Most of you will, no doubt recognize this Corgi Avengers Gift Set, which put together a Corgi white Lotus Elan and a Corgi Classics red Le Mans 1927 Bentley with a grey suited John Steed figure sat behind the wheel. The set was completed with a standing Emma Peel figure and three umbrellas'.
Now, I have talked about this set before on the blog, and whether or not Corgi ever released the gift set with a dedicated green Steed Bentley.
I've seen dealers selling sets with 'that rare green Steed Bentley', but to be honest I've always been dubious.
The green Corgi Classics Bentley in the picture above , is actually from the Corgi 'World of Wooster' set, with Jeeves, rather than Steed at the wheel.
It is, of course exactly the same model apart from the paint job.
Although there's no difference between the two figures as far as I can see, apart from the colour of the suit , there's nothing to stop anyone from taking out Jeeves and replacing him with a Steed figure.
However, on my previous post an anonymous commenter pointed out that there really was a genuine green Steed Bentley with different coloured wheels and mudguards, on top of that, the commenter insisted that the two figures are not the same.
While I can honestly see no difference in the figures, I can see there's certainly some truth in the fact that there are several variations on the colour scheme on the Corgi Classic Bentley. It wouldn't be too hard for Corgi to mix and match and create a dedicated green Steed Bentley for the set. But then it begs the question, why did they do the vast majority in red!
I have two identical Steed Bentley's, both red with black mudguards and gold coloured wheels. The box art and the advert for the set shows a green Bentley with green mudguards and steel coloured wheels, so with that in mind it suggests that if there was a dedicated green Steed Bentley in the gift set it should be that colour scheme but then, there's also a green mudguard variation with red wheels which does look the part.
I was always led to believe the lack of a green Steed Bentley when I read one of the numerous Avengers books written by Dave Rogers, the self-styled leading authority on the TV series, who stated in one of them that Corgi had only released a version in red, and that Steed had never used a Le-Mans 1927 Bentley in the series.
Well, I have to say I'm a little more opened minded about a dedicated Green Bentley being included, albeit rarely in the Gift Set thanks to a little research and my anonymous friend.
"What ho! Jeeves, we're needed"
