Corgi Model Club: Mustang Flower Power

 

This month's issue for current Model Club subscribers is the Ford Mustang in Flower Power finish.

It is yet another (but not the last!) working of the Mustang casting, now in a slightly depressing shade of blue and featuring decals of designs I might had had on my bedroom walls at the time! It's a nice model and, with its chunky eight-spoke cast wheels, looks good from the side particularly.

Viewed side by side with my rather grotty original, it really is very accurate indeed. My only complaint is the poor definition on the grille, which was a paper label for the original. I am not sure whether the reproduction is similar or a firmly fixed item. It is not very good but that may just be for my model. And, of course, the jewels - why can't the Club specify something a little better?

The transfers are spot-on, a great improvement on the last effort the Club made with the Sting Ray.

As you'll gather from the rest of the photos I have added below, this is a good-looking item and these cars are not that easy to find in good condition as originals, with few being sold here in the UK. A box is particularly scarce and I have to admit that I don't believe I have ever seen an original to this day.

Corgi Toys @ 60: lots of valuable issues (if you had the early ones for Christmas!)

A huge number of new issues arrived in the shops in December 1965! I'll list them in catalogue number order, starting with the second appearance of the #242 Fiat 600 Jolly Ghia. It has lost the roof and comes only in a solid but cheerful yellow. Now with two people and a Corgi dog on the back seat too. 

This was not a particularly popular model and the attempt to make a few more sales from the casting was not very successful and it was quietly withdrawn from dealers' order forms after a few months. Really quite hard to find now.

Next is #256, the VW 1200 in East African Safari trim. This was a great model and something I was delighted to play with as it had really good steering operated by a spare wheel on the roof. So much more realistic-looking than the Austin A60 had been and with better ground clearance from the normal size wheels as well! The model came with a baby rhino about to attack the car on a pleasant scenic tray. The sticker on the bonnet was inclined to lift off but that didn't really bother me and I was more keen on things like the jewelled headlights and opening engine compartment at the rear and bonnet at the front. There was no space to carry anything so they seldom did get opened. I was also impressed by the use of a lovely bright silver base-plate to incorporate attractive bumpers and, remarkably, rear mudguards too!

The first issue was left hand drive but you will also find this in right hand drive form. There is also a very later edition where the jewelled lights have been replaced by rather tedious silver blobs. That's not an easy find either.

You may be beginning to see a trend here in these December 1965 issues.

Next is another casting re-use in the form of #325 Ford Mustang 2+2 Fastback Competition Model. Corgi have added bright red stripes and a coat of white paint to the lovely #320 model and it gets a fresh lease of life. There was a set of peel off numbers in the box but the RN2 shown here is not at all common. Nor are the very early models with shaped wheels as illustrated here.

This model can be found with the fullest range of wheels of any Corgi. First it had shaped wheels but only for a very limited time before wire wheels were fitted. Then detailed cast wheels appeared, the ones with fine spokes, before a chunkier style of 8-spoke cast wheel started to be fitted and, just to add more for a complete collection, these came in a gold finish as well as the plain cast silver-grey colour. Finally some wire wheel models had a red sill added! (The Corgi Model Club made a mistake in adding the red sill to their chunky 8-spoke wheel version.)

You will also have fun seeking out the different interiors. Whilst there was no Corgi dog in this issue, the interior was initially the same as was being fitted to the #320. Later the interior is redesigned and you'll find both chalky blue and chalky green versions.

Next on the list for December 1965 is the #468 London Bus, identical to the original issue other than its advertising which now features Outspan Oranges and this will be the most common version of the #468 model.

Later this will get cast wheels, lose its jewelled headlights and then Whizzwheels as well as a wide range of other advertising banners, some of which are hard to find now. Look out for transition models which have cast wheels but no jewels.

Another re-use of a casting is the Citroen Safari model which is basically the same as the January 1964 issue, also #475, but now Corgi Ski Club stickers replace the 1964 Winter Olympics ones.

The skiing character is the same, as are the skis and ski poles. You will find red and yellow with both #475 models. For a change, that's the only variation!

Now for another 'new' model that isn't really new at all. The #477 is identical to the later issues of the  #417S Land Rover Breakdown Truck apart from the new plastic canopy fitted to this one, replacing the tin affair that had been fitted since the #417 was issued way back in 1960.

This another of Corgi's very long-running editions and stays in the catalogue for many years, getting cast wheels, transfers instead of stickers and, of course, Whizzwheels in the 1970s.

