Size Matters part 24

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

Brian Salter continues his series discovering scale origins.

In any discussion about the scales of classic diecast cars, the question will, sooner or later, arise as to why Corgi chose such a vast variety of scales for its earlier cars.This is going to be a dangerously simplified version of events, events that preceded the event and set Corgi’s standard for many years.

Marcel R. van Cleemput’s Great Book of Corgi gives chapter and verse on the subject and starts with the obvious - the fact that the company first looked at what Dinky did and, to quote Marcel,“it soon became apparent that no logical scale existed between one model and another” and that “the scale and sizes of models were all over the place”. This is patently untrue of Dinky - Matchbox yes, Dinky no. Certainly Dinky used a number of scales but most were clearly defined for use by different types of vehicles.

In this context, Corgi was thinking ahead about models of passenger cars and small commercials, the backbone of its first introductions. In this department, Dinky actually only used two scales – 1/45 for the majority of issues, mainly British marques, and 1/48 for larger ones, mainly American.As explained in the ‘Great Book’ there were technical issues to consider, particularly costs and mould sizes.What Corgi ended up with was no less than 12 scales between and including 1/40 to 1/55. How could this have happened?

What was devised was a graph to determine the size of a model (and hence its scale) from the overall length of the actual vehicle. Up to a point, it did its job quite well - in fact in many instances

the resulting scales were very similar to Dinky, but at the extremes the effect must have had a few folk wondering. Most of course will not have cared a jot, will have been overjoyed at the new products and the fact that the soon to appear Major Toys were to be in the exact same scale as many of Dinky’s Supertoys.

The Corgi scheme of everything in proportion (but varied in scale) was still visible in part right up to (and even beyond) the appearance of its first 1/36 scale model in 1973. However, to be fair, many more recent issues had, by that time, been very close to 1/43. Dinky, in the passenger car market, had kept to its two chosen scales until just after its first 1/42 scale (i.e. Spot-on scale) introduction in 1963. In its own way,Tri-ang’s Spot-on brought some stability to the market, at least for cars, until Corgi eventually decided to ‘go large’. DC

▲ The Mini and Mercedes Pullman look just as bad as the Fiat and the Cadillac, even though closer in scales at 1/43 and 1/52. It has to be asked, was the variety of scales taken too far, even in the unreal world of early 1960s toys?

▲ The Fiat Jolly and the ambulance are the two extremes at 1/40 and 1/54.

The extreme range of smaller vehicle scales produced by Corgi’s graph of variable sizes. From the left, we have its 1963 Fiat Jolly at 1/40, a 1960 Ford Zephyr estate at 1/46, a 1/50 Bentley Continental of 1961, with the 1962 1/54 Cadillac Superior ambulance as the largest vehicle and, therefore, the smallest scale. They sort of look okay, as long as you look along the line slowly.

▲ One thing about Land Rover models, is it’s so easy to check the scales - just use the vertical and flat lower body panel width. The Corgi, centre, is in the Great Book at 1/46, and so it is, correct to the graph as well. It is so close to the 1/48 used for the larger commercials as not to matter. To prove the point, here is a true 1/48 Land Rover Royal Mail recovery vehicle, by Roxley Models, just 1.5 mm wider. To complete the picture, on the other side is a Dinky conversion in BT livery at 1/42 scale.

▲ The original seven cars in the Corgi range did sit together quite well, just don`t dwell too long on the Hillman Husky, (centre). It looks larger, it is. The real vehicle was based on the Hillman Minx up front, but much shorter overall. Corgi used just the lengths of the real vehicles to decide a model’s scale and length, need one say more. Enter one Husky on steroids and a wide smile up front.

▲ The graph, courtesy of the ‘Great Book’. Along the bottom we have the length of the real cars in inches. Up the left, in decimals of an inch, are the lengths of the resulting models - the scale being determined by the vertical line and its crossing of the main diagonal projection. Simple, maybe not, but a great bit of drawing office work that did what was asked of it, at least most of the time.

▲ Both Corgi and Dinky issued their earlier Superior Cadillac ambulances in 1962. The Dinky, centre, having the distinct advantage over Corgi’s graph-induced smaller 1/54 scale. In 1971, when Dinky really did ‘go large’, both brands still had remnants of their smaller scale ranges in the catalogues.