New Capri exclusive is a Drivetribe event delight

Welcome to the latest edition of Corgi Die-cast Diaries, your regular blog review of all the news, updates and topical stories from the captivating world of Corgi die-cast model collecting.

It’s Corgi range launch week again, and that being the case, our headline announcement for this latest edition or DCD is something of a collector call to action, encouraging everyone to head straight to the Corgi website, where all the new models unveiled in the new September to December 2025 range await discovery. Obviously, we will be taking a much closer look at all the new model announcements in forthcoming editions of the blog, but as we all know, there’s no substitute for going and having a look first hand for ourselves.

In this latest edition, we begin by giving readers an exclusive preview of one of the new models included in our final range launch for 2025, a model which actually made a surprise public debut at last weekend’s Drivetribe LIVE event at Bicester Motion. We will have a selection of exclusive images taken at that debut event in this week’s update.

Aviation Archive fans will be interested to hear that we also have more exclusive images from our newly tooled Messerschmitt Me 410 Hornisse to bring you in this edition, ones which show the impact of some decoration ‘finessing’ we’ve been working on with our manufacturing partner, work which we’re all rather pleased with. We will be ending with Ford’s fabulous Capri once again, this time with the latest recent addition to our Limited Edition Collector set series, as our new Ford Heritage Capri Collection is placed under our review spotlight.

So, for the third and final time this year, it’s a case of exclusive images and a new range of Corgi models to admire in this latest instalment of Corgi Die-cast Diaries.

Corgi Capri steals the show at Drivetribe Live

A surprise addition to the Vanguards range was introduced to collectors at the recent Drivetribe Live event.

It’s been quite some time since Corgi model collectors have had the opportunity to pick up a previously un-announced new model at one of our roadshow events, however, we’re pleased to report that last Saturday’s Drivetribe Live event at Bicester Motion has now addressed that situation. Something the team have been working on for quite some time now, our September to December 2025 range includes our scale Vanguards tribute to a car which enjoyed something of an African adventure in helping to bring a much loved motoring TV series to a close. The car is owned by The Smallest Cog supremo Richard Hammond, and is now back safely under his care, Ford Capri Mk.I 3.0 GXL VGH 567M.

This Daytona Yellow beast of a car has become quite the motoring celebrity since its on-screen debut, so much so that we felt we had to make a scale die-cast representation of it, and whilst this will be forming part of our soon to be announced September – December 2025 range, where it will be available for pre-order, those in attendance at the Drivetribe live event had the opportunity to get their hands on one before anyone else in the world!

In support of our show attendance, we arranged to have a small consignment of these new models air freighted over as a show exclusive, something which was made all the more impactful by the fact that the real car which inspired its creation, was positioned next to our display for the duration of the event, standing guard over our exclusive models of its miniature self. As you can imagine, both versions proved incredibly popular on the day of the show, and not many models were left to make the journey back to our Margate HQ.

Although now a centre of motoring excellence, the site at Bicester can trace its heritage back to the training of RAF pilots and aircrew.  

Our events team headed for this event at the former RAF airfield at Bicester from opposite ends of the country, each of us excited to be taking part in this one day event which has proved popular with motoring enthusiasts over the past few years. I was heading down from the Northwest, expecting the M6 to be masquerading as a huge car park at some point, whilst the rest of the team were expecting the journey from our Margat HQ to take them less than three hours. As it turned out, accidents, temporary road closures and a biblical storm all dictated that their journey actually took well over six hours, leaving me to discover the delights of this former RAF airfield on my own.

Having liaised with the organisers and confirmed our pitch for the show, I couldn’t resist engaging in a little airfield discovery, as this was the first time I had ever been there, but was also in position to document the arrival of our star vehicle attraction for show day. Unfortunately, as the traffic woes of the HQ team were unfolding, it required some slight rescheduling with regard to arrival and unloading arrangements, so I missed the actual unloading of the Capri, however, I did manage to grab a few pictures of its arrival, a selection of which are included here.

In the end, we were able to make it before the site closed for the day, and in addition to unloading, made a good start on dressing our display, which certainly made things a little easier the following morning. 

The arrival of our Capri celebrity. The only thing we needed to check now was that it was pleased with our scale die-cast model representation of her.

Real versus Corgi. Visitors to the Drivetribe event were in for quite a surprise when visiting the Corgi display.

Sorry, we just couldn’t resist.

On the morning of the show, we arranged our display to include the show exclusive Capri model front and centre, and as details of its availability were kindly announced by Mr Hammond during his show welcome address, early business was brisk to say the least, with a queue of collector customers appearing to go on forever – how did we get through that early rush! You know what they say, ‘everyone loves a Capri’, and everyone certainly appeared to be rather taken with this one!  