Something else with some play value was the #478 Jeep FC-150, although this is yet another re-working of an existing model. The same Jeep in red and lacking suspension or interior was available as Gift Set 14 in 1961. Now the lamp standard has gone but the character still remains (for a while).

The boom can be found in painted silver, plain metal silver and also gold-coloured metal. There is a variation with a red interior and the wheels become cast later in its long life, although it never gets Whizzwheels, oddly enough.

Two more very simple adaptations prolong the life of a couple of other old models. The #1110 Mobilgas Tanker was first seen in 1959 with the Big Bedford cab. All Corgi have done is add the new Bedford TK cab and changed the number to #1140.

The same trick was done with the #1129 1962 Milk Tanker.

Add a Bedford TK cab and call it #1141. Corgi didn't even change the trailer component. Well, they may have changed the coverage of the light blue colour on the tanker towards the rear but, as it is so simple to swap things over, I cannot be absolutely sure. #1129 models seem all to have the blue colour all the way along the lower half whereas the #1141 stops in a 90° corner.

Both these models had very short period of availability for dealers to order and are hard to find now - but do beware of an old rear section hitched to a new front one. With the Milk Tanker, that's not so easy as the 'milk' blue is not the same as the other blues used for the cab. The red for the Mobilgas Tanker, though, is more readily switched.

Finally, for 1965, you could have been one of the first to have bought a Gift Set 32, the #53 Massey Ferguson Tractor with Shovel attachment and driver, towing the #62 Tipper Trailer (with raves) issued in February. The #53 is the last of the shovel attachment types in all bare metal.

This is yet another hard to find item now and a valuable Gift Set when in good condition with its original, nicely illustrated box and display.

If you had been lucky enough to get this lot, as shown here (apart from the late #256) in your Christmas Stocking (well, you'd have need a pillow-case!) then your parents might have forked out 87/2d (that's 4pounds, 7 shillings and 2 pence). Now, however, you'd be able to sell them for £1500 if you' d managed to keep everything nice and original, as well as the boxes, of course. (For reference, inflation between 1965 and 2025 would make the original price around £120 in today's buying terms. So definitely an inflation-busting investment that you could also have had a lot of enjoyment from - on the carpet in the 1960s and in cabinets in the 2020s (and probably the loft in the years in between!)

Blue Beauties

 

I had this selection of recent additions to my collection on the shelf next to where I write and it just occurred to me how lovely they are and, in particular, how I have liked blue editions of many in the range. I was going to write about some annoying careless packaging but instead decided to be more cheerful this morning and leave that until later.

The Oldsmobile Super 88 is a very plain Corgi. Nothing opens, no suitcases or jewelled lights and the huge white stripe always strikes me as odd but there is something about this model in this colour that makes it one of my favourites and I was so pleased to find this lovely example recently. The shade is typical mid 1960s and you can almost hear the Beach Boys record playing in the background.  The more common metallic shade seems quite boring in comparison.

Now you don't need me to remind you that the Jaguar Mk X can be found in a really large range of colours, including several variations of blue, from solid sky blue to what is often called 'kingfisher blue'. This deep metallic blue is one of the best I have had and even the paint around the headlamps has survived the last 60 years (and a trip from Germany where my friend Andi found it). 

As a child I had the rather unpleasant pale green version. All the first issues were either solid sky blue or that green but I can only imagine I didn't have any choice when I bought mine. I remember returning to the toy shop a couple of years later when working for a local farmer meant that I had some money to spend each week on Corgis. There on his counter was a metallic cerise Jaguar Mk X that he had been showing to someone else and it was such an improvement that it was the first 'duplicate' I acquired. It is only over the last ten years or so that I have realised just how many colours that were issued. If I had known I would have asked the shop owner to look out for this one, for sure.

Another model with a fair range of colours is the Ghia L6.4. My first one was a strange, darkish turquoise-blue shade with a red interior but the duplicate I acquired in sage green was my favourite at the time. I was particularly fond of the cream interior and delighted to find a more normal metallic blue version with that cream interior some 50 years later! Of course, I now appreciate that there are many shades of the metallic blue and the model I should have illustrated here is the one with matching door panels as opposed to the odd red ones in this example. They are original, though, but I have never seen red door panels in the sage green car. They do appear in some gold cars with cream interior. The few bronze editions that I have had have only had all cream interiors too.

This was the first Corgi to have opening everything and it was a delight to own and play with. I shall probably always have one of these to look at somewhere around me. People do buy them every time I advertise them and then I have to start looking for another but, luckily, they are a bit easier to find than the Jaguar!

