Monday 23 June 2014

1965 Corgi Toy Catalogue



You have to smile at the cover of this year's Corgi Toys Catalogue. Having safely got across the six lane carriageway in the centre of some suburb two years earlier the little boy is now trying to drag his dad away from s couple of cars parked on a pavement. Dad is gazing at a dark blue Ghia with its bonnet open showing the 6.4 litre Chrysler engine. Yes, it is now the dads that will be buying the models too.

Next to the Ghia is a Bentley of the 1927 3 litre type although no-one was ever completely sure about the year or engine size. Sitting beneath a Corgi Classics sign, this was the year that a few old models appeared. The Bentley would be the one most people will remember as it was used in several forms, including spells as both The Avengers' John Steed's car and later as Bertie Wooster's transport. There are not so many Model T Ford's around, which also were one of the four first models.

Inside there is the curious feature of spoked wheels highlighted on several models, including the Aston Martin #309 competition model. I don't think I've seen one with spoked wheels. There is also a silver Buick Riviera pulling the Dolphin speedboat - a colour I have yet to find for real. The big Mercedes 500 Pullman appears and its 'working' windscreen wipers are declared to be by repeated requests! I could go along with the previous splash of By special request but I do find windscreen wipers by repeated request a little hard to believe!

For the first time we see photographs on some pages instead of the drawings. These are of layouts and buildings in the Corgi Kits section. A Bentley Continental appears to be doing an impossible manoeuvre coming out of a petrol station and about to bump into a Ford Zephyr Police car.

There are still two pages of US Army models but the weapons seem to have disappeared now. I do wonder whether the US Army would have used a Commer van or a little VW bus but never mind, they're valuable items to find now!

Almost all models now have suspension (and no S suffix shown for those that didn't have it before) although the MGA #302 remains, looking a bit lonely now.

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