Corgi Model Club: another MGA

Chasing hard on the heels of the Rover 2000TC in white, the MGA in metallic teal has now arrived.

This is a lovely-looking model with an excellent, high gloss finish, which makes you wonder why they couldn't have achieved that with the Chevrolet Impala a little while ago. The colour is really nothing much like the Corgi original but pleasant for all that, there being no chance of this being mistaken for the 1957 issue.

Like the early 2024 re-issue, this has smooth wheels, which are nicely made and very shiny but I have always thought this model looked so much better with the shaped wheels fitted from around 1961. Indeed, this particular model will be for sale soon as my colleague in the USA who usually has these re-issues once I have finished with them, has specifically told me not to bother sending any with these smooth wheels.

This one is another model made for the Club in Bangladesh. It's not easy to read on the extremely shiny base but rather better typesetting, or whatever the process is called is needed.. It still looks poorly aligned, though. Having said that, the design and general presentation skills exhibited by many traders from that part of the world in their store signage and shop window displays are not great. The Rover's base looked very amateur.

Like many people making reproductions or restorations, whoever was in charge of the paint pots in Dhaka, Chattagram or wherever could not resist the addition of a little red to the rear lights. I am pretty sure that these were not painted on the original models or, if they were, it would be with the same silver as for the bumper.

The emblem on the boot lid is also a bit too circular. Even on the originals it was not as clearly an octagon as it should be but the angles have really been smoothed out on this. With real new MG cars' manufacture now in Chinese hands, I am sure they would have got that right but I guess the workers in Bangladesh would be unaware of things like that.

That's not very significant overall, however, and the model itself is an attractive product that will please most collectors and seems quite good value at £29 for members, including some tissue and two unevenly cut pieces of plastic foam.

What is not so good to report is the quality of the card used for the box. It is noticeably thinner than the Chinese variety and I have already seen pictures from unhappy people sending back boxes with considerable wear on the corners, presumably where it has been free to move around in the quite inadequate outer packaging used for delivery.

And once again, the Club will need to fire their latest editor of the Certificates of Authenticity. (You'll gather that I didn't get the job.) We are told that 'the MGA was available in red, cream or metallic teal'. This is an error I suppose they've picked up by copying the Great Book of Corgi, in which many of the colours said to have been issued were figments of Marcel's imagination. He even writes about red seats in the green one. No doubt he will have seen many factory samples and I am sure more will have been approved but, to the best of my knowledge, there was no cream edition issued to buy in the shops. I think I would have seen one by now if there had been. Factory samples, yes, Issued models available to dealers, no.

I am also a bit confused by the text which goes on to tell me that ' it was available in . . . a blue illustrated box (as presented with this special Corgi Model Club member's edition) . . .' I don't know about anyone else but my box is the later yellow and blue type. It even has 'Teal Member's Edition' printed on the box too. So something's not quite right there.

There is a cream MGA either in the shop already or coming soon and I think that is the one that will come in a blue box. 

Corgi Model Club: two more Aston Martins, a teal sports car and a nice box.

 

You may have been confused by a recent note from the Corgi Model Club, encouraging us all to buy the #270 James Bond's Aston Martin with silver grille and bumpers, having had one encouraging us to buy the #270 James Bond's Aston Martin with gold grille and bumpers just a short while ago. I had ordered the one with a gold bits in November and, quite frankly, forgotten all about it so I rushed to order the one with silver bits just in case it sold out as these things tend to. Luckily I remembered that I had also had a list of items I should be getting as a member and, indeed, the one with silver bits should be arriving sometime in a few weeks. The one with gold bits is, I assume, on its way too.

I had thought that the masses were going to get the gold edition from the shop, with the silver edition being just for members but I see now this is not the case. There is no asterisk on the list and so lots of people will be getting this before I do as I seem to be a few weeks behind with my Club arrivals, the Ecurie Ecosse Transporter still to reach my village.

So, if you are a member, and only want one silver edition, you don't have to do anything. No need to panic. It will come in its own time when you reach that point on the list. If you want the gold one, though, you need to buy it from the shop and, despite the claim that members get a nice discount, they pay the same price as everyone else for anything other than their single monthly Club items.

Coming up soon you will see two issues that will be for members only and not available in the shop. These are an orange #233 Heinkel Bubble, sorry, Economy Car and a #302 MGA in teal. I expect there will be a red #233 in the shop which we'll need to buy at the normal price but maybe no further MGAs, the red one being available already. Perhaps the Club will hang on to some teal paint and use some for a #300 Austin Healey at some point. That's a model that's very hard to find as an original. I think teal would be about right. I have two originals but both had been frustratingly overpainted with a slightly different shade of blue for reasons I fail to understand.

This one has a new steering wheel and screen too.

This one has a complete covering of the new blue, with silver bits added here and there, as well as a silly screen from Mr Flowers.

