A brief look at wheels on models produced in 1960

Some time ago I looked at the possible distribution of wheel types during a production period for Corgis. In particular, I am interested in establishing the comparative scarcity of one or another type for a group of models issued between early 1960 and early 1961.

These will have all been first sent out to the shops with smooth fixed wheels with later editions fitted with a shaped, but still fixed, wheel. One or two long-running models will also have had free-spinning wheels fitted at a later point.

In a not particularly scientific survey, the chart below shows the distribution of wheel types that I found on models for sale or sold on a few web sites.



The key S = free spinning, F = smooth fixed, F2 = smooth shaped, F3= cast fixed (as on 218).

The models which did not have a great period of production after 1961 show a marked scarcity of the shaped wheel variety - in fact I was unable to see any for the 421 Bedford Evening Standard model.

For those that had a distinctly longer life then the fixed shaped wheel still seems comparatively scarce and similar in proportion to the free spinning wheel that followed. The 218 Aston Martin is a good example where one might have thought that the cast 'spoke effect' type was scarce but, in fact, it seems quite plentiful and it may be the fixed shaped type that is the one to look out for.

One surprise for me is the lack of any 210S Citroen models with free spinning wheels. I have two in stock but that's all I noticed anywhere. They are also both the variety with fog lamps in the casting. I find it hard to believe that the change of upper body casting corresponded to a change of wheel as I had regarded the fog lamps version to have been issued after the 323 Monte Carlo edition had become dated, the holes for jewels being filled with mazak instead. By that time one would have expected the 210S to have been fitted for some years with free spinning wheels.

I should mention that the 211S Studebaker figures are split between two models - the June 1960 issue with silver or gold-plated finish and a later issue with gold paint.

The Jaguar Fire Service model was the last model with normal-size wheels to be issued with the smooth fixed type, which is why I stopped at March 1961. Prior to January 1960, though, there are several models which also continued in production for many years and these I shall have another look at in a while. Generally, though, for the earlier models we know that the fixed shaped wheels are less common or really scarce in some instances and there are likely to be fewer surprises in that data.

For now the search is on for some Bedfords with shaped wheels, a Studebaker painted gold with smooth wheels and the errant Citroen with free spinning wheels!

Corgi Toys @ 60: A Mini, Planks and Cement Bags

It's February 1960 and here's the very first Mini from Corgi. This is the Morris Mini-Minor. (The Austin Seven comes next year.)

First appearing in what I call baby blue, with a cream or red interior. That cream interior, however, seems to be dropped pretty soon so the red one is by far the most common amongst the early editions. Over the years this little car will go through many variations. The most obvious will be the colours as this will appear in a wide range of blues, each seeming to have either a red or (the later and quite different to the cream) lemon interior, as well as deep maroon in 1968. Then there'll be the wheels, changing to fixed shaped, then free spinning shaped, then cast with a louvre effect and very late in its life with Whizzwheels in shades of mid-blue and dark blue, some metallic, and orange coloured models, renumbered 204.

It will also have two distinct body castings and several different bases. I have tried to describe these and illustrate some in my earlier article which you can find at this link. 

The other issues this month were the first two Corgi Cargoes. 1485 was a block of planks and 1488 was a block of cement bags.

These would fit neatly on either a platform lorry or the trailers and looked quite smart. Until then we had to pile whatever we had lying around. I found matches made good planks but they kept falling off. Bayko bits and pieces were the best loads and I had plenty of that - the doors fitted nicely and were probably a bit safer than the matches although I don't recall any of my friends burning their houses down with the Swan Vestas that we all had.

Several shades of Toronado

The Oldsmobile Toronado is a wonderfully attractive model which was issued in January 1967. It was model number 264. The last model I bought to play with was 263, the Rambler Marlin Fastback. That looked pretty good too but doesn't quite match the Oldsmobile which I didn't see until nearly 50 years later.

As you can see in the photo above, there is a range of quite distinct shades of turquoise - from green through to blue.

From my own collection is this beautiful mid-to-dark blue edition with shaped wheels, a rare item as almost all the others I see have cast wheels.

This example is more to the green end of the spectrum.

And this is a very deep shade of blue-turquoise.

Finally, here are two that I have with tow bars - one in a quite bright blue shade and the other a most definite greenish shade!

The Gift Set 36 was issued in December 1967 and is an acknowledgement of the success of the Riviera Gift Set 31 from three years earlier. For a brief period in early 1968 you may have found both in the toy shop. An interesting comparison between the detailed card box and tray and a scene with the girl surfing in one and a rather cheaper-looking window box with models attached to a large chunk of colourless polystyrene by several elastic bands. The later set is a lot easier to display, though, assuming you do have all three of the characters. I could never get the Riviera girl to stay upright and the ropes were a nightmare.

