Going Going . . . Gosh.

 

A colleague mentioned an auction that will end as I am writing this. It was for a very nice, complete Gift Set 15 Silverstone Set. I say 'complete' but I read that it lacked one of the six tubes of enamel paint! The glue is present, though, so I think we can call that as complete as complete can be for this set. It all comes in a big cardboard box which never looks very inspiring but now costs rather more than the 72/6d it did in November 1963. That was £3.62½ for those readers who wonder what on Earth that price denomination means. And that's just short of £100 in 2026 money terms, so that set was not something you could have popped out and bought with your pocket money, nor even something most of us would have been likely to receive as a birthday or Christmas present. Whilst around 8000 did get sold, you can imagine how many now exist in any vague form of completeness. Indeed, I think the only sets that we find coming on the market now will be ones that didn't get sold but were discovered as good old 'old shop stock'.

Anyway, that one particular £3.62 and a ha'pence-worth is now at £2200 and I would expect it to have some way still to go in an upward direction after I publish this. My colleague sent me a message when it was a mere £925 and I have to say I was most tempted. Despite having had a very successful week with lots of customers apparently discovering my website and my own store, (as opposed to Ebay where I have to charge at least 15% more to receive the same net amount), I have a suspicion that I will not be able to afford what this eventually goes for.

I also have to ask myself what I would do with it. I have written before about how much enjoyment I have had by recreating the Garage Layout from all the Gift Set 25 components that I now have, and how I would love to do the same with the Silverstone set. But there is no way that I could envisage opening up all those kits . . . well, if I had two sets then I could, especially if one of them had a really grotty old outer box, missing cars, paint, glue and brush. Then I could, as long as my wife agreed to do the painting. (She's the Ukrainian artist, brilliant with tiny detailed work who painted the most impressive lady in the Telephone Box that I have ever seen, if you missed a previous article).

So, not envisaging doing anything with this large cardboard box other than admiring the label and wondering how one could flatten out the layout mat, I would have to hope to find someone willing to pay even more than the vast sum I would have had to shell out, not forgetting the auction house fee which will add another few hundred. So it would all be rather pointless and if all I am going to do is make some money then I would probably be far better off investing in some scarce variations, which is what I had intended to write about in the first place.

Look at these - all recent completed sales, not wild hopeful estimates, for models which I actually already have in stock myself (in most cases). I was so surprised at the prices realised that I have had to look again at what I was selling mine for and adjust accordingly, very much upward.

That's £1063, including fees and tax. Now mine is by no means mint. It has lost some paint but is quite sound otherwise. Photos do seem to show up the faults, though, and the car sitting on my desk looks very attractive still. And it isn't £925. or even £1063.

That is a staggering £2185 to get it into your cabinet at home. Again, mine has seen better days but may well have better rear suspension than that one. It has lost paint - not so obviously in this colour, so still looks nice on display. This isn't £2185 either.

Extraordinary. This one breaks £3000 once you've paid your fees and tax. Now I have to admit that I don't have one with a lemon interior. This price, however, is more than I would have expected for a factory colour trial. I can only assume that there is a collector who is trying to get one of every Jaguar Mk X and money was simply no object for this one. Well, if you happen to be missing a quite scarce kingfisher blue variant with red interior, here is mine. And it isn't even 1/10th of the price of that one.

The Jaguar 2.4 seems almost cheap at what would have been a total of £575. I have one with a grey base and did wonder whether it might be a little scarce. I wasn't thinking £575 scarce, though. 

Another one that is almost affordable at their auction! A mere £536 for what I found a most strange model when one turned up amongst some I had bought some time ago. I came to the conclusion that Corgi had the white bodies for the 211M lying around when the M models were abandoned in late 1959 but in early 1960 only had the 211S bases available as that would have been ready for distribution. So a batch of white bodies got attached to a 211S base but got no suspension or interior so remained as a 211 of sorts. It didn't occur to me that anyone would pay that much, however. It does now, of course, and mine is nearly a match for theirs - but a lot cheaper.

You may have noticed that the boxes for these models are all pretty standard. Whilst the Rover does appear to have a generic box with a stamped number I am pretty sure that there would have been that edition in a normal 252 box. I shall have to find the Jaguar one. The others should be around somewhere.

