Corgi Toys @ 60: another VW1200 and Corgi's first Rolls Royce

 

It's May 1966 and there are two new models on the local toy shop shelves. The first is Corgi's second  issue of what will prove to be a very, very long list of Volkswagen 1200s. Indeed, I shall have to survive until 2037 in order to remind you about the very last, which appeared in October 1977! This one is the East Africa Safari Rally car in a new paint finish, a beacon on the roof and some stickers to convert it into what is described as a 'European Police Car'.

Just like the earlier model, this is fun to play with, with its excellent steering. The bonnet and rear engine cover open as before, not that we tended to bother with that a great deal as there was no room in the front to put anything. The clever use of a bright metal base to provide shiny bumpers remains, as do the two jewelled headlamps. Whereas I believe some late editions of the #256 had the jewels replaced with chrome inserts (although I have never seen one) all the #492 models seem to have jewels.

They all seem to be left hand drive too, unlike the #256 which can be found with either left or right hand drive interiors.

There are two quite hard to find export editions of the #492 model. One is the Dutch edition in all white and with POLITE on the bonnet and an emblem on each door. The other is a Swiss version with POLIZEI stickers on the doors and on the bonnet.

The other release in May was the last individual Corgi Classics model, the #9041 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost (apologies for the error in the first edition).

I found these models totally at odds with Corgi's range at the time. They couldn't really be played with, lacked suspension which made them awkward to move around a layout and this one, with its nasty plastic main body section, felt cheap - and that is despite the massive jewels in the headlamps, lots of chrome and pretty wheels.

This was actually Corgi's first Rolls Royce too. As a teenager in the 1960s, a Rolls Royce was simply something that you have to have in your collection, to park outside the big Bayko House. It was 'the best car in the world' and we all wanted one, having to put up with the Dinky model at the time. This was not what we wanted, though, and whoever bought them probably just put them on a shelf or in a cabinet, older people, not children. The Classics series was not pursued after this and now you can buy a mint example in a bubble pack for £20 or less. I have several and can't even give them away.

I have spotted a few oddities on these models - few seem to have wheels all the same colour, with combinations of gold and steel colour. The rear wheels have a different deign to the front and sometimes they're mixed up at the factory. There are different colour exhausts too. None seem to have any significant value.

You will see the model get reused for the Hardy Boys issue in June 1970 in a ghastly multicoloured finish and accompanied by the characters in a TV group that no-one in the UK had a clue about at the time, and is probably not a great deal wiser now. Because that one had very paltry sales it does have a high price tag now but this silver original release will cost you a lot less than the equivalent of its price then. 14/11d, (or nearly 15 shillings, three quarters of £1). Remarkably, you could have bought a Monte Carlo Gift Set 38 for less!!

Rolls Royce silver and gold

 

I was really glad to have had a 280 Rolls Royce in silver in my collection so that I could be absolutely sure that the latest arrival here in the village was, indeed, not the same silver but gold!

Sure enough, the difference is very clear and this is a beautiful and scarce edition of the 280 Rolls Royce Silver Shadow (corrected!) finished in metallic gold. You do have to place models side by side, however, as photos simply don't do the colour justice when taken on its own.

As you'll be able to tell from the style of box shown below, this was a late issue, probably from 1976/7. Great Britain's Rolls Royce should, of course, always be represented by an impressive model and Corgi had tried hard, albeit at a time when production methods were not producing the same sort of quality as we had become used to in the 1960s. The first Rolls Royce was the 273 model, usually finished in creamy silver and chalky blue-grey, first issued in March 1970.

Only a few months later though, in October 1970, the Golden Jacks base is replaced by a Whizzwheels one and a fine, if a bit clunky, model is ruined. The dreadful wheels were the same terrible design used across the board at the time. (If you see one with red spot wheels that will be something someone has made afterwards as the wheels were very simple to change.)

The colours selected for the 280 Whizzwheels Rolls Royce were so much better, however, being a rich metallic blue and silver. If you're very lucky, you might find the 273 model in the same finish but these are almost as scarce as the gold 280!

Later in production it changes to an all metallic blue finish.

At some point the quarterlight disappears but the colour and wheels remain unchanged.

Finally, much later in its life, someone at Corgi decides that the model really should get better wheels. After all, they had been making reasonable alternatives to the awful black plastic things for other models for some time. Maybe someone from Derby made a call to the boss. Whatever the case, a metallic silver finish and much better wheels are on the last issue. For some reason best known to someone at Corgi the chrome was finished in gold rather than silver, with distinctly gold wheels too, on many silver issues so you'll find silver with silver or gold chromework.

I have also seen some metallic blue 280 models with the six-point star type of Whizzwheels. It looks awful but that's not the reason I mention it. The curious thing is that all the models I have seen with those wheels had a quarterlight. One would have thought that, having abandoned the quarterlight at some stage in the 'four crowns' style of wheel production it would not have returned. 

