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.

No new buses from Corgi

A Happy New Year to all my readers. It's become traditional at this time of year to review Corgi's newly-announced bus models so 2019 will be no exception. There is a surprise in this release, a myriad of exciting liveries and new castings to suit all tastes. Hah, if only...given their past form you should know not to get your hopes up like that. This will be a very short article as the number of new models in the Original Omnibus Company range for the first half of the year is...

Corgi buses for 2018

I've been meaning to write this for several weeks now but the announcement coincided with my busiest period at work and life has just got in the way since then, so better late than never, here at last is my review of Corgi's model bus release schedule for January to June of this year, revealed exactly a month ago. I didn't even bother reviewing the models from the second half of 2017 as there were only two of them and neither were worthy of note: yet another Borismaster and a second Harry Potter Gemini very similar to the one released the previous year. Things are slightly better this time around, with four all-new liveries, each available with a choice of two destinations. There are still no new castings though (unsurprising given the company's poor finances) and nothing of interest to me.

Wright Gemini, Brighton & Hove, Pride - all themes Corgi have already done recently

New year, new model buses?

It's the beginning of a new year and a good time to look at what may be in store for 1/76 scale model bus collectors such as myself in the near future. Apart from the noble exception of Oxford Diecast, 2016 was a disappointing year for diecasts, with Northcord and Britbus virtually invisible, Corgi suffering financial problems and the near-loss of EFE. I bought no more than two or three new diecast releases during the entire year and the majority of my new additions were resin kits from the growing band of cottage industry producers who have a very different business model but seem far more willing to invest in new products. So far it looks like 2017 won't be much better, with Brexit having had an adverse effect on production costs in China, but I'm still hoping I might be proved wrong and something exciting will unexpectedly appear.

The plague of disintegrating diecasts

There seems to be a growing epidemic in recent years of diecast models simply crumbling to dust for no apparent reason, leaving many collectors perplexed and upset at the loss of a model through no fault of their own. Known variously as 'metal fatigue', 'zinc rot' or 'zinc pest', this is caused by impurities of lead and other metals in the zinc alloy used in diecasting and should be avoidable with modern production methods, but sadly it seems even expensive high-end models are not immune from it and there is no cure once it has taken hold.

The Greatest Show on Earth

Atlas Editions 'Greatest Show on Earth' series review

 

I have previously written about Atlas Editions, so you should be familiar with their business model of offering subscriptions to collections of items. One such collection, announced in 2014, was 'The Greatest Show on Earth', a range of fairground and circus models in 1/76 scale, and as a collector of fairground vehicles in this scale I naturally subscribed to this series. Although I have not received any confirmation that the collection is complete and no further models will be sent, it has been over six months since anyone received a new model and I have exactly thirty so it seems as if it has indeed come to an end and thus I can do a review of the entire collection.

Corgi disappoint again

Six months ago I bemoaned how disappointing Corgi's release schedule for the first half of this year was, and predicted that the Original Omnibus Company models to be released in the second half would be little better. The full release schedule is due to be announced tomorrow but the list of OOC releases was made available by another website today and it gives me no pleasure to say I was right and the first words that came to mind on viewing the list were 'dismal' and 'pathetic'. I was hoping this was incomplete and there would be more to follow, but nothing was omitted so there is even less variety than last time and this batch of releases is far worse than I imagined it could ever be. If you don't like modern Wrightbuses then there is nothing here for you.

The weird world of Atlas Editions

Today's post focuses on a company with the strangest business practices I have ever encountered. You may have heard of Atlas Editions as they advertise extensively; their business model is offering subscriptions to collections of items, principally diecast models but also such other collectables as ornaments and plates, with much emphasis on them being exclusive to Atlas and not available anywhere else, which isn't always true. Each collection begins with a loss leader at a very low price but subsequent goods are more expensive, and they will continue to send items at regular intervals unless you choose to cancel. This all sounds quite reasonable but Atlas often go about their business in strange, disorganised and amateurish ways that have resulted in them not having the best of reputations.

In my favoured 1/76 scale, Atlas have produced a number of collections: Eddie Stobart, Great British Buses, Trams of the World, Fire Engines of the World, the Greatest Show on Earth (funfair and circus vehicles), the World of Stobart, and Classic Coaches. I am personally subscribed to two of these (Greatest Show on Earth and World of Stobart) and my experience so far has been satisfactory, but there is an Atlas Editions Collectors group on Facebook where complaints vastly outnumber positive posts, and numerous threads about the company on consumer advice forums. Read on for more about the weird world of Atlas Editions and their bizarre ways of running a business...

