Miniatures News, June 1968

Another advance has been made in the field of motor-car miniatures—Corgi have introduced detachable wheels, to add to all those other items like transparent screens, and sliding windows, and tip-up seats, and real doors, and reflecting lamps, and openable bonnets, and boots containing minute suitcases, and sliding driving seats and working suspension, etc. They have done this on a model under 31 in. long, of a Mini Marcos 850 GT. Jacks can be pulled down from the body of the model to support it while its tiny wheels are changed. Each jack operates separately or all four can be used together: extending them releases the wheels, but when retracted they do not interfere with the working of the Corgi independent suspension. Apart from this innovation, which will probably have Dinky and Lesney thinking hard, this 86 mm.-long Marcos miniature has opening doors, opening bonnet with detailed B.M.C. transverse engine and sliding front seats, which are yet another innovation, while the wheels that are the great feature of this model simulate the Minilite magnesium-alloy ones seen on almost all racing Minis. This die-cast model is No. 341 in the Corgi Toys series and it sells for the U.K. retail price of 7s. 9d. The next step will be packets of interchangeable wheels to use with the new Corgi “Golden Jacks”.

Another Corgi release is a car/trailer/boat miniature, featuring an Oldsmobile Toronado pulling a rigid angle-and-tube trailer on which is a Glastron Sportsman V-171 boat called “Swordfish” equipped with two Evinrude Fastwin 18 outboard motors. This is perhaps a bit of a stunt offering, complete with bathing-clad figures (one is a girl in a bikini) but the trailer reproduces even the riveted fish-plate assembly, the boat is said to float (which someone is sure to test in the bath) and the Toronado has retractable headlights and the usual Corgi detailwork. The outfit is 9½ in. in length and costs 13s. 11d. retail in the U.K. Ask for Corgi Gift Set No. 36.—W. B.