C is for Corgi Crowds and Crews

Corgi produced a small range of accessory sets for their range of die-cast vehicles, to enhance the play value, and it's these we are going to look at now. Some of the poses were also copied by Hong Kong pirates in larger scales.

None of these are a complete set, and while I might have the missing figures elsewhere, I don't think I've got all of them. Basically they are a set of racetrack pit-crew and a race-winner figure, a set of spectators, the track-side officials and the press.

All around 35/40mm there were two main runs of these, one lot in polystyrene, the other in a quite stiff or dense PVC.

Another set of Mechanics gives rise to the main variants, as the chap leaning forwards with an oil bottle, becomes a grabber in the pit-crew, and a stand-alone spanner holder with some individual vehicle models - the turquoise one with the ovoid base coming with the Land Rover-based cherry-picker - if memory holds? With the orange boiler-suited chap being included in the big US style twin-boom wrecker?

By far the most common set, the garage (service station) mechanics turn-up lose on the sprue all the time and clearly there was a large reserve or out-painters stock kicking around at some point. I love the sheep-skin wearing salesman, come to give the mechanics a bit of his wisdom..."You see the thing is Martin...mending a car is rather like making love to a beautiful woman..." Swiss Toni


These have that peculiar mildew type growth on them that PVC often suffers from, usually it can be cleaned-off without the product suffering any detriment, but presumably on a molecular level the material must have 'dried-out' a bit, or suffered in some other way, that might increase the likelihood of eventual failure?

G is for Guards - Shouldered Arms

As David Scrivener pointed out the other day the old Lee Enfield and it's predecessors were 'shouldered' on the left shoulder - Slope Arms. The SLR on the other hand was locked into the gap between arm and body on the right hand side - Shouldered Arms.

There was - with both weapons - a 'Change Arms' drill, for particularly long formal marches, which was quite complicated until you'd got the hang of it. The purpose being to give the weight-taking arm a rest and get it's circulation going again by waving it around for a while! You would always have a reverse 'Change Arms' before you got to the destination position, so that the gat was in the right place to carry out subsequent drill movements, while on really long marches you could get several, the problem being knowing when they were coming or hearing the order, over the noise of crowds, traffic, 'planes and a rival band with the unit marching behind you - in my case the poxy Rock-apes of Crab-air, marching to their own speed!

I had to learn it several times; Street Lining for the President of Mexico's visit to London in 1985, and - in Berlin - Allied Force's Day parade and Queen's Birthday parade.

At attention, shouldered-arms; unknown (I keep calling Charbens?), three from Britains Herald and Herald Hong Kong, newest to the left, and the second type Timpo swoppet with SLR.

Marching with arms shouldered; Lone*Star, Charbens early version, three more Britains Herald, oldest on the left.

Left to right again; Timpo, Cherilea, Unknown (Charbens?), Crescent, Timpo swoppet - first type, Unknown (Speedwell?) and the ex-Sacul hollow-cast figure David also identified.

Finally; the maybe-Charbens at attention, the 2nd Type Timpo marching and a Britains Detail, both with the SLR.

C is for Corgi Cops (and Robbers)

So we looked at the generic police the other day, but Corgi loved their TV and Movie tie-ins, and it's some of those we're going to look at now

Top left we have the wheelchair-bound Ironsides, below him are two characters I thought were from one of the James Bond related sets but actually they are from the Man from U.N.C.L.E. set, they flick in and out of the windows on the pivots, driven by an internal mechanism presumably attached to the axles. They are another unit that keeps turning up in large numbers as ex-shop stock or unused out painters stock?

Going across the bottom we have two shots of the three near-54mm figures from the Starsky and Hutch set, sadly no Huggy-bear, who was clearly my favourite character and - if I recall correctly - does star on the model cars packaging! Above them is Theo "Who loves yah baby" Kojak, another figure who gets some variation of face from model to model.

While the chap who also looks like a Bond character (top middle) was from a lesser known US cop show Vegas which was shunted to an odd hour here in the UK, possibly on only some of the then independent ITV stations? Was he Johnny Vegas?

