Husky (toy brand)
The Husky line, introduced in 1964, was designed to compete in size with the "1-75 series" Matchbox, which were the market leaders in small-scale toy vehicles at the time.
The design changed with the upgrading of the range in 1969 to a yellow, red and white colour scheme with the name "Husky" now featuring more prominently.
British, French, German and American cars were all represented: a Citroën DS estate with a rowing boat on the roof, a Reliant 3 wheeler pickup, a 1959 Buick Electra, a rather odd Land Rover utility vehicle, a Reliant Scimitar, a Sunbeam Alpine, a 1966 Oldsmobile Starfire, and an NSU Ro-80 are some examples of the variety.
Though different castings, one wonders at the story behind two competing British companies coming up with such similar choices - surely it wasn't chance.
The Matchbox version came with a white plastic hunter aiming his rifle with pointer dog, but Husky arguably had the more creative choices, using that sliding roof panel to promotional advantage.
Low friction all plastic Whizzwheels were also added to most of the models in 1970 to compete with Mattel's Hot Wheels and Lesney's Matchbox Superfast ranges, and they could be raced on the Corgi Rockets track systems.
To add more "play value" Corgi Rockets had die-cast metal bases that featured a central channel where a separate black nylon chassis, that also held the wheel and axle assembly, would fit.
As such, the models could be "tuned up" and the axles lubricated using a separately available "Rocketlube" lightweight oil dispenser in the form of a felt tip pen.
Corgi Rockets were sold in conjunction with a series of track sets which featured "autostarts", power boosters, covered mountain-style "hair-pin" bends, "space leaps", "superloops", an ingenious cable car and even a thirteen storey “Sky Park”.
The range expanded rapidly and around 30 models were produced including a highly valuable James Bond 007 set featuring four models from the film "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" - a Mercury Cougar, an updated Mercedes Benz 280SL in "S.P.E.C.T.R.E" finish and a Ford Capri and Ford Escort in ice racing colour schemes.
It is suspected that losing a court case to Mattel (over a copyright claim by the American toy manufacturer to the sole production rights of associated tracks systems for their range of Hot Wheels cars) was the main reason for the failure of the range since the cars without tracks to race on had little purpose.
One Corgi casting lasted a bit longer as a Hot Wheels - the Porsche Carrera - which was reissued in a number of different colour schemes.
In 2009, an original manufacturer's trade box of six Husky James Bond DB6s was sold on eBay for US$1,300, and in January 2010 a Corgi Rockets James Bond "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" four-car set was sold on eBay for £3600, making it the most valuable of all Corgi branded products.
