instead, the rare 1959 Chevrolets that did make it into fire service were almost exclusively 1959 Chevrolet Brookwood or Kingswood Station Wagons (which flattened out the wild fins to carry ladders and equipment), or stripped-down, lower-trim Biscayne sedans. Corgi took considerable artistic license by reusing their existing, highly popular 1959 Impala civilian saloon diecast mould (originally released in late 1959 as Corgi #223) to create the Fire Chief edition.

I have been able to find just one example of the 1959 style Impala in genuine use as a police car, this image, courtesy of the Ypsilanti, Michigan Community archives at https://www.reddit.com/r/ypsi

Nevertheless, the two variants that Mr Pearson very kindly sent me are very well constructed and fun to add to my own collection. I have always been a fan of the Impalas (although not the final throes of vehicles for kennel services or poodle display).

Here they are for your admiration.

Lastly, I am not at all sure now that there was ever such a thing as the 1959 Impala as a taxi in either all yellow or the later yellow and red, other than, perhaps, much more recently, in Cuba! It was the Police car that came first, in December 1959, and I can see that there will have been some evidence of a vehicle they could reproduce. After that, I do believe it was a matter of making the most from an excellent casting.

One might say that the Corgi Model Club are doing the same, and I am not referring necessarily to the Impalas here. Take a look at their forthcoming issues:

R345 MGC GT

R303S Mercedes-Benz 300SL Open Top Roadster (cream edition)

R246 Chrysler Imperial (Kingfisher blue edition)

R275 Rover 2000TC (white edition)

R302 MGA (teal edition)

R318 Lotus Elan S2 (copper edition)

There is also a store-only issue of an MGA in off-white in October by way of celebration of Corgi's 70th anniversary. I quite like the idea of a variation of one of the early models for this purpose but with the teal edition already in the pipeline at about the same time I feel they would have been better advised to choose one of the actual 1956 releases, not this one, which was May 1957, nearly a year later. There is, of course, a fair case to be made of economy of scale, using resources in several different ways but the frequency we see now does make me wonder whether all is well back at the Corgi ranch. I know that just about everybody who reads this has enjoyed collecting diecast models but I am not so sure there is such a certainty of a continuing robust market for people collecting new diecast models.

It will be quite nice to see fresh-looking examples of the Chrysler, Rover and MGA, the Chrysler and MGA being extremely hard to find in any condition. The Rover is not that common either. So I can see that the Club provide a way for people to fill missing spaces. I am also quite content with the production of models that were not actually issued, such as the Lotus Elan in copper and the MGA in off white. These are interesting and could be collectible as a group on their own although, having said that, it could be argued that every Club issue would fall into this category as none are ever quite right!

Corgi Model Club: Chevrolet Impala Fire Chief Car

 

The latest issue from the Corgi Model Club is here and it is yet another superb reproduction. 

It arrives with two pieces of hard foam plastic to prevent movement in the box (one piece I only realised was there after taking the photos) and some thin paper protecting the chrome at each end and the transfer on the bonnet. Unfortunately, the chunk of plastic has pushed the aerial to stand at an unnatural angle and, unlike the original, you can't twiddle it around.

This is otherwise a stunning model and I cannot fault its paintwork, wonderful chrome and the accuracy of every casting detail. They will have had the #480 to work from, of course, so the Club will have made a little more profit from this one.

I look at these images and I'm taken back to that feeling when I first took original models out of the box. I can seldom afford to have such 'new' and shiny original models these days so the Club do us collectors a great service.

My own #482 is a cast wheel edition which is rather more common, this and the Police version being around for quite a while. I do have a shaped wheel edition somewhere but in my recent move it has taken a long time to find anything so I used the first one I came across! They're both identical in all other respects so it serves its purpose here just as well.

You will notice that there is a small difference in the font used for the bonnet text, the Club edition being just a little too fat. The only other differences that I see are the lack of a silver ring around the base of the beacon on the roof and the original Impala rear lights have a sort of sheen which the people in China have been unable to replicate on this, as also for the earlier #480.

