Friday 28 November 2014

Oldsmobile Toronado variations

A car you probably wouldn't see on British streets at the time was the Oldsmobile Toronado. Corgi had this in two versions, Both looked fabulous and worked well as a model, being essentially exactly the same apart from a switch to Golden Jacks on the second.

All the other introductions of Golden Jacks would be on new models. Even the Rover 2000 was quite different to its predecessor. The colours used were really attractive. All the #264s were metallic blue, with quite a few variations within shades, from something approaching turquoise to quite a dark colour. The 276s, however, came in metallic red or bronze. By far the majority were in red; bronze models are sought after and quite expensive.


second version in the scarce bronze


second version in red
As far as I can tell, all the #276s should have a tow bar. If yours hasn't got one then it has broken off. It was a just a grey plastic thing and not very well fixed and could be removed without leaving any trace of having been there. It is a different story, though, for #264 which was produced with and without a towbar. Those with a towbar would have been produced for the Glastron speedboat Gift Set.

with or without towbar
The wheels would nearly always be spoke effect cast hubs on #264s but there are a few early models around with the normal wheels. You'll find Mustangs and Sting Rays with normal wheels on early versions too and these are generally quite a lot scarcer. Of course, there are also many models where normal wheels are the most common with only later versions having the cast wheels. That's a topic for another post one day.

the most common cast spoke hubs

rare normal wheels on a dark blue model


noticeably different shades
Take a look at the real thing. It is quite remarkable how accurate Corgi's casting and design was in those days.

acknowledgements to http://en.autowp.ru/picture/rb4oxa for the real thing





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