Rover 90

This was not a successful model either in terms of numbers sold or it's capture of the likeness the real car. Consequently they are very hard to find now, which is why I've put such a dog into the collection. It's been played to death, the original green paint worn away, painted orange, the orange paint scraped off and presented in this sorry state with traces of both colours remaining. A pity because the Rover P4 is one of my all time favourite cars. I'd love a nice late model 110S in the 1:1 metal, all that chrome, wood and leather with the suicide doors on the back, there's nothing like it.

The Rover 90 or P4 was part of the brand launch range of seven models. To get this small range together by the required deadline the Corgi team outsourced the model-making to Germany. van Cleemput says in his book 'The Rover 90 was the only model that we were disappointed with and which we felt had not been faithfully represented.' Too right. This is actually a bad model.

Compare it to the more recent Vanguards model - the Corgi toy seems too tall & skinny, they just didn't get the proportions right. Probably this is reason why far fewer of these were sold than any of the other cars in the launch range, making them rarer now and consequently more expensive and harder to get hold of. Ironic really.

The Corgi Rover 90 Mechanical was added to the range in 1956 and remained in production until 1959, alongside it was the freewheeling No.204. In 1959 a two-tone version of the freewheeling version was released.

The single colour 204 car was available in cream, shades of grey and shades of green, the two-tone car was metallic red with cream or metallic cerise with grey. The mechanical car was grey or shades of green. They are all pricey with the metallic green mechanical being top price in Ramsey's guide.