Whatever the order of things was in those strange days at Corgi, when shelves would have had the big 1:36 scale models sitting next to the last 1:43 scale ones, these Rolls Royce models prove themselves to be much more interesting than you might have thought. There are lots of 280s around and most only fetch a few pounds even in good condition.

It would appear that only the silver and gold finish models have the more realistic style of wheels and all the previous 280s have silver chromework.

I have always been a big fan of the 273 in the rare blue and silver, but this 280 in metallic gold, which was what started off this article, is quite a grand item to have on one's desk with a lot more presence than the silver one. Interestingly, mine has silver wheels rather than gold. Perhaps there are some all gold models out there too?

New arrivals for June 2021.

Some nice new arrivals on my desk and shortly to appear in the store. 

This lovely 276 Oldsmobile Toronado has an original box too. 

The scarcer edition of the Fiat 1800 in mustard with a bright yellow interior.

A pretty reasonable example of the black edition of the 230 Mercedes-Benz 220SE with its emblem on the bonnet still present!

I was surprised at how long it has taken me to find a really good example of the plum red 307 Jaguar E Type. This one is excellent and had an original hard top. After taking so long to find I shall not be letting this go for a song! the last one I had (and sold) was my own from my childhood. Since then I have had several dark metallic grey editions which I do prefer and which also seem very much in demand but more plentiful.

Two nice Jaguar 2.4 models in 208S form. One has the later shaped fixed wheels ad is in super condition with lovely bright paintwork showing only very tiny marks on one or two raised body lines.

The earlier edition is not quite as smart but still a nice example for someone one day.

I took the opportunity to sort out all my other Jaguars - the 208M models, all now listed, including the rare grey base edition.

I always love the less common varieties of models and here is an excellent example of the Oldsmobile Toronado with plain shaped wheels, not the usual cast type. Only a few early editions had these fitted. It comes with a good box too. Splendid.

Maybe not particularly rare but the lovely old Rolls Royce didn't last long before Whizzwheels were fitted. This is the more common colour scheme but in very nice condition and undamaged emblem and chrome.

I found a yellow trailer and so have been able to put together a nice Gift Set 17. This is the better of two sets I now have available, the Ferrari being very fine and the nose not missing paint as most do! I have always thought it silly that there should be a driver in this set but as that's how it was sold I have to follow suit!

The farming vehicles have always had a fascination for me - as I was brought up on a farm and learnd to drive on a Fergie 20. I am really pleased with the old Massey Ferguson Tractor and have paired it with one of my better trailers and put Farmer George in place for a Gift Set 29. If you take out Farmer George then it's also a Gift Set 7!

Models you really wish you'd kept when you were young!

Three wonderful additions to my collection that may be available to buy. But warning: they're not going to be cheap!

211M Studebaker Golden Hawk
Nice working motor, original box.

205M Riley Pathfinder
Mechanical edition in red, working motor, original box.

273 Rolls Royce Silver Shadow
  Golden Jacks edition in scarce late colour scheme, original box.

Bentley bits

​This was a pink Bentley! It was quite difficult to take apart and I am going to have trouble putting it back together again. But I have plenty of time. ​There is a missing part on a front seat but I can add that later, after it has been re-built as and when I find another.

The body is beginning to look good in the new colour, a far more suitable colour for such a grand car. 

And, of course, the Whizzwheels have gone! They were terrible! Interestingly, the window unit has the inscription Rolls Royce. The two models are identical apart from paintwork, interior colour and grille.

The grille is actually a separate piece of metal that fits into the main front chrome unit with the double jewelled lights. In this picture it is in place but it comes out easily and could be replaced by the Rolls one, which has an emblem, unlike this Bentley. I was going to buy another wreck that had decent chrome but I have discovered that the front and rear sections are metal and seem to polish up well. A bit more work required but I shall stick with the original parts after all as they seem to come back to life quite nicely.

This was an early edition. Later editions of the Rolls Royce lose the quarter light window on the doors. I don't think the Bentley lasted long enough to get the change but I need to check that. 

Although this one gets 'normal' shaped wheels, I might see if I can find a Rolls base one day with the Golden Jacks as those wheels do suit this model well. Only around for such a short time in 1970, though, the Rolls Royce 273 model is quite scarce (but still at a reasonable price in most places - except for the very rare metallic blue and silver version).

I will post a photo of the finished Bentley when I manage to put it back together.

Brooklyn, Ciney and Cornwall. I get around.

Brooklyn, New York, is definitely where this car could belong, although the neighbourhood looks a bit too smart for this somewhat run-down version of the car.

Ciney in belgium is where this Citroen DS19 had to go. It sort of looks content there.

