Corgi Toys @ 60: A Ford, Monte Carlo and The Avengers

 January 1966 and Corgi bring three new models to your local toy shop, although only one is completely new.

The lovely Ford Consul Cortina Super Estate Car is all new and a delightful model in rich metallic blue with a bright, almost white interior. The rear door opens and it originally appears on a tray insert with a golfer and boy caddy with the golf trolley which you will recognise from the 'surprise in the boot' of the Chrysler Imperial issued a few months earlier in August 1965.

This model will be released later as #491 on its own in September 1966, when it will appear also in metallic red and metallic grey, with cast wheels being fitted towards the end of production but very seldom will you see these on a blue model.

It appears likely that only the blue model was used for the first issues of #440 but, of course, now it is impossible to know whether a red or grey has been substituted or if they really were in the box when bought.

Perhaps the 'star' attraction for this month will have been The Avengers Gift Set 40.

This set helped sell some more of the old Bentleys that had not been very popular as well as bringing new life to the sales of the Lotus Elan, previously in metallic blue as #318 in July 1965. Now with the "I've got a tiger in my tank" transfer removed and in white the Lotus is a good representation of the car driven by Emma Peel in the first series of the TV programme. The red Bentley, however, is not so accurate!

Early sets featured a green Bentley which would have been a preferable colour for Steed (albeit somewhat bright, I feel) but on no account would he have driven anything with red wheels! 

The set has plastic figures for Steed and Mrs Peel, neither looking very attractive when viewed closely but acceptable at a distance, and three brollies. Original brollies are very hard to find now and most sets you will find have replacements which can be identified with a magnifying glass (see a recent article on this subject).

Beware the many, many reproduction sets of poor quality or downright incorrect composition. Many dealers use a reproduction Steed that is actually from a mould of Jeeves from the #9004 World of Wooster set. The figure supplied by a major 'spare parts' company in Leicestershire was Jeeves in a grey suit and may still be, although I have not ordered any for some time. They may have mended their ways in this respect since. Original Emmas usually have two or more black stripes at the bottom of her trousers but I have also seen what may well be originals with just the single stripe so it is not so easy to tell with her. Some have very poor facial definition and painting, however, and these are likely to be reproductions.

Most reproduction boxes are poor copies too, with colours that are too bright, the wrong quality card and, of course, there are many produced with printers at home on white card as well. I sell many sets and use a particularly fine reproduction box but most I see are nothing like as good, even from those better-known repro box people.

Although you will encounter many variations of the composition, there really are just the two original sets as illustrated here. You will find gold wheels instead of steel colour on the red Bentley, but seldom will all five be the same shade. The Lotus may get cast wheels towards the end of its production run too. That is all, however, apart from the factory one-off samples. I know of a green Bentley with black mudguards and steel wheels, for instance, which is a much better match for those in the series but this would have been a sample for marketing consideration.

Although Mrs Peel drove a powder blue Elan in the second series, the issued sets only ever feature a white car. Some made-up sets show a green #9001 Bentley with the Union flag and RN3 transfers removed and a folded hood replacing the original type alongside a white or metallic blue Elan. These can be nice displays and maybe slightly more accurate but are not original. A green Bentley in the original set always had red wheels and was a slightly different shade to the #9002 model too so any attempt to switch wheels can be identified and needs to be looked out for.

The other not so new model is a 1966 edition of the Monte Carlo BMC Mini-Cooper. Corgi retained the #321 catalogue number for this but it is completely different to the 1965 #321 in several ways. Obviously this one has RN2 on the doors and a transfer of two drivers' signatures on the roof. You will also see that the Mini is a quite different casting, with no fog lights in the metal and this has just the two jewelled fog lights instead of the three before.

The first issues came in the #321 box with an illustration of the RN52 model and a sticker added to distinguish it. Later a box is produced with the RN2 model illustrated.

New items in stock for September.

There were no new issues in September 1963 so my next Corgi Toys @ 60 post will be in a few weeks time. So I thought I would share some recent arrivals here in the village and tell you about some changes to my sales outlets.

A delightful model from the initial launch range, the Ford Consul in mushroom.

