Shades of primrose and a rare Mini Cooper

 

I have always wondered about the shades of primrose that you see on the 227 models. although I may be mistaken, a number of recent arrivals seem to indicate that the older models, with fixed wheels and a white bonnet, have a distinctly brighter shade. The later models, with just a white roof and free spinning wheels, are a paler shade.

Neither model is in particularly great condition but they're the best I have at the moment. Prices for all the 227s are always really high. I think there are a lot of Mini specialists out there and the best examples get snapped up quickly.

This illustration also shows the different bases: the fixed wheel model has a lower bumper section that extends across the width of the model whereas the later one is narrower, stopping well short at about the font wheel centres. (I wrote a great deal about these in a detailed summary of Minis, the body castings and bases a couple of years ago. A link to that should be on the main page of the news site.)

Below is something of a rarity. It is a 277 i blue with a white bonnet but it has the later base and free spinning wheels.

Although these are really not something you'll find at all easily, I do now have two examples in stock. This is the better of the two, the other being rather more worn and having a crack in its screen. The narrower front edge of the base is nicely shown in this picture.

All I now need to find is a 227 with either a primrose or blue bonnet and fixed wheels! As usual with Corgis, just as you thought you had a complete collection, along comes a variation.

Corgi Toys @ 60: A Mini, Planks and Cement Bags

It's February 1960 and here's the very first Mini from Corgi. This is the Morris Mini-Minor. (The Austin Seven comes next year.)

First appearing in what I call baby blue, with a cream or red interior. That cream interior, however, seems to be dropped pretty soon so the red one is by far the most common amongst the early editions. Over the years this little car will go through many variations. The most obvious will be the colours as this will appear in a wide range of blues, each seeming to have either a red or (the later and quite different to the cream) lemon interior, as well as deep maroon in 1968. Then there'll be the wheels, changing to fixed shaped, then free spinning shaped, then cast with a louvre effect and very late in its life with Whizzwheels in shades of mid-blue and dark blue, some metallic, and orange coloured models, renumbered 204.

It will also have two distinct body castings and several different bases. I have tried to describe these and illustrate some in my earlier article which you can find at this link. 

The other issues this month were the first two Corgi Cargoes. 1485 was a block of planks and 1488 was a block of cement bags.

These would fit neatly on either a platform lorry or the trailers and looked quite smart. Until then we had to pile whatever we had lying around. I found matches made good planks but they kept falling off. Bayko bits and pieces were the best loads and I had plenty of that - the doors fitted nicely and were probably a bit safer than the matches although I don't recall any of my friends burning their houses down with the Swan Vestas that we all had.

What's Your Type?

Some time ago I tried to illustrate the difference between the two main Mini castings for Morris models. Using two black 249 models, however, wasn't the brightest of ideas as the colour made the differences barely visible! Yesterday a couple of wrecks arrived, however, and these make much better examples at this stage of having had the paint removed.

There are lots of changes at the front. The easiest to spot will be the join line between the headlamps - much higher and more straight on Type 2. 

The grille shape at the top centre (where a bonnet release catch may be located) is shallow and flat bottomed on Type 1, deeper and more angled on Type 2.

The proportions are also different in, for example, the windscreen area, being taller on Type 2, although, again, this is a lot easier to spot when you have the two side by side.

At the back the differences are not quite as clear on single items. The size of rear light clusters and proximity to the bonnet line are different. The petrol filler cap is also further from the boot line on Type 2. Type 2 has a larger boot handle.

In contrast to the front plates, the rear plates on the Type 2 are the shallower ones.

The rear bumper is a much neater, shallower element on Type 2.

Another usually easy-to-see difference will be on the side of the front wings. Type 2 has a clear horizontal line running the length of the wing. Type 1 does not, but often displays a line at 45° running from the wheel arch to headlamp surround. That reflects the line between two panels on the real thing at the time.

Although there are many other differences in the side view, I often don't notice them in single models at first. It is said that Type 2 has a 'bulge' at the back which some say is obvious but I seldom see that. Clearer for me are the window surrounds on Type 2, shorter door hinges and thicker A pillar.

  

No doubt you may have your own 'obvious' difference(s) but for those who have been struggling to see whether their model is a Type 1 or Type 2 casting, perhaps these illustrations will help. Incidentally, don't judge by the wheels! Whilst the fixed shaped wheel will always be a Type 1 model, cast wheels do appear on Type 1 models too.

If you hadn't already gathered, the shinier of the two models shown is the Type 1! These will soon be made into some fresh Mini Coopers and slightly different to any actually issued. One colleague has bought his daughter an orange and white real model and I shall try and create a copy of that for him.

I shall probably not be able to match the skills of Richard Hill (no relation), however, who has recently sent me these photos of his latest reconstruction of something similar.