The set and a range of the 264 models are in stock and available at the time of writing. I am looking for a box for the Gift Set - a reproduction will suffice but no-one seems to make one. I have the same problem with the Big Daktari Set 14. I've managed to gather all the parts in each case but they do need boxes.

Apart from the shades of turquoise I don't know of any significant variations of the Oldsmobile. The headlamp covers appear to have two types: a plain silver finish and a bright chromed finish (similar to what you'll find with the later and similarly spectacular Corvette Stingray issues).

I have seen models advertised with tow bars and a normal 264 box. One might think that stocks of the cars with tow-bars may have been left when production of the sets ceased and these were sent off to shops in normal boxes. The problem with this idea is that the Gift Set is said to have remained in production until 1970 whereas the 264 turned into the 276 with Gold Jacks in June 1968! So I reckon these are just cars from sets and the sellers happen to have a box to put them in and don't know any different.

Something I do find strange is how the Gift Set 36 continues to contain the blue 264 model - apparently through to 1970 if the Great Book of Corgi is to be believed - when the Golden Jacks model was available with a tow-bar from June 1968. Perhaps the sets were made up before 1968 and just happened to stay in the lists dealers could buy but weren't actually produced after that. 

The 276 edition has the same body and chromework, with the same near-white interior. A common fault with all models is the little toothed mechanism stops working or breaks and the chrome edges are quite brittle. Remarkably, all the models I've encountered have had good suspension.

Another common problem is how people miss a letter from either the brand name or model type (or both!) For a long time I thought Toronado was a misprint myself!

On the real thing you don't (usually) have to fiddle with a cog wheel under the bumper to raise the lights!

The new old Corgi Collection

I don't know how many times I have said to fellow collectors how much I wished someone would try making the original Corgi Toys again. Not with Vanguards style wipers, realistic wheels and troublesome mirrors but plain perspex windows, shaped wheels like they used to be and suspension. And rubber tyres. Models that really do look and feel right and which may even need a second look to check that they are not actually originals from the 1960s.

At last, it seems, someone has taken a chance and is making a start. Hornby Hobbies plc have licensed the oddly-named Blue 14 DTC Brands trading as Corgi Toy Collection to sell and distribute reproduced models in the UK. Interestingly, text in one of their leaflets states that Blue 14 DTC Brands have an exclusive license to sell and distribute Corgi Toys in the UK. That would imply that they're handling the new stuff too as well as these reproductions - indeed it makes me wonder whether I'm going to be in trouble for selling a few of the old ones! I suspect that statement may be a mistake but never mind that now; back to the models.

This does look like great news. The first model has arrived and it's the 474 Thames Ice Cream Van with music chimes. Although I never wanted one of these as a child or even now as I found the hugely out-of-proportion handle affair at the back ugly - and it never seems to work for long either, the delicate tines on the element producing the notes breaking easily - I do respect the fact that lots of people do like it and originals sell for a fortune.

The van is an excellent and very faithful re-make of the 1965 edition. I am particularly pleased with the shaped wheels and windows. The colours are exact and texture of the plastic and weighting of suspension seems right too. Even the chrome, whilst maybe a little too bright, is OK. I suppose, if anything, the whole thing is a little too 'perfect', with precise silver and red painting whereas the originals would have missed bits!

It has all the right original stuff in the box (except, of course, a membership form). There is a sheet of stickers, instruction sheet, plain reinforcement card and a further packing card featuring the 60s kids in full colour. A small chunk of polystyrene replaces the cardboard to prevent the rear handle piercing the box.

The box itself is pretty good in terms of design and colours. A good effort but marks lost for someone using the wrong font for the list of features and product name. It is also just too shiny, as if printed on photographic paper where a dull surface would have been preferable in my view. The designers have cleverly retained almost all the original text and illustrations, changing 'Made In Great Britain' to 'Designed in Great Britain' on one panel and putting all the necessary 'new' stuff on a bottom panel where it will be least obvious if on display.

With this first issue I received a really good reproduction of the original Corgi badge (without the hole element and with a tie-pin and clip fastening rather than safety-pin type of operation). Additionally there is a pile of leaflets promoting the Collection and a certificate of provenance for this model.

This is simply great value at £1.99 which is the most you would pay for this at this time. Indeed, as I have signed up for the next release I actually get the van free of charge! You might bear this in mind if you were thinking of bidding for one on Ebay where, of course, annoying people are trying to make a quick few quid, some not even declaring this as a replica. It is good enough to fool a good few, especially if they ditch the box and most accompaniments.