Waiting for a suitable trailer is this fawn Land Rover from Gift Set 2. I want to pair this with a similar coloured Pony Trailer, one with fixed shaped wheels, the scarcer edition as most appear to have free spinning wheels.

From a late Gift Set 4 in 1972 comes the last 1:43 scale tractor from Corgi pulling a trailer with a pile of hay and two very funny looking characters on top. There should be some fences, sheep and a dog too which I need to find to complete this. This is the last time Farmer George will be seen too. This set didn't last long and the kids were dropped too in the 1973 Gift Set 5.

The Renault 16 has one of the shortest production periods of all Corgis, issued first as a saloon in February 1969 only to be replaced by the blue Whizzwheels edition in May 1970. It looks lovely if you can find one with good paintwork, which is very susceptible to chips. Remarkably, within that short period there are two different base types This one has RENAULT 16. The one below has RENAULT 16TS. The blue one has RENAULT 16 "TS".

The colour of the ring holding the rear hook in place also changes from red to grey.

Here's the blue one with 'pepperpot' Whizzwheels. You may be lucky and find a few with the later '4 crown' style but this didn't last much longer than the purple one, being deleted itself in 1973. I always have to smile when opening the bonnet and finding the original cast wheel spare!

The old Plymouth was the first model to get an interior (excluding open top models) and this too had two types of base - one has grey and this one has cream.

You need to look underneath this Ford Consul to see that it is a 200 and not a 200M! I like these examples where there will have been a few painted castings lying around when the friction motor type was discontinued and so they had a tin base fitted and put in a 200 box and sent to the dealers for some lucky kid to find.

The first model with suspension was this Renault Floride. This is a later edition with shaped wheels and not easy to find now. (I had hoped it would turn out to be one with free-spinning wheels which is much less common, but I shall have to keep looking for that one!)

Both the Chevrolet Impalas above are the less common editions with shaped wheels rather than cast wheels. Because these two were around in the catalogues for many years, cast wheels became dominant, in marked contrast to another of my favourites, the Taxi edition and saloon which were extremely short-lived and for which cast wheels are scarce to see.

You can find these on my web site and in my own online store. Some may be on Ebay but I am finding Ebay a bit expensive now, having rather more items listed than I am entitled to have without charges. Accordingly I am cutting back what is listed there substantially, with the aim of just one item to represent an issue with a request that people visit my online store for similar models to that shown. Now that they permit 24 photos per item, I can also add some photos of other models. Ebay's fees on sale are also quite substantial and, whilst it is by far the most popular place for collectors to seek models, I am hoping that I can encourage more and more to come to my place where I'll offer lower prices and get to keep the payments made by people.

This does mean I shall be publishing a few more posts to promote my items but I will try to make sure they're still entertaining and interesting too!

A bus, a box and a bug

 

Some odd things have come in this week which I thought might be of interest to a few readers.

First is what initially looks like any old 468 London Transport bus. It's a later edition, with cast wheels. Indeed, it is a very late edition as, when you see the front, there are no jewels. It's like the Whizzwheels version and must be some sort of transition model with the non-jewelled body being produced but fitted still with cast wheels.

Yes, my example of an old 468 is correct without the additional advertising stickers on the front as that is an old 'Corgi Toys' banner model. The different stickers came with the 'Outspan' banner and subsequent models. What I don't know is whether there were further changes (other than the many banners) to these stickers. The interior changed at some point too, from yellow plastic to clear plastic stairs. I have also noticed that the conductor's hair is brown in early models but blonde in later models.

The second item is a marvellous original old box that came with a two-tone Ford Consul. This has to be one of the best old boxes I have had, with all the flaps in place and the colours are very fresh and clean. The box design switched to blue and yellow at about the same time as this edition was issued in early 1959. For instance, the Jaguar Fire Chief's car, issued January 1959 always seems to be in a yellow and blue box. I suppose there must have been a lot of spare 200 boxes and they may have been used for the first batch of the two-tone Ford Consuls. Most I see for sale now have the yellow and blue box so this is a little unusual. However, one cannot rule out the possibility that someone has switched boxes over the years!

And lastly, for a bit of fun, the 806 Lunar Bug! This is from November 1970 but it didn't stay in the catalogue for long, ceasing production in 1972 after just a bit more than a year, when a more interesting James Bond Moon Buggy came along.

