Yellow, red and orange

 

It was really nice to return home from a week or so abroad and find three new arrivals waiting for me. Each comes from the very early days of fixed smooth wheels and no suspension or interior but they all have a certain charm and I am more than pleased to add them to my store, with one maybe staying in my collection.

First is a well-played-with 203 Vauxhall Velox. It came with the Standard Vanguard (below) so is a sort of bonus. It's the second edition of the Vauxhall, Corgi deciding that a fresh coat of paint might help them sell a few more in 1959. Most of the early range get a two-tone finish in 1959 and for Vauxhall the previous dull yellow or cream turns to quite a bright and cheery yellow with a red roof (and window frames). I think all these second editions had chrome fluting on the bonnet. This was seemingly randomly missing on the first editions, both in normal and Mechanical form.

The second is another Vauxhall Velox but this time it's the 203M model with not only a nice, smoothly working motor but also a pretty nice coat of orange paint (and no fluting). This is a notably scarcer finish as most I have encountered have been red. Having said that, all the red ones I have had to date have only had, at best, 50% of the paint left! I don't know why but these mechanical Vauxhalls in red seemed to lose their darker paint in large chunks. It's not as if they could have hit skirting boards or other models at great speed. Perhaps they simply couldn't be moved out of the way of a speeding non-mechanical model quickly enough. Anyway, it's nice to have the orange version which still has most of its paint. You'll see that this one also has tinted windows. These appear to be about as common as clear windows on all the older models.

Now for the star of the three, not that it really looks very special at first glance. This is a model that only a few months ago I wrote about, querying whether it actually existed or was just a production sample being offered by some dealer at a massive four figure sum at an auction I had spotted. Well, as several readers assured me, it was an issued model. They'd had one or seen one and I had to admit to being wrong that time. It was just so unusual for me to find a completely new variation after all these years! And now here it is in the flesh, on my desk and I can say it is, indeed, real.

Yes, this one is pretty worn but all original and no-one has been taking it apart. It is the Standard Vanguard III in a pale yellow with a red roof and window frames.

This one has the first type of red finish but the later type of base. I have examples of the normal pale green and red edition having the type 1 red paint with a grey base.

The yellow colour could be one of the many shades I have found for the 207M and the view is generally taken that when the 207was discontinued there may have been a batch of models in the 207M colour that needed to be sold as 207s. So a coat of red paint was added across the pale yellow to produce what I suspect must be quite a small number of these models.

Earlier thoughts that these had been accidentally painted in the second edition 203 colours are not correct.

So that's a new addition to the catalogue and my collection! It's not the prettiest of cars but, judging by how many I have seen in all the years I have been looking, it ranks up there with the blue Mini Marcos in the list of rare issued Corgi models.

By special rep request? Hmmm. . . .

I need help with this one. As a Curator of the HobbyDB.com Corgi database I get many items added by collectors which need to be verified. As I have added many variations myself when that project was started many years ago, most of the new additions turn out to be custom paint jobs or, at best, a production sample rather than a nice surprise of a new issued item I was not aware of. This one, though, is intriguing.

As you will see from the photos below, this does look pretty good, a 207 in the 203 2nd issue colours. The silver paintwork is possibly a bit too bright but it does appear to have been sprayed with a mask rather than painted as many later revisions tend to be.

The headlamps are very precise, more like the Chinese Re-education Camp models we see from the Corgi Model Club. I don't recall ever having nice near-perfect rounds on headlights on these models but I guess someone may have had a good day. (Incidentally, now we have another model and a blue box for some reason)

In its favour, there are a few flaws and chips which I am sure someone trying to create a variation would not have left. The box is also nicely worn as if it's been kicking around in someone's possessions for a good many years. Again, someone in the business of creating this would probably have found a good one and a factory sample wouldn't have had one at all.

Now here's another problem: the grey base. All the models I have encountered of the 207 with a grey base also have the later style of shaped wheels and the red paint on the roof does not extend down the pillars as this one does. A grey base on a model in a blue box is also not very likely so that odd one above adds to the doubts.

I would say that the base certainly has not been removed but that wouldn't preclude someone skilfully masking the wheels and base to create this. I'll also ignore the boxes as these could have been added by someone at some point whatever its origin.

As I have not seen anything like this in all the years I have been viewing Corgis from this era my first inclinations are to say that this is a smart creation by someone. There's good reason for someone to do so as it would be valued at getting on for four figures as a genuinely issued model and three figures as a factory sample. The person submitting it, however, believes it to be genuine and has submitted many good models in the past. He is not someone I wish to insult by not verifying this addition, and yet I do have doubts. These were enhanced when I saw he had added this initially:

The super-detailing on the bonnet emblem and door handles are classic signs of someone who has created a model with some painting and simply couldn't resist these little extras while he had the silver paint on the brush in his hand! Those headlamps, too, aren't right, nor is the rather bright paint and the way it very precisely follows the inside edge of the bumper. For this model, however, I have no more images.

