From the editor's collection
Never lost for things to talk about, Rick Wilson shares another selection from his collection.
Corgi's Power Blaster Speedset.
Ihave a confession - I’m a bit of a hoarder of diecast-related track sets. I was going to say that it all started with Matchbox Superfast in 1970, but then I remembered that I had a Matchbox Motorway set the year before. If you’ll pardon the pun, the die was well and truly cast back then.
Over the years, I’ve somehow acquired quite a bit of the Superfast track and related accessories, reliving the hours and hours spent in the early '70s. In more recent years, Corgi Rockets sets have begun to appear in Wilson’s World then, in 2019, I stumbled across a good quantity of the Texaco Scorchers offerings (I’ve been meaning to write an article about that ever since - its coming soon). But one set that never even appeared on my youthful radar, for some reason, until now, was the short-lived Corgi Whizztrack range.
Hot on the heels of the early success of the Corgi Rockets track series, introduced in 1970, which had been awarded the Toy of the Year Award in early 1971, this new, larger version allowed most of the larger Corgi Whizzwheels cars to race on its wider track.Announced to the world on page 11 of the 1971 catalogue as being “Available later”, this new system was designed to take full advantage of the new Whizzwheels that were gradually replacing the existing more realistic, but inefficient, wheels.
Cleverly, the new system incorporated some of the parts used in the Rockets sets to make it more cost effective, such as the conical ‘stone’ track supports, but there were still plenty of new bits to get excited about.Three simple track
packs (A750, A751 and A752) were introduced, of varying lengths, a simple Autostart gate (A760) could be attached to the start of these, then there was the A761 Power Blaster as an alternative that really sent the cars off with a boost.The latter came with Crash Stop - elasticated gates that slowed the cars down gradually, in an attempt to save both cars and furniture legs or skirting boards from making acquaintance with one another.There was even a clever finishing gate, A762 Windicator, to declare a winner if two tracks were run simultaneously.
Top of the range were two special sets – A772 Drag Strip Special and the one that concerns us here, the awesome A771 Power Blaster Racing Speedset. Priced at an incredible £5.00 (Drag Strip Special was £2.00), this set had it all – two Power Blasters, two 14ft lengths of wide blue track, three conical loop support towers with brackets, a Windicator, and two Crash Stops – there were even adaptors for use with Rockets track in the box as well.The set also included two of the new Whizzwheels-clad cars that had been released in 1970 – No 380 Alfa Romeo Pininfarina P33, in white, and No 384 Adams Brothers Probe, in metallic gold. Both cars were adorned with special stripe stickers, unique to this set.
I managed to pick this beauty up towards the end of last year, paying just £50 for it on ebay. The box is in great condition, although there is a slight tear to one end and an inner flap is missing, but the artwork front and back is still stunning. Inside, all the contents were still there, showing very little use.The Adams Probe has a few minor chips to the leading edge, but the cars are otherwise superb, and the set-specific body stripe stickers are in excellent condition on both.The track is still supple and even the elastic bands are still in good, unperished condition – it’s a proper timewarp piece!
So, all that remains to do now, is fill those conical track supports (the back of the box suggests sand and water, earth and water, or just water), connect everything together, and start blasting away.This looks such fun - I might be some time… DC