Karl AKA Stroget is an active curator at HobbyDB of many of the 1/43 model car brands. He has been adding model cars to the DB since 2014; some of his favorites are Alfa Romeo and obsolete Tekno from Denmark!
Corgi Toys 300 Corvette Stingray Take Off Wheels & Golden Jacks
Gerald Wingrove is a renown scale modeller for extremely high quality, classic miniature cars. During the late 1960’s he was commissioned to produce patterns for a variety of toy cars by Mettoy the owners of the Corgi Toys brand. One of which was this Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Coupé. He completed the pattern in late 1969, and the Corgi Toys model was issued in April 1970.
This model was the last released with the Take-Off Wheels and Golden Jacks feature and was numbered 300. Made in Great Britain to 1:46th scale eventually 289,00 were produced. Corgi Toys issued this model in two bright vacuum plated lacquered finishes: green and red. Detailed interior and steering wheel were expected features in toy cars from this period and the former is represented in yellow plastic and the latter in gold painted metal.
Play value is provided by an opening bonnet which is painted matt-black to add contrast to the bright body finish. Within the engine bay is a detailed chrome plated engine and a black plastic component is used to represent the air filter, hoses and wiring. As this model represents the Targa Top Coupé there are two transparent yellow plastic roof panels which are removable.
Also the real car had headlights that were retained in the front body panel and they came out only when the headlights were turned on. Again Corgi Toys replicated this feature and operating a lever under the base raised and lowered these lights.
However, the major play value feature was one that was unique to Corgi Toys: Take-Off Wheels with Golden Jacks. This feature in itself was a miniature engineering marvel. The ability to remove and replace wheels easily together with supplying a diminutive working jacking system is an amazing achievement. Now we are at the baseplate this is painted matt-grey and two rear exhaust outlets are included in this casting.
Finishing touches comprise jewelled headlights, ruby red taillights and the classic Corvette crossed flags are represented by transfers. All of this is truly wonderful but Gerald Wingrove left his mark by engraving ‘Stingray’ over superbly detailed air vents and CORVETTE is clearly highlighted into the rear panel.
As a note this model was fitted with two types of wheel hubs. The earlier hub has a raised centre section and the latter hub has an indented centre section. On the models illustrated the red car has raised centre wheel hubs, and the green car has indented centre wheel hubs. This modification may have been the result of child safety as the raised centre hub can feel quiet sharp.
Another collector reviewed this Corgi Corvette five years ago here; please take a look!
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