Corgi Toys @ 60: new models, revamped models and a launch ramp.

Here are the new items on the shelves at your local toy shop in October 1960. Quite a selection! I guess this might have been some sort of planning for Christmas too as no further models were apparently released that year.

The first is the launch module for the Corporal missile. It's a highly detailed and wonderfully well-engineered little thing, with stabilisers or feet which screw down individually to ensure correct positioning on uneven surfaces. The wheels can be removed and the support arms fit into grooves on the side of the missile. It has a tow bar and would usually be pulled along behind an International Army Truck with which it appears in Gift Sets. This item would in most instances have been obtained in one of the Gift Sets with the missile and maybe with the Missile Carrier vehicle too so it is unusual to find it in its own box these days. Very few were sold individually, one in a good box now being well worth getting hold of.

Another Corgi Major and the first Chipperfields Circus model arrives in the shape of the International Truck now with a re-worked rear section that carries a jib. Compared to the army models this is rather basic and crude engineering. The jib is bare metal and raised by hand in three steps on a simple ratchet device. There's a large and not very pretty handle to lift or drop the hook.

The six wheels are now painted Circus blue and the old truck gets an extension to its life. Indeed, it will even get suspension later, which the army version never does.

Amongst the commercials Corgi produced another Bedford CA Van with a single screen and revised front end, appropriately bearing Corgi Toys transfers. It gets a new catalogue number, 422, following on from 421 for the Evening Standard version. To the confusion of children then, but much to the delight of collectors now, Corgi seemed to be unable to make their mind up for some time as to where the blue should go and to what extent. So you will find this half-and-half model as well as one that is blue but with a yellow roof and another that is yellow with a blue roof.

The last combination is the one that is by far the most common, the other two being really quite expensive to acquire now. Indeed, I have had to steal a photo of the 50-50 edition from QDT as I have always been beaten in bidding to date and it has not turned up in any collections I've handled.

The wheels are usually smooth on these models and, from my research, exclusively so for the two less common types. The yellow model with a blue roof has shaped wheels on its later issues.

418 is the Austin Taxi. It appears here for the first time in an extremely long run as it will stay in the catalogue right through to the 1970s when a 1:36 scale version eventually replaces it. I think that makes it the longest-running model without a change to the body. Land Rovers and Minis have a good life too but they get quite a few adjustments made along the line. The Austin Taxi stays just as it was in October 1960, getting only different wheels, interior colour, screen tint and a couple of drivers at various points.

Another commercial and another outing for the Karrier Bantam, now as 413, a Mobile Butcher's Shop. It's very similar to the 407 Mobile Shop, little changing over three years and this has the same style of metal with illustrations visible at the rear and paper stickers at the side and front. Early editions have smooth wheels, later ones have shaped wheels, all fixed.

Two cars are issued too this month - the TR2 gets a re-worked front end and becomes a TR3. It is always in a pale metallic olive-green with red seats. Early editions have smooth wheels and later ones shaped wheels but always fixed. Although production continued for some years I don't believe any got free spinning wheels.

The final items on the October agenda is the revised Jaguar 2.4 Litre, now as 208S and with an interior, suspension and a coat of pale yellow paint. Again, early editions have fixed smooth wheels and later ones fixed shaped wheels. This doesn't get free spinning wheels.

Jolly Good Show, Chaps.

These took a while to find but, at last, I can put a line through #300, #301, #302 and #305 in the list. The four good, old fashioned sports cars which Corgi included in the early years. The Austin Healey was the 100/4 model and, with the Triumph TR2, appeared in July 1956 at the very start.

In the following year the delightful MGA was released and then in 1960 someone must have realised that the Triumph TR2 had long since finished production and a new model, more or less a TR3 was issued, getting a new number too.

These were simple models but much more attractive at the time than anything Dinky was doing and they sold really well. Amazingly, you can still find the MGA in the 1965 catalogue, with the Ghia L6.4, Chevrolet Sting Ray and Jaguar E-types to compete with. There were cars with steering, suspension, trans-o-lite headlamps and all sorts of bits that might open. And even in 1964 the Austin Healey, TR3 and MGA were all there to buy still. They definitely have a certain charm about them and the MGA and Austin Healey are attractive models. I have never been fond of the TR2 and I'm not too sure about the TR3 they produced either.

Many of these cars would have been children's favourites and used far more than the others, getting raced around the 'road' at the edge of a carpet and more often that we would have liked slamming into the skirting board where both the board and the cars would suffer paint loss. The windscreens would, inevitably get broken too. These open cars would have had to have been put away very carefully indeed if those screens were not to suffer and I think that one of the reasons that you don't see many of these now is because so many screen s did suffer and, coupled with scuffs and marks, made the cars look a bit sad and they weren't the ones kept long term and even now could get chucked out or ignored by anyone who isn't familiar with them.

I think the MGA has an original screen but the other three needed replacements. They're easy enough to get hold of and, unlike too many later models, are simple to fix. It really does 'restore' the model, even if the screens aren't brilliant.

You can see more photos of these four new additions on my site under British Cars.