Take Off Wheels and Whizzwheels

By the late sixties the British toy car market had changed with the arrival from the U.S. of Mattel's Hot Wheels range and their associated track sets. Sales of Corgi Toys began to fall away and matters were not helped by a disastrous fire at the Swansea factory in March 1969 which destroyed a warehouse full of models awaiting delivery. Even one of the company's cleverest innovations the Golden Jacks 'Take Off Wheels' system which first appeared in March 1968 did little to halt the slide. The authentically detailed die-cast wheels fitted to these models were unique to each model, with the exception of the Oldsmobile Toronado and the Chevrolet Camaro which shared a wheel design, and were attached to the axle by means of the 'Golden Jacks' – die-cast golden metal stands, which when folded downwards both released the wheel and supported the model. Only seven models were produced with this feature.

The Mini Marcos was a fibre glass bodied coupe produced by the specialist British sports car manufacturer Marcos and was built on the Austin/Morris Mini chassis and fitted with a highly tuned Mini engine. The Corgi model Mini Marcos GT850 (341), finished in metallic red, was the first in the series of Take Off Wheels models and was introduced in March 1968. The Rover 2000 TC (275) issued a month later in April 1968 and finished in metallic green was a new casting despite Corgi having previously issued a model of the Rover 2000, and was fitted with a clear roof panel as featured on a Rover 2000 displayed on the Triplex stand at the 1965 Earls Court Motor Show, and a plastic spare wheel holder attached to the boot lid which was a popular period extra. A rare version finished in white with a red interior also exists.

The Oldsmobile Toronado (276) released in June 1968 was an updated version of the earlier 1967 Corgi release of the same model but re-coloured metallic red or metallic yellow, but the metallic gold coloured Chevrolet Camaro SS350 (338) issued in August 1968 was a new model of one of the latest generation 'pony' cars from America. The previously mentioned 1968 London to Sydney Marathon winning Hillman Hunter rally car (302) was issued in July 1969 and was finished in the blue and white of the original. The Rolls Royce Silver Shadow Mulliner Park Ward Coupe (273), finished in pearlescent white over grey, was issued in March 1970. A rare version of this model was released in silver over metallic blue which was used as the colour scheme for the later Whizzwheels version. The Chevrolet Corvette Sting Ray (300) with detachable roof panels, released in April 1970, was the last of this short-lived line. This model was available in chromed red or green finish. Spare Take Off Wheels were available separately in packs of twelve.

Low friction wheels known as 'Whizzwheels' were introduced to keep up with the competition in September 1969 with the Ferrari 206 Dino Sports (344) finished in either red and white or yellow and black. The first incarnation (known to collectors as 'Red Spots') featured rubber tyres and brass hubs with low friction red nylon centres, which though attractive and effective, were expensive to produce and were soon replaced by plastic wheels. Although giving more 'play value', later Whizzwheels models are less popular with collectors today as they take away some of the character and realism of the earlier regular wheeled models fitted with rubber tyres. Models fitted with the short-lived 'Red Spot' Whizzwheels, however, have become highly collectable, particularly extremely rare versions which were specially manufactured to be used as examples of the new gimick by Corgi's sales team.

Every Corgi collector knows that Corgi was not going to be the same anymore when the dreaded Whizzwheels arrived.

Corgi was so eager to change to the new thing Whizzwheels that they revamped three models destined for Take off Wheels to Whizzwheels.

These were the 342 Lamborghini Miura and the 344 Ferrari Dino and the 343 Pontiac Firebird.

These models were actually ready for production and were made for the range of Golden Jacks Take off Wheels, a beautiful system with little levers, jacks, to release the wheel so kids could take wheels on and off. These wheels were very lifelike.

These two models had already their boxes printed, showing the Take off Wheels. So Corgi hastily adapted the chassis to accept the Whizzwheels. They covered the Golden Jacks text with a flimsy sticker introducing the Whizzwheels.