The next issue planned is the 339 BMC Mini Cooper. A leaflet also displays a 155 Lotus F1 Racing Car, 258 'Saint's" Volvo P1800, 267 Batmobile, 325 Ford Mustang Competition Edition, 330 Porsche Carrera 6 and 417 Land Rover Breakdown Truck.

With the Mini there will be a 1505 Garage Attendant Figures Set, 1966 Corgi Catalogue and a tin to hold our certificates. The tin looks deep enough for more than eight sheets so I'm hopeful this will develop . . .

Oh, I can now add too that the reproduction of the Ice Cream Van is so good that the chimes are already beginning to miss a note from time to time!

The illustrations show some remarkably nice models, the only downside being the text on the base which tells us that these are made by 9 year old re-educated children working 18 hours a day in a 5 acre factory on the outskirts of Tianjin. I shall have to subscribe, though, and will report on all these as and when they arrive.

I am struggling with an image of an Ice Cream Van on the streets of Tianjin.

Corgi Toys @ 60: Chevrolet Impala

The first issue in 1960 was the impressive Chevrolet Impala in sedan form in January as catalogue number 220. The State Patrol edition had been issued at the end of 1959 so this was not the first time people would have seen the Impala although I suspect that in most shops this and the 223 State Patrol may have arrived at the same time.

The first models would appear to have been the salmon colour and the blue model with a lemon interior and they would have had smooth fixed wheels. They would also have had the base type as shown in the centre of the illustration below. Later, models with shaped wheels and, towards the end of production and somewhat scarcer, with free spinning wheels will come along and, at some point in the fixed wheel period, with the different base.

I have also noticed a slight variation in the plastic interior piece. It appears to fill the space available better in the middle one shown here. At the rear edge there also appears to be a gap at the corners on the later models.

This will prove to be a very popular and long-running model, to be revived in 1965 when someone slices the casting in two and inserts a chrome section which makes four new and still impressive models.

The chart above shows how I have found the various Impala editions spread with regard to wheel types over the years.

Red Spots Before My Eyes

From time to time my brain is forced to function more efficiently for a while by a certain Simon Skipper who asks all sorts of interesting questions. This time he spotted a pile of Corgis with red spot Whizzwheels being auctioned by Vectis. They were not the ones you might expect but the sale included several from as late as March 1971. Naturally, for such apparent 'rarities' the starting prices were high. Vectis' reputation in this field tends to give every sale a degree of provenance which can lock in the higher price too as other buyers will like the fact that it sold at a Vectis auction for £y where y is a very large integer. Should we be excited? Could there be such wonderfully scarce models missing from our collections? How high will we bid for any of them?

Before looking at the red spots I should mention again that I have created a few calendars for the coming year. You can see them on my Catalogue web site and they are free. However, they might still cost you some outlay as they require printing! No doubt various company printers around the world will be buzzing with these when collectors still at work return to their office jobs in January! (Especially those with nice heavy paper and laser printing).

Now, let's look at those odd models. Firstly, as you will have heard me say before and probably on more than one occasion, anyone with a firm grip and a pair of pliers can change the wheels on a Whizzwheels model. Indeed, to demonstrate this I recently decided to get hold of a lot of red spot wheels and have been buying very cheap and otherwise grotty models with them. I am slowly building up a stock and will then fit them to a range of unlikely models just for fun (and maybe to attract some attention in a future news article!) I saw a taxi with them which gave me the initial idea.

So, in theory, anything is possible but it's fair to say that there will be several editions which will genuinely have left the factory with them as they were intended to have them. These will be the early models:

• 344 Ferrari Dino
• 347 Chevrolet Astro
• 343 Pontiac Firebird
• 303 Ford Capri (Roger Clark)
• 311 Ford Capri
• 342 Lamborghini

You'll probably see that these are quite common with red spot wheels and that's because the vast proportion of them will have been from the first production runs when red spots were the order of the day. Indeed, I would go so far as to say that, in time, it will be the later ubiquitous wheel that is found to be the less common on some of these models.

The next batch released was in May 1970. These, I believe will have been issued after the decision was taken to abandon the red spots but I am willing to accept that a good number may have already been produced and were ready to ship with the red spots at that time. My guess, based on purely observation, is that these may have had them:

• 380 Alfa
• 371 Porsche Carrera
• 201 Saint's Volvo

Edit September 2022:

Despite the logic here, in many discussions I have had with people who seem to know what they're talking about and have a good knowledge of many other issues, it does appear that Corgi did not proceed with fitting red spot wheels to models after announcing the switch to a cheaper variety. Maybe stock lasted a few weeks but that's all, and not long enough to impact these three or the following two. In the absence of any definitive evidence or anything by way of better provenance no-one can say categorically that none of these emerged with red-spot wheels but, if they did, they're not official and are more likely to have been the product of someone who just reckoned the cars looked better with them and had access to a few spares.