John Steed and Purdy from the New Avengers, she gets a variety of turn-ups on her slacks. the blue chap who I also thought was a Bond, also turned out to be someone else, but I can't remember who, he may be listed in the overview I'm going to publish as the last post in this series, but I'm not sure, he may be Kojak's sidekick (and he may be a bond character!)?

These are all James Bond characters with the two figures from the ejector-seat Aston Martin, another bond firing over the back seat and the Corgi Junior version of the Aston, missing it's unpainted ejectee, who is in the unknown seated box in storage...I think! Left-handed gunman.

Poignant post as one of the stars only passed away the other day, and without being too irreverent to the memory of Lewis Collins who played Bodie (William Andrew Philip!), this has to be one of the campiest sculpts of a 'hard man' character ever. Ray [Raymond] Doyle (Martin Shaw) looks like he means business with an SMG and their boss George Cowley (Gordon Jackson) is shouting orders in his usual deep Scottish brogue. Bodie is also a left-handed model?

How we loved this (The Professionals) as older kids, it was quite something after Dixon, Softly Softly and Z-Cars to have a hard-hitting series of law-enforcers, with guns, operation just inside the law, that wasn't made in America!

Like the Starsky and Hutch set these figures are near enough 54mm and come from the later, larger 1:32 scale car range.

More the this iconic British TV series;

The Professionals - Chapter and Verse!

G is for Guards - Timpo Solids

We now know that one of these (far right) isn't Timpo at all! He actually a Norman Tooth design for Kentoys. I think the other two are Timpo though...Dave?

C is for Corgi Competitors

Sports and pastimes manage to both produce unique or interesting vehicles and help sell less interesting vehicles, as a result of which Corgi made quite a few sporting or hobby related sets.

Cycling was a favorite and there were several versions of both Tour de France and more generic cycle-races, with the camera-man hanging off the back of a vehicle on a die-cast platform, while the later 1:32'ish set also having a shouty-trainer (orange figure) but I don't think there was an accompanying cyclist?

The unpainted cameraman with a correctly painted base is probably ex-out painters stock, while the driver with a very Gallic pair of shades was also from one of these sets.

The HK (for Cullpitts) copy of a Corgi boat is as close as I got when these were taken, also I still don't have the Corgi canoe, or if I do it's in the 'unknown canoes' bag! The surfer came with a Mini Countryman.

The rubber boat - one of the later issues I still haven't identified - paints up into a nice rigid raider (that's not my painting I hasten to add!), and due to the large scale of the diver, can be war gamed with several smaller figures quite realistically, four kneeling 28mil marines with an LMG or GPMG facing forward - ideal!

While I am short of the Corgi originals I have plenty of the HK rack toys, as it was one of the smaller cards and ended-up in many a Christmas stocking, and therefore, mint and unused in the back of many an emergency present drawer! This and similar cards (we looked at here) came with varied contents of which copies of the canoeist and canoe, the water-skiing lady (I also don't have a Corgi original of) and surf board featured.

These guys came with several versions of a Citroen estate car, some issued for specific Winter Olympics, others more generic, the two skiers are different sculpts and the sledge is a nice little die-cast moulding.

G is for Guards - Woodwind Section

The wonderful and wacky world of wind instruments...required some Googling I can tell you! But mostly the Brass section, I knew two of these but was surprised to learn the the Lone*Star guy was playing a bassoon, as I'd always had in my mind a large chunk of brass with that title"

Three Charbens with Saprano Clarinets? and a Lone*Star re-issue bassoonist.

Pipers from Lone*Star on the left and Sacul on the right (x2), no bags!

C is for Corgi Countryside (Farm Animals and Farmers)

OK, into the home straight with these Corgi posts now, and the other animals et cetera. When we were kids we didn't have much of this stuff as we were army-brats and had military toys and a railway (along with all the usual chemistry sets, Lego, Meccano and such like), but our cousins were farmers oop'North and had a huge wooden farm in one of the old chicken sheds which was their playroom, and it had all sorts of farm stuff by Dinky, Corgi and Britains including the remains of Dad's and my Uncle's old toys.

