1979 "Gift Set 40" |
1979 Gift Set 40
The Car, Boat and Trailer and Batcopter
It appears to me that sometimes the 1976 whizzwheel car may have been sold
in this set and at other times, the wide whizzwheel car may have been sold
in this set. In any case, the boat and trailer were the second version Batboat
and trailer that were also sold in the 1976 GS 40. I'm guessing that the second
version Batcopter was probably sold in this set.
The Box
The box was very different from its predecessor. The three vehicles were held
in place by a vacuum-formed yellow plastic insert. The upper left of the box
featured a picture of the "stern" Batman that was on the back of
the 1979 Batmobile box. The Batcoper was placed in the upper right corner
of the box; the Batmobile in the lower left; and the Batboat in the lower
right. The rear of the box showed the operating instructions for the three
vehicles. This style box only appears in the 1981 Corgi catalog but the 1981
boxes were very definitely not this style (they were black, yellow, and red).
So I'm uncertain about the year this box appeared. It is similar to the 1979
Batmobile box so I'm inclined to believe it appeared in 1979 or 1980. But
the 1980 Corgi catalog still shows the 1976 style box for the GS 40 (It turns
out the Corgi catalogs aren't a very accurate source of information). This
GS 40 box along and the 1360 box with its header card are probably the rarest
boxes in which Corgi Batmobiles were sold.
1979-81 GS40 box type 2 - wide wheeled Batmobile with Batman and Robin, orange fin Batboat (with no Batman and Robin) and the Batcopter. This was what i call a flat pack box, with the car and boat along the bottom, with the Batcopter in the top right corner. Only rockets included, and this was the last version of the gift sets.
Some
of these were actually dated, on the inside of the flap. It will have 2 different
sets of numbers, for example 15/79, which shows the week number it was made
and the last 2 numbers the year it was made.
Some of these have not place for rockets on the vacuum-formed yellow plastic insert.