A late edition Rolls Royce makes it through the very narrow Cornish lanes to Luxulyan where the car seems bigger than this chap's house!

The Classics

Often overlooked in listings of Corgi Toys from the era before things went wrong are the Classics that they produced from around 1964. These were beautifully detailed models of jalopies from yesteryear and that, of course, may have been one of the terms they had in mind at the time as Matchbox had established a good name in this field already with their 'Yesteryear' brand.

These were not models that kids would zoom around the floor, though, and were, perhaps, the first that may really have been aimed at older collectors, not just because they were a bit staid in comparison to Oldsmobile Toronados or Buick Rivieras but they had bits that might break off more easily. I remember that I had no interest in them at all and only had the Steed Bentley because I had been a huge fan of The Avengers and my parents bought me the Gift Set. The Lotus was well played with but the Bentley, to this day, stayed virtually unmarked.

That set, however, was not where things started and may even have only come about as a result of sales of the Bentleys not being exactly massive. It all started with a green 'racing' edition which came with a hood and a driver clad in what looked like a pile of bandages. I didn't put the driver in the photos. 

The wheels of 9001 were always steel and it can be identified from similar models by having white Racing Number 3 on the rear and radiator grill. There is also a Union Jack on the passenger door panel.

In the first launch also was 9002, a red Bentley, just the same as 9001 but this had red wheels and no Racing Numbers. It had the same full hood. I think it also had a driver who still seemed to be wearing bandages but not as white.

The same Bentley appeared later in Gift Set 40, as Steed's vehicle from The Avengers TV series. Most were red with steel wheels but there were also green Bentleys (which would have been a more appropriate colour as Steed never actually had a red one!) which were like 9001 but with no Racing Numbers or Union Jack. In either case the full hood was replaced by a folded variety. The green Bentley would have red or steel wheels. A figure of John Steed, dressed in a grey-brown suit and tie would be at the wheel.

Much later than all the others, the same Bentley re-appeared as 9004 in green again but this time with grey-black rails and a much brighter red-brown interior. Jeeves would be at the wheel with his master, Bertie Wooster, leaning against the car in quite a remarkable tweed suit and nice reproduction of his monocle.

This would have steel wheels and, again, no Racing Numbers or flag.

After the Bentleys came the Ford Model T cars. Again, wonderfully well-made but quite vulnerable to damage. the screens on these are often broken. First was 9011 in black with a couple of figures.

9012 was the same Model T but in yellow and with the same two figures in the box. Both 9011 and 9012 were open with folded holds at the rear.

9013 was the Model T in blue and came with a fixed full hood. It also had a chap leaning down at the front, grabbing the starter handle. I have him but he isn't in the photo.

The catalogues illustrate 9014, a Lyons Tea Model T commercial vehicle but that never made it into production.

9021 is a very impressive and bright Daimler. This is packed with characters and is also a very heavy model compared to the others. The bright red paint and yellow wheels really look quite extraordinary. I totally missed this car at the time and it was only a few months ago that I became acquainted with it. There's no way I would have bought one then. Now, you'll see in the catalogues another Daimler described as 9022 with a hood, I think it is in dark blue. This never made it into production although I have seen a pre-production example from the factory and maybe some are circulating.

Next in the catalogue come two 1910 Renaults. 9031 is a sort of mauve colour and 9032 is primrose.

In other respects these are identical and had no characters with them, a cheaper option all round.

The series ends quite soon after it began with this extremely old-fashioned and rather unappealing to the young Rolls Royce Silver Cloud which is more like a bus than a car. It is, again, beautifully made, with remarkable detail, jewelled headlamps on this one and the flying lady on the radiator. I have two varieties: one with gold wheels and a grey exhaust, another with steel colour wheels and  a black exhaust. 

These are all models for older folk to display. Indeed, most came with picture boxes and some had stands included or a sort of street scene illustration inside the box. Not the Rolls, though, which came in a ubiquitous bubble pack - quite inappropriate for that class of vehicle! Cost were being cut, though, and these didn't sell well. Many were made, though, and as a consequence you can but these for really low prices, even with their boxes.

If you just want to buy the cars themselves then you'll find Rolls Royces going for £10-£20 and the Renaults and Fords seldom cost more than £30. The Bentleys can be a bit more expensive, often because people confuse them with Steed's from the Gift Set. A 9001 would be £30-£40, a 9002 £40 -£50 and the most expensive is the comparatively scarce 9004 with Jeeves and Wooster at around £60.

An original Steed's Bentley in good condition may also cost you around £60. Most green ones I encounter are adaptations of one of the others and original green Steed's Bentleys are likely to be a bit more.

If you ignore the Bentleys, though, you'll realise that you can have a complete set of the Classics, all easily found in A/A+ condition, on display for less than £100.