The Oldsmobile Toronado was after my time, to coin a phrase, in that by 1967 I was listening to Radio London, collecting 7" singles and albums by the Byrds and The Mamas and The Papas, singing Monkees songs and writing poems to possible girlfriends. It was one of the first 'new' Corgis that I found when I started all this Corgi stuff in 2012 or thereabouts. Again, that lovely metallic blue finish and very bright and clean-looking, almost white, interior appealed to me. The opening twin headlights were nice, especially with the chromed finish and operated so much better than those on the Chevrolet Sting Ray of earlier times.

It didn't do much else than flash its headlamps and shine with all that glorious chrome (the chrome sills were great) but the design just works for me. 

For a long time I was confused by what appeared to be variations but eventually I realised that the #264 model in a box did not have a tow bar and those that did were from Gift Set 36 with a Glastron Speedboat. I did, however, much prefer the look of the early and quite scarce editions with normal wheels as opposed to the more common cast variety.

Whilst on the topic of attractive 'blue' Corgis, I have written before about how I searched for a metallic blue #230 for  while before appreciating that Corgi had revised the Mercedes 220SE as #253 without steering and modifications to the boot and pillars. I did love the steering on the #230 model and the black model is likely to rank in my all-time Top 20 but I do like the blue #253. It must be that cream interior again!

I cannot allow any text on this topic to be published without reference to what could be my favourite Corgi - the metallic blue Ford Mustang.

Here it has wire wheels as that was the first photo I found. I think the one with plain wheels may be the one that actually tops my own poll. I will have to write a note to myself not sell the next one I find in good condition! Maybe this article will do.

For now, though, I hope you will excuse my rambling about some not particularly different or hard to find models but, instead, remembering just how nice ordinary Corgis can be.

I am aware that I have not mentioned a whole host of other models in blue that may or may not deserve mention. These few just happened to be next to me.

Corgi Toys @ 60: Two Old Renaults and a Mustang

 I know what I preferred when I saw the new arrivals in April 1965 at the local toy shop. Like many other children at the time, I didn't give the Corgi Classic Renaults a second glance. They may have been well-made but they had no play value and parts which could easily fall off and screens which would not survive mothers dropping the model into wooden toy boxes every evening.

This came in a sturdy box and illustrated lid, with the model protected by a piece of foam rubber which no-one now is quite sure how it should be placed. I think it goes on top of the model but then the box lid doesn't fit as well as it does when the wheels are pressing down into the foam when it's placed underneath.

There were two colours issued at the same time: a pale primrose and something approaching lavender, each with matching wheels. I have seen some variations in the colour of the primrose one and there are different finishes to the lamps but you can still pick up near-perfect models in boxes for just a few pounds, 60 years later.

This will be the penultimate Classics issue in this era, with the final one coming next year in the ghastly shape of the Rolls Royce Silver Ghost. (I am not counting the Basil Brush or Hardy Boys editions!)

Now, moving on to what is one of my favourites and a 'proper Corgi' from this era, the Ford Mustang Fastback 2+2.

This delightful model comes in four colours and three wheel types. There is pea green, metallic blue, metallic silver and metallic lilac. The early issues will have plain shaped wheels. Most of the production has wire wheels with some later editions getting the cast 'louvre/spoke effect' wheels.

In my experience the most common wheel types are the wire wheels, with shaped wheels being quite scarce on the pea green and lilac models in particular and I haven't seen many in these colours with cast wheels either, now I think about it.

This is only the second issue by Corgi to have opening doors, the first being the Ghia L6.4 some 18 months earlier. They're quite chunky doors and many would not close nicely in line. They did have a half-open widow attached to the door, however, which was a new feature. With chrome-plated bumpers and jewels for headlamps this was just what we wanted at the time. The seats folded down inside too, although the pale cream interior would soon get discoloured. Interestingly, the silver edition had a deep red interior. All the models had a Corgi dog on the rear shelf. In the Ghias, the dog would come in two sizes and I have yet to research whether the small dog came first or the other way around. I am also not sure whether there are different sizes of dogs in this model but my guess is that they're all the same.

The suspension on these models is vulnerable and you'll now find many that have collapsed. It is provided by plastic elements in the chassis which have become brittle and crack very easily now. Do be careful with any models that you have where the suspension has survived.

This model will be around for a long time in one form or another, as you'll discover, although you'll need to wait until 2031 for the final one!