Neither base seems to have been removed, though, and there's blue in places a paintbrush wouldn't reach.

I feel confident that both are the scarce blue issue but it is such a pity that they received this later treatment. A lesson for us all, of course, as more and more models are getting 'restored'. Maybe you good restoration artist people could just stick to restoring the common ones and leave something scarce alone. I am amazed at the skills some people do have but I would much prefer a bashed-up old original to a pristine-looking model with shiny rivets (or glue!)

By the same token, however lovely the Corgi Model Club models will be, whether with silver or gold bits, I'll be selling both of them and happier looking to spend the money on a fair to average original. For those who like to display their models, however, there is a lot to be said for the 'bubble-style' boxes that come with the Club models. Good reproductions of these are not cheap.

This one is very good but nearly £50! 

The bubble bit is not easy and all the usual suppliers offer just the later window box types.

So, if you 'don't look back' (or maybe under) the Corgi Model Club editions may be worthwhile after all! Flog the car and keep the box.

Update 22 January:

The Corgi Model Club: MGA re-issue (in a very bright red.)

 

Blue DTC Brands have kept things simple this month with their Corgi Model Club release of the 302 MGA. The first thing that will strike you as you open the box is how red it is! Very red. Quite definitely red. The second thing may be that red again but the second or third will be how nice it is to have good protection for the vulnerable screen in the shape of two now familiar chunks of polystyrene or foamy plastic. You also get a piece of tissue paper this time, not the thin plastic stuff.

It is a lovely-looking model and they've chosen the early edition with shaped wheels, not seen on a Club re-issue since the Land Rover Breakdown Truck. There's not a lot that can go wrong with making this one, although I do wonder about the slope of the radiator grille at the front. It appears rather more upright than my copy shown below.

As usual, the detailing is precise and really just like the original except better determined.

Whilst I am aware that colours can change with age, I do feel that the choice of such a bright red was a mistake.

How many times do we get to see such a pristine and shiny, rust-free tin base? Lovely. If my memory serves me right the only other re-issue of a tin base model has been for the Mercedes-Benz 303S. However, with suspension required, the used a different style for that one.

The description card or certificate tells us that there were three colour schemes for the MGA. We all know about the red and the metallic green but I feat they have simply copied data from The Great Book for that cream one. As is the case with many of dear old Marcel's memories of colours used for models, he is confusing colour trials with what actually made it into a box you could buy. You would not have found then, and certainly will not find now, a cream MGA with red seats other than a factory sample.

Trophy Models

I have a second BRM available. For a change, the wheels are not as blackened as many of these become (and I haven't yet found a good way to revive them as they were a fairly miserable grey in the first place) but you'll see that one has been fitted the wrong way round!

On a model like this I don't think the error adds to its value (as it would for a normal Corgi edition). The gold plating is pretty good, some flakes on the rear and side only and it doesn't suffer from the rough corrosion I have seen on some.

These models are not easy to find these days and I have yet to find one on its plinth, never mind with a box! From what I can gather, these didn't sell particularly well at Marks & Spencer and not a great many were produced anyway. Here are all five, although I do need a better Austin Healey or, at the very least a less ridiculous-looking screen!

Update 17 September: I have re-loaded the images on this page as I am aware of some issues with those published previously. If you do experience any problems with any images in my articles on this blog please let me know.

MGA colours, wheel and wings

The lovely old MGA is a very attractive model and, until now I had not thought that it had much by way of variety. There were green and red colours and wheels that could be either smooth or shaped but seem always to be fixed. Although I wouldn't catalogue it, there seem to be two types of screen too - early models having a smoky grey perspex and later ones a clear screen.

Recently I came across a paler metallic green variety. the colour is more noticeable from some angles than others but the seat colour is definitely different, being quite yellow on the pale coloured model and cream on the normal shade.

Now another difference has come to light. Later models have a ridge running along the top of the front wings, most noticeable on the off-side wing.

It is quite a clear difference and resembles what might have been intended to be a chrome strip except for the fact that the MGAs didn't have such a strip!

It appears to feature on all the models I have encountered with shaped wheels but I expect we will find, à la Thunderbird's 1959 plate, that there will be examples of either models with smooth wheels with the ridge or shaped wheels without it. Whichever occurs, and I doubt there'll be both, will be quite rare and worth looking out for.

Corgi Toys @ 60: MGA

May 1957 saw the addition of a third sports car to the range. Another British classic too, and something that you would see on Hertfordshire roads if you were lucky; the lovely MGA.

Just two colours: red and a metallic green, each suiting the car very well. 

Both colours seem to be equally available amongst models for sale now. It was a popular model and lots were produced and sold so it need not be too expensive. Versions with shaped wheels are quite scarce and worth finding.

The screens seldom survive but replacements are easy to obtain and fit simply into a slot in front of the dashboard. I must make a version with spoked wire wheels one day. That would look nice.