The event itself appeared to be a real success for its organisers, and was certainly enjoyable for us to attend, with everything held together by the engaging personalities of the Drivetribe team. If you have yet to attend one of these shows, why not give it a try next year, because we’re sure you won’t be disappointed.

Underlining the fact that we all had a good time, in what seemed like no time at all, the closing address was made on the main stage, and it was time to start packing up, but not before spending a few quality moments with our famous Capri guardian for the day. Although still sporting some of the sand she picked up during her African adventure, she really did appear to have enjoyed all the attention, and having several of the new scale tributes of her placed about her bodywork.

VA13319 – Ford Capri Mk.I 3.0 GXL in Daytona Yellow

The Capri modelled here was built in September 1973, making it one of the last 3-litre GXLs produced at Dagenham before production of the Mk1 ceased; the Mk2 Capri would be launched in February 1974, but actually entered production sometime before then so that dealers had stock on the launch day. This car was not registered until February 1974, so was probably displayed in a showroom for some time to attract footfall, something for which its top specification and eye-catching colour made it eminently suitable. In August 1999, it was purchased by its fourth owner who, like all three previous keepers, was based in Essex, lifelong Capri enthusiast, Ray Cross.

The new Smallest Cog Capri will be included in our impending September to December 2025 range launch.

Ray bought the car partially restored and finished it in April 2000. He enjoyed taking it to classic car events and won Best Ford at a rally in Chigwell in 2002. Unfortunately, coming out of Brands Hatch in the summer of 2004, another car drove into the nearside rear. Instead of just repairing the damaged area Ray stripped the whole Capri for a bare metal respray that was completed in 2006. Sadly, his circumstances changed, and it remained unfinished until he, reluctantly, decided to sell it in May 2023 because he was about to lose access to its garage. It was purchased by TV presenter and proprietor of The Smallest Cog, Richard Hammond, who modified it and took it on a grand African adventure.

As mentioned previously, this beautiful new model will be included in this Friday’s September – December range launch, and as such, will be available for pre-order from 10 am this Friday morning. The model itself should be in our warehouse early next month, but as always, please keen an eye on the Corgi website for the latest availability information.

Prepare to feel the sting of the Hornisse

One of the huge benefits of bringing our readers regular updates through the medium of our fortnightly blogs, has been the ability to chart the development of the new model tooling additions to the legacy Corgi range. Whilst this doesn’t exactly occur in real time, it does allow us to be so much more transparent that used to be the case with our beloved brand, allowing our readers to share in our excitement as these projects make their way towards eventual initial release.

Although we can sometimes be a little nervous about showing images of projects which are still very much in development, and still subject to change before we’re happy to sign them off for production, we know that this approach is understood and enjoyed by our audience, with only a handful of people ever making comments about issues which have already been highlighted and are being addressed.

For Aviation Archive fans, the impending arrival of the new Messerschmitt Me 410 Hornisse model is definitely a cause for celebration, the latest addition to our popular 1/72nd scale WWII Luftwaffe aircraft series, and a type which has to be regarded as one of the most attractive (if more than a little sinister) types to take part in the aerial duels of the Second World War.

Already this year, DCD had brought readers an exclusive first look at the metal engineering sample of this impressive new tooling, followed just a couple of editions ago by a look at the pre-production sample model, which made its public debut during our attendance at this year’s Royal International Air Tattoo. Since then, this beautiful new model has attracted even more pre-ordering activity, and we already know that many a die-cast aircraft collection will be welcoming an example of this distinctive aircraft into its ranks over the coming weeks.

An exclusive first look at the latest production sample of a model which is destined to be a welcome addition to the Aviation Archive range.

One of the researcher comments received after he’d had the chance to inspect the pre-production sample model concerned the representation of the camouflage mottling decoration applied to the model, and whether it would be possible to improve this slightly. As any modeller will tell you, the representation of WWII Luftwaffe camouflage can be the subject of some debate, and as much of this detailing was added to aircraft in the field, and by hand on a unit to unit basis, its representation is always open to interpretation.

That being said, the Aviation Archive range has always attempted to replicate this type of detailing when producing what is now a long line of successful Luftwaffe related model releases, with some efforts being better than others, if we’re being honest with ourselves. For the new Messerschmitt Me410 Hornisse, we wanted to challenge the manufacturing facility to try something a little different when finishing this model, softening the edges or each individual camouflage mottle, even though this detail is added by hand during the decoration stage.

It has to be remembered that the production of our models relies on a significant amount of human dexterity and how it could even be argued that each and every model is a unique piece of handmade collectability, but nevertheless, they took on the challenge, and we’re delighted with what they managed to do. With a much more subtle representation of this detailing, we can’t wait for the new Messerschmitt Me 410 to join the Aviation Archive ranks, and can almost hear the rasp of the Daimler-Benz DB 603A engines approaching.

