Corgi Boxes
1976 "Gift Set 3" |
1976 saw the introduction of the second version Batboat.
1976 Gift Set 3
The Car, Boat and Trailer
The car was the 1976 style Batmobile, possibly with a clear canopy. The Batboat
was the second version Batboat which featured a red plastic fin with a black
and yellow bat logo sticker attached to it. The sticker on the hull featured
a geometric pattern of red, black, and yellow. Following Corgi's tendency
toward cheaper manufacturing processes, the beacon no longer had a metal cage
on it. The trailer was still painted gold but it now had plastic whizzwheels
on it. The boat was attached to the trailer by means of two posts on the center
rail of the trailer fitting into two corresponding holes in the bottom of
the boat.
The Box
The 1976 style GS 3 box was also dark blue and yellow and featured a graphic
of Batman, the Batmobile and Batboat on the top of the box. This graphic extended
above the top of the box, similar to the fold-down flap on the 1967 box, but
on the 1976 box, the graphic did not fold down. The rear of the box showed
a photograph of the Corgi Batmobile and Batboat. The box had a white styrofoam
insert similar to those of the 1970 and 1973 boxes.
1976-79 GS3 box type 4 - 12 spoke whizzwheels Batmobile (light blue canopy with national periodical, clear or purple canopy only with national periodical), Batboat was orange fin, and now only the Batmobile contained Batman and Robin. No instructions envelope was included in this last version of the double pack. Curiously, catalogues displayed the Batmobile and Batboat as both having figures. If you look carefully though, they are using their individual numbers, (c267 and c107) not the gift set number.
It appears to me that sometimes the 1979 wide whizzwheel car may have been sold in this set, but it's certainly a wrong box !
First
box : 1976 - 1978 - With logo "CORGI"
Last
box : 1979 - With logo "corgi" in single
case letters, as opposed to capital lettering
 |
If you look at the pic of the prototype batboat, you will notice that the tin effect was going to be kept either side of the fin, whilst the fin lost the tin completely.
The type of Batboat that appears on the back of 76 issues was a prototype and was never produced, if you look at the back of your orange fin Batboat box, you'll notice that the Batboat pictured still has the same bat-stickers as the tin fin, and it still has a beacon. This was the prototype assembled, and they wanted it cheaper so removed the beacon and changed the design of the stickers. I daresay that prototype is out there somewhere, yet i've never seen it :
 |
 |
 |
 |
Some of these were actually dated, on the
inside of the flap. It will have 2 different sets of numbers, for example
12/76, which shows the week number it was made and the last 2 numbers the
year it was made.
1976 Gift Set 3 Type A & B : 14/76 does mean that this box was made in 14th week of 1976 year.
 |
1976 Gift Set 3 Type C : 32/78 does mean that this box was made in week 32 of 1978 year.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
1976 Gift Set 3 Type C : 3/80 does mean that this box was made in 3rd week of 1980 year.
 |
1976 Gift Set 3 Type C (1980)
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Orange headlight and big horn version :
 |
 |
 |
 |
Yellow headlight and little horn version :
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |