BMC Mini 1000 Mk2

Corgi Toys began with the Mini Mk1 back in February 1960 and stuck with it in a multitude of versions right through the 1960s, of course it was in a compatible scale to their other toys at the time, 1:42 scale to be exact. Later on when BMC facelifted the Mini in 1969 and produced the Mini Mk2 Corgi Toys followed suit with the Mini Magnifique which had the updated grille and interior, but kept the rounded tail lamps, still in 1:41 scale. Both castings got Whizzwheels eventually in some versions but a more thorough revision was needed.

So in 1976 a completely new casting was tooled in 1:36 scale to match the trend in the rest of the range. The new casting got the squared off tail lamps and had opening doors. It has been incredibly long lived and still gets wheeled out when a new commemorative release is required to mark a Royal birth or an event like the 2012 Olympics. My page in the Corgi Classics Cars section of the Museum has more than 200 versions and I have by no means captured all of them.

The new casting had a number of releases under Corgi Toys. Firstly in February 1976 this one (200) seems to have been in metallic blue, according to Ramsay with a silver roof, however the only ones I have seen have a paper sticker on the roof in a stylised Union Jack design. This remained in the catalogue up to 1978, although Ramsay has the Union Jack roof version running 1978-1983.

The next release was in February 1977 (GS38) as part of the Camping Gift Set with a tent, a sun lounger and a man figure with a barbecue. I've only managed to find the car from this set - very battered it is too. It was deleted in 1978.

In September 1978 came another release (201) this time in silver and dark metallic blue. Some of these have racing labels and some do not. An orange version of 201 was released in June 1983.