Corgi Toys @ 60: Chevrolet Fire Chief and a Ferrari

 January 1963 was when the fourth variation of the Chevrolet Impala, 439 Fire Chief's car, was available at your local toy shop. This seems to be something of an afterthought as it had been three years since the saloon and State Patrol models had appeared - or just a way to make some more money from this very successful casting. And we know that there will still be many more to come! (It will not be until this time in 2030 for my last article in this series to feature it!)

This model had a comparatively short life but still sold well and is still pretty easy to find now. There are three main variations to look for, each with a different treatment of the doors. You'll find models with just the badge on the doors, the front doors painted white and a third, slightly less common model, with all four doors painted white.

I have also seen some different badges but they're extremely unusual and I am not sure of their provenance as things like that are very easy to produce.

All the models appear to have free spinning wheels, whereas the preceding two Impalas can be found with fixed smooth, fixed shaped as well as free spinning wheels.

The other new model this month 60 years ago was a Ferrari F1 Grand Prix Racing Car, catalogue number 154. This would prove to be a very long-lasting model, surviving unchanged apart from wheels and packaging through to a remarkable 1972.

Update a month or so later: see my February 2023 article - I have discovered that there are several changes to the decals, nose shape and base to look out for!

It comes with a driver and will always be red with RN36. At some point it gets cast, spoke effect, wheels. All have the standard size rear wheels but smaller size front wheels. 

Amusingly with the driver still in place, you'll this model appear again on a trailer behind a red Land Rover in Gift Set 17. I'll be writing about that in March.

It will also appear in a revised release of the Ecurie Ecosse Racing Transporter Gift Set 16 in late 1964.

Corgi Toys @ 60: Karrier Airfield Radar Van and a Fire Chief's Car

January 1959 sees an interesting addition to the military items. A Karrier cab is put into use with various contraptions on the back to make an Airfield Radar Scanner Van. I suspect this might not have been a common sight on our roads then but it would have made a nice display item on some green baize or just plonked in a corner of the carpet.

The rear aerial is a plastic affair which can be re-positioned but the main attraction would be the scanner unit - a quite heavy chunk of mazak which can be turned pretty rapidly using a wheel on the side which connects to some gears to speed up the action.

Illustrated here is a 4-stripe version. It is also found with 5 orange bands. I don't know which are less common. Lasting until 1961, this can be found with both smooth and shaped fixed wheels.

The other release at the start of 1959 was the Jaguar 2.4, now painted red and bearing the roof silverware previously seen on the Riley Pathfinder Police Car. Instead of 'POLICE' the sticker now reads 'FIRE' as this is a 'Fire Chief's' Car. This is another vehicle that I have to say I am not familiar with in that I did not spot any on the Hertfordshire streets where I grew up.

It seems to have existed, however, as this example of an item sold at an auction shows. It seems terribly American to me and I don't even recognise the logo on the door but I really have little clue about what the Fire Service was like in those days.

Both the Radar Van and the Jaguar have fairly short lives, disappearing in 1961. The Radar Van would never be seen again but the Jaguar gets suspension and an interior and lasts a little longer.

I believe all the 213 models will have smooth fixed wheels although the timing may well mean that some late editions got shaped wheels. They will be much scarcer, though.

GS25 items and a Jaguar Fire Chief's car now in Avellino.

Fire Chief completes the range

482

439

Eventually a reasonable Chevrolet Impala Fire Chief #482 came along. This is the second type with the chrome running through the middle and supplying the grill and rear bumpers and light surrounds. Both models sold in similar quantities but the old one was replaced after two years and the second one lasted for four years.

Apart from some dog grooming van version which I can hardly bring myself to search for never mind buy, that should complete the Impala stock.

I must get a badge for the old one as those white doors look wrong as they are.