More disappointment from Corgi

Today was the day that Corgi revealed details of their new model release programme for the first six months of next year. Once upon a time this would have been an exciting and keenly awaited event, but those days are long gone and as has been the case for several years I once again greeted the announcement with disappointment, proving how far they have been left behind by the competition. As a collector of 1/76 scale models, Corgi now have very little to offer me: the Trackside and Roadscene ranges showed promise but are both long dead, leaving just the Original Omnibus Company in this scale, and recent releases in this series have lacked sparkle.

How many red Routemaster models do we need?

Model fleet focus: United Counties

The United Counties Omnibus Company is one of those fleets that although significant in terms of size and area covered doesn't have the same cult following as certain others, such as Southdown or London Transport for instance. UCOC is one of the main themes of my collection and is an operator of great personal interest for three reasons: my home town of Buckingham is served by the company's successors, my father was brought up in Northampton, where the head office was located, and my maternal grandmother spent a short period as a conductress at Stony Stratford garage. Over the years I have collected all known factory releases by the diecast manufacturers, plus a handful of code 3 repaints and kit builds that will feature in a future article, so this piece provides a hopefully definitive guide to what is available. There have been a dozen 1/76 OO models to date, mostly by Exclusive First Editions and in Corgi's Original Omnibus Company range, plus one in N gauge. With one exception they should be fairly easy to obtain and don't command premium prices like some of the cult fleets.

Bigger Borismaster

...or 'Two Wrights definitely make a wrong'

Model bus collectors can't have failed to notice that the recently-introduced Borismaster (or New Bus for London, or New Routemaster, or Wrightbus NBFL, or whatever you prefer to call these things) in Corgi Toys' 'Best of British' series has proved something of a revelation and is flying off the shelves, especially into the hands of fleet operators who are often buying large batches. Even I, a staunch non-London fan with a dislike of the real thing, succumbed to the temptation of my usual supplier offering one for just £8.

A fairly pleasant looking little model of a rather ugly bus.

However, I must admit that the very existence of this model confuses me so the point of this post is to express my puzzlement. No one can blame Corgi for wanting a piece of the lucrative London tourist market, but the way they have gone about it seems rather peculiar. An exact 1/76 scale model of the Borismaster already exists in the Original Omnibus Company range, sold as a highly-detailed collectors' model at prices around £30 to £40. Logically, producing a simplified version of this, lacking the fine details such as etched mirrors and wipers, would have been a golden opportunity to generate more sales from an existing casting, given that tooling up a diecast model can reputedly cost a five- or six-figure sum and is not a decision made lightly, and this was the assumption made when it was first announced in 2013.

Indications that all was not straightforward started to appear when Corgi refused to quote an exact scale, instead stating the Best of British series were all made to fit a standard box but quoting a box size that would be appropriate for a 1/76 bus and fuelling much speculation. After a long delay, the model was eventually released in late 2014 and at first glance looked like it was indeed a simplified OOC casting. However, a side-by-side comparison proves that it is indeed an entirely new casting that is fractionally larger; it is said to be 1/75 scale and around 2% oversize for 1/76 but a 2% difference is probably within manufacturing tolerance for most officially 1/76 models anyway. It certainly doesn't look out of place with 1/76 buses, nor even alongside the OOC Borismaster, as the size difference really isn't noticeable.

All this frankly has left me scratching my head and wondering just what the point of the whole exercise was as it basically wasted a large sum of money duplicating tooling that already existed - money that could have been better spent on models of other bus types. I suspect the reason is down to internal politics at Corgi that don't allow the Corgi Toys division to share tooling with OOC, a perceived devaluing of the OOC brand, or some such nonsense, but it would be very much appreciated if someone from Corgi could provide an official explanation of this strange development.

As it stands, I can now see no point whatsoever in buying the OOC model so I predict warehouses full of unsold examples being heavily discounted. The OOC is around four times the price of the almost identically-sized 'toy' but nowhere near four times as good, and it should easily be possible to purchase aftermarket details such as wipers and mirrors that will bring the cheap one up to the same standard for a fraction of the price. After all, if you went to the model shop with £40 and found that would get you one OOC or four of these outwardly identical models, which would you choose? The answer is obvious really...

If you don't believe me, look at the photos and judge for yourself. Thanks go to David Waterton for the loan of the OOC model.

No apparent size difference here.

The toy is a couple of millimetres longer but this is hidden by the curvature of the front and rear ends.

The roof looks a lot wider but this is an optical illusion as the white area is much bigger.

The shapes of the back window prove they are different castings.