Corgi Toys @ 60: James Bond and an Ice Cream Van

 

Yes, this is the month when, 60 years ago, Corgi's most successful model and probably the one they were to become famous across the world for, was issued. #261 James Bond's Aston Martin. It's gold and not silver and a DB4 not a DB5 but no-one seemed too bothered at the time.

You will. I am sure already be familiar with all the variations for this model and this is neither to time nor the place to repeat them all. Have a look in my catalogue where you'll see as many as I have listed. In its massive production quantities it would be inevitable that castings get worn, adjusted and so on.

The other issue was the second Ford Thames Ice Cream Van. #447 had been issued just 7 months earlier but now someone at Corgi decided that it should play a tune so they stopped producing the first one and adapted the second by inserting a device which played notes when an enormous handle at the back was rotated. 

Gone are the old chap selling the ice cream, the young lad with one and the pretty display plinth that came with the first. The music device comprised fine tines that were 'plinked' as a shaft with cam extensions in different positions rotated and many have since got broken tines so the tune doesn't quite work as it should. 

This was, incidentally, the very first model that the Corgi Model Club people decided to make again from scratch. They made a super job of it, so accurate, in fact that the tines break on that model just as quickly! 

Good working models of both the October issues in original boxes with instructions and packing are both very expensive now. Considering how many of the Bond models were made and how many there must be in good working order still in circulation, I am always amazed at the prices they fetch. High prices for the Ice Cream Van are perfectly understandable. It sold only 146000, not a lot in those days for a Corgi issue and very few will have either a box or a working music device, even fewer with both.

The Aston Martin, however, sold nearly 4 million, nearly 27 times as many and, whilst it was a complicated bit of equipment, the features have been remarkably resilient to young people's play. Whilst there are plenty with seats that don't eject very well or at all, there are also many that do still work well. Suspension fails on these and as they get older the plastic becomes ever more brittle and liable to fail so numbers of top quality models will diminish but I still maintain that it's a lot easier to find than a nice Ice Cream Van with working tunes.

I guess there are simply so many fans of film and TV-related models that there is a far wider and better moneyed market for Bond than Wall's Ice Cream.

More ice cream from the Corgi Model Club

 

Here is the latest issue from the Corgi Model Club, #447 Wall's Ice Cream Van on a Ford Thames. The one without music. The original was released in March 1965 but only stayed in the order lists for a few months, disappearing the following year. The musical version, with a massive handle at the back, seems to have been a rapid rethink of what might sell by Corgi and came out later in 1965 and lasted much longer through to 1968.

The Model Club's very first issue was the musical edition, #477 in January 2020, with a second issue of this in 2021 and I wrote about the two Thames here in 2021. This, then is actually the third ice cream van you will need to have a complete collection.

This is the edition with a small road and pavement display on which we can position the ice cream seller and a small boy. I prefer this one as it looks much more realistic than the #477 with its handle. I didn't want either as a child but now I have to have all three!

The box that this arrives in is not very strong and a sort of cube shape instead of the familiar flat pack. Mine had been crushed in transit and this packing did not protect the box very well but it is still intact and I was able to straighten things out fairly well. The model itself is wrapped in paper with two lumps of white foam to prevent it moving around in the box too much. The characters arrive in a plastic bag. You may miss the stickers which are packed in the base of the plinth!

It is a very smart and accurate reproduction of the original. 

As is now usual, the typeface for the smaller text on the box is not right. Computer-generated fonts just don't match the original as they come but it should not be that difficult to adjust them to do so. I could produce the artwork for them if they ask me. The digits in the red ovals do appear better, though.

Corgi Toys @ 60: More Volkswagens

 

The new arrivals in February 1963 were both from Volkswagen. First the 433 Delivery Van gets 'Trans-o-lite' headlamps, a coat of light blue paint and a big advert for Toblerone chocolate on the side. One has to assume that the chocolate company will have contributed generously to the Corgi coffers for this bit of advertising! A popular model with collectors, there are no known variations of the 441 model. It has free-spinning wheels and a lemon interior, left-hand drive.