These are just a few of the wonderful variations that I have in stock and I merely show these because I saw how similar items sold for so much. I shall have to feature a few more before long and try to encourage collectors and investors to check with me before parting company with huge amounts of (not necessarily in the case of the latter group) hard-earned money to line the pockets of QDT and Vectis directors.

I mentioned the layout mat along the way. That is something I shall be writing about soon, along with some more views of the Garage layout (which will have to go back in its box next week before my wife returns from her trip home).

It's 7pm and I need to go. Please someone bid more than £2200 or I shall be very tempted . . . just because I am sure it would sell for around £4000 with some more effective publicity. For the auction house, though, there's not much incentive to do much - they'll only get a few hundred more at best.

Jaguar 2.4

Jaguar were well represented by Corgi. Whilst there would later be the lovely little E type, its annoyingly larger cousin fastback and a whole Dulux paint chart of Mark Xs the first was a Jaguar 2.4 litre - the first type with fewer vertical lines on the grill.

#208 comes out in 1957 in two versions - white for the normal one and a nice metallic blue for the Mechanical one. A couple of years later they are reviving the original models by giving them two-tone paint but the Jaguar gets the roof device from the Riley Pathfinder Police car and red paint to make it a 'Fire Chief' car. No, I'd never known a Fire Chief with one either.

Suspension and seats get added in late 1960 and both #208S and #213S extend the life of the cast for a couple more years.The Fire Chief car is otherwise virtually identical but the saloon gets a creamy yellow flavour of paint. Neither the white nor the yellow really worked well and the car never looked as good as a model as it did in the flesh. Corgi did achieve some excellent replicas in 1:43 or thereabouts but this wasn't their best effort.

For all that the saloons sold fairly well, a good #208M being the hardest to find now. The scarcest of the five is #213S - and do remember to check that it has the siren and bell attached! 

Jaguar Mk X colours

dark metallic blue

Another collector asked me about Jaguar Mk X colours so I thought I would do a little more research and try and find some examples to illustrate them all as I don't have every one myself yet. There really is an amazing number. So here are what could comprise a reasonably full list. There may be further slight variations and what I describe as Kingfisher blue below is similar to a sort of dark turquoise which I have seen.

I think that the first releases were the pale green and pale or sky blue solid colours with the metallic variations coming a fair bit later. I had the pale green myself and that would have been one of the first in 1962. From what I can tell, the scarcest colours are silver, the sea green / turquoise / Kingfisher shade and dark blue.

pale blue

steel blue metallic

sky blue

Kingfisher blue metallic

Bright blue metallic

dark cerise metallic

cerise metallic

pale cerise metallic

pale green

emerald metallic

dark silver metallic

light silver metallic

So let's confuse everything now. I have just seen this, apparently pink Jaguar Mk X in a forthcoming auction!! It looks in dreadful condition and I can't be absolutely sure that it hasn't been another colour repainted but I will do my best to get it and take a closer look. I probably shouldn't have published this until after I've won it or someone will go and start bidding against me. More news in a while.

Update: The Jaguar was a dreadfully bad repaint! The auction chap I had asked to checked it for me prior to bidding assured me it was original so I shall not be using them again in a hurry. Some outfit in Bristol

. 

Three types

At first glance you might have thought there was just the one Corgi Jaguar E Type 2+2. #335 in red or a nice shade of dark metallic blue had everything working - opening bonnet, tailgate, opening doors and folding seats and if my memory serves me right the rear seat could be pushed forward to make more room in the luggage compartment.

The dash board is also beautifully detailed. An amazingly good model, although it did seem a little too big when parked next to the earlier convertible model. That's a minor moan, though. the solution was simply to keep them apart.

This appeared in 1968, with nice wire wheels (and I think with cast louvred type later on although I haven't seen any with that variety). The following year was when Whizzwheels came along and in mid-1970 this model changed to #374 with the dreaded plastic things.

It also lost its opening doors at this point but not the lovely dash which you could still make out if you peered through the open tailgate. The seats are now fixed but the other features remain. A red version continued and then a yellow one appears too. The transfer with the tailgate badge, though, was in white so an amusingly pointless addition to the yellow one! I actually thought the transfer was missing and was about to order a replacement.

