Corgi Model Club: MGC GT (cheaper than the sum of its parts)

 The Model Club's latest issue has finally arrived, delayed through no fault of the Club, and, having read many stories about it, I am pleased to have had the opportunity to see it up close for myself.

Firstly, it arrives in what must be the most deprived packaging so far in the series. This time it has the merest slip of bubble-wrap floating around and the box free to cavort around the interior of the usual brown corrugated card affair. Luckily the car is unlikely to move much inside its box, being wrapped in some tissue. No chunks of foam with this issue (which I hear may lead to damaged suspension where the foam is inserted such that it wedges too firmly the car beneath in other instances).

One's immediate impression has to be good, an instantly recognisable colour and great chrome. I like wire wheels on Corgis a lot but I don't remember any of my originals ever having such shiny axle ends. These spoil the appearance a bit but perhaps mine became dull quickly and I never noticed at the time.

You will then have the now familiar disappointment with the 'jewelled' headlamps which aren't. How much extra would it really cost to fit little glass items? I am sure Steve Flowers would give the Club as super discount for quantity should they have trouble sourcing them in China.

As I am sure you will have read elsewhere by now, the funs starts at the back end. The transfer reads MGB GT! I guess that in China the team producing this are unfamiliar with British cars and reckoned that the model which looks pretty much the same as the MGB GT they had produced a while ago might well have the same few letters on the tailgate.  A bit like nearly all Fords have the same Ford badge. Quite how that escaped the attention of some sort of quality control over in the East I don't know, then a later sample gets through the Club's approval process and the old MGB transfer gets applied to every model and shipped here when, finally, someone at the Club realises.

Personally, I find these mistakes quite fun. Yes, I know they make whoever missed this at the Club look a bit stupid but I can imagine that they may have been working with a poor original which had either no transfer or a damaged one. We have read before how they don't always seem to get hold of good examples of whatever they're planning to recreate and I'm not convinced that whoever does check most models is as well-versed in Corgis from this era as one might have expected.

Anyway, once this batch has been sold the transfer will be corrected and some of us will just have to buy the second issue. I think they have about 10-15,000 in each batch so it may be a while before the second comes and I suspect they will eventually be equally distributed and so, whilst this first one will have some value in future, it is unlikely to be significant with so many around.

The black case is a delightful copy and opens and closes just like the original. That little item itself is almost enough to warrant buying the model, with originals regularly selling for £10-£15 + post on Ebay.

The Club need to have a word with whoever packs the cars in the boxes as they are just stuffing the bag with the numbers into the box and that is resulting in many people reporting creased stickers which may not look great either loose or applied. Just adding a small piece of card in a slightly smaller bag would solve the problem.

As I said at the start, this is generally an excellent reproduction in many respects and the colour very close. I detect just a touch more lime in my original but that's all.

The tyres on an original would have been the 'branded' type with clear tread running around the tyre. This would surely be something quite easy for the Chinese to create but they have just left us with slicks!

The box has the usual annoying font error in the small text and numerals and has that shine which I wish they would try and avoid as the card itself is pretty much exact. I would also stop adding those little slits in the tabs which must account for no end of slightly damaged boxes and frustrated collectors, who knew they should have been more careful but took a chance and just tugged.

Looking back at my comment regarding the cost of cases, I have now looked up the cost of all the parts if you were to purchase reproduction items from Model-Supplies:

2 doors                     £2.00

2 seat backs                £2.90

tailgate                    £1.00

tailgate window             £1.75

window unit                 £3.00

chrome chassis / bumpers    £7.00

chrome grille               £1.75

2 jewels                    £0.80

tailgate transfer           £1.55

suitcase                    £1.20

4 Racing numbers            £1.55

postage UK                  £5.50

Total                      £30.00

Remember that the body items would be bare metal too, requiring paint. So the £28.98 that I think I paid wasn't such bad value! Now, does anyone need any spares!!

The Corgi Model Club: MGB GT

 

This is good, very good. The devoted Corgi fans at the Corgi Model Club have excelled themselves, or, rather whoever is responsible for the production detail has, with this beautiful reproduction of the March 1967 original.

As should be clear from the photos above, showing the new issue and my somewhat well played-with example (genuinely mine from my own collection!), there is precious little to distinguish one from the other. I can detect only the slightly more defined vent - one of the few differences that was visible on the Buick too - and that is nothing really worth mentioning. Even the headlamps look OK on this, although they do still seem to be plastic rather than glass. I live in hope that they will spend a little more on this feature in forthcoming models.