The other model was the Volkswagen 1500 Karman Ghia, a stylish two-door car which in real life is highly sought-after now. The 239 model had an opening bonnet where a small plastic briefcase was stored and there was a spare wheel slotted in vertically at the front. At the back, the engine compartment had not only the outer lid that could be opened but also a clear plastic cover which could be lifted up too.

It always has free-spinning wheels and can be found in cream with a red interior and red with a lemon interior as well as two scarcer gold issues, one with yellow interior and one with red.

Just when you thought you had the Commer buses, two more come along.

I have to thank my friend Herr Richter in Germany for telling me about second versions of the Commer Film Services Van and Holiday Bus which had actually been there in my catalogue but may have otherwise remained unnoticed. What I presume will be later versions had a centre support bar in the device below the rear bumper.

This was first spotted when he saw the different cut-out section in the camera platform on the Samuelsons Film Service Van. Often these days, the platform and camera have disappeared so you need to buy them separately. Now you know that you need to be careful to get the right platform! 

This is not relevant for the Holiday Bus, of course, but that also has the two different versions.

There are, also, different interiors on the 479 model which is known in cream. The 508 appears to vary between cream and white but that may be an effect of age on the plastic.

The cream 479 is pretty rare so you needn't make a space for that but you may certainly now need an extra model of both 479 and 508.

Whilst the Camera Van was available from late 1967 through to 1971, the Holiday Bus had a short life from just Summer 1968 to sometime in 1969. It is all the more surprising, therefore to find the two types of Holiday Bus and it would seem reasonable to deduce that the centre support was introduced during late 1968 / early 1969.

Cast wheels had been around for a while when each of these came out so I am surprised that they are not the normal type found but, as far as I can tell, they're not at all common on 479 and so far I haven't seen any at all on a 508.

Surprisingly nice little cars and vans that came in May

Discoveries last month included the NSU Sport Prinz in a sort of metallic brick red colour. Shown here against the more common bright cerise, the car I've bought has a few chips but it's not at all bad. These are odd little motors. My collector friend from Eilum sent me a marketing brochure for this and it has a tiny two-cylinder 500cc engine of little more than 500cc. The cerise is, indeed, one of the colours offered too!

Sort of thrown in with the 316 NSU was this Police Sunbeam Imp which I wasn't too bothered about really. However, having had a good look at it now, it is in remarkably clean and untouched condition. It is the version with just black bonnet and door panels. There is another with a black roof and, of course, the blue and white one too. This particular example is lovely but, as is so often the case with these Imps, there is no suspension. I shall try and revive it by inserting some rubber but that doesn't always work. More on that if I succeed. Otherwise it is available for someone else to have a go and then have the most delightful example of the quite sought-after model which even has clean little cast wheels.

I was never particularly fond of the Corgi racing cars and this is the first of the very early editions that I've had. This is 152, the BRM without suspension and, correctly, without a driver. It is pleasantly charming in the metal and I am even quite looking forward to finding the 150 Vanwall now! This was ridiculously cheap but is in amazingly good condition, especially bearing in mind that children would be inclined to race these around the room and bash into chair legs and skirting boards at speed. I like the silver paint on the air intake and what I assume is a lamp of some sort. The RN3 is also only slightly damaged after all so many years.

Yet another oddity arrived in May! This is the penultimate Karrier Bantam, used here as another shop, this time a Mobile Butchers' Shop. I cannot imagine children getting very excited about having one of these and, issued in late 1960, it was competing with the Jaguar 2.4 with suspension and things like a Land Rover Breakdown Truck. So it only sold about 100,000 which is fairly low by Corgi model standards. 

This one looks great and has only paint loss on the leading and risen edges here and there. The good thing is that it has all its original dark blue stickers and the windows are clean and show the really old-fashioned card illustrations very well. Its scale is a silly 1:55 so don't park this too close to your cars or it won't look right!

