International Peace & Love

An old 1118 Army Truck arrived looking a bit shabby so I couldn't resist a conversion - in more ways than one! 

New arrivals

These days I tend to acquire just the more unusual editions and here are the latest since my last post on the topic.

311 Ford Capri

Although I'm not a fan of Whizzwheels, this was quite a decent model and these later red editions with a matt black bonnet are quite desirable and more realistic than the strange fluorescent orange versions issued initially. I wish this had kept the red spot wheels, though, but this is one of a few models which don't look too disastrous with the dotty pattern.

416S Land Rover RAC Radio Rescue

Whilst the 351S RAF version is one of the most searched-for models, there were not that many more of these sold but it has yet to acquire the same status. Examples like this - with a fine box too - are well worth hanging on to. Note the illustration is still of the Series 1 416 (and with a headboard).

Sort of Gift Set 2

I think all the early Gift Sets had the red Pony trailer but I like the way this goes with the early Land Rover so I'm selling the two together which are each surplus to requirements and a little worn. This trailer has a handle on the ramp. One without a handle is coming in soon.

303S Mercedes-Benz Roadster Open Top

There are very many editions to look out for. Here's another five that I needed!

White with a bright yellow interior (as opposed to a tan colour with a driver)

White with no stripe - an early edition with the blue interior from the 303 model

Blue with a bright yellow interior + driver

Blue with a white 303 type interior and free spinning smooth wheels - one of the very first editions fitted with suspension. This example has poor paintwork.

The last shown here is the very scarce type with wire wheels. I already had a super rare golden hue model with wire wheels. This is a 'normal' silver issued at about the same time as the Silverstone Racing Set.

300 Austin Healey

A fairly scarce example in cream with shaped wheels

313 Ford Cortina MkIII GXL

It's the export edition and this one has Right Hand Drive so I now have both LHD and RHD variations of this model. It isn't in great condition but these are terribly expensive in almost any condition.

300 Austin Healey

Finally I find not just one blue edition but two. Neither are totally original, unfortunately, with extra paint here and there but they did both start life as genuine blue editions before all the additional work.

251 Hillman Imp

Look - cast wheels! That's the first I've seen, presumably from a very late production, maybe for the last of the Transporter Sets (as for the Rover?)

252 Rover 2000

Also a first for me, with cast wheels. I advertised this one at too cheap a price as it sold within an hour!

215 Ford Thunderbird Convertible

Finally I find one with shaped wheels - not many around!

215 Ford Thunderbird Convertible

While looking for these, a colleague reminds me that there are editions without '1959' on the rear plate. So I had to go looking for one of these too. (The shaped wheel versions are all blank.)

214 Ford Thunderbird Hard Top

Even more difficult to find is this version of the Hard Top with shaped wheels, as that ceased production some time before the more popular convertible model. (I am still looking for a blank edition with smooth wheels)

258 The Saint's Volvo P1800

This was sold almost as soon as it came in - a tatty but much sought-after edition with a blue bonnet sticker.

315 Simca 1000

In blue. And in excellent condition. This will not be cheap.

226 Morris Mini-Minor

This is possibly one of the oddest models of all, which is saying something looking at what has come before! It's the normal maroon Mini that was the last before Whizzwheels and had a good life but I thought that life had always been with cast wheels. Here's one with normal wheels. It came from a chap in Eastern Europe so maybe some early export models were produced with normal wheels. I am surprised as cast wheels had been appearing already on the blue models. This is also a Type 2 body so a later type too.

Trophy Vanwall F1 Racing Car

It's the Corgi 152 with silver-gold plating and no transfers. 

207 Standard Vanguard III

A late edition with shaped wheels and no red pillars.

207M Standard Vanguard III

The quite rare Mechanical edition. Few survive without very obvious paint loss due to the colour but this is a little better than most.

324 Marcos 1800GT

This is the scarce edition with blue stripes, for export to Canada, which is where this one has come back from!

216 Austin A40

With shaped wheels. Nice.

216M Austin A40

The Mechanical edition. also nice. I like these a lot.

202 Morris Cowley

This shouldn't be this colour and certainly shouldn't have those wheels. The base, however, is firmly attached with original rivets so this is either a first class bit of later work by someone or some kind of production sample. Maybe "Let's see what the models look like with these new shaped wheels. . ."

267 Batmobile

I have tended to avoid these, (a) because I don't know enough about them to distinguish one model from another in what appears to be a complicated range spread over many years, (b) anything decent is usually very expensive and (c) I don't like them very much. However, I did tell myself to look out for the very first edition (well maybe not the matt black one but the next one) and just get that so that I wouldn't have a big gap next to this catalogue number. This came along and fits the bill very nicely. Just the aerial needed some repair.

(The gold-plated one didn't count really!)

More stock for The Avengers

Corgi Toys @ 60 : Missiles, Harvesters and Suspension

It's October 1959 and the shops get what I think is Corgi's biggest single item, a specially constructed vehicle to carry the massive Corporal missile issued in the summer. This vehicle doesn't just carry the thing, though, it also has nicely manufactured mechanisms by which you could transfer the missile to the launching ramp (if you had one handy) in a vertical position.