Messerschmitt Me 410A-1/U4 , W.Nr 429263 / 3U+EN, Oblt Friedrich ‘Fritz’ Stehle, 5./ZG26, Hildesheim, Germany, 6th March 1944, Defence of the Reich, Luftwaffe Bomber killer operations.

The culmination of Germany’s vaunted ‘Destroyer’ concept, the Messerschmitt Me 410 was the intended successor of the Messerschmitt Bf 110 heavy fighter, and despite entering service almost two years late, was arguably the Luftwaffe aircraft which most closely matched Britain’s magnificent de Havilland Mosquito in terms of role and performance. Unquestionably one of the most interesting aircraft of WWII in appearance terms, the Me 410 was a true multi-role aircraft, and could be adapted to perform a number of offensive roles, including that of heavy bomber killer. Equipped with the mighty Rheinmetall manufactured BK-5 autocannon which protruded from the nose of the fighter, this weapon was a development of the 50mm Kampfwagenkanone anti-tank gun found in Panzer III tanks. 

With 21 shells housed in a magazine in the weapons bay of the fighter and a shell already loaded in the breach ready to fire, the pilot could usually only rely on one round being fired, before this temperamental system jammed, leaving just reduced standard armament to be used during the sortie. A single, well-aimed shell did possess the destructive power to easily bring down an Allied bomber and could be fired at ranges where the attacking Luftwaffe aircraft were effectively impervious to the wall of return fire put up by the bomber stream, however, the additional weight and drag caused by using this powerful gun made the Me 410 incredibly vulnerable to marauding Allied fighters.

The prototype Messerschmitt Me 410 made its first flight during the Spring of 1942, and immediately showed itself to be a much more capable aircraft than its predecessor, essentially the Zerstörer the Luftwaffe had been hoping to introduce two years previously. Now given the name Hornisse (Hornet), they were hoping the new heavy fighter would stir up a storm in the air, and like its predecessor, was ordered in large numbers not long after the flight of the prototype and even attracting the same priority production status.

We’re not going to have to wait long before being in a position to include this beautiful new Messerschmitt Me 410 model in our Aviation Archive collections.

From the outset, even though the first aircraft were produced as Schellbombers (fast bombers), it could easily be argued that the Messerschmitt Me 410 was a true multi-role aircraft, one capable of performing a variety of different tasks effectively, with flexibility intentionally built into its overall design. Could it even be suggested this was the closest the Germans ever came to producing an equivalent to the British de Havilland Mosquito they hated and admired so much?

With its ventral weapons bay which featured in the nose of the aircraft, the Messerschmitt Me 410 could be configured to perform a multitude of operational tasks, with fast bomber and heavy fighter being its primary roles, but with others such as night fighter, intruder, reconnaissance, bomber killer, torpedo bomber, dive bomber, long range/maritime strike and training roles all eventually being undertaken. In fact, something of a design industry was to grow around the concepting of proposed future variants of the Me 410 throughout its service life, even though it entered service two years later than initially anticipated.

Although developed as a Schnellbomber, many of the first Me 410s entering service were used in nightfighter/intruder or reconnaissance roles, however, it didn't take crews long to discover that this was a much better aeroplane that its predecessor, as it was welcomed into widespread service. Unfortunately, with the aircraft entering service two years later than initially anticipated, the Hornisse would have to contend with much stronger Allied air opposition, and their latest aircraft which were much more capable than the ones it would have faced had its introduction come in 1941, as intended.

A stunning new addition to the Aviation Archive range, we expect our first Messerschmitt Me 410 Hornisse release to be in our warehouse towards the middle of the month.

Ford’s Capri – For the love of driving

If there’s one thing that could possibly be better than a brand new Vanguards scale model example of a Ford Capri, surely that would be the arrival of a new collectors set containing THREE new Capri models, and that’s exactly what we have to tell you about here. A set we also had on our display stand at the Drivetribe Live event last weekend, our new VC01303 Ford Heritage Capri Collection has just arrived in our warehouse and is now marked as available for those who haven’t already pre-ordered it.

Those people who have been fortunate enough to have had a Capri in their lives will be quick to tell you that this is a relationship that never grows old, and no matter how the motoring industry evolves, the sight of a Ford Capri will always have you ignoring every other car you pass, until you have your chance to get up close and personal, and pay your respects to this icon of the motoring world.  

The Ford Capri project actually started life as the intended European release equivalent of the hugely successful Mustang Mk.I introduced by its American parent company, and was first unveiled to the motoring world at the end of the 1960s. The spectacular success of the Mustang took Ford officials by surprise and clearly highlighted an appetite for mass-market cars which offered something more than just functional motoring. At that time here in the UK, Ford could only claim the Lotus Cortina as anything resembling a sporty model, with the rest of the range being manufactured for the masses, dare we even suggest lacking in excitement somewhat.

