Corgi Model Club: two more Aston Martins, a teal sports car and a nice box.

 

You may have been confused by a recent note from the Corgi Model Club, encouraging us all to buy the #270 James Bond's Aston Martin with silver grille and bumpers, having had one encouraging us to buy the #270 James Bond's Aston Martin with gold grille and bumpers just a short while ago. I had ordered the one with a gold bits in November and, quite frankly, forgotten all about it so I rushed to order the one with silver bits just in case it sold out as these things tend to. Luckily I remembered that I had also had a list of items I should be getting as a member and, indeed, the one with silver bits should be arriving sometime in a few weeks. The one with gold bits is, I assume, on its way too.

I had thought that the masses were going to get the gold edition from the shop, with the silver edition being just for members but I see now this is not the case. There is no asterisk on the list and so lots of people will be getting this before I do as I seem to be a few weeks behind with my Club arrivals, the Ecurie Ecosse Transporter still to reach my village.

So, if you are a member, and only want one silver edition, you don't have to do anything. No need to panic. It will come in its own time when you reach that point on the list. If you want the gold one, though, you need to buy it from the shop and, despite the claim that members get a nice discount, they pay the same price as everyone else for anything other than their single monthly Club items.

Coming up soon you will see two issues that will be for members only and not available in the shop. These are an orange #233 Heinkel Bubble, sorry, Economy Car and a #302 MGA in teal. I expect there will be a red #233 in the shop which we'll need to buy at the normal price but maybe no further MGAs, the red one being available already. Perhaps the Club will hang on to some teal paint and use some for a #300 Austin Healey at some point. That's a model that's very hard to find as an original. I think teal would be about right. I have two originals but both had been frustratingly overpainted with a slightly different shade of blue for reasons I fail to understand.

This one has a new steering wheel and screen too.

This one has a complete covering of the new blue, with silver bits added here and there, as well as a silly screen from Mr Flowers.

Neither base seems to have been removed, though, and there's blue in places a paintbrush wouldn't reach.

I feel confident that both are the scarce blue issue but it is such a pity that they received this later treatment. A lesson for us all, of course, as more and more models are getting 'restored'. Maybe you good restoration artist people could just stick to restoring the common ones and leave something scarce alone. I am amazed at the skills some people do have but I would much prefer a bashed-up old original to a pristine-looking model with shiny rivets (or glue!)

By the same token, however lovely the Corgi Model Club models will be, whether with silver or gold bits, I'll be selling both of them and happier looking to spend the money on a fair to average original. For those who like to display their models, however, there is a lot to be said for the 'bubble-style' boxes that come with the Club models. Good reproductions of these are not cheap.

This one is very good but nearly £50! 

The bubble bit is not easy and all the usual suppliers offer just the later window box types.

So, if you 'don't look back' (or maybe under) the Corgi Model Club editions may be worthwhile after all! Flog the car and keep the box.

Update 22 January:

Numbers and boxes

 A colleague asked me a question yesterday that I didn't know the answer to. "Why do some models have a white number in a black oval and others have a white number in a red oval?" he wondered. So I thought I'd have a look at the different boxes used from 1959. (Prior to that models were in all-blue boxes with white numbers on a black oval with white numbers on a red oval indicating the M models only).

Here's what I found.

It looks as though things changed in early 1965. The Ferrari was the first to have the red oval. The previous issues that year had been the military models 354-9 and the most recent fairly normal issue had been the 309 Aston Martin, all with black ovals.

Following the Ferrari, there are a few that have later issue dates but black ovals, namely 62 Farm Trailer, 242 Fiat, 471 Joe's Diner and 475 Citroën but that appears to be all (I think, need to check).

That would, therefore, appear to indicate that the company decided to make the change in late 1964 but some boxes were already printed which accounts for the black ovals post-February 1965.

I had initially assumed that the red was an indication of a sports model or some particular category but, clearly, that's not the case at all. If anyone knows of another explanation then do let me know.

The earliest window boxes in blue and yellow seem to all have red numbers in a white rectangle from 1968 until May 1970 when it becomes a black number in a white rectangle on Whizzwheels yellow and red boxes.

