Discoveries last month included the NSU Sport Prinz in a sort of metallic brick red colour. Shown here against the more common bright cerise, the car I've bought has a few chips but it's not at all bad. These are odd little motors. My collector friend from Eilum sent me a marketing brochure for this and it has a tiny two-cylinder 500cc engine of little more than 500cc. The cerise is, indeed, one of the colours offered too!
Sort of thrown in with the 316 NSU was this Police Sunbeam Imp which I wasn't too bothered about really. However, having had a good look at it now, it is in remarkably clean and untouched condition. It is the version with just black bonnet and door panels. There is another with a black roof and, of course, the blue and white one too. This particular example is lovely but, as is so often the case with these Imps, there is no suspension. I shall try and revive it by inserting some rubber but that doesn't always work. More on that if I succeed. Otherwise it is available for someone else to have a go and then have the most delightful example of the quite sought-after model which even has clean little cast wheels.
I was never particularly fond of the Corgi racing cars and this is the first of the very early editions that I've had. This is 152, the BRM without suspension and, correctly, without a driver. It is pleasantly charming in the metal and I am even quite looking forward to finding the 150 Vanwall now! This was ridiculously cheap but is in amazingly good condition, especially bearing in mind that children would be inclined to race these around the room and bash into chair legs and skirting boards at speed. I like the silver paint on the air intake and what I assume is a lamp of some sort. The RN3 is also only slightly damaged after all so many years.
Yet another oddity arrived in May! This is the penultimate Karrier Bantam, used here as another shop, this time a Mobile Butchers' Shop. I cannot imagine children getting very excited about having one of these and, issued in late 1960, it was competing with the Jaguar 2.4 with suspension and things like a Land Rover Breakdown Truck. So it only sold about 100,000 which is fairly low by Corgi model standards.
This one looks great and has only paint loss on the leading and risen edges here and there. The good thing is that it has all its original dark blue stickers and the windows are clean and show the really old-fashioned card illustrations very well. Its scale is a silly 1:55 so don't park this too close to your cars or it won't look right!
I am nearing the end of my Wants List now and things like this are what I need to get hold of. It's nicer than I expected, I have to say, like the BRM.
Let me introduce you to the very, very first Corgi model. Number 200, the Ford Consul. And this is the most commonly found colour. Also available in cream.
I can just imagine the conversation:
We've got a new car, children!
Ooh jolly good daddy! What colour is it?
Er. Mushroom, a sort of mud brown . . .
Oh.
I can take you to school in it in the morning!
It's OK dad. We'll get the bus.
Corgi had a more cheerful pot of paint for their Standard Vanguard III. This is the fairly scarce 207M version with a Mechanical motor. Even fewer of these were sold than the ruddy Butchers Shop! Every example I have had had has quite a few chips which really do show up against that colour but, at least it is nice and original - and the motor works very well sixty years later.
You may remember that I had a 448 Police Van missing a door. Well, finally, after several months, I found a decent condition 448 which was going very cheaply because it needed the door that I did have! So I have made a complete and quite good-looking model here and may actually be able to get some income from the two now. There remains in my shelf a van with slightly cracked windows and no rear doors at all which I may have to use for spares. I now need the left hand door for a green 450 Mini Van. Then perhaps my shelf will have a bit more room.
These will all soon be on my web site so if you want to take a closer look please visit any time.
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