It was the same contributor, however. This one, surely, is not an original and prompted me to respond as such and ask for more images and also one of the base. That was when I found he had published more images of what appears to be a second or even third model and which I have illustrated above.

For a while I have wondered whether, following my first comment, he has quickly covered the super-detailing, adjusted the silver paint on the lights and bumper and removed the wheel covers but the coverage of red paint does look different and I do think the three are different models. The last one above could be a factory sample as I have seen such additions on samples I can attest to being genuine but the other one has left me intrigued and needing some other opinions.

Perhaps you are aware of this variation and have seen a few which I have simply managed to miss in all this time. That would be a reasonable explanation and all will be well and this gets verified.

JKDiecast, a dealer, have one on their site at £1350 with a blue box which they describe as a 'factory error or rep special request'. The main images above are also featured on a Japanese web site  - the same model and yellow and blue box - which is odd. Now it may be that the HobbyDB chap merely copied their photos or that the Japanese site copied those on HobbyDB so I am not a lot wiser there. The dealer model would tend to confirm this is real - although it would be very convenient to have a seemingly independent HobbyDB back-up of this to support the £1350 price tag. Maybe the contributor is the dealer? But then he would have used his own model, one would think. I don't wish to cast aspersions on anyone but we have seen reputable dealers selling 'factory errors' before which turn out not to be quite what they seem and not worth the vast sums often paid by a collector. The 'rep request' is a new one on me too.

So, to conclude for now, I may be getting sceptical in my old age but I remain reluctant to approve a value of over a thousand pounds for this one, which verification would effectively award when clever and skilled people can take a £30 model and create it, which can fool very nice, well-known dealers and, of course, their customers.

Late model differences

 

A 413 Mobile Butchers Shop came this week and prompted me to write about the small but important differences that you may find in models issued at the very end of their production period. The Karrier is a great example as it must have looked so dated on the shelves in 1964 and to discover that there was actually one of these old things with suspension was quite a surprise a year or so ago when I first found one. I now see that there is a reference to 413S in some Corgi documents although the boxes still read 413. This is certainly a rarity.

Another scarce one is this 210S Citroën DS19. It seems that Corgi decided to continue to produce these after having adjusted the casting for the 1965 Monte Carlo version to provide holes for the four small jewelled fog lamps. Instead of fitting jewels, though, we get some bright metal blobs instead. I have seen these fetch £150 or more at auctions but they do seem to appear regularly and maybe are not as scarce as I had originally thought. I now have four in stock although this latest addition is by far the best. Interestingly, only these models with the fog lamps have free-spinning wheels.

Free-spinning wheels are the difference on this late edition 223 Chevrolet Impala. It was a popular model, the very first Impala issued, in fact. and stayed in production for a long time before being sliced in half for the MkII version. Shortly before that some models got free-spinning wheels fitted but these are not at all as common as you might expect.

Corgi started fitting the shaped wheel in place of the smooth wheel in 1961 and some of the later editions of the 207 Standard Vanguard had them fitted. They also made another change that people may not have noticed, however, and that was in how the red paint now only covered the roof, not the pillars. Although shaped fixed wheels are less common on many models from this period (205, 209, 213, 214, 215 and 216 can be found, and 210 is common) only the 207 had this additional change.

Whilst late Buick Rivieras with cast wheels in metallic blue are quite common, and you find a few gold versions too, the pale blue Buick with cast wheels is very rare.

Wheels, again, are the thing to look for on the innocent and ancient-looking Jeep FC-150. This long-running model first appeared with fixed smooth wheels and the vast majority that you'll come across will have fixed wheels of one type or the other. Very few do exist, though, with free-spinning wheels and are worth picking up when you do see them as it is not something that sellers will realise is rare at all.

The penultimate one for now is the maroon Rover 2000 with cast wheels. Together with the equally rare gold Hillman Imp with cast wheels, it was produced for a Car Transporter Gift Set 41/48 which also featured the more common grey Ford Cortina Estate, Morris Mini Minor and Mini-Coopers all with cast wheels. Incidentally, a blue Cortina with cast wheels is also a desirable model.

Here is the Hillman Imp, which I had omitted from the article when first published.

There are, of course, many more models I could write about in a similar vein. I may return to this topic in another post. If you have any particularly interesting and rare late variations do let me know.

Standard standards

The Standard Vanguard III was issued in 1957. You could have two finishes initially: a very pale green with a red roof or yellow for the M version with a friction motor. There are more variations, though, to look out for in this range which many will have thought was just the three models, including the 352 RAF Staff Car edition.