When I started creating the Corgi Catalogue web site I began at #50 and gradually worked my way through in pretty much numerical order, buying models, documenting them and then selling them until I reached the 500s. By the time I reached #513 I moved on to the Majors, leaving the kits and what looked like odd stuff I thought I may well just ignore at the time for another day, or, more likely, year. However, in amongst some collections and job lots, some of the #800s came in and I never bothered actively to chase after the two which, until a few days ago, remained unseen. One was #805, the Hardy Boys Rolls Royce. I have to say that that looked awful in the pictures I saw of it. The #9041 was bad enough but to create a multicoloured version to celebrate a band I had never heard of seemed mad as well as bad. Every one I saw was expensive too, or had something missing. The other was #806, this Lunar Bug. This week I came across this one for a very low price of a pound or two and it looked quite cute and in decent condition. Not that I knew what might be missing, though, being quite unfamiliar with this!

Anyway, the Lunar Bug turned out to be a cheerful sort of oddity and this example is in great condition. After a little research it does appear to be complete, with its fold-out plastic wings and what might be engines on the roof and a drop down panel at the back which I can imagine coming off quite easily. Inside there's room for a small car and I did try out an Alfa P33 and a couple of others without success before realising how crazy it would be to have something like that on the Moon. So I guess that whatever Corgi people might have thought about issuing in due course that we could have put inside never made it to the production line. There is some plentiful yellow-tinted glass along the sides and a roundish clear section at the front. The wheels are on funny axles which never seem to be quite certain where they should rest so you'll see pictures of this model in all sorts of funny poses! The wheels look unique but wouldn't be out of place on Noddy's Car.

The one thing that does strike me about this model is how big it is! I had expected something about the size of a bus but this is a substantial piece of Corgi. Being something that has come totally from the imagination of some Corgi designer, there is, of course, no scale but if you consider people might be standing inside and peering out of the windows then it is probably more suited to a 1:36 environment than the 1:43 I am supposed to be sticking to.

On the sides are flying cigarettes which remind me of when I used to smoke and not feel I was doing any harm to the planet or anyone other than myself. They're not cigarettes, of course, but some sort of rather sad illustration of  the jet engines. I really would have expected better from a late Sixties designer but never mind.

This will sit on the top of my cabinet for a while as I cannot see anyone rushing to buy it. There do seem to be plenty for sale. It is a model that does make me smile, though, and now I would have liked to have had the box as I see the polystyrene base was shaped as an imaginary Moon surface with craters. I might even not be able to resist one if it comes along cheaply enough. As for the Hardy Boys . . . well, they can wait another year or two.

Yellow, Astons and two very different Fords

 

When the Land Rover was updated in 1962 it was issued as 406S and came in this very bright yellow finish. For reasons I have not being able to establish it didn't last for more than a few months before being replaced by a deep green version with the 438 model number. Maybe it was because this was a completely new model as a Series II Land Rover whereas the S suffix tended to indicate merely the addition of suspension and an interior to an existing model.

Whatever the case, these are rare and almost all that I find have a lot of chips, broken windows or missing middle strut on the window. Seldom is the hook still there or the front bumper even approximately straight. So when this arrived I was delighted. Yes, there are some chips and they do show up in this colour, but it remains the best I've had so far.

Also in yellow, but no such a dramatic shade, is another rare item which you might not expect to be rare. The 218 Aston Martin with fixed shaped wheels was only produced for a very short time, most fixed wheel editions having either the original smooth wheels or the cast type with a sort of criss-cross design that was supposed to indicate wire wheels but never worked in my view.

Now I have both red and yellow editions but, like the Land Rover, I still need to find something in more reasonable condition. This one may appear quite decent but the roof is badly scraped.

Another fairly scarce model is this Aston Martin James Bond model. The 270 in silver was issued in 1968 and started with silver grille and bumpers. For some reason these were very quickly replaced by gold fittings. Later changes when Whizzwheels were introduced have resulted in a couple of the very last editions also being quite rear with different base features and you can read about these in my Catalogue. This first edition, though, is the one that is most sought after. Despite there being a large quantity being produced these are still hard to find in original condition and with everything still functioning (and you'll need to consult your bank manager if you want an original bubble-style box and all the contents!).

