Citroen ID19 Safari

Here begins the history of one of the core Corgi staples, the Citroen Safari. This casting keeps coming back over the next decade or so in every variant you can think of, mostly skiing themed - until they ran out of ideas and put the cast of the Magic Roundabout in the back!

Just list the great Corgi features though - and most of these were firsts - an estate car with an opening tailgate (a split tailgate too), then the rear seat folds - and just in case you can't see it properly they've left one of the back windows open. There is also a roof rack which gets lots of use in the different variations to this model.

436 Wildlife Preservation

It wasn't a random model this one - it was a TV tie-in to 'On Safari with Armand and Michaela Denis' the couple in the car are supposed to be them - or so I believe, so there are two people in the front - for once not not police or army - just ordinary explorers. There's luggage on the roof and a nice decal on the bonnet. Even the interior colouring is thought about with two colours of plastic to highlight the features. This is such a well thought out package and one of the reasons Corgi was great. There was nothing to touch them in 1963.

With playworn examples the luggage is usually missing and frequently the glass from the tailgate window. The model was released in 1963 and remained in the range until 1965. The car was always yellow with a Wildlife Preservation decal on the bonnet and moulded luggage on the roof-rack, the luggage is either of the two interior colours, tan or mint, with some of it mask-sprayed in brown. The interior colours are mint green and tan with the dashboard and folding rear seat in one colour and the remainder of the interior in the other. The interior colours can be either way around but this does not seem to affect the value.

475 Winter Olympics 1964

Last year's Citroen Safari model was a winner, here it is updated to celebrate the 1964 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck. All the same fab features but instead of front seat passengers and safari luggage on the roof this one had a skier figure and skis on the roof rack. The Olympic Winter Sport Citroen Safari was introduced in January 1964, remaining in production for just a year when it was replaced with the 'Ski Club' version which kept the same model number and also had skis on the roof. The interior colours of tan and pale green are the same as for the Wildlife Safari version of the car and the colours can be reversed in the same way. The later 'Ski Club' version seems to get better prices than the Olympic Winter Sports version, although there's probably nothing in it.

475 Corgi Ski Club

Last year's 1964 Winter Sports Citroen Safari car has been updated to remove reference to the Olympics. The bonnet decal is changed but all other features remain the same including the skier figure and two pairs of skis and poles on the roof rack. 475 Corgi Ski Club was introduced in December 1965 and remained in the range until 1968.

499 Winter Olympics 1968

The Citroen ID19 Safari is an excellent and very important part of the Corgi range right through the sixties, this one celebrated the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble. The bonnet decal looks suspiciously like one you would buy from a souvenir shop at the time. This one came with a bloke on a sledge and a female skier with ski poles. It was launched in October 1967 and was deleted in 1969.

513 Alpine Rescue Car

Yet another (and the last) outing for the good old faithful ID19 Citroen Safari casting. Again in Alpine guise but this time no mention of Winter Olympics, just Alpine Rescue. This final version was released in 1970 and remained in the catalogue until 1972. The Alpine Rescue version is the scarcest and most valuable of all the ID19 Safaris. There should be stuff on the roof rack, a mountain rescue bloke and a big dog to go with it, but they are long since lost. One thing I'm not sure of is that drop-down bit of the tailgate - should it be black? or did a previous owner make it so? No matter, the fold-down seats still work nicely and it has cast spoked wheels.