The first thing to look for are the 207 models with shaped wheels. Still fixed, though. These are not uncommon although definitely scarcer. These can, I think, also be identified by the extent of the red paint on the roof. Whereas before the paint covered the pillars as well, the later edition has just the roof painted red. Now, whether there are smooth wheel editions with the red roof only or shaped wheels with red pillars I don't know! I suppose either may be possible but they would be quite a find.

The second thing you need to do is look at the base of the cars. The 207 started with a black base in the thicker style rather than the thin metal of most others issued previously. It has the rear axle differential bulge, but not the same as the bulge for the gear on the 207M. The words British and made appear either side of TOYS and there is no text on the 207 front axle section. The 207M has patent pending  on the front axle section.

Still with smooth wheels, the 207 gets a grey base later in production. The British made text has gone with Made in Gt. Britain now on the front axle section. This text carries on through the introctsion of shaped wheels.

The 352 RAF Staff Car has yet another variation. Early issues in 1958 have a black base but with the same text layout as the grey base on the 207 and this continues when the base changes to grey for the 352 too.

I have not seen a 352 with shaped wheels although, as it stayed in production through to 1962 in parallel with 207 so they may well exist and would be a little special to find one day.

I am also aware that on some M models with friction motors there have been two versions - with or without an oil hole. Whether both exist on 207M in particular I have yet to discover. I am going to assume they do, being a standard-looking chunk of metal that I imagine would have been distributed across the factory for the whole range of friction motor models. All that I ahve seen to date, though, have had the oil hole.

So the Standard is not quite as 'standard' as you might have thought! Not many sellers are aware of the differences so you should be able to collect the scarcer variations without having to spend too much.

New arrivals and vive la difference!

One of the most beautiful Corgi models, in my opinion, is the 1970 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray. Stealing the Austin Healey's catalogue number of 300, it was the last of the Golden Jacks issues and only available for a short period during 1970. It still sold well, issued in two bright liquid metallic colours, red and green. These seem to be sold as fast as they arrive so I guess this won't be around long although I am tempted to add this particularly fine example to my own collection.

Also arriving this month was the Whizzwheels replacement in pink. As well as saving money on the paint, Corgi also abandoned the idea of take-off wheels and this gets the same nasty plastic design as everything else at the time. They did keep the pop-up jewelled lights at the front but, at the back, filled the holes for the jewels with blobs of mazak! These models are scarce and, despite not looking as good, are quite a lot more expensive.

Next is something very special that I shall not be keen to part with, having taken several years to find. It looks like the 205M Mechanical edition of the Riley Pathfinder but doesn't have the motor. It is just an ordinary 205. Whilst I have seen a few of the mechanical editions in red, this is the first non-mechanical in dark blue that I've seen.

So far I have found examples of the 203 Vauxhall Velox in red, 211 Studebaker in white and the 216 Austin in red and black. the 205M in red is the only example, so far, I have found of the 'normal' model getting the 'M' colour. All are very scarce and it is exciting to find another. I can imagine that it would be a relatively simple thing to happen at the factory and I'm surprised that we don't see more of these reversed combinations of top and chassis.

Two normal 216Ms make the total that I now have to nine! I do find these difficult to resist. One is in really nice condition and the other still reasonable and both have working motors.

The next item was a bit more expensive but still cost me a lot less than it should have. It's the rare export edition of the Graham Hill Ford Cortina MkIII GXL in pretty good condition, with a box and Graham too. I had both the left- and right-hand drive versions in beige advertised on Ebay but they were not in particularly nice condition. A lady wrote to me to say that there was a boxed edition of the left-hand drive one listed at less than I was asking for mine. I think she may have been suggesting that my prices could be a bit high and I did expect to see the common bronze car which, in some photos can look paler.

When I did see this, though, I bought it straight away and replied to thank the lady as, even with a chip here and there, these make several hundred pounds and it was most definitely under-priced rather than mine being over-priced.

I has a 2000GT version (quite rare, too) in a pale beige but with a brown roof in 1973. and no, no relation to Graham!

Continuing the list of things that are very hard to find, here is a lovely Ghia 5000 Mangusta with an aerial! It didn't come with a box, though so I also bought another with a damaged aerial but which did have a box and swapped the cars.

I had not noticed before but there are two colours of metal used for the engine block on the detachable chassis. This one has a gold colour of metal whereas the other I bought (not illustrated) had plain steel colour. In some previous articles I have written about this model I also used to remark on how sad it seemed that Corgi didn't add suspension to this model, slightly reminiscent of the 319 Lotus Elan. Rather late in the day, however, I have now realised that the chassis does have suspension provided by the chromed metal elements. I can't imagine how I've missed that in the past but I did!