The other new old Corgi Toys

 

The latest (and most interesting) releases from Hornby arrived this week as they seek to recoup some of the costs of their assisting the Corgi Model Club with their valiant efforts over the last three years. A deal was made whereby Hornby would be able to utilise the casting and design work for the Model Club re-issues, provided that the new models coming on the market are different.

This follows the rather disastrous attempt by Hornby to 're-issue' #261 a little before the Model Club's excellent effort which served mostly only to confuse collectors and annoy people like me who felt that you should only put a model in a box that had the number 261 and a design very similar to the original 261 box if that model was pretty closely modelled on the original #261, which Hornby's clearly wasn't, with its revolving number plates, ghastly wheels and a box that w as bigger than the original. It also follows the much better, but still very confusing, issue by Hornby of the Land Rover Breakdown Truck in 417S form at the same time as the Model Club released their is 417 form! Or maybe the other way round, I can't remember.

I am happy to say that things have much improved! Hornby, like the Model Club, do need to get someone to study fonts and typefaces rather more than they have to date as the boxes all feature some noticeably wrong characters when viewed next to some original issues.

But let's look at the models. First comes the Porsche Carrera 6. The Model Club produced this in the scarcer finish but Hornby have gone for the more familiar issue with a blue engine cover, red highlights and a 60 RN.

They updated the box illustration to match. When I first got this I thought the illustration looked strange and not much like what I had thought the original was like. However, when I found an original box I saw that the style is actually very similar, with someone recolouring the original to all intents and purposes.

As before, without Porsche's agreement, there can be no emblem on the base for this model either so that does look a bit bland, as did the Model Club issue.

Otherwise it is excellent all round.

Next is something new for us all! A Ford Mustang in gold with a matt black bonnet.

This is a nice addition to the Corgi range of Mustangs and stands out from the rest. The same colour interior is present so not a great deal had to be done in creating this one either.

It also has retained the quite chunky 8-spoke cast wheels but these do seem to make it sit much too high. It is reminiscent of the Ford Thunderbird. The first Open Top model, #215 sat nice and low as all the Thunderbirds seem to do in real life. Then came suspension and the 215S, with a much higher ride height and a silly-looking Simon Templar peering over the top of the windscreen. I may well try changing the tyres  on this and see whether 'normal' tyres permit it to sit at a better height.

It's a great addition to the collection, nevertheless, and I am glad this arrangement was made with the Club.

Next is a model which was issued - the Volvo P1800 in red.

My pictures show it looking a little pinkish but this is definitely a red Volvo and not the salmon one they issued in the old days. The red issue is less common so it's nice to see this from Hornby. 

It has the same shortcoming as The Saint's car, those rather plasticky jewels in the headlamps and I found that there was a lot of play in the axles which makes the car rattle annoyingly. A minor matter, though. Another attractive model I am happy to display.

Last this month is the Jaguar E Type 2+2 Fastback in metallic blue. Just as the red one from the Model Club has delighted us all then this cannot fail to do so again. I had always wanted the blue version as a child and it was one of the first original models I looked for when I rebuilt my collection. This is lovely.

Everything works as it should. The seat backs seem rather more flimsy than I remember the originals being but they do recline as necessary. The rear parcel shelf also moves back and forth. The wire wheels have been well-reproduced and the whole car looks wonderful.

It comes in identical packing to the original #335. Not easy to open so this one may not get played with as much as the others, being so tricky to extract and not something to attempt in a rush as the card will tear.

I see in the photos that the doors are a slightly darker colour, or maybe the metallic paint was sprayed on these in a different direction. I hadn't noticed when it arrived and it's not something I am inclined to complain about but I hope it is not affecting all the production.

So here we have four fine new additions to the Corgi family. My 'second' collection of new models is growing ridiculously quickly. I am just glad that I can afford to keep up, something I couldn't do as a child with very limited pocket money. Getting older does have its advantages!

I am reminded of some time in the early 1980s when I was in my twenties and had plenty of spare money after paying the bills. I would look in toy shops for Corgis, hoping to buy lots of the models I had had but which had become worn or damaged, or just get some new ones I had never been able to get, like the Ecurie Ecosse transporter and the silver Aston Martin. Of course, none were to be had anywhere in the toy shops. Had I known where to look I may have been able to get them at nice prices from whoever did have them for sale then but I never did discover who or where. At least I'm here now for new collectors or other old ones on a rebuilding mission and I hope I can continue to help you all find what you'd like, as well as keep you up-to-date with the new stuff.