Route 36 – the way forward

Brian Salter continues his series examining the origins of scales used.

If you take a look at the three main diecast brands’ catalogues in, say 1972, the array of items on offer is rather bewildering, scale wise. Dinky had improved on its scale selection of cars and commercial vehicles since copying Spot-on’s 1/42, but had lost the plot with many other items, especially military. Matchbox was, as always, all over the place but, helpfully and uniquely, still giving the scales alongside each item, even those not modelled on any real vehicle!

Corgi gives the best impression visually but what about scales? It’s still a bit of a mix, particularly with cars and generally smaller than Dinky - when you got to the shop, it noticed. Dinky were still seen as something of a threat. Time to think outside the box again, something Corgi had already proved it was good at - more than once.

At that time there was no up-to-date range of F1 racing cars by a British manufacturer. Dinky had produced a couple, the first in 1970, a Lotus. There was something very different about this Lotus, its size. Racing cars are fairly small with quite a bit of visible detail and complex decoration. To do them justice, how about something larger? Dinky took the bold step and went for 1/32. It took two years for a Ferrari to join the Lotus, but too late, the long delay had let Corgi in. In June 1972, its first new F1 car was in the shops - No 150, a Surtees TS9.

Was 1/32 too big? Probably. If you looked at the very small print under the TS9, there for all to see was “SCALE 1/36”. Looking back, Corgi chose

wisely. Nice scale for detail, nice friendly size for a child's hand and better for the floor and garden. The two new Dinkys aside, there's no doubt that a larger scale and size suited very well. Plus, a virtually unique scale to encourage brand loyalty. Today, 1/36 is still with us – didn't Corgi do well?

From that point on, almost all new Corgi cars and smaller commercials were to the new scale. The 1973 catalogue showed five racing cars spread over two pages with the same five artistically spread over the whole of the front and rear cover. The following year, 1974, brought three more, and the first two non-F1 cars, although these were not exactly street machines. The catalogue content of

anything smaller scale decreased steadily so that the last one was in 1980, a version of the Vigilant Range Rover and that only in a set.

By then, Corgi was unstoppable in its new found scale, and 1980 brought its two largest items - an HCB/Angus Firestreak appliance and Mercedes Bonna ambulance. Its two main rivals had to do something, but only one turned out to be anything of a competitor - Matchbox. Dinky was the first to move, with two introductions in 1977

- a Volvo estate and a Princess. Their lightweight construction tended to distract from the reasonable near-1/36 scale proportions, but it is difficult now to see where Dinky was heading, It was then two years before its Rover 3500 was in the shops. The Corgi all-metal version followed some nine months later and shortly after, sadly, the one-time world's leading diecast brand from Liverpool became history.

Matchbox, with its Super Kings, was a different matter. It was no quicker off the mark than Dinky, possibly because it assumed that the new scale was just for the racing machinery - good cover story, Corgi. However, 1984 brought something as ordinary as a Citroën Dyane, and as desirable as a Jaguar XJ12. Corgi's scale was going places. A little surprisingly, one of the first Matchbox attempts at up-sizing was the XJ12, the civilian version, only available paired with a very presentable Europa caravan. Thereafter, and throughout the 1980s, there was a continuous flow of new Super Kings to bother Corgi, quite a number being of very similar vehicles.

Neither brand, though, updated its range in line with the real world. Matchbox kept many of the models in production into the 1990s, but, by that time, Corgi was more than firmly into the collector's market. Some old moulds never die - Minis come to mind, as do those of ‘star cars', the vehicles associated with films and TV. Thanks to these, the scale is not only alive and very well, but generating a new following. For instance, if there was a Capri in your family, how much nicer to have a contemporary model, perhaps the model you also remember. Corgi quite literally invented its own future with its own unique 1/36 scale.

▼ They were all at it. The Corgi XJ12, left, was one of its first street cars that, in 1974, followed the numerous F1 introductions. The ever so slightly smaller Matchbox version, next right, was its first attempt at 1/36 scale, in 1978. It tried again, a whole ten years later, with the XJ6, whilst Dinky only just made it with its ‘big cat' XJ 5.3C, in 1979, just as its brand was about become history. ▼ This is how it all started back in June 1972, the very first 1/32 scale Corgi. It was not alone for long and, by 1978, there were twelve F1 cars to chose from. This box style was on the way out, most releases soon had something larger, and some boasted unique graphics to match the model.

▼ Three more F1 cars arrived in 1974 to make eight, and the scale was now very prominent in the catalogue - as seen here with Graham Hill's Embassy Shadow.

▼ In the new big scale, British Fords did rather well. The Capri and Escort came in 1982, and an Escort van the following year. In September 1982 the real Sierra, the replacement for the Cortina, was launched in Paris and both Corgi and Matchbox must have already been aware of what was coming. Almost simultaneously, both with each other and the real car, two exact 1/36 scale versions arrived the following Spring. Corgi perhaps had the plum, with special packaging and four Ford authentic colours, whilst Matchbox, right, had the twin-spoiler XR4. Give or take the thickness of a coat of paint, they could be a matched pair.

▼ The Dinky Princess, right, was one of its first 1/36 scale products, not that there was much said about the scale at the time. It was, however, near perfect scale wise. Its Rover 3500 came two years later, and was a trifle short, whilst Corgi's 1980 version was slightly wide. On the toyshop counter, I would guess the Corgi would win hands down, if only for its hefty metal base, but, of course, dad might have a Princess.