I am nearing the end of my Wants List now and things like this are what I need to get hold of. It's nicer than I expected, I have to say, like the BRM.

Let me introduce you to the very, very first Corgi model. Number 200, the Ford Consul. And this is the most commonly found colour. Also available in cream.

I can just imagine the conversation:

We've got a new car, children!

Ooh jolly good daddy! What colour is it?

Er. Mushroom, a sort of mud brown . . .

Oh.

I can take you to school in it in the morning!

It's OK dad. We'll get the bus.

Corgi had a more cheerful pot of paint for their Standard Vanguard III. This is the fairly scarce 207M version with a Mechanical motor. Even fewer of these were sold than the ruddy Butchers Shop! Every example I have had had has quite a few chips which really do show up against that colour but, at least it is nice and original - and the motor works very well sixty years later.

You may remember that I had a 448 Police Van missing a door. Well, finally, after several months, I found a decent condition 448 which was going very cheaply because it needed the door that I did have! So I have made a complete and quite good-looking model here and may actually be able to get some income from the two now. There remains in my shelf a van with slightly cracked windows and no rear doors at all which I may have to use for spares. I now need the left hand door for a green 450 Mini Van. Then perhaps my shelf will have a bit more room.

These will all soon be on my web site so if you want to take a closer look please visit any time.

The Bedford CA Top 40!

Doing the Timeline for the RAC Land Rover made me think again about the Bedford CA range. I had been looking at which models might be the really scarce ones but I had completely ignored the variations of wheels. Sometime in late 1960 or early 1961 the shaped wheels began to appear. This was around the time that the MkII single screen Bedford CA vans were also produced so it occurred to me that there might well be a significant difference in numbers produced for some of these.

For example, the last Bedford CA was the Military Ambulance 414. This is listed as appearing first in January 1961 and, although over 130,000 were produced, you won't see many with smooth wheels as shortly after it started being made the shaped ones would have taken over.

Now, I don't know any exact dates but I've been able to make some pretty sensible guesses for significant changes. The assumptions I've made are listed below the table. This is still work in progress and this table is a 'live' table which will change if I make amendments so it should stay as current as I can make it by incorporating any readers' corrections or worthy observations.


A glance at the numbers will show us that 422s with a yellow roof and smooth wheels could be the star of the show, along with its sister with shaped wheels. The difference between the two variations of 414 are also remarkable; one being 5th scarcest and the other the most common by a long way!

I hope this is getting closer to a definitive listing of these charming little vans. We are at 40 now in the list. I know there are some others, like the half yellow, half blue 422 and possible different shades of light blue and turquoise for the 404M which I might have to include one day. The former, though, is seriously valuable and may be in the hundreds only. As for the shades, including these may have the effect of making each appear quite rare by further dividing the numbers. I can only divide them evenly without any evidence to the contrary and so may be making one appear more or less scarce than it really deserves to be! So, for now, I have resisted listing shades.

Assumptions:

• Shaped wheels were fitted from December 1960
• Smooth wheels ceased being fitted after December 1961
• Between December 1960 and December 1961 either type might have been available in equal numbers
• Production ceased in June of the year specified in publications or, for a Mk I model that continued with the same number as a Mk II, in the month preceding the MkII version first appearance
• The numbers produced each month remained constant through a period of production (see below)
• Where several variations of a model exist with a similar period of production, these were distributed evenly except in the case of variations known to be very scarce.
• Model 405 in red and 422 with a yellow roof are assumed each to represent 10% of the total production of 405 or 422 models respectively.

Update 12 April 2017:

It was clear that some initial research was producing rather different degrees of scarcity with, for instance, a lot more smooth wheels being apparent in comparison to shaped on the same edition. So I took a long, hard look at the production run possibilities again and made some changes. The main change has been to say that production started at a high level and decreased thereafter. In other words, most models of each type or variation would have been made at the start of the production period. 

