toy owner hornby country swansea wales introduced 1956 related brands dinky husky markets worldwide previous owners mattel corgi toys trademark is the name of a range of die cast toy vehicles produced by mettoy playcraft ltd. in the united kingdom . the mettoy metal toy company was founded in 1933 by german migr philip ullmann in northampton england where he was later joined by south african born german arthur katz who had previously worked for ulmann at his toy company tipp and co of nuremberg . they decided to market a range of toy vehicles as competition to meccano s dinky toys model vehicles which had dominated the british market for many years . corgi toys were introduced in the uk in july 1956 and were manufactured in swansea wales for twenty seven years before the company went into liquidation . a management buy out re formed the company as corgi toys limited in march 1984 . in 1989 the management sold the corgi brand to mattel and the factory was retained under the name of microlink industries ltd. in 1995 corgi regained its independence as a new company corgi classics limited and moved to new premises in leicester . the range was exported worldwide and sold in large numbers . some of the best known and most popular models were of cars made famous in film and television such as the batmobile chitty chitty bang bang and james bond s aston martin db5 which remains the largest selling toy car ever produced . although the largest single vehicle type featured in the corgi toys range were models of cars from manufacturers around the world this article sub divides vehicles into genres wherever possible to allow a more detailed look at the variety of models produced by the company . contents 1 early history 2 expansion and innovation 3 road rover 4 corgi classics 5 corgi major toys 6 circus vehicle models 7 competition models 8 film and television models 8.1 1960s 8.2 1970s 9 emergency vehicle models 10 commercial vehicles models 11 agricultural vehicle models 12 military vehicle models 13 take off wheels and whizzwheels 14 corgi comics 15 corgi kits corgi cargoes accessories and catalogues 16 packaging 17 decline and demise 18 legacy 19 corgi classics limited 20 further reading 21 see also 22 references 23 external links early history edit 204 rover 90 and 205 riley pathfinder mettoy became established in northampton and within six years of the company s founding the northampton factory had 600 employees . 1 a production plant was built at fforestfach in swansea south wales to manufacture the new range of corgi toys . this provided many new jobs in an area of high unemployment following the scaling down of local coal mining operations . 2 prior to the introduction of corgi toys mettoy mainly produced tin plate toys . however in the early 1950s they began producing a few products in cast metal . the first was a large scale wind up racer made with a cast aluminum body and tin plate wheels . the body material was soon changed to die cast zinc and it was refitted with cast wheels and molded rubber tires . other models followed and the product line was given the name castoys . these were the direct ancestors of corgi toys . two models from this range are notable to corgi toys collectors . the first was a promotional karrier bantam bottle truck produced for cws soft drinks but not otherwise released . the second was a die cast service ramp used in a tin plate service station set . both of these models would later reappear in slightly revised forms as corgi toys 455 and 1401 . 3 305 triumph tr3 the name corgi toys was chosen by philip ullmann in honour of the company s new home taken from the welsh breed of dog the corgi and the iconic corgi dog logo branded the new range . the name was short and easy to remember further aligning the range with their rival dinky toys . corgi toys also included plastic glazing 4 which lent the models a greater authenticity and they carried the advertising slogan the ones with windows . the 1956 releases were all familiar british vehicles . six family saloon cars ; ford consul 200 200m austin a50 cambridge 201 201m morris cowley 202 202m vauxhall velox 203 203m rover 90 204 204 m riley pathfinder 205 205m and hillman husky 206 206m 4 and two sports cars ; austin healey 100 300 and triumph tr2 301 . initially all models were issued in free rolling form or with friction drive motors with the exception of the heavy commercials which would have been too bulky and the sports cars whose low slung bodies would not be able to accommodate the motors . the mechanical versions as they were known were indicated by an m suffix to the model number and were available in different colour schemes . they were issued with tougher die cast bases to support the extra weight of the motor and in far fewer numbers . mechanical versions did not sell particularly well partly due to a significantly higher purchase price and were phased out in 1960 with ford thunderbird 214m the last of the line . the die cast baseplates were expanded across the range to replace the original tin plate at the same time . today they are considered more collectable because of their relative rarity . expansion and innovation edit 309 aston martin db4 competition model british cars dominated the releases over the next few years reflecting the company s concentration on the home market but by 1957 new markets were being explored and the first european car to be modelled was the citro n ds19 210 issued in december of that year . the first american car the studebaker golden hawk 211 211m was released in february 1958 and by the early 1960s the corgi range was being exported widely finding particular popularity in europe australia canada the united states of america and areas of southeast asia such as singapore malaysia and hong kong and gradually more foreign vehicles were included to appeal to these new markets . 