This one is pretty good with an almost flat roof when at rest but, like many I have seen, it came without a front bumper. As the only bits that appear missing are the left and right sections and there is a large open gap between the body and base where they could be slotted in, I had a go at repairing it. It seems to have worked pretty well. OK, so it's not now entirely original but clean examples of these still make over £100 even in modestly good condition.

I tend to give most Whizzwheels models quite a wide berth but by 1973 someone had done something about the terrible plastic wheels and models were sporting some quite attractive wheels and looking smart again. One fine example is the Ford Mustang Mach 1, usually seen in red as a James Bond edition. That was 391 and available for a short period in 1972. Clearly, there must have been a lot of models still to come to market and someone decided to paint them a pleasant shade of metallic green and call them a Rally Edition.

All would have been well but probably the same person decided to add some paper stickers not just to the doors but to the bonnet, roof and, for good measure, why not the upper rear wings too! I can only guess that they must have been a nightmare to attach as I have only ever seen two with them looking reasonably straight. Fortunately, a few models escaped without the stickers and they look so much better.

If you're thinking that it's just a model with the stickers removed then, having tried that in the past and failed miserably, I'd say that was less likely than it being issued this way. Exposed to the air the adhesive used seems to turn to some sort of rock-hard super glue compound. Try peeling a sticker off and the paper tears leaving the annoying substance affixed to the paint. Most attempts to remove that will remove a layer of paint finish too which rather defeats the whole purpose!

Lastly for this post, I have a spare Chrome edition of the 2006 50th Anniversary edition of the Ford Consul. With made in China on the base it is not something I would normally want to promote but I do like the few 50th Anniversary models and have quite a lot of respect for the production quality of this model (and the four other variations).

With a limited edition of just 650 they are quite scarce although they do regularly appear for sale. Unlike something like the AVRO BODE edition of the Bedford CA 421 van in 1961 which had a similar production quantity, most of the Ford Consuls have been kept safely on shelves in collectors' homes! As with mine, they'll also have their original boxes, packing and leaflets. That packing isn't, though, something to get excited about. This model was placed unceremoniously in a ghastly bit of thin phlegm-coloured plastic shaped for the car that early Vanguards model collectors will be familiar with. Horrible but at least the outer box was half-decent.

2019 arrivals

Very early GS2 with a box and inner tray which displays the pony separately. Later editions had no holes for the pony, which was wrapped in card in the trailer. As seems appropriate, I have used a similarly rare and early trailer without a handle at the top of the ramp. It's not going to be cheap.

58 The Beast carrier with calves and the green mesh on top (although that's not shown here)

151 Scarce edition of the Lotus XI Le Mans in red with original screen

200 Ford Consul in mushroom brown. I though it was a cream one when I saw it advertised! I now have two of these to sell.

202M I also have two of these mid green Morris Cowleys with working motors

203M Vauxhall Velox with working motor

208 Nice Jaguar 2.4 with super original early box

208M Jaguar 2.4 with working motor

209 Riley Pathfinder Police Car lovely but missing the bell.

213 Jaguar 2.4 Fire Chief's Car - excellent and complete but missing a transfer

214 Ford Thunderbird (I bought this hoping it might have had shaped wheels).

231 Triumph Herald - very clean examples in each colour

234 Bentley Continental - superb examples in each of the main colours and one with a lovely original box too.

238 Jaguar Mk X in a really stunning deep cerise shade. I have two of these, equally good, one with an original box.

246 Chrysler Imperial with original box. All very good. I bought this for the golf caddy - the one sold with it is a replacement.

252 Rover 2000 in maroon with an odd wheel!

252 Rover 2000 in maroon with an original box.

318 Lotus Elan S2 - very scarce with cast wheels

323 Citroen DS19 Monte Carlo Edition with an original aerial!

384 The last 1:43 Corgi car. From 1977 a VW 1200 Rally Edition - only available for a short period.

508 Commer Holiday Bus with original luggage cover (but no cases)

These are all quite recent additions, listed in catalogue order. Please enquire for availability and price as there has been quite a bit of interest in some of these.