Wednesday 2 July 2014

The 1970s were very orange


I've added numbers for all the models featured on the cover of the 1971-2 Catalogue. Note that the only non-Whizzwheel survivors at that time were the Mini (in dark red-purple), the Bubble Car (why??) and the everlasting Batmobile, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and the illustrated James Bond Aston Martin still has spoked wheels and tyre slashers.

161-6 are dreadful dragster models (165 isn't shown) which I really didn't want to include in my lists and certainly din't want to spend money acquiring. 163 is a revision of the Capri, making three versions around at this time and 166 is a disastrous wreck of the ancient Ford Mustang that used to be so cool. So those two will get into stock lists and I hope I can find a really cheap model of each for stock. The dragsters, though, I shall ignore and treat like the aeroplanes and other odd stuff so don't ask me any questions about them!

Following my previous musings on when to stop, I have now got lists of everything issued by Corgi from Marcel Van Cleemput's Great Book of Corgi and Andrew Wood's great summaries at Little Wheels. As so many casts were re-used in later years it seems sensible to take things up to the end of 1:43 scale. Ignoring farm machinery and commercial oddments, that would appear to add just one in 1974 (yet another VW Beetle!) and three in 1973 (Lamborghini, Datsun and Capri) as well as several more from 1972.

I have already included the later 1:43 versions of the James Bond Aston Martin and Toyota 2000GT in my stock lists and this will bring in the red Mustang #291 from 1972 and I may have to consider later versions of that. There have been many later 1:43 models but not until much later and after the listings I've got expire in 1983 so I think I can safely regard them as a whole new venture for another day.

I do finally have something approaching a complete catalogue to work to now. I had been worried about just what extending past 1969/70 would bring and there had been some sense in stopping at Whizzwheels, i.e. not including any, but the extra 56 cars is a manageable number and it will be quite fun tracking some down, looking variations and seeing how cheaply I can get the awful ones.

I shall add an on-line list in a separate post as it is likely to be something people find useful without wanting to read through all my ramblings on the topic.

The 1970s were very orange.

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