We both have doubts about the fog lamp arrangement but his use of nice silver bezels for the headlamps and the addition of an accurate-looking driver are appealing. 

And yes, I do know that the Sun Rally model didn't have that fog lamp arrangement anyway and would have been a Type 2!! I guess there would have been two occupants too . . .

. . . and, as you'll see, Richard Hill decided the next day to have another go at those lamps!

249 Morris Mini Cooper 'Wickerwork'

Just three of these to find. During the production run cast wheels were introduced and then shortly afterwards, a change of casting was made.

I have read of editions being issued with no red roof but, at this stage, I am not sure that these may not just be mistakes or samples so do not list them.

For an explanation of the different types, please see my article titled Minis - the different types in September 2017.

334 Mini Magnifique and 349 Morris Mini Minor 'Mostest'

With just two editions of the Mini 'Magnifique' and the one 'Pop Art' Mini 'Mostest', it seems sensible to list these in the same post.

This is quite different from type 2 but still shows the horizontal line along the wing.

There are some photos of the 334 with a different roof screen showing wide stripes instead of thin ones. I have yet to see one myself but it seems they do exist.

These will usually have a gold coloured steering wheel but editions with a grey steering wheel are known. I haven't listed these separately, however.

There is just the one 349 'Pop Art' Mini. It is a later edition 226 Morris Mini Minor with added jewelled headlamps.

For an explanation of the different types, please see my article titled Minis - the different types in September 2017.

Nice logos, shame about the typeface.

The 339 Austin with cast wheels, now with a full set of transfers. All credit to Noel Wilson and Four Little Wheels for producing these and doing so in the correct font for the RN177. The others that come up when you first look, such as those Mr Flowers sells, are quite wrong and, whilst I have no objection to anyone trying to make old cars look good again with them, it is so much more satisfying when they make an effort to use the right elements.

So, yes, it is very white and new looking but a very nice copy of the original as you can see below on a 339 Morris.

Mr Wilson is also responsible for the excellent transfers I used on the Rover 2000 Sun International Rally edition you'll see in a recent post. In fact, I am not sure I know anyone else who does these. Plenty of 333 Mini ones around but no others for the Rover. He doesn't necessarily appear in search results but I do thoroughly recommend you get in touch if you need anything like this. Check out the Facebook page.

Now, where am I going to find a 339 Morris with normal wheels?

BMC Mini Cooper: Austin or Morris?

I have been looking a bit more closely at some Mini Coopers recently and I have been getting a bit confused. It seems that there are both Morris and Austin versions of the 333 Sun Rally BMC Mini Cooper and 339 Monte Carlo Mini Cooper.

Here is the real Sun Rally Mini with the Cooper badge on the bonnet. It also has extended front bumper devices.

Corgi dropped the bumper extensions and have both Austin and Morris variations but no Mini Cooper badges. I guess it's understandable that they didn't have a Cooper badge ready but for such a short production run I am surprised that there are both Austin and Morris. If you look at QDT pages you'll find only Austin-badged items! That made me think that Morris might be quite scarce but I have found one or two fairly easily amongst current sales.

Despite its short run, both normal and cast wheels can be seen. I have certainly seen both types of the Austin-badged car but I think the Morris-badged cars have only been with cast wheels. So I cannot be sure but suspect that the Morris-badged 333 with normal wheels is the scarce one.

Now, for the 339. Now this is clearly a Morris Mini Cooper! It seems that the same car was driven with and without both the front bumper extensions and the roof rack with two spare wheels.

Corgi's model is pretty good, although they went a bit over the top with the roof rack. It looks like they used the roof rack from the 485 Austin Countryman issued a couple of years earlier. Unfortunately, this was far too big - the real one being just long enough to hold the two wheels and sat in the centre of the roof with clear space in front and behind. That huge chrome affair on the roof of 339 has always looked odd to me and it is sort of satisfying to discover it was wrong anyway.

Again, this model comes with Austin and Morris badges. Austin-badged models seem mostly to have normal wheels but I have seen them with cast wheels too. However, like the 333 model, the Morris badge seems only to have the later cast wheels. Again, perhaps the Morris badge with normal wheels is the scarce one, if, indeed, it exists at all.

This all started as I was looking for the different types of Mini Van - some have an Austin Countryman type of wavy grill but they are few and far between. Just to show that it can always be worthwhile doing a little research, I think I have found another Morris Mini-Minor in blue with the Morris Mini-Cooper base! That'll be the second in under a year so I'll be able to sell one of them soon. 

Now I have to set about find the missing BMC models and I had better extend the search to other 'BMC' Minis too just in case there are more examples of Austin and Morris badging on the same model.