G is for Grand Prix

Not really a Rack Toy, nor even a pocket-money toy, but I'm slipping these Blue Box posts into everything else, and BB certainly started at that end of the market! We're looking at quite a nice set today, the Grand Prix Racing Set.

Mine is on the left, the other was on the Internet somewhere, it's a slightly better one with all cones (I'm pretty sure I have the missing trio in the spares piles somewhere) and bales (likewise), and the cars still have their race-number stickers, but two red cars is a little disappointing?

It's all about the figures here at Small Scale World, and while I've called these as Blue Box in the past, it's always nice to prove your critics are only critics with a bit of empirical stuff!

 

The third figure is a straight copy of the Corgi one, even down to the vehicle upon the roof of which he is perched! A Commer minivan/minibus, the Corgi original is usually blue with a white upper, while in plastic there are several variations.

 

The cars; they are all the same moulding, which may be a copy of a Corgi or Dinky, or even the made in Hong Kong Marx die-casts? I don't know my racing-cars that well, and by the time it's been converted into plastic, it's going to look like several prototypes if they are all true to the real machine?

 

Accessories; the oil-drums and bales (copied from Scalextric) are blow-moulded, while the fuel pump is after the Barton one I think, also sourced in HK, and mostly die-cast, some better hobby shops still have a few of the generics on cards!

 

The green number, found scudding around in the box, may not be original, all the others I've seen (not a rare set) are black-on-white, or white-on-black, and switching them would have resulted in their loss, stickers on old toys are best left untouched!

 

Pretty standard markings on some of the accessories, best reproduced by the Ariel Rounded font, it ties in with a lot of Tai Sang's output; Blue Box, Redbox and both Generic 'Hong Kong' & 'Singapore'-marked stuff. Other makers use similar marks, so it's not a golden-rule, but it's a good guide, especially if you're looking at something less common than the usual round of Airfix or Britains copies.

 

The back of the box, manages to hint at other sets of earlier racing cars and sports-cars, reference the other figures (some of which we've seen here before) from Blue Box, and has some extra scenic accessories to cut out, and use to mark your racing circuit!