A Tale of Two Corvettes

 I'm shifting gears a little bit this week and bringing you a couple of Corgi cars with a story. Many years ago, in 1967, my mom (or maybe grandmother) bought a Corgi 337, Custom Corvette for me from Sanger Harris department store in North Park Mall in Dallas. This was the only place that I knew of to get the British made toys, and I remember looking at their tall, white illuminated case to pick out which model I wanted. After you selected, the salesperson would open the bottom of the case and pull out the car for you. All very classy for a five year old!

Here is the car that I selected- still with me after all these years.. 

This four inch long model had actually been released a few years before this run, with more conservative colors and no markings. The car is actually a 1963 model Corvette.

However, Corgi re-released it in bright yellow with crazy decals to appeal to race car crazy kids. 

The base of the car tells you all you really need to know.. 

Side one...

...and side two. There actually were race car numbers on the sides, but the decals became so tattered over the years that I scraped them off about 30 years ago. Something I would NEVER do now!

Also (although it's hard to see) one side of the plastic bumper is broken off due to a race related collision with...well, probably a piece of furniture.

Now that would be the end of the story, except that around 20 years ago I happened to be car shopping in my local Good Will Store and found this...

Yep, ANOTHER Corgi Custom Corvette #337! Now, these aren't exactly hen's teeth, but they're not common either. It was priced at their then standard price of 50 cents a car! Let's look closer, shall we?

The bottom has better paint...

The decals are in better shape. Heck, it still has it's racing numbers!

The other side...

And the bumper isn't broken either!

Here they are together!

Pretty slick, huh?

Here we are looking straight down on them. By the way, most collectors call this model either 337 (the official number) or "Lazy Bones" due to the decal on the back.

So now I have two. I love both of them for different reasons. The newer (to me) car because of its condition, and the original car because it's been with me so long. So, I display them side by side. Two Corvettes and one story!

Until next time, keep searching for treasure!