Yesterdays Tomorrows

On the eve of Halloween when the veil between the living and the worlds of the dead is at its thinnest, its perhaps fitting to look at some rare glimpses of what might have been in the worlds of Corgi cars. Following on from my recent blog article on the Corgi catalogues and the presence of the Dan Dar Car in the 1981 catalogue, it was brought to my attention that more detail on the fate of the model was available in the The New Great Book of Corgi 1956-2010 by Marcel R.Van Cleemput. A very weighty and expensive book, it was beyond my means to buy, but expert researcher Philotoadia managed to secure a copy on loan and provided me with some shots of the relevant pages. 
Apparently, pre-production models were built for the Dan Dare car, but as often happens, the money behind the Dare licence collapsed and took the Corgi model with it. Meanwhile, these two photos show the model in more detail with the wings clearer and the radiation shield in place beneath the clear cockpit dome.

Along with many other fascinating facts about the history of Corgi productions, there were other sci-fi related toys in evidence in the book, some of which are also instantly recognisable, but again never made it to the store shelves for various reasons.

 The 1974 Daleks are an interesting addition, although judging by the red pillar box/dustbin dalek at the front, its unlikely that Terry Nation would have agreed to them! Pertwees Whomobile is a nice model which judging by the car transporter next to it would have been just above Junior scale at about 10-12cm long. The Moon Vehicle is apparently just a work of the designers imagination.

Another surprise in terms of possible licencesed appearances was the Phoenix from Battle of the planets cartoon, sat alongside a pair of land speed record vehicles.

 

For me though, the more unusual vehicles were always a big draw with Corgi toys, the licenced vehicles such as Buck Rogers and James Bond may have had mass market appeal, but every now and then a purely fictional or non standard model would appear. Judging by the pre-production mock ups shown here, Corgi seemed to be pursuing new aerospace designs for aircraft and using those as the basis for a range of exciting boxed models. A shame they never left the R & D dept!