Corgi Toys @ 60: Marcos 1800GT

 

After all the excitement of the January launches, we had a quiet month in February 1966, with just a single new issue. This was the Marcos 1800GT.

Marcos was a small company and you didn't see many of these models on the roads, but there again, one could say the same about many of Corgi's models, now I think about it!

I think this was the first fixed roof car with a driver that could be removed. He is often missing nowadays but looks very similar to the one used in the Lotus Elan, with a blue helmet.

The model came with a set of peel-off racing number stickers and these seem to have been supplied randomly but 3,4 5 6 and 8 seem more common in my experience.

It has several variants: the obvious one being the less common blue edition with white stripes and a chalky blue interior. You will also find three types of stripe: green in a thin and much fatter style and a blue. The blue stripe was used on export models to Canada and is quite hard to find now.

The door mechanism was never very good on this model, often getting quite loose and either sagging or not closing nicely. The bonnet also often fails to settle in a fully closed in line manner.

Corgi Model Club have produced a good copy of this model.

Unusual arrivals this month

From time to time I list some of the models that have arrived here in the village. Nowadays, having acquired most of the 'normal' models that I needed for the catalogue project, I tend only to buy items that are a little scarce and often more interesting.

The first is this lovely 252 Rover 2000 in maroon. Although I expect some reached shops in boxes, this colour was mostly only found in the Gift Set 41/48 with the 1138 edition Ford car Transporter. These were popular sets so the Rover in this colour is not particularly scarce but this is the first I have encountered with cast, spoke effect wheels.

This style of wheel was used across the range, including Land Rovers and commercial models, from around 1967 and the International Rally edition of the Rover issued in February 1967 only had the cast type of wheel. Most other models started with normal wheels and then had the cast type fitted at some later date which I've tended to regard as being around 1968 in most cases.

The make-up of the Transporter Set changed in early 1969 when a new Scammell cab was also issued. So there may have been a year when the cast wheels might have been fitted to this Rover but I suspect it will have been rather shorter a period, (simply based on my  never having seen any, which may, of course, be inaccurate!)

Next is the very scarce Citroen DS19 with fog lamps included in the casting (not jewels as in the Monte Carlo edition). This example had been sadly repainted and the base had been removed so there wasn't much I could do with it. I had intended to restore it but decided to stop at the shiny mazak stage which I feel is a nice way to display this unusual casting. 

I do have an issued and unadulterated red model with these lights too.

The Mercedes may look unexceptional at first glance but its free-spinning wheels caught my attention and it did, indeed, turn out to be one of the very first 303S models issued with suspension. The interior is the same as the 303 model - white with a black steering wheel. It was not long before this was replaced by a white model or silver plated with interiors in a different style.

This model fetches high prices when it does appear but mine is not in great condition, some corrosion having affected the top surfaces.

Here is something I had been looking for for years - a blue 300 Austin Healey. I had doubts about its existence for quite a while but eventually found evidence that it really had been made, with red seat inserts. This example had had a lot of extra paint applied by one of its past owners, presumably in an attempt to cover up chips and scratches. The colour used was not far off the original but it did look, on first glance, like someone might have started with a cream or red one and painted it blue. Looking underneath it is clear that it was originally blue and the base has never been removed so all is well. There is still work to do to remove some recent paint but that's a slow task.

The Bedford CA Van in Ambulance guise as 412 was a common little item with the split screen but this Mk II version was not referred to in the Great Book of Corgi or accompanying lists and so tends to be missed by people making lists based on that source. It is certainly not a common item and would not have had a long life. Indeed, it is likely that the 414 Military Ambulance would have been the intended 'replacement' and I don't think we'll find that many of these single screen 412s will be around.

It's not very scarce but I find it hard to resist nice examples of the 216 Austin A40 with shaped wheels. Such a pretty model.

This is scarce - the 324 Marcos 1800 with blue stripes is, I'm told the edition for export to Canada. We got green stripes. This is only the third I have encountered in many years. The first was, strangely, at a talk I gave to a Welsh Society meeting when someone in the audience who had worked with Messrs Marsh and Costin on the real cars took one out of his pocket, totally unaware of its value!