So although we didn't have them ourselves we did get to play with them a few times a year and they hold a nostalgia.

The miniature versions of the bigger calves, these fold-up off their base-plate to fit neatly in the trailer, unfortunately they fit equally as neatly in a Matchbox stake-sided lorry and you often see them being sold as Matchbox on EvilBay!

The race horse is an interesting one, coming in two sizes, the smaller ones with painted blankets in various colours, and with or without a granular surface (much like the two versions of many Crescent figures, which may be a clue to there origins?). In the larger size the blanket was a paper sticker which rarely survive outside a mint-boxed example, I have seen a green with yellow lines checked one, a blue one with - I think - a yellow boarder, and a red/purple one

You can find a shiny high-density polyethylene one from Hong Kong without the horse blanket, but they did copy the knee-pads!

The middle shot shows two PVC animals to the left from the later sets and to the right another Juniors / Husky one, this one looks quite similar to a cellulose acetate / styrene one from Starlux which I thought I'd blogged, but haven't - so a civilian Starlux post mentally bookmarked into the queue!

The later farmer and the two versions of tractor driver, also used for other cabbed vehicles of a more construction nature, both these have been heavily copied by Hong Kong over the years (in hard styrene and soft PVCs and Ethylenes), and the unknown supplying maker also let Corgi grade originals go to HK rack-toy producers.

The larger version of the calves from the Corgi 'proper' range, we looked at the Hong Kong versions from Blue Box here, where we also find blue hard (polystyrene)plastic versions of the tractor driver doing his thing with a tractor and a combined-harvester. These calves always looked American to me, for no reason I can put my finger on, they just seem to belong in Texas, not the home-counties!

G is for Guards - Saxaphone and Trombone

Saxophonists - Very uncommon Cavendish starts this line-up, with a Charbens providing the party-wall for four Crescent and Crescent for Kellogg's.

Trombonists - Two more Charbens and three more Crescent and Crescent for Kellogg's. The shortage of these more complicated instruments is surly down to production complexity, and with me having few Cavendish (two!) and less Britains Eyes-Right (one figure!) it will be a while before there are more on the blog!

C is for Corgi Civilians

Civilians? How boring! What? I'm forever putting 'civi' stuff up here...they have their place in the oeuvre...and while Corgi were pretty hopeless at military figures compared to Matchbox, when it came to figures in general they are about ten blog-posts in a clear lead! Just about everything other than bog-standard family saloons came with something to add play value.

The larger image shows the Husky / Corgi Juniors rally car winner's with driver and navigator leaning on the bonnet, and are in the same style as the little sets we looked at here, while the larger figure has the distinctive helmet of a real driver; Graham Hill (did he have a whingeing whining blame everyone else before yourself, kind of a son?), from the larger 1:43 range.

Bar-B-Q'ing tonight top left, with one of the earlier figures on the right; changing street-light bulbs from what we now call a cherry-picker, in those days they were called reach-platforms or something. This figure is interesting as it is polyethylene and seem to come from the same stable as the contemporary Spot On range of figures, we've also looked at before.

Below them there is a milkman and cabin-cruiser 'captain' from the 1960's range and two colour variations of the street-sweeper operator from the '70's, he is a tad larger and in a harder polypropylene.

The standard racing driver - like the standard pilots from Airfix and Matchbox - he was reused in more than one model, being fitted to a lot of the racing car and sports tourer models in the early years, and would reappear from time to time. There are subtle differences between both these two. Likewise to the right are the Bermuda tourist Mini-Moke / Taxi driver...I'm not sure if these are two versions of the same vehicle's driver, or if one if (like the Batman & Robin scale downs) a Corgi Juniors figure?

Below them is a female bus conductor in a close 25mm size, I know she is Corgi, but see the next panel (below) for all the 'maybe's'!

The last group are more problematical...I have notes to the effect this set is Corgi AND Dinky. Now, they are definitely in the style of the few other Stadden-designed Dinky figures, also I'm pretty sure I found them in a Corgi capacity when I was preparing these articles over a years ago. That site is now no more, and I can only ask if any one knows for certain...it's likely that they were a Dinky set inherited by Corgi.

