Corgi's 2020 vision

A Happy New Year and Happy New Decade to all my readers. As has become customary, I'm starting 2020 with a review of Corgi's recently-announced bus models for this year, which were revealed on Monday. There are at least some OOC buses among the 118 announcements so that is an improvement over 2019's tally of zero, but they are once again an uninspiring crop so I won't be buying any of them, and needless to say there are still no new castings.

Borismasters are inevitable

What I thought was the catalogue for the first half of 2019 turned out to be for the whole year, so there were no new OOC models at all and the only release was the long-delayed Fusiliers set that was announced in early 2018 but eventually materialised in September 2019. I still find it inexplicable that this was the OOC range's 25th birthday year, yet Corgi did absolutely nothing to even acknowledge this milestone. Okay, they are still in significant financial trouble but surely could have at least produced one bus model in a commemorative livery?

Yes, it is new even though it looks like every other red RM

So that was Corgi's dismal offering for 2019, and 2020 looks marginally better simply because there will be some new OOC models, but overall they sadly seem to be starting the new decade the same way as they ended the last one. There are six liveries in the OOC range, four of which will be available as A and B variants with different destinations as has become standard practice, plus six of the ancient 1/64 toy Routemasters in fictional colour schemes, mostly for Beatles songs, which are clearly aimed at the tourist market and of little interest to serious collectors so aren't worthy of further comment.

Just a toy or souvenir

The OOC models all have a strong London and south-eastern bias and all but one are double-deckers, using the same three castings that have been heavily used over the last few years. Most are in all-over advertising schemes rather than fleet liveries, another strange trend that Corgi seem to be following in recent years, perhaps to avoid paying licensing fees to operators. The Borismaster makes a reappearance in two advertising liveries, for Coca-Cola and 'Release the Kraken', meaning this model has now appeared in more than twenty different finishes over the last eight years while others haven't even been given a look in.

Are Corgi modelling every livery ever seen on a Borismaster?

The third Wrightbus double-decker is yet another Eclipse Gemini operated by Brighton & Hove. Corgi seem to have some sort of obsession with this particular fleet and modelling every livery ever carried by a Gemini in it, this being the fourth. Again it is a one-off advertising scheme, this time for a local charity featuring Raymond Briggs's character The Snowman, so it is hardly typical of the buses to be seen on the roads of the real world and being mainly white with monochrome graphics is not the most inspiring of models.

Yet another B&H Gemini, in a rather dull livery

Rounding out the double-deckers are two more Routemasters. There is yet another London Transport red one, and how many of those do collectors really want? This represents one of Stagecoach East London's fleet used on heritage route 15, with adverts for the musical 'Mamma Mia!', but is very similar to the countless other red RMs already released. The other RM is a little more distinctive in a bright yellow advertising travel to Boulogne and is probably the best of this underwhelming bunch, but Corgi managed to make another silly error as the photographed sample has the registration 'CLT 359' instead of 359 CLT. One hopes this careless mistake will be corrected before it reaches production.  

The best of a bad bunch. The reg is wrong though.

The most controversial of the new models is the reappearance of the Plaxton Panorama in the fictional livery of Percy's Luxury Tours of Peckham, as featured in the Only Fools and Horses episode 'Jolly Boys' Outing'. This is stretching modellers' licence a bit too far as the real coach was a 1974 Panorama Elite III and looked completely different from the 1965-66 Panorama Corgi have used to represent it. A more accurate (but still not entirely authentic) model of this was commissioned from EFE a few years ago but is now very expensive and sought-after, so Corgi's attempt should still appeal to OFAH fans unconcerned with strict accuracy, but is disappointing given the number of real-world operators who ran Panoramas of the right type that haven't been modelled.

A complete work of fiction

That's it from Corgi for model bus collectors this year, and as if to add a final insult their website has been offline for long periods since the announcement was made. The 2020 release plan is an improvement over 2019's but that is hardly an achievement and simply by virtue of the fact that there are actually some OOC buses included where there were none last year. I've been doing these reviews since 2016 and every year I hope for better things from Corgi but am still left disappointed, so once again I'm forced to conclude that the OOC range's glory days are long gone and Corgi don't really care that much about bus modellers. What's your view though? Please let me know what you think of these models in the comments...

OOC releases for 2020:

CC02741: Plaxton Panorama - Percy's Luxury Tours (Only Fools and Horses)
OM46315A/B: AEC Routemaster - London Transport (Boulogne advertising livery)
OM46316A/B: AEC Routemaster - Stagecoach East London (heritage livery)
OM46516A/B: Wrightbus Eclipse Gemini 2 - Brighton & Hove ('The Snowman' livery)
OM46623: New Routemaster - RATP London United (Coca-Cola livery)
OM46624A/B: New Routemaster - Arriva London ('Release the Kraken' livery)