241 ghia l6 .4 models were issued on a monthly basis and the range grew quickly to include vehicles of all types . gradually the models became more sophisticated with the addition of such features as glidamatic spring suspension and a detailed interior on the renault floride 222 in october 1959 and the fibre optic style trans o lite illuminating lights system first seen on the superior ambulance on cadillac chassis 437 in october 1962 . the early type of interior which was known as vac formed was produced by stretching a thin sheet of acetate over a mould by means of a vacuum and lasted for three years until being replaced by the crisper more detailed injection moulded type first seen in the thames airborne caravan 420 in february 1962 . the corgi design team came up with the first model with an opening feature in february 1960 the aston martin db4 218 which had an opening bonnet . steerable front wheels jewelled headlights and rear lights and an opening boot complete with spare wheel were added on the bentley continental sports saloon 224 in april 1961 and by october 1963 with the release of the ghia l6 .4 241 new levels of authenticity were reached . this model featured a number of firsts with not only an opening bonnet but also opening doors and boot and a detailed interior with a rear view mirror folding front seats and even a model corgi dog sitting on the rear parcel shelf . at introduction the ghia sold for eight shillings and sixpence and even at this relatively high price around 1.7 million were sold before being withdrawn in 1969 . by contrast only twenty five examples of the real car were completed . 5 in 1964 mettoy introduced a range of smaller scale vehicles called husky toys . these retailed at a lower retail price than the larger corgi toys and competed with matchbox toys . road rover edit early in the company s history corgi toys became embroiled in a minor controversy . the corgi design team had been working closely with the rover car company with a view to producing a model of the road rover a new car which was being developed by rover . this was to be a two wheel drive two door estate car 6 with a greater level of luxury than the existing land rover . unfortunately the project was cancelled during 1958 and the idea would not reach fruition until the release of the iconic range rover in 1970 . meanwhile corgi had got as far as producing several pre production examples of the stillborn car after receiving drawings from rover as early as february 1957 and had planned to issue the model which carried the article number 212 to coincide with the real vehicle s launch . to maintain secrecy within the factory and amongst out sourced producers during the design of the pre production models two baseplate moulds were made one carrying the inscription rover 90 and the other for a mythical car called road hawk . the half of the baseplate carrying both 90 and the word hawk were then machined off and the remaining halves featuring words road and rover combined to produce the road rover baseplate . only six examples were finished making this the rarest of all corgi toys products . the only known existing example from corgi s head designer marcel van cleemput s personal collection was sold during the 1990s . corgi classics edit in 1964 corgi diversified into the adult collector market and released a range of highly detailed models of vintage cars called corgi classics . although superior in detail to lesney s matchbox models of yesteryear they were comparatively expensive and met with mixed success . initial releases were a 1927 bentley finished in green 9001 or red 9002 an open 1915 ford model t coloured black 9011 and a version finished in blue with the hood raised 9013 a 1910 daimler 38 finished in red 9021 and a 1911 renault 12 16 finished in lavender 9031 or pale yellow 9032 . two years later a 1912 rolls royce silver ghost coloured silver 9041 was added to the range which was updated in 1970 to feature american tv stars the hardy boys discussed later in this article . a ford model t van in lyons tea livery 9014 appeared in the 1967 corgi catalogue but was never released . the corgi classics range had been discontinued by 1969 although the name was later revived for a range of adult collectable models in the 1980s . corgi major toys edit following the success of the dinky supertoys range of die cast trucks corgi decided to launch a range of heavy commercial vehicles in october 1957 with the release of the carrimore car transporter 1101 featuring a bedford s type tractor unit with full glazing in keeping with the rest of the corgi range and the company s first gift set including the carrimore car transporter and four cars gs1 ; austin cambridge 201 jaguar 2.4 208 austin healey 300 and mga 302 in time for the christmas market in december 1957 . early models in the new corgi major range were issued in sturdy two piece boxes featuring the blue and yellow colour scheme that had recently been adopted across the entire corgi range later models in the 1960s using clear fronted packaging in line with the rest of the corgi toys range . the carrimore low loader 1100 was the next release in april 1958 which was a low loader trailer attached to the bedford cab and was followed by the similar machinery carrier low loader 1104