But under the hood of the Miura was a spare wheel and that still was a Take off Wheel.

The early Whizzwheels had the ‘Red Spot” hub centers.

Corgi use the Whizzwheels with the ‘’Red Spot” hub centers between 1968 and 1970 only on the Corgi 344 Ferrari 206 Dino Sport, Corgi 347 Chevrolet Astro 1, Corgi 343 Pontiac Firebird ,Corgi 280 Rolls Royce Silver Shadow , Corgi 303 Roger Clarks Ford Capri V6, Corgi 311 Ford Capri ...

The few existing “‘Red Spot” would soon all make obsolete by the new, all plastic wheels, to be available very shortly.

Corgi 344 Ferrari 206 Dino Sport : although this had already been featured in the catalogues as a “take-off-wheel” model, this never materialized and due to pressures from the competition “free-running” models, Corgi worked hard to keep up. The Dino, therefore was changed over at the last minute and became the first Whizzwheels model to appear in the Corgi range. The early Whizzwheels had the ‘Red Spot” hub centers.

Corgi 347 Chevrolet Astro 1 : this car was the second models to be fitted with Whizzwheels “‘Red Spot”.

Corgi 343 Pontiac Firebird : this model was due for release in late 1969 when it would have been a “Red Spot”. However, the few existing “‘Red Spot” would soon all made obsolete by the new, all plastic wheels, to be available very shortly.

Corgi 280 Rolls Royce was the conversion to Whizzwheels of the 273 which had “take-off-wheels” for a very short time indeed.

Corgi 273 / 280 Rolls Royce Silver Shadow
1970-71
1970-1978

So, maybe - just maybe - these were made by Corgi workers for themselves, using the original Corgi machines (for riveting etc). This could be possible, and maybe those obscure red spot variations that sometimes appear on ebay (like the Marcos 3-Litre, Iso Grifo, Toyota 2000 GT) are not "fakes" but were really made in the Corgi factory privately by employees.

But this would still not make them authentic Corgi releases, and I doubt that such cars would become available in a toy store.

Corgi was the leader in the diecast industry until 1967, but with the new 'hotwheels' (1968) on the market with the really fast running wheels and attractive candy colors,corgi had to respond quickly and soon came the whizzwheels (september 1969) with the 344 Ferrari Dino and 347 Chevy Astro and the last one Pontiac firebird (january 1970) was the really first models to carry first whizzwheels gold hub red dot with black axle to the wheels.

The pontiac firebird was the first model produced in 1970 and the last car to carry black axle wire to the wheels and was the only model who can relate this transition from black axle wire to carry later standard chrome axle to the wheel as for the 311 and 303 Ford Capri (the last model to have gold hub originaly release by the corgi factory).

Models who came later with red dot and gold hub was employee factory.

Corgi's employee doesn't like the new plastic whizzwheels (was uggly) and made for themselves or for dealers sale exibit,other later corgi models with the earlier gold hub red dot whizzwheels was made by employee with the original corgi tooling.

Some guy there had previously shown how to remove red spots and re-attach to a Whizzwheels model without taking off the baseplate. Other mint Whizzwheel Corgis with the red spots have shown up on ebay lately as well. Please Beware!

They were all called Whizzwheels. Just the early ones had the red dot ones.

These are not easy to reproduce as the wheels are metal and the red dot is a nylon insert. The bigger tires, like the Batmobile, are available as replacements, but the smaller ones, like front wheels of some models, are not. I asked the tire man in Holland and he said it was to expensive to make a new mold.

However there are lots of wrecks where you can take those wheels off.

I would not pay huge amounts for some "special" models with red dots, like that Corvette which is on Ebay now. They are indeed easy to swap.

The Astro did come originally with Red Spot Wheels, so did the early Ferrari Dino, Pontiac Firebird and that is it I believe. But in that period who is to say they did not use them up to complete an order? So don't be to excited about them, eventhough they are attractive and preferred over the later ones.