Land Rover - the model that lasted

I now have 14 Land Rovers in stock! This is one of the nicest - #406 so one of the first type but unmarked - arrived today and will be on the site this week. 

The other colour available at the start was quite a bright yellow with a black roof. I am sure the AA and RAC had a part to play in those choices! Actually the RAC did get their own (in a slightly different shade).

There are two versions of the RAC model, with and without the headboard and each with a different transfer on the canopy.

The RAF Land Rover

A green 406 was featured in Gift Set 2 with a horse box and this had a tan tin canopy. The normal 406 release in a box did not have a canopy.

Type 2 is #438 and starts off in this lovely dark green with a cream canopy that looked great but probably didn't reflect reality! To distinguish #406 from #438 just look at the front bumper or at the side windows and door.

Next colour for #438 is a pale creamy brown teamed, again, with a cream canopy. Only released in Gift Set2 with a similar colour horse box.

Red models of #438 appeared in a Ferrari Racing Gift Set and in Chipperfields Gift Sets but never individually in boxes.

#438 Type 3 is the more recent version, not really seen much until the later 60s and it came with an odd khaki canopy more often than not. The shade is quite metallic and not really what you expect on a Land Rover. It'll be around for as long as the dark green, though.

An interesting variation with the later models having cast wheels a little before this too, ridiculously, went down the Whizzwheels road. It starts with a tin hook which is then replaced by a grey plastic variety.

Whizzwheels models will be blue for a Gift Set with a new horse trailer, darker blue for another Gift Set with an aircraft trailer and shades of bright apple green for the models sold as #438 in the box.

The Saint, black and blue.

Just £1200, well, £1440 including the massive premiums charged by auction firms, would have enabled you to put this Saint's Volvo 1800 on your shelf, as reported last week.

Fork out £8 for this model on Ebay as I write and, if you can find a blue decal or transfer, you can have two on your shelf. The neighbours would never be able to tell the difference.

What I find amusing is the description that the seller has added (not included in the illustration above). It says that this is a rare white version of the Volvo! Maybe without the plastic Roger Moore in the driving seat he could have got away with that. I am intrigued, though, that the original transfer does seem to have been removed without leaving obvious marks on the bonnet, assuming there was one there and it wasn't missed in production. 

So I shall pick up this one (unless there are silly bids offered!) and have a closer look. If it is possible to remove the normal transfer then we all need to be very careful when those rare blue ones appear.

I don't like giving money to idiots who try to fool people so won't be bidding very much.

Certificate

Just to prove that I might know what I'm talking about :)

Thereagain, it was a long time ago...

White Lotus Elan recipe

Remember the Lotus Elan that sold for £816? Here are its components if you want to make one.

The driver is just £1.45

Transfers have to come from the States at about £6

I shall carry on building honest Avengers Gift Sets but beware if you are looking at a white #318 with a dealer for £800+. It might have only cost £50 for the components! Only the transfer would be likely to give anything away as the originals seem to be less than transparent and a bit brown. But some tea can produce a similar effect I suspect.

Auction price updates for The Saint and others

Model Collector magazine reports some extraordinary prices being paid recently at auctions. Each is a model I have been recommending for a while but I hadn't expected that amount of interest in them. I just hope this doesn't make getting hold of a few even more difficult!

Funnily enough, I was thinking this week that I should have a green one in good condition. I have three back and grey, two with boxes, which are immaculate and, I believe, a better colour than the green. Now I am not sure my bids are likely to be successful for the two I am after! I'll know in a few days. Watch this space.

At first glance you might think this is Emma Peel's Lotus Elan. Basically it is - with a transfer on the back and someone else planted in the driving seat. Or should that be hers is #318 without the transfer and figure? I don't know which came first. £816 is an amazing price, though, and just shows how rare the white open top model is in this guise.

I have been buying quite a few of the white S2 without the transfer for the Avengers Gift sets I'm making up. However, it must be tempting for some less scrupulous people to stick transfers on. They're pretty easy to buy. The driver too. He looks like the usual suspect from several other cars.

The Saint's Volvo P1800 at £1200??!! Good grief. That's another that I would like a decent version of as my own one has suffered a bit. The box is still a round but is missing a flap or two. I actually prefer the original black on transparent backing transfer to this blue and white affair.

My last post talked about teh various Mini Coopers. I knew this had a fairly short life but had no idea it was £1200's worth of short life! 

Ghia #241 -see the real thing!

I have two blue versions and this green one. Looking for a good example of a gold model. I have one possible that I have bid for so maybe I will be able to add that here soon. This is a car that very few people will have seen in real life. Here's an example, looking excellent in black. I am planning to produce a number of models in black from those that will have to be repaired and so will be clearly 'restored'. By using a completely different colour no-one will accuse me off trying to pass off restorations!

Mini Coopers: a guide

One day you may need to look twice at your collection of Corgi minis. There are a lot more than you might have realised - and this post only deals with the Mini Coopers!

The story starts in 1962 when a Morris Mini Cooper was issued. This only came in pale blue or an almost white pale primrose. All had white roofs. I have some with white bonnets and some without. I am not sure whether both are original, though. They'll be numbers #1, #3 or #7 but as people can buy the decals and stick them on that's not a definitive guide. The colour should be enough but you'll find that this model had just two headlamp jewels and none in the radiator grill.

Next came 317 in 1964 - the Morris Mini Cooper S Rally Monte Carlo. This is always red with a white roof only and should be #37. It's pretty easy to spot this one! There's a chrome spot light on top. This one has no jewels in the radiator grill and no other minis have the light on top so this is a fairly safe bet identification-wise.

In 1965 things started to get complicated. I guess the mini won a rally and Corgi issued #321 Morris Mini Cooper S Rally Monte Carlo. This red with a white roof - no other colours or combinations, of course, as they're reflecting a real car. It should have #52 on the side and three jewels in the radiator. Look carefully and you will see that it is a different casting with two fog lamps just above the radiator, usually painted silver.

In 1966 I think a mini must have won the Rally again and there is a second version but still model number 321. This one has signatures on the roof (which look a bit strange) and it should have #2 on the side. Again it is only in red with a white roof. There is a second difference, though: surprisingly, this version has just two jewels in the radiator grill! And, unbelievably, it doesn't have the two cast fog lamps, being based on an earlier cast! That's really odd and I have only just spotted it, several months later!

Almost as an aside, there is the 1965 issue of a Mini Cooper with wickerwork panels but that is so different that it doesn't need much explaining! That's model number 249.

As if the 1966 change wasn't enough, there is another. Model 333 comes along - this time as a BMC Mini Cooper S 'RAC International Rally'. This is red with a white roof and should have #21 on the side in a strange-looking decal which has the black digits across a red disc on a white rectangle. Now this model has not two, not three but four jewels in the radiator grill! This is proving elusive so still no photo!

In 1967 model number 339 comes along - another red and white affair - and a repeat of the four jewels in the radiator but luckily this one has a massive roof rack so you'll not have to worry too much identifying that one!

You might have expcted 334 to be a variant of 333 but it is actually a completely different mould. It is still, allegedly, a Mini Cooper but comes with an orange stripey sunroof affair, opening everything and is called a BMC Mini Cooper Manifique. Two colours, a nice metallic blue or this green, and it was available from 1968 until 1970. No extra jewels, no numbers and all have louvred cast wheels.

There are, of course, Whizzwheel  versions of the Mini Cooper too.

This is 308 which you can see is really #339! This only appeared in yellow.

This is #208 and is #334 in disguise, with opening bits but no stripey roof. This only appeared in white.

I hope this helps someone! Soon I shall look at the 'normal' Mini.