Citroën 2CV

One of the cars on the website where I actually owned the 1:1 version. I had it from about 1983 through to 1986 when my wife passed her test and demanded something a bit more normal and we traded it in for a Renault 5. Back in 1983 I owned a Volvo 164e, a huge 3 litre gas guzzler with all the leather and chrome you could ever want. I had also recently started dating my wife who then as now was a frugal person and persuaded me to go for something a little more economical when she found out that (even in those days) it cost me a tenner in petrol to pick her up and take her to the pub. My view was not to do half a job and chopped the Volvo in for one of these. I actually really liked it. It had an unstoppable charm, it always worked and it would go anywhere. It also saved me a heap of cash.

Mine was the 2CV6 Club, which had the cloth seats, the square lights (Dollys had round ones) and a fold-back rather than roll back front on the roof. Sort of a posher version, it was pale jade green with matching striped seats. We went on honeymoon to France in it, I commuted from Chester to Gravesend weekly in it, and after using it hard for three years I sold it for £100 more than I paid for it. Never mind the hole in the floor where my foot had gone through and the detached boot lid.

I have to say that the 2CV was a genuine classic. It was a brilliant design which worked very well. It was comfortable & roomy if a little slow and noisy, great fun to drive and ultra reliable. We had a C1 in later years, which I guess is it's descendant, while being an excellent car it had none of the original charm of the 2CV. One of the world's great cars.

The first Corgi release in June 1981 (272) was a James Bond item. In the movie 'For Your Eyes Only' our hero is chased by the baddies while driving a 2CV, and this is a representation of it. In my 2CV owning days I bought a book of motoring magazine reviews of the car and there was one about the Bond 2CV. It was far from a standard car, having a 1300cc engine from the GS rather than its usual 603cc flat twin, which must have given it a bit of zip. Corgi made this car from 1981 to 1983. It is always yellow - the other colours have a different model number. The Bond car was sold in a flip-lid promo box for the movie and the standard window box. As you can see below it returned in the post-Mettoy era.

Next Corgi Toys release was the Dolly in April 1982 (346). The Dolly was a special edition 2CV available at the time in fun two-tone colour finishes. Corgi did the grey car with red wings and the white car with red wings. These cars remained in the range until Mettoy ceased trading in 1983. They actually remained in production after 1983, initially using the same wheels as Corgi Toys and later these were replaced with rather ugly de-specced wheels with printed on foil detail. the grey/red car below is post Mettoy but has the Mettoy era wheels.

In June 1983, just before the Mettoy crash, the Charleston (346) was released. Again this was a representation of a very popular special edition Citroen available at the time, using the car's retro looks to evoke the 1930s with a two-tone burgundy and black colour scheme.

In the post-Mettoy period the Dolly remained in production, adding the green/white colour scheme, and there were two James Bond 'For Your Eyes Only' releases, one of which came with a James Bond Figure.