Various bus drivers and conductors which may or may not be Corgi (or Dinky, Matchbox, a minor make or a HK something!), can any die-cast collector give definite ID's for any of them.

The accessories were as important as the figures and the two everyone seems to be looking for are the BBQ already show further above and the golf bag shown here with golfer and small-boy caddy. Also pictured here are the ice-cream seller and his customer.

The upper shot is an attempt at a scenic vignette photograph, while below it is one of the most awful toys ever sold in a retail form...

..the backing card is pre-printed with Mr Sheen graphics (a popular UK furniture polish in the 1970's), the packaging contains two clues to brand (Smiley and Roundabout) while almost certainty being neither and the contents cover 20-odd years of Corgi figure 'production' in about four scales and at least three polymers!

I have seen another! Different graphics, different contents.

I would guess that - far worse than being some Hong Kong thing - these were cobbled together from tail-end stock and sold through sea-side kiosks as sand-castle enhancers? Not only that, the boat isn't the Corgi boat, it's the late Cullpitt's from HK copy of the Corgi boat!

One thing is sure, despite these Corgi accessories often fetching a tidy sum on FeeBay, you often see dealers at shows with large quantities of ex-out workers stock, usually of one or two poses, the Detective Ironsides in wheelchair is a common one - seemingly being made in the millions, the tractor drivers are others while the various James Bond figures are common, although the ejector-seat set was sold with spare figures?

What all this hints at or suggests - among other things to be pondered endlessly - is that a single UK importer / jobber (possibly Roundabout Distributors?) was handling the figures of probably several Hong Kong producers both for Corgi and Cullpitt, maybe others and may even have been getting the painting done here?

All-in-all a hideous but interesting addition to the collection, I only wish I'd picked-up the other one when I saw it!

G is for Guards - Side Drums

Four treatments of Crescent / Crescent for Kellogg's, some home-paint, some factory.

Three from Charbens with a white polystyrene early figure on the left.

Two Lone*Star and one Sacul

C is for Corgi Creatures (Wild Animals, Jungle and Safari stuff)

The Corgi animals were in the main quite good sculpts with a bit of character, there were also a few dogs but they've been and gone as have some of the circus animals, so these are most of the rest...

Daktari, a popular TV series with - I think - one or two movie length spin-offs, produced several animals draped over Land Rover bonnets and the like, along with a cross-eyed lion who I think was called Clarence? The giraffe is one of many, they are all in the unknown HK animals box, as they are very hard to tell apart, and they mostly came in Chipperfield's sets, but some were in the larger Daktari set.

The legless yellow chap is a propylene copy of the safari guide, probably from a cheap plastic copy vehicle of some kind? The piece to find is the stethoscope.

Common animals from stand-alone vehicles were the Bull which came with a Lamborghini 'Fighting Bull', the Rhino came with a VW Beatle 1200CC East African Rally car with steering while the Jumping rabbit was the accessory for the Hillman Hunter also a rally car - London to Sydney.

Close-ups of the 'Kanga', a quick spray in the factory lead to quite a variation from pale ones to dark, and they have a little Joey hiding under there.

Tarzan, recently staring in a small scale 'deffinative' list is actually 54mm, with the sliding one - from the play set - closer to 60mm, colour variations in the PVC are quite marked.

Poor research (or cutting and pasting from that there interweb thing) leads to myth and legend, while a lack of question marks in poorly researched text leads to myth and legend being taken as fact. Never mind, he will take it from here now, he's taken enough already!

 

2025 - Now some internet images here;

https://projectswordtoys.blogspot.com/2025/02/the-tarzan-corgi-gift-set.html

 

A hunter from another Safari/Jungle set got copied in Hong Kong for a cheapo cuckoo-clock as one of the two barometric figures who swing in and out with changes in the weather, his hands now testing for rain. The inset was previously published in Plastic Warrior and looks at other cuckoo-clock figures, with early composition on the left with a wooden one, hard styrene plastics in the middle and the copy on the right.