The new US inspired model was intended to change all that, a racy looking car with a sporty image, but one which was within the reach of large sections of the population. Just like the Mustang did in the US, the Capri utilised many existing components used in the production of other cars in the Ford range, but cleverly wrapped them all up in a beautifully stylish coupé bodyshell. You could even argue that by adopting this production ethos, the Capri was almost guaranteed to be a motoring success, but what a success it would become.

With a clever combination of stunning good looks, clever marketing and keen pricing, the Capri became an instant motoring success, Britain’s first genuine ‘Pony Car’, and one which was destined to produce motoring connection with millions, a relationship which endures to this day.

VC01303 – Ford Heritage Capri Collection

This collection celebrates three Capris, one from each generation, that form part of Ford’s impressive Heritage Collection in Daventry. The Capri has a unique place in British culture and remains in the nation’s collective consciousness today. It was the ultimate, attainable, glamorous coupe, with the looks and pace-setting performance you always promised yourself, but similar running costs to the Cortinas and Granadas it shared components with.

 
VA13316 – Ford Capri Mk.I 3.0 GXL Ferguson Formula 4x4 in British Racing Green.

Ford’s Competitions Manager, Henry Taylor, commissioned two four-wheel drive V6 Capris from Harry Ferguson Research (HFR) in 1968 to compete in rallycross. Once developed, a number were made for private customers, including the car modelled. It was built for Swiss-resident, and well-known gentleman racing driver, Hilton Johnson, in 1973 and featured Mullard electronic antiskid brakes and a Broadspeed-built engine as well as HFR’s 4x4 system. The current owner, Mark Wheatley, purchased it in 1981 and used it regularly before loaning it to Ford Heritage in 1989. Except for a colour change from Fern Green to BRG in 1981, it remains original and is now on loan to the British Motor Museum at Gaydon where it is displayed.

VA15408 – Ford Capri Mk.2 1.6L in Miami Blue

The Mk2 modelled was purchased new by Surrey-based Mrs Streeter in February 1977. She looked after it fastidiously, keeping it garaged, but covered less than 25,000 miles before writing to the Heritage Collection in June 2005 offering to donate it. Her charming letter said, ‘I feel my car should go to somewhere it would be appreciated and continue to be looked after rather than selling it to someone who would not love and care for it as much as I have.’ It has since starred at many classic car events and featured in Autocar, when Steve Cropley used it for an article about beating the ULEZ charge in classic cars.

VA10827 – Ford Capri Mk.3 280 in Brooklands Green

The Capri was produced for eighteen years and 1,886,647 were manufactured. It was a massive success for Ford, commercially, culturally and in motor sport, so the company celebrated its demise by producing 1,038 examples of a highly specified UK-market edition, the Capri 280. The car modelled, chassis number GG11896, is the highest chassis number to leave the production line in Cologne on the last day of operation, 19th December 1986. It was featured in the news extensively that day, before journalist Mike McCarthy ran it as an Autocar long-term test vehicle. It was then returned to the Ford Heritage Collection and has since featured in many magazine articles and TV programmes.

This attractive new collector set is available now, and is the perfect way for any Capri fan to confirm their devotion to this truly magnificent car.

5, 4, 3, 2, 1 …… A new collection of Corgi models are GO!

There really is no finer way to head into a weekend than with a new range of Corgi die-cast model announcements to discover, and that’s exactly what we have for you to end this latest edition of our blog. Depending on when you first check in with this latest edition, the new range will just be about to go live on the Corgi website, or will have just done so, but if it’s after 10 am on Friday 5th September, they’re all there just waiting to be discovered.

As we always say, there’s absolutely no substitute for visiting the Corgi website and viewing all the new model announcements for yourself, so that being the case, we’re not going to be running through any of the highlight announcements here, but will simply include this September – December 2025 link to allow you to be taken straight to where you need to be.

We hope we’ve managed to include a model or two that might be of interest to you, and look forward to bringing you details of their development in forthcoming editions of Die-cast Diaries.

There are new models to go and see – what are you waiting for!

That’s all we have for you this time around, however, we’ll be back as usual in two weeks’ time with a further exclusive selection of the latest Corgi model updates. As ever, you could always drop us a line if you felt moved to do so, to comment on anything blog, collecting or Corgi model related, or even perhaps to suggest a topic you might like to see the team cover in a future edition. As always, our diecastdiaries@corgi.co.uk address is the one to use.

If you can’t wait for the next blog, you will find plenty of Corgi model collecting discussions taking place on our official social media channels, access to which can be obtained by clicking on the respective links at the foot of the Corgi website homepage. 

Link access to Corgi social media sites. 

Facebook

YouTube

Twitter

Instagram 
 

Thank you for continuing to support your Corgi Die-cast Diaries blog. Our next edition is scheduled to be published on Friday 19th September, and we look forward to seeing you all back here then.

Thank you for your continued support

The Corgi Team