There were no new issues in September 1963 so my next Corgi Toys @ 60 post will be in a few weeks time. So I thought I would share some recent arrivals here in the village and tell you about some changes to my sales outlets.
A delightful model from the initial launch range, the Ford Consul in mushroom.
Waiting for a suitable trailer is this fawn Land Rover from Gift Set 2. I want to pair this with a similar coloured Pony Trailer, one with fixed shaped wheels, the scarcer edition as most appear to have free spinning wheels.
From a late Gift Set 4 in 1972 comes the last 1:43 scale tractor from Corgi pulling a trailer with a pile of hay and two very funny looking characters on top. There should be some fences, sheep and a dog too which I need to find to complete this. This is the last time Farmer George will be seen too. This set didn't last long and the kids were dropped too in the 1973 Gift Set 5.
The Renault 16 has one of the shortest production periods of all Corgis, issued first as a saloon in February 1969 only to be replaced by the blue Whizzwheels edition in May 1970. It looks lovely if you can find one with good paintwork, which is very susceptible to chips. Remarkably, within that short period there are two different base types This one has RENAULT 16. The one below has RENAULT 16TS. The blue one has RENAULT 16 "TS".
The colour of the ring holding the rear hook in place also changes from red to grey.
Here's the blue one with 'pepperpot' Whizzwheels. You may be lucky and find a few with the later '4 crown' style but this didn't last much longer than the purple one, being deleted itself in 1973. I always have to smile when opening the bonnet and finding the original cast wheel spare!
The old Plymouth was the first model to get an interior (excluding open top models) and this too had two types of base - one has grey and this one has cream.
You need to look underneath this Ford Consul to see that it is a 200 and not a 200M! I like these examples where there will have been a few painted castings lying around when the friction motor type was discontinued and so they had a tin base fitted and put in a 200 box and sent to the dealers for some lucky kid to find.
The first model with suspension was this Renault Floride. This is a later edition with shaped wheels and not easy to find now. (I had hoped it would turn out to be one with free-spinning wheels which is much less common, but I shall have to keep looking for that one!)
Both the Chevrolet Impalas above are the less common editions with shaped wheels rather than cast wheels. Because these two were around in the catalogues for many years, cast wheels became dominant, in marked contrast to another of my favourites, the Taxi edition and saloon which were extremely short-lived and for which cast wheels are scarce to see.
You can find these on
my web site and
in my own online store. Some may be on Ebay but I am finding Ebay a bit expensive now, having rather more items listed than I am entitled to have without charges. Accordingly I am cutting back what is listed there substantially, with the aim of just one item to represent an issue with a request that people visit my online store for similar models to that shown. Now that they permit 24 photos per item, I can also add some photos of other models. Ebay's fees on sale are also quite substantial and, whilst it is by far the most popular place for collectors to seek models, I am hoping that I can encourage more and more to come to my place where I'll offer lower prices and get to keep the payments made by people.
This does mean I shall be publishing a few more posts to promote my items but I will try to make sure they're still entertaining and interesting too!