In red or yellow this version is scarce. That is because it appeared in June but in September Corgi started producing the 5.3 litre version and the boxes have the amendment as an added sticker. So, whilst it was popular and quite a few will have been sold, that is a very short period of availability, bearing in mind that there were probably quite a few of the original #335s still in many shops so they might not have bothered re-ordering in that brief period.

In September 1970 the 5.3 litre V12 appears and, to their credit, despite economising yet further by ditching the wing mirrors and exhaust, Corgi created a new version to reflect the change of grill, bumpers, exhaust style and even the tailgate gets replaced, now with the V12 symbol in the cast itself. They did keep the yellow colour, though, just to confuse us collectors years later (although it is a slightly greener yellow). I believe that the 5.3litre versions are only yellow (with a darker, metallic yellow coming later), and have brown plastic interiors whereas the 4.2 litres are all black. The interior still retains the detail but the dash is just moulded in the brown plastic now and not quite as impressive.

So you need three versions, at least, of this model. To be really complete, you may need seven:

335 red and metallic blue with spoked wheels
335 metallic blue with cast wheels (I think this exists but probably not in red)
374 (4.2) red and yellow
374 (5.3) yellow and metallic yellow

Corgi Toy 1967-68 Catalogue

The word mazak appears in The Corgi Story on the first page. I missed that at the time and I had to look it up when I discovered it on the base on some models a few weeks ago. The main focus now is on some big models - in size as well as fame. The cover has the ridiculously big Lincoln Continental which I never actually wanted at the time and only now keep in stock with some reluctance. It is simply too big and looks crazy with the other models as I illustrated in a previous article.

Joining the TV and Film fame set are a couple of new Bond cars, the silver #270 Aston, now with a slightly reshaped rear end to look a little more like the DB5 it should have been and a Toyota 2000GT. Both these are still 'available later' and it is the gold one that remains on sale when the catalogue is issued. Batman's Batmobile has a boat attachment and then there's some Green Hornet affair. I do not remember either the car or the TV series or film it was associated with and still don't have much of a clue, I'm afraid, nor examples of either in stock. They seem to command extremely high prices for such a common model.

Completing the 'fame' models on the first few pages of this catalogue are The Man From U.N.C.L.E's Thrush Buster, The Avengers Gift Set 40 and, looking quite sad now in comparison, The Saint's Volvo P1800. (The Volvo, though, will continue to be available long after some of the others disappear!)

The new 'normal' model is the Jaguar E Type 2+2, oddly illustrated in dark pink in the catalogue but mercifully released initially in the red as in a drawing or in a very nice metallic blue. This was another 'big' model, though, in comparison to most. Not as bad as the Lincoln but you still had to keep the #307 and #335 E types away from each other.

In the 'Available Later' category in 1967 were the Austin Mini Countryman (interestingly, without surfer or roofrack!), the Lancia Fulvia Zagato (illustrated in gold) and the Citroen Le Dandy Coupé and MGC GT in blue and white. I have never seen the MGC GT in those colours and the Citroen is very rare in two-tone.

The Kits have disappeared but there are several Racing Sets and combinations now. 

The Daktari Land Rover is illustrated in white, not the green it actually appears in - the white being issued later as the Lions of Longleat set.

Whilst #9022 Daimler was 'Available Later' in the 1966 catalogue, #9021 Daimler is now 'Available Later' in this one. Odd.

Cast wheels appear on #339 Mini Cooper and #264 Oldsmobile Toronado. Many of the newer illustrations are now very realistic and I am sure most of photographs with some post-processing effects - like the speed lines on the axles of the competition cars.Some old stagers are still clearly drawn, however, and re-used for yet another year!

Shades of blue Jaguar

Two Jaguars enter the stock list this week and despite being some 10 years apart are almost the same shade of blue! First is the excellent Jaguar 2.4 and this is #208M, the 'Mechanical' version in full working order and almost unmarked paintwork. I am really pleased to have this in stock and have not seen another either in this shade or with the motor mechanism in as good condition.

The second is a very attractive Jaguar E Type 4.2, the second E-type Corgi produced, with opening everything. Often the chrome elements suffered on this cars but this one, brought in from Italy, has been taken care of all its life. They were sold in a sort of bubble type of packaging that no-one bothered to keep and usually got messed up being opened anyway. So there wasn't even somewhere for any child to put the model if they had wanted to protect it in later years.