I have taken what I think has to be a much more accurate guess now as to the numbers made in each of three stages: before shaped wheels, during the period when both were being fitted and the period when only shaped wheels were fitted. For some models there might just be two stages as some either ceased before shaped wheels came along or started when both might have been available.

The effect of the revised calculations can be seen in the 'live' table above and I have added a column to indicate probable scarcity. You'll see that now the stars of the show are mostly the shaped wheel types.

I still feel there is a bit of an anomaly as we see rather more smooth wheels on 414s than shaped in initial searches as to what's available at present. I would expect it to be the other way round. The latest ratio is not as extreme as my previous estimate, though, so perhaps a larger sample size will support my assumptions better.

I do believe that this is about as close as I shall ever get, in the absence of more accurate actual figures from somewhere. So I shall leave this with you and hope it inspires thought and helps those with the genuinely scarce little vans appreciate them even more.

Mini Van Doors

What is it with Mini van doors? So many not only fall off but then seem to disappear without trace. 

I now need a left Police van door, both Countryman doors and a right Mini van door. Whilst replacements are easy to buy they need painting and there's no way I can match the colours. the Countryman is also quite a difficult paint task too.

With a bit of luck there'll be some cracked window and dented wrecks available with just the right doors remaining. Let me know if you see any!

Mixed Grill For The Mini Van

Corgi made a superb job of reproducing the Mini Van and I am surprised that it was only produced for a little more than a year, appearing in December 1964 and discontinued in 1966.

In that short time, however, even this otherwise quite bland model had some variations! 

Normally, the grill is all painted and has straight bars and horizontal elements. The ones to look out for are the comparatively scarce grills that have been painted silver and the less easy to find wavy style as made for the Austin Countryman.

I have been able to get a couple with silver grills, and the paint does look original rather than having been added later by someone. They were quite inexpensive but both have a bent rear door. I have also found a good model with the Countryman style grill but this was probably only affordable by reason of the missing rear door! I think it should be fairly straightforward to fit a door sometime once I have found a very cheap wreck that still has one.

As far as I know, all the Mini Vans have Austin badges. I am still checking almost every one I see, though, just in case there is a Morris somewhere. I believe that there is a Morris version of the #485 'Austin' Countryman so it is not totally impossible.

There is great fun to be had checking the badges on all the Minis, in fact. A little while ago this little blue #226 came up at an auction. A collector friend had spotted the Austin badge on what was supposed to be a Morris Mini-Minor (and which was painted in Morris Mini-Minor pale blue and had Morris Mini-Minor on the base)! We were very hopeful at the time that we might get it for a modest, typical #226 price. 

Unfortunately, that was not to be and I have since discovered that many people were watching the bids as they soared past the £120 I had considered paying! 

Avro Bode. Read All About It: The Blue Bedford CA Van.

I saw this blue Bedford CA Van in a pile of adverts and wondered what it was. At first I thought it might be the Corgi 422 one without any yellow. I know they came in all sorts of combinations of yellow and a similar blue so the idea of one being all blue wasn't that impossible! From what I could tell it wasn't a repainted item so I looked around a bit further. The seller had it with some other items and didn't provide any clues either and it wasn't something anyone would find other than by chance. Google Images came up with the answer: AVRO, a Dutch broadcasting company, had a magazine called Avrobode or maybe Avro Bode and they had come to an arrangement whereby Corgi made 650 of these as a promotional thing.

That sort of made sense as 421 on general release was an Evening Standard van.

They would have had black paper stickers on the sides which were missing on this one, the merest tears remaining. From some decent images I found of one on an auction site (priced at £2000!) I was able to recreate my own labels which I am really pleased with as they are pretty much undetectable as replacements unless you start examining the paper and glue.

It is the second type of van with the revised front and single screen and dates from 1960. With only 650 produced this is a seriously scarce item. Mine is in excellent condition. There are signs of wear but no chips or dents. I have no idea what it's worth. If you're interested then make an offer.