Commer QX

Like the Karrier Bantam one suspects that this was a model carried over from the pre-existing Mettoy range as it does not really have the Corgi hallmark. I suspect the back body was new for the Corgi range and that the chassis was borrowed from the pre-Corgi range. The later, quick replacement of the Commer with the ERF cab seems to support this theory too. That said there is a matching trailer produced in the following year and the 'Corgi Cargoes' range gives you a set of loads (bricks, sacks, planks, churns) to give real authenticity and play value. Both the chassis and the body were to come back again in new guises. Good thinking and good play value from Corgi in the early days, standardising the lorry backs and trailers to make sensible pairings for multiple sales and offering the loads of bricks, planks etc which would always fit.

452 Dropside

The Dropside Lorry, 452, was added to the Corgi range in 1956 and remained in production until 1963. The loadbed is always cream, the cab can be red or blue. Neither colour gets a premium on price and values in general are significantly lower than many other models from the same period.

453 Fridge Van

The Commer 5 ton chassis had a number of re-incarnations, 453 is as a refrigerated Walls Ice Cream van. It really is a very dull thing for a toy though. A lorry you can't put a load on, a van without opening doors, OK it has an ice cream logo on the side, but still not that much fun. It was released in 1956 and deleted in 1960. You will find it with either light or dark blue cab. Dark blue is hard to find and worth a lot more than light blue. A red cab version is known and believed to be a factory error, it is still the dark blue one you want.

An interesting insight though into the history of the example below - click through to the picture taken directly from above the lorry. You can see written in pencil on the top 5/=. Was this once in a jumble sale for five bob? if so it must have been pre decimalisation (1971) at which time you could buy new Corgis for that sort of money, seems a bit optimistic to me, and if someone did buy it for 5 shillings (25p), why did they not clean off the price? I'm certainly not going to - it is part of the history of the piece now.

454 Flatbed

The third time the Commer QX cab appears in the Corgi range is as a flatbed (454). The flatbed or platform lorry is found with a metallic blue cab or a yellow cab, the loadbed is always silver grey. It was added to the Corgi range in April 1957 and remained in production until 1963. Both versions are valued at a similar price. The blue example below looks like it has done the miles, had the t shirt, worn it out and is still going strong. Here is a toy maker in its second year of production who has produced a toy that has been hammered by generations of children and sixty-odd years later still looks good. That is something really to be proud of.