The photograph below, featured in The Great Book of Corgi, shows a number of Corgi personnel, including Marcel Van Cleemput (writing, with glasses,) and Percy Wilford (in a white coat to the right) the senior design and production engineers, making rapid sketches and notes when, we are told, the driver of an erector vehicle stopped near the factory in Northampton.

The result was an impressive  model, catalogued as a Corgi Major 1113 and sold with a missile.

The weight of the section carrying the missile produced some heavy forces acting on the gearing as it was manoeuvred into a vertical position - and probably often less than steadily so when in play - led to some of the cogs slipping over time and many examples have worn or broken teeth now.

The front wheels steered on the chassis and did so in a realistic way, although, without suspension one did have to encourage them to move one way or another. Nevertheless, here was the first Corgi model with steering!

It was expensive, though, and sales were not high of any of the military equipment. Good examples now, in the thick card boxes with packing pieces and instruction leaflets are now much sought-after by collectors, not just of Corgis but of military models generally, this being regarded as quite a 'classic' now.

The month also saw the previously issued Massey Ferguson tractor, trailer and Combine Harvester put together in Gift Set 8.

The third release in October 1959 is a notable event; the first Corgi with suspension. Termed Glidamatic and with 'Spring Suspension' on the box this made a big difference to your enjoyment when playing with the cars. The first was number 222, a Renault Floride. You could press down on the front to pretend you were braking hard, on the sides to whizz around corners (although the fixed wheels in the first models still made cornering tricky) and, of course, you could imitate zooming off with the rear being depressed as in the real thing.

Bumps on your layout could be driven over and the simple device of two pieces of wire providing resistance to the movement of the axles near the wheels was a great success. Even now, 60 years later, you'll find the Renault Floride suspension still sound and solid. 

The model itself was also a very attractive one, the real car being very pretty. First issues were in an olive green colour and would have had fixed smooth wheels and a red interior. Later models were produced in dark red and metallic blue. Bright yellow and cream interiors are found in the dark red models and the blue ones had either red or yellow.

As well as a few colour and interior variations to collect, early models had open vents in the rear wings, with the casting being punched through. Later models had the fin shapes still but no holes visible. This type seems to be quite hard to find and is not always very easy to spot in small illustrations unless the photograph has been taken at just the right angle. So far, I have bought three models which appeared to have 'closed' vents but which turned out to be 'open' on arrival!

Corgi Toys @ 60: The Rocket Age and a Cement Tipper

An odd selection hit the shelves of your local toy shop in September 1959. The Rocket Age Gift Set 6, an ERF Cement Tipper and one of very few Corgi models without wheels, the Decca Airfield Radar Scanner was issued on its own in a box.

I have written at some length about the impressive Rocket Age set so go back and read this article for more information about that. I shall repeat my effort at recreating the wonderful image on the box, though.

The individually boxed radar scanner really did not amass much by way of sales and is now quite sought after in its original packaging simply because there never were many around.

The third item this month was the last outing for an ERF truck, now with a tipping cement section at the back.

Early editions had metal caps on the cement section, replaced by red plastic for the majority of production. It lasted a while, through to 1964, and gets fixed shaped wheels for later editions. I'm not aware of any examples with free spinning wheels although they would have been fitted to other models in the later stages of its production.

Apart from the revised editions of the Bedford C vans, this will be the last new model issued without an interior.

Corgi Toys @ 60 : Combine Harvester and RAC to the rescue!

It's August so, reasonably enough, it's time to start harvesting and Corgi came out with this superb bit of equipment. Corgi Majors 1111 was a Massey Ferguson 780 Combine Harvester.

The first edition of this model has yellow wheels and the tines are metal. In the box, although not shown here, would have been a typewritten note explaining how to raise and lower the feed. When lowered, the lower wheel would turn as it was pushed along and a band would rotate the tines on the shaft above most effectively.

Later editions had plastic tines and a yellow plastic hopper feed and a driver too. The later ones also had red wheels so are easy to distinguish.

The other introduction in August 1959 was another outing for the lovely Series I Land Rover. This was an RAC Radio Rescue edition which had a roof sign bearing a 'RADIO RESCUE' transfer. There would be a matching blue tin canopy at the rear with a single RAC logo on each side.

The 1959 models would have had smooth wheels as shown in the first photo above but the canopy transfer would have been more like that in the second photo. The aerial, too, is a poor replacement there. Later models will have shaped wheels and at some point in production the headboard is removed. This necessitates the transfers being changed on the canopy to incorporate both text and logo. The 'no headboard' type can also be found with smooth or shaped wheels. I don't know when it was introduced but I shall include it sometime in 1960.

Looking at the models in my own collection, the early types with a headboard have the 'handles' at the base of the tailgate whereas those without a headboard are smooth in that area.