Several models can, therefore, be found with either.

This appears to be only the Lamborghini, Ferrari and Pontiac, however, for which I assume the box was printed when it was expected to have Golden Jacks as we know there are boxes for these models which have had to have stickers with revised text.

Whizzwheels models from February 1970's Ford Capri onwards seem to come only in the red and yellow window box (or later, cheaper boxes for those that remained in stock through to the change around the end of 1972.

The Datsun 240Z looks like being the last in the red and yellow box, with most examples now, from 1983, in the cheap dark blue-black box with the red and orange band.

After this there seem to be many colour changes in the band whilst the box stays fairly similar with a yellow number on a dark blue-black background.

The odd 700s series in February 1974 are the first and maybe only models to get a blue, orange and yellow band.

A couple of months later, the Massey Ferguson Tractor has a green, orange and yellow band in May 1974. Or is that just the effect of sunlight or fading?

By mid-1975 models are packed in a pink and yellow band box for a while. And long-running models like the Rolls Royce, which you could have first found in a red and yellow Whizzwheels-style window box with a black number in 1970, can be found in 1977 with a pink and yellow band too.

Finally, in the 1:43 (approx.) series, the VW1200 gets a 'rainbow' band with red, orange and yellow - but not the same as the 1973 type!

Ford Thunderbird Mechanical and a question of boxes

 

This is not something you'll see every day. A really well-preserved Ford Thunderbird in Mechanical form - and the friction motor works smoothly too. It came from an auction in the outskirts of Leicester, another surprise win from a casual bid and I suspect that it may have come from the same collector who provided the Riley Pathfinder and Studebaker that were featured in a recent article here.

It isn't perfect so was probably disregarded by those who seek only mint models in mint boxes but I am delighted to have this and think that the odd small chip isn't such a bad thing and does mean the model has seen the light of day in its 60 years of existence.

The box is a bit of a mess, with flaps at both ends missing but it is the correct box and that's not at all easy to find these days in any condition.

It was the box that first caught my eye, albeit for the wrong reason. I had initially thought that the 'normal' box would have been the old blue style and that this new type would be something of a rarity, especially as the model was really not around for long, barely a year before being discontinued. This model first appeared in March 1959 and I believe that this 214M and its sister the 214 model were two of the first to have only the new style yellow and blue boxes.

From what I can gather the new style of box must have been introduced in December 1958 or January 1959 because the Jaguar 2.4 Fire Chief's car, model 213, only seems to have a new style box and that was issued at the start of the year, making it the first model to have only the later box.

The previous model issued was the 152 BRM F1 Racing Car and that may have a blue box (or a yellow and blue one for later sales).

So I was not right about the box being particularly special but it is still good to have even part of one. Perhaps I should look out for the BRM in the old box, though, as that, and a few other later 1958 issues, may be a little scarce.

The Jaguar Box and a Black Cab Wheel

A colleague of mine has recently started collecting Corgi Toys and finds what are usually very familiar models to add to his shelves each month. On my visit to St. Albans yesterday, however, he had a couple of quite interesting items. First is this box which came with a nice and unmarked Jaguar E Type. I have seen one or two plain boxes, with no model image, but the number is either printed in the blank area at the end or, in one case I've seen, written in. The use of a label like this is new to me and I would be glad to hear from anyone who might have more information.

Perhaps this label was, indeed, an alternative to the printed number - this being simpler to produce, of course. It may also have been produced by the shop, which would explain why I might not have seen any anywhere before.

The normal 307 box was, I thought, a little bigger, allowing space for the chunky circular cardboard that protected the delicate plastic hood.

The box itself looks original and has the sort of ageing I'd expect although it seems a little more brown than the grey I am more used to seeing. It may be simply the case that the grey card was used for the illustrated boxes and the browner shade for the temporary ones.

The second surprise was this 418 Austin Taxi. It is the pretty common Whizzwheels version and he has found himself an example in excellent condition too. The steering wheel, however, is black whereas all the models I have had have been grey. I doubt that the black steering wheel is any less common than the grey one and guess that it may just be a later replacement in the life of this very long-running model. I should have known about such things but, clearly, I am still learning!