Lastly for now, it has taken a while to find this uncommon edition of a 214 Ford Thunderbird with shaped wheels. In reasonable condition, too, and this can only have been one of a very few late models made when this style of wheel was fitted just before the 214S replaced it.

 I am still looking for a decent 215 with shaped wheels. I have concluded that there will be none of the M models with them, but there is a slim chance of the two-tone issues of the Ford, Austin, Morris, Vauxhall, Rover and Hillman having them. I have the Standard and both Rileys with shaped wheels (the Standard, interestingly, also having a different red paint area!) and by the time the Jaguar was in production they were fairly common.

So it has been quite a month for the unusual!

Mazak?

312 Marcos Mantis

Here is a very attractive model, the Marcos Mantis #312 from 1971 with Whizzwheels that actually look good. The tyres are still annoying black plastic but this is some improvement, at least.

With doors that open and close and stay almost in line, a pleasant interior and great metallic red finish this is one from the later days that is nice to have.

On the baseplate there are the words Mazak die-cast. Another collector with a large stock notes that the earliest this appeared was on the first Ford Cortina released in November 1970 and there are some views that Corgi had to seek another die-cast firm to produce items while they were reorganising things following the major fire a bit earlier. The Marcos was released in August 1971 but release dates don't necessarily follow manufacture dates that closely.

I'll see what appears on some other later models that are coming in. Mazak is the name of the alloy of metals that is used for this sort of die-cast work.

I have just published a post about a couple of very poor productions from Mazak: the C111 Mercedes-Benz and Reliant Bond Bug 700ES but I've also got a very good Cortina Mk III GXL with the same brand on the base so not everything with that name is bad.

313 Ford Cortina GXL

One more query on the Marcos. It does seem quite big. I thought Marcos were smallish sports cars but this is a very substantial saloon when you place it next to others, like the Cortina. It's bigger than an Oldsmobile Toronado, for instance. Now that doesn't make sense so I need to look more closely at the scale thing one day.

More as and when others appear.

Marcos revisited

324  Marcos 1800GT from 1966

377 Marcos 3 Litre from 1970

There's nothing like recycling old bodies to try and make a bit more profit and in 1970 Corgi were needing all the help they could get. So the old 324 cast was dug out and relaunched in 1970 as a further addition to the Whizzwheels range. The #377 Marcos 3 Litre car is basically the same but without opening doors, a bulge added to the bonnet, a patch stuck on the roof, a different colour plastic interior and, supposedly, a different engine. As the first model included with Volvo engine quite prominently and now has another 1.2 litres as well it really ought to look different! There is still Volvo written under the bonnet and several features are the same as before but it does, indeed, look as though some effort to include a 3 litre Volvo engine in place of the 1.8 litre has been made.

I wonder whether the nice Marcos motif is still on the bonnet beneath that ugly decal?

The door section does look much better but the same plastic wheels as all the other models are tiresome. And that's not meant to be a pun.

These wheels don't look too bad in photos and sort of suit one or two models, including this one. I do think that a collection of Corgi Toys from this era does need to have the variations of older models like this and as many were only around for a year or two and didn't sell brilliantly either, values should remain healthy, with some comfortably exceeding their 'classic' predecessors. Now that's quite a turn-up for the books and makes the plastic Whizzwheels a little more bearable.

Marcos 1800GT

The Marcos 1800GT is #324 and the box adds 'With Volvo Engine' in case we weren't sure whether to buy the Marcos or not. My version is the most common of the three variants: you'll find one with blue stripes (probably from a Canadian source) and there is a blue one with white stripes that has a cream interior.

One of the later models, produced from 1966 to 1969 it looks quite smart but the door mechanism leaves them quite wobbly. They fit better than Mustang doors but don't have any glazing which looks odd.

This comes with a very good original box and is available for £100 - with Volvo engine!