One of the most popular items of Green Hornet merchandise, both
in Britain and America was the Corgi 268 Black Beauty, which, considering Corgi
sold well over three-quarters of a million of these die-cast toys, is still
fairly easy to find in reasonable condition and at a reasonable cost.
According to Corgi model news in TV 21 issue 152 (dated
December 16th 2067), the model was released in December 1967, and
from then on continued in production until 1972.
There were two versions, which only differed in either spun
or cast wheel hubs, and slightly different box art.
Mine is apparently an example of the earlier version with
spun wheel hubs.
Sat in the rear seat is The Green Hornet pointing his gas gun.
These are quite fragile and prone to being broken off. A tiny lever on the base
turns the figure.
Kato sits in the driving seat behind the green tinted
windscreen.
Flick down the front radiator grill to reveal the firing
missile, and two fixed banks of missiles behind the side lights. The missile’s released by operating the
forward switch.
Lift the boot (Truck in the States) using the rear switch.
Flick it again and the Radar Scanner flies upwards at a speed easily capable of
taking an eye out!
It originally came with 3 Scanners and 3 missiles, and if
these got lost, which was highly likely, you could buy extra ones in packets
containing 8 of each.
One of its most attractive features is the detailed Green
Hornet decal on the roof.
Corgi model news featured The Black Beauty die-cast a couple
of times.
Some advertisements
for the Black Beauty, as seen in TV 21, and the Corgi catalogue.
"Let's roll, Kato!"
I had that toy as a kid but had no idea at all about who or what the Green Hornet was. Thanks for filling in that gap nearly 50 years later!
ReplyDeleteGlad to it, Kev. As a youngster in the sixties, most of my knowledge of the Green Hornet came from TV Tornado, so a least I knew about the character. It's a shame the TV series never made it to Britain at the time, I reckon it would have done well.
DeleteAnother significant trip down memory lane as I read this, scoop. I had a Corgi Black Beauty as a kid. A stunning toy, but I never realised there were two versions. Great article :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Tony. The Black Beauty was, and is a real cool car. From what I can gather its still a popular and well known TV car in the States. Obviously, not as big a draw as the famous Batmobile, but still very cultish.
DeleteLovely post Scoop! One of my fave die-casts ever as a kid. It was the epitome of cool. When i got one later on as an adult I got hold of some repro parts, the front missile and the disc spinner, but they were metal. I'm sure its all available in plastic now.
ReplyDeleteThanks Woodsy, yeah, it's cool alright. As with most Corgi and Dinky toys good quality cheap plastic repro parts are plentiful thesedays, which does help make owning a fairly complete one a lot easier : D
DeleteI so wanted one of those, but they were a bit pricey for a die cast in those days. My folks also thought that I didn't need to have it since I was a girl...
ReplyDeleteThat's a shame, Patricia, I'm presuming you watched the show in the sixties, and are hopefully still a fan. Did you ever get hold of one of the toys later on at some point?
DeleteAm I right in thinking that there's a modern re-issue of this Corgi Scoop?
DeleteYou're spot on Woodsy, Corgi brought it out around 2000. It's close, but not quite the same as the original, and comes with a separate figure of Kato. I'll be doing a short piece on it soon.
DeleteA beautiful model. My brother had one back in the 60's and it was played with to death! I found the 2000 re-issue some time ago and also have an original that I fixed up with repro parts. Recently I was lucky enough to find a rather nice un-boxed original second hand example from a toy fair and noticed that it had spoked (cast) wheel hubs rather than the spun ones on my earlier models. I'd never seen this version before, but the chap selling it thought that it was perhaps an early release! I rather like these wheels personally. It is still one of my favourite Corgi Toys. Great post.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment. The spoked wheels do turn up from time to time. I suppose it would be nice to examples of both versions.
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