The figure is missing his rifle and I think he came with the Lions of Longleat set?

No Comment!

The Lions of Longleat set also contained this nice lion-house, very useful as a temporary HQ or for hiding a Flak or Pak AT-gun in a war game!

The lions are circling the hunter in the previous picture and are both different poses from the Clarence character piece, but come in the same colour material so go well together.

They were also much pirated in those Noah's Arks sets of the 1970's available as mail-order from Tabloid magazines or TV listers and from Bible book-shops.

G is for Guards - At Ease...Stand Easy!

These are all Britains from the Herald range, with two older UK polyethylene production on the left and two of the later Hong Kong production in PVC to the right, the first with a plug-on base the second with a integrally moulded base.

Left to right; Britains Detail in a dense PVC, unknown swoppet (Speedwell?), unknown swoppet (Charbens?), early Timpo and late Timpo - all ethylene, then a Timpo-Toyway in vinyl an interim/late Timpo or Timpo-Toyway, probably in polypropylene.

Crescent for Kellogg's in scarlet polyethylene, a painted Crescent in the darker plastic, Timpo Kentoys (thanks Dave - see comments), Charbens and the unknown - possibly European premium - we looked at the other day.

C is for Corgi Characters

This is the least complete of all these Corgi posts and yet it was the largest area covered by Corgi who really bought into the licensing 'thing', producing a lot of adult and children's TV, comic and movie characters, or vehicles based on them.

My problem being that while often know what's what, it can take years to correct the 'unknown' boxes, especially as in recent years my stuff has been in storage twice, in three venues with 6  moves! So...most of the Sci-fi,  Marvel and DC stuff is elsewhere and a lot of the anthropomorphic cartoon stuff likewise, while the Superheroes are deliberately in another box...but here are a few to give a flavour of the oeuvre...

The yellow submarine, who (of a certain age) didn't have one of these, not because we knew what it or they were/was, but because our still slightly uptight late-Edwardian parents could attach themselves to the younger 'Hippies' vicariously, by buying us a psychedelic cartoon submarine barley large-enough for the four-man popular beat-combo occupying it!

Hey maaaan...anybody got a carrot...I know I've done that one before...I'll do it again...he was a stoner! And that F***ing snail...I hated the bloody whining whingeing moaning mollusk!

Tom and Jerry - unbeatable, when Tom gets sliced into a dozen pieces by a toaster or something falls to the ground in a heap of pieces, shake himself together and continues the pursuit! Why didn't he go and live somewhere else, dumb-ass! There was a Tom, and this toy came out 30-odd years before Small Soldiers and their roller-skate.

Pink Panther...two cool for school - period. There was another PP vehicle (the pictured one is off some kind of motorbike thing), a car with a huge fly-wheel and with a pull-strip motor, not sure it was Corgi thought, or whether it had a separate figure?

All the above are favourites with a whole new generation of infants, though the Magic Roundabout has had scene and dialogue changes/makeovers.

Buck Rogers and dribble or whatever the pet-robot was called - Yes; I could look it up but then someone might think I give an ess-aich-one-tea!

The Hardy Boys, there are a couple of three figures missing from the bands line-up here, not a big seller so the figures aren't as numerous.

The figure with a cloth-cap is from Postman Pat or Thomas the Tank Engine or Bob the Builder or....it's from the Corgi flood years...

Wonder Woman (looking like a native-American dwarve), Spider-man and the Green Lantern? Hornet (thanks M7 - see comments) There are loads missing here, other Spidy's, three sculpts of seated Batman & Robin's in two sizes, a Hulk or two, a large Batman, Superman...

G is for Guards - Lone*Star Parade and Ranges (with Hong Kong copies)

Title says it...

Lone*Star parade and 'ranges', and again - with the Royal Salute pose - we see smooth and textured with the same base, while the standing firing provides different bases.

With Hong Kong copies, there are two types of these; HONG KONG and EMPIRE MADE, both come in either scarlet or maroon.