Corgi Toys GS35; London Passenger Transport Set; 418 Taxi With Driver; 468 Routemaster Bus; Policeman On Dias

I wonder if this was aimed at the tourist market in London? If it was it was a remarkably long-lived piece of product design as you can still by variations on it today in any shop where a foreign tourist may find themselves, mostly in London but also in airports and motorway service areas all over the UK. They won't be made by Corgi any more and they won't be anything like as nicely done, but the Austin FX4 taxi and the AEC Routemaster bus remain as icons for the London street scene. The buses have been gone since 2005 and the taxis have all been replaced too, but icons they remain.

You can identify the taxi from this set because it has a driver. The core range one does not, all the 468 buses should have a driver and a conductor. The bus is the original smaller casting with suspension and will either have Corgi Toys or Outspan adverts. There should also be a policeman on point duty (missing from my photos) - now that is something you absolutely never see in London, or anywhere now, on riot duty maybe, but not point duty. Mind you my heart always sinks whenever I see a Policeman directing traffic - you just know you are going to be stuck there for ages. Gift Set GS35 was in the range from July 1964 to being withdrawn in 1968.

This set was put together from items in my collection in November 2011