C is for Corgi 'Classics'

So - the final part of this Corgi round up...for now...

During the 'Corgi Flood' years, the nome-de-jour has been 'Corgi Classics' and covered all manner of mass-produced tat from China, well, it wasn't/isn't actually tat, most of it was/is of high-production value using the latest in modern technology, but there were/are just mountains of it.

It was given away as premiums, marketed in a dozen magazines, advertised in all the Sunday Supplements, leafleted in the TV listings mags and piled high in the windows of toy shops and model/hobby stores...all of it aimed not at kids, but at new adult collectors.

How many highly-detailed die-cast models of a Sunderland flying boat in 1:72 with a box the size of a small family car did they think we needed? How many tons of Eddie Stobart lorries did they think the average family home's foundations could take?

Anyway...along with the separately-boxed 54mm ranges of TV/Movie (James Bond, Dr. Who etc...) and Guards musicians in poured metal (cheap technology I don't rate highly), there were/are smaller sized figures to accompany individual vehicles, it some of these we're looking at now...

These seem to have been included with some of the vehicles, about 23mm or OO gauge, they presumably came ('come' - there's still tons of it out there!) with the precursors of the current Hornby-Corgi railway stuff? The bags seem to have random contents consisting of one of two pieces of street furniture (it may be one of four....post box and telephone box?) with two figures from a wider choice of around 20 figures. There is a flier that came/comes with them in Black and white, but mine's in storage so I'll scan it at some point in the future.

They also appear/ed factory painted (the green-based couple are home painted Corgi), these might not even be Corgi, but rather the originating Chinese factory supplying someone else with 'generics'; figures similar to these (which we will look at one day) accompanied Tesco, Woolworth's and Sainsbury's own brand toys right through the 1990's and 2000's. Anyway, as I'd given up on all this modern stuff by the late 90's, some help is now needed sorting them all out!!

While the previous figures are PVC, there were/are also small factory painted white metal sets, of which this is one...99% packaging, 1% models! Can I add anything else? No.

Has the flood eased....

 

No! But the small scale railway range is quite nice, and the 'planes are lovely, but over-priced for what they are!