Mini Van

This is such a well designed, well modelled and well made little van. I had the Spot-On version of the Mini Van when I was a kid which came nowhere close. The Spot-On one had nice Post Office Telephones or Royal Mail decals - but it didn't have the opening doors.

You hardly ever see a full-size Mini-Van these days, but when you do it is just amazing how tiny they are.

448 Police Dog Van

Corgi added this Police dog van to the range in 1964, it remained in the range until 1969. The only variation to the van is that some of them have spun hubs and some have cast hubs. One of the guides quotes a premium for a box with an upstand, but I think that is a bit of a red herring. These are always expensive and boxed examples are really very expensive, whatever the box.

450 Metallic Green

The Corgi Mini-Van was introduced in December 1964 and produced for two years. The core range van was always metallic olive green with a red interior. The real item had a painted grille of slotted pressed steel, the same colour as the bodywork and this is usually what you find on the Corgi. On some of them it is painted silver and occasionally it has the wavy grille from the Countryman surfer (485).

There is also a Dutch code 2 issue in metallic green with decals reading 'FDR1.2009/17'. Unsurprisingly these get a significant premium on the value. The rest are all similar in value, but above average for a Corgi of the period.