I do have an original Avengers Gift Set 40, with an original box and plinth available which seems to have escaped mention in last month's list. This month I have created several more sets in the marvellous reproduction boxes that I have. The boxes are really the very best I've encountered and far superior to either the DRRB or Mr Flowers' productions.

I have still not found a correct reproduction of the Steed character so can only make these sets when I manage to find enough originals. I refuse to use the annoyingly repainted Jeeves type that seems to be all that is offered. In contrast, the Mrs Peel characters available are generally not too bad at all, although the paintwork on her face can be a bit dire sometimes.

I have two or three of the classic red Bentley and white Lotus sets now.

I also put together, from time to time, an alternative set which, whilst not as issued, is closer to the vehicles that featured in the series from Series 2 when it came in colour. Mrs Peel's first Lotus was white but in the second and subsequent series she had a later silver-blue model. Steed never had a red Bentley but one of quite a few green ones! Sometimes they even moved the registration plates from one to the other but, more often than not, they varied from episode to episode. But they were never red.

This set has a really attractive Bentley that I made using the chassis from a 9002, the body from a 1985 re-issue (with lovely bright chromework) and 1985 re-issue bright silver wheels on the chassis. This was not as simple as it may seem, however, as the 1985 edition has a black interior into which Steed simply doesn't fit. So that need to be changed and I used an original brown interior and also a brown original dashboard.

The Lotus also deserves a mention. A colleague and font of substantial knowledge of matters diecast, with whom I correspond from time to time, suggested I use some Power Fairy liquid to remove the transfer from the Lotus boot. What I did not realise was that it also changed the colour of the paintwork if I left it soaking for too long! As a consequence this set has a particularly rich metallic blue Lotus Elan!

Another source of interesting variations can be the bases of Earlier Corgi models. As well as finding different text or information on them you will also find some of the models fitted with the thicker plastic base may have black or grey bases. I have mentioned before the Jaguar 2.4 Litre Mechanical edition and it seems that the grey base is very scarce for that. For the Standard Vanguard RAF model the black and grey seem to be more evenly available.

I need to do more research on these base types one day.

I have managed to accumulate all the elements for a Daktari Gift Set 7 now, with the arrival of reproduction stethoscope and glasses (as originals were proving impossible to find!) The box is original and, although a bit worn, complete. I am, however, trying to make a complete Daktari Set 14 as I have the Truck, a grey adult elephant and Giraffe Transporter + giraffes. All that is missing is the little elephant - a dark blue plastic model that is proving elusive. And a box. No-one seems to make the box. So I am not sure what to do. I think I shall probably hang on to everything and hope to come across a box and little elephant one day as that bigger set is worth so much more. I could probably fill the Gift Set 7 box again without too much trouble.

For a long time I have had a Land Rover Public Address model but without the girl assistant. Finally one came along that was damaged but it did have an original girl so, once I have some better stickers, this can be advertised.

The same colleague who provided the Power Fairy advice also has a Public Address model with yellow seats (they're usually red) and that is something I am also looking out for. Land Rovers with red seats have always been something I have looked out for - well, those that should have yellow seats normally, that is. Here is a first - the Corgi Flying Club Gift Set 19 Land Rover with a red interior! I have a Pony Club Land Rover with Whizzwheels and this interior and a deep green (normal wheel type) edition too.

My German collector friend, Andreas, let me have a fawn and cream Pony Trailer so I have been able to put a late Gift Set 2 together with an original pony too. "Why would he give me a Pony Trailer?" you may ask . . .

Here is the reason. He already had plenty and it came with something else a bit special that he bought from someone who wouldn't post to Germany. So I was lucky to have this for a while and get some photos. It is a very rare example with lemon interior instead of the normal red. It is a pity that the model is not in the best of condition and I had to repair the centre strut for the windscreen which had disappeared. It is, however, one of those models that are worth getting hold of in almost any (original) condition.

It does seem to have been a month of interesting variations. The other additions are three 'normal' models. 

I had not had a Joe's Diner Karrier Van before to look at closely and this was a most pleasant surprise. The Trans-o-lite system is put to great effect to light up the sign at the front and the orange roof seems to make the interior seem lit too. This model has already been sold. Clearly I didn't have it priced high enough as it went in a matter of days!

The 322 Monte Carlo Rover 2000 is one of those models I find hard to resist when they're in good condition and seem very reasonably priced. If I can find two decent Minis I'll have enough for two very nice Gift Set 38s.

Finally for November, a reasonably good old 206M Hillman Husky with a good friction motor. These old originals with the motors did not sell well but they have so much charm and I am slowly making my own collection of these, improving the models s and when I can.

Some of these models will be available to buy so if you would like to reserve anything just get in touch.