It makes valuing any models that do appear with these wheels something that has to be done with great caution, not only because of the doubts of their origin but also, and probably principally nowadays, because it is so easy to swap them.

The two other May issues I suspect were not actually produced until after the decision:

• 202 Renault 12
• 375 Toyota

I might be willing to be persuaded on these, especially as both castings had been available earlier and so samples, at least would definitely have been made and some may have slipped through into boxes. More likely they've reached our markets by other means but let's be generous. It is Christmas, goodwill to all men and all that . . .

Now it's June and I am pretty darn sure that the message has got through to the boys in Wales by now. No more red spots.

The June issues were

• 374 Jaguar E Type 4.2 edition
• 377 Marcos 3 litre
• 509 Porsche Police car

It really would be stretching things to think that any of these could have genuinely been fitted with them and made it out of the factory in any official form.

My views really do seem to be backed up by the fact that in many years of searching I have never seen any of the last 5 above (or later issues) with red spots other than as brand new in perfect boxes or in sales where the seller admits to having created them.

The Vectis models he drew my attention to are not played with and I suspect have never seen a carpet or skirting board in their lives. They hail from September 1970 or later, the 386 Bertone from March 1971! 

I simply cannot believe that they are genuine models which were purchased from a shop. Far more likely is that they were collected by someone who worked at the factory either as samples or models he fiddled with. A less pleasant option would be that they have been created more recently and the fact that the boxes for the 'suspect' items have also all had cellophane replaced concerns me. 

I wouldn't buy any of them unless they were at bargain prices which is unlikely to be the case. People will be attracted to these 'rare' models and the inability of anyone really to tell them that they're not really quite all there is in their favour. No doubt dealers will also try to snap up some and then put them out at really high prices.

Scrolling through the auction, though, I did find a couple of things to cheer me up and make me laugh. First, a 222 Renault without an interior! 

That is described as 'an early edition' which I find bizarre. Surely, this is simply either an error or a factory sample. Unless someone knows something that will be news to me, it will not be added to my catalogue as a model that was actually issued and which could have been bought at my local toy shop in St. Albans where I would spend all my pocket money. Vectis really can be laughable sometimes and, yes, they're experienced as a firm but not all the staff are. They also have a tendency not to wish to argue with customers so if you give them something which might be x they can go ahead and describe it as x as they have no incentive to say otherwise unless it is abundantly clearly not x. QDT are the same. Some of their guys are brilliant but not all and I often see descriptions which are nonsense but which look very reliable and definite coming from a reputable firm.

However, I can only base my judgements on my own observations and the results of often lengthy correspondence with others who seem to know what they're talking about and often back up their views with hard evidence. I could just as easily be wrong so you really do have to make up your own minds on these. I've made mistakes in the past, been fooled by reproductions or missed a genuine rarity by not looking closely enough or lacking some specific knowledge.

Another item of interest was a 324 Marcos in all white. It could simply be a factory error, the usually green stripes being omitted. So it's no great shakes really and I shall not be rushing to buy.

Lastly, I see a 468 ruddy bus with red spots there!!! I suppose that, where models were already lying around and just waiting for new wheels, it is conceivable that they got them fitted occasionally and the 468 would have been abundant. But surely not with a clear staircase. I don't know when the Whizzwheels did start to be fixed to the buses but I do know that there are examples around of 468 without jewels but still with cast wheels. The loss of jewels did not coincide with the Whizzwheels. My view is that this is also a rogue but an interesting one for all that.

I cannot deny that I find the red spot wheels quite attractive and would be happy to own a few more models with them but I would far rather buy a played with model that seems to have genuinely existed than some near-perfect example in a near-perfect and even possibly questionable box however nicely presented and such self-fulfilling provenance.

Take care and keep in good health. 2020 beckons and I'll be looking at the 60th Anniversary of the Chevrolet Impala in sedan form.

A Calendar For Collectors

As I have around 400,000 photos of Corgi models, I thought it might be a good idea to gather some into groups and feature them in a calendar. I quickly realised that I could make several calendars and, of course, no single production would suit everyone so I shall add to these with, perhaps, Minis and one for each Catalogue section so I'll be kept well-occupied for a while!

The first three are now available for anyone who would like them for their own personal use. Just download the PDF file from my 'Catalogue' web site and print as you please.

Merry Christmas to all readers and collectors.