The box is rather bright and shiny as always but the layout and text is accurate, with the usual necessary changes. In the box there is a piece of thin foam to protect the roof from rubbing.

The certificate refers to the suitcase being either brown or black with the original editions but I am pretty sure it was always only black with this model. The brown one came with the Jaguar Mk 10, Hillman Imp and later non-steering Mercedes 220SE. It also refers to the original having yellow jewelled headlights whereas I believe they were all white.

I am sure that we will see the slightly revised MGC GT version in due course too. I would be particularly keen to see that in the blue and white finish which Corgi showed in their 1969 catalogue!

Waiting for Odo in Eilum, Germany.

My friend Andi is currently exploring beaches in some wild, very wild part of Denmark, rather different to his home town of Eilum in Germany where I have had to park his lovely MGC GT.

This is a fine model but don't you wish they had just added a little black paint to the inside of the doors? I was going to suggest some plastic door inserts but decided against that as most of the cars I have from that era with those plastic inserts don't actually have them anymore!

MGB GT and MGC GT

378

327

345

345

I now have the full set of MGB / MGC GTs. They started with the red MGB GT in 1967 and that was a very popular model. It sold well but still wasn't around for long because MG decided to introduce the MGC which had a 3 litre engine and needed a bulge in the bonnet. So two years later, in 1969, Corgi change it by fitting a new bonnet and rear hatch transfer and it becomes #345 an MGC GT and falls in the 'competition' section of the catalogue too.

The catalogue does, in fact, have a lovely looking blue and white version but that must have been the artist's hope as the model finished up in yellow with a black bonnet. If the MGB had been short-lived then the MGC was positively just here today and gone tomorrow and didn't even make 1970, with less than a year in production. It is quite a scarce item now.

Even scarcer is the orange version, still with wire wheels, but with no black bonnet. Some say this only appeared in a set but I'm not so sure it didn't also find its way into #345 boxes. My copy hasn't any numbers (and I prefer it that way) so it doesn't really need to be in the competition section at all. Anyway it wasn't around long enough for that to have troubled anyone as next came Whizzwheels and 1970 brought the red and black MGC GT along. Now BMC had deleted the MGC in 1969 and were making the MGB V8 but never mind.

The final version is really the same as all the others - mercifully no dumbing down like happened with so many other models that were carried forward. Like the Renault 16, that also survived with its features intact, my #378 has a missing rear window in the hatch! Easy enough to replace, thank goodness. Looking at this from the side you see lots of interesting chrome above the front wheels and, with the bonnet in a contrasting colour, you tend to think that it really ought to open to reveal an engine! The hatch should have an opening suitacse, though. This was, I think, the only model that had a black, opening suit case.

All nice models and I am lucky to find the MGCs in as good condition and the yellow one is as new with a superb box as well. Finding an original MGB in as good condition hasn't proved so easy and prices across the range are remarkably high.

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!

Any colour you like as long as it's orange

388 Mercedes-Benz C111

389 Reliant Bond Bug 700ES

These really are not the best of Corgi's models but the paint doesn't exactly help. It's thick and extremely orange. They are both from early 1971 and each has a unique way of opening doors. The Mercedes has what became known as 'gull wings' and they can still be seen today. The whole of the Reliant top part opens at the push of a button at the back. 

Both models are in excellent condition but neither were at all popular and get a bit frowned upon by collectors. That's not just the dreadful plastic Whizzwheels but the casting appears to be different and far less well defined than traditional Corgi standards brought before. These are both 'Mazak' models, on which there's a separate post following.

345 MGC GT

Now, from 1969, the short-lived MGC GT with spoked wheels. It's still orange but a lot nicer! I also have a beautiful yellow and black version with original box too.

345 MGC GT Competition

Matching trousers

I had some corduroy trousers in this colour in 1969 which may have been not too distant in either shade or time to Corgi's colour choice for an MGC GT. There were two colours: a black and yellow and this, more friendly but just as odd, orange. Both had black interiors and were, I believe, the only model that came with a black suit case.

Both are quite rare and this is the least common of the two. My stock example is in good condition with just a few marks on the paintwork but otherwise looking very fresh. It is almost the same cast as the MGBGT #327 but with a bulge at the front in the bonnet.

The introduction of the MGB V8 rather spoilt the MGC's chances and Corgi probably jumped the gun with this as by the time it came out the V8 was already being promoted and not a great deal more was heard of the interesting but flawed C. Not many of these were sold and, in fact, quite a few finished up ignominiously added to Car Transporter sets.