Vintage Rolls Royce Convertible Comparison

If you've just read my prior post, you know that I love the Lesney-era Silver Shadows...  ...and I also love the "Silver Shadow Coupe", as Rolls Royce itself initially called the 2-door coupe that would soon be renamed the "Corniche", a name it would hold for the next 20 years.  Matchbox stuck with the original name even after Rolls Royce renamed it as the Corniche, resulting in a Corniche Convertible called a Silver Shadow Coupe.  Which I find confusing...

Regardless of the confusing name, it's a great model in both thin and thick-wheel transitional versions.  Technically it doesn't QUITE meet the strict definition of a transitional - as it was never available as a regular wheel model - but it was made during the era of the Transitionals, and thus is sometimes considered an honorary transitional.  It typically is seen in an aqua-ish blue, but occasionally can be found in a yellowish-greenish-gold color.  For most diecast enthusiast, it is the only known vintage model of a Rolls Royce convertible.

But the fascinating thing is that it is NOT the only vintage casting of a Rolls Royce Convertible...  Instead there are not one, but TWO other contenders within my collection - and they are both very interesting and worthy contenders...:  1.  Majorette did a lovely and highly detailed casting of the Corniche as part of their premium series (red with the brown interior).  And Impy LoneStar Roadmaster SuperCar (did you get that full name?) did a Silver Cloud convertible (red with the ivory interior). 

So with 3 distinct and beautiful castings, the obvious question is...   ...which is best?

Frankly, it's a hard question.  All 3 castings are great castings in their own right, and each have certain virtues and advantages to them.  But while all 3 are fascinating, picking a least favorite is a quick decision. 

The Majorette is an amazing piece.  The amount of detail is over-the-top crazy.  The lights are real plastic (not just painted - and the other 2 don't even have painted lights).  The wheels are correct replicas of a Corniche's wheels, rather than standard Matchbox or Impy wheels.  The interior appears to have individual seats rather than a 1 piece molded interior.  The are decals on the dashboard for dials.  The list of detail goes on and on and on... 

But while the detail is amazing, the model has 2 primary and over-arching flaws that limit it's ability to compete....  First, its BIG.  And while I like big models of big cars (and the Corniche was a BIG car), this model is TOO BIG.  It is overly large.  It is closer to 1/55 scale rather than 1/64th scale.  In the photos you can clearly see the size difference vs. the other models. 

Secondly, its got no heft.  It feels very light and plasticky.  It looks nice, but as soon as you touch it you feel let down by it's lack of substance.  You find yourself tapping the panels to see if anything is made of metal.  So in the critical "gotta-have-it" factor, the "pick it up and play with it" factor, the Majorette drops in contention compared to it's correctly scaled and HEFTY less detailed competitors, and ends up with a strong, but still third place, finish. 


Which brings us to the next casting - the Impy.  I've always been kind of fascinating by Impy's, with thier castings of atypically modeled cars, and multiple openings.  Impy is the only true vintage toy-maker (at least in 1/64 scale) who regularly offers opening doors AND trunks...  ...and sometimes even hoods. 

And this Silver Cloud is so cool that it might just be my favorite Impy casting.  The opening doors and trunk instantly give it a leg-up over the Lesney casting, but a closer inspection reveals that the hood opens as well - in TWO central hinged pieces!!!  A total of 5 opening parts in an era when you were lucky to get even 1... 

Scale-wise, the model appears slightly narrow (although full-size Clouds always look narrow to my eye - so maybe its actually accurate/correct?).  I've never been particularly sold on the Edsel-ish look of the Cloud's headlights and grills -  and I don't like it anymore in the casting.  But - its a pretty accurate representation  (and very well done!) of an ugly front-end.

The casting is identified as a Silver Cloud MPW, where MPW stands for Mulliner Park Ward - Rolls Royce' in-house coachbuilder. 

With 5 openings in the model, it's hard to argue with the level of detail.  And unlike the Majorette - this one is undoubtably made of metal.  In fact, this rare casting is SO solid, and the detail is so great, that I find myself wondering why Impy's like this one haven't been driven higher in price.  How is a Hot Wheels Redline worth so much more than this car?!?  But while the Impy Silver Cloud MPW is an amazing piece - is it good enough to de-throne the traditional king of diecast Rolls Royce Convertibles? 

As mentioned earlier, the Lesney/Matchbox casting, is a lovely casting, with nice size, nice weight, nice detail, a soft suspension from the glory days of the Transitional SuperFast era, etc.  I particularly like it with the thin rather than the thick wheels (the yellow/gold one shown has the later thicker wheels while the blue has the thin wheels).  In mint condition with an undamaged windshield (they are fragile so poor condition cars frequently have broken or bend windshields) and a tonneau boot cover still in place (again - these seem to get knocked off easily), it's a grand-looking car.  The grill and headlights are a single stuck-on metal piece - similar to the Silver Shadow Sedan's, which looks high quality until you compare it to the Impy - when it suddenly looks "stuck on".  Overall, it's a favorite casting of mine, and (before seeing the Impy) I would have had a hard time believing that anyone else also modeled it - let alone modeled it better...

So the real question is - can the Impy knock off the Lesney Matchbox and take the crown of best Vintage Rolls Royce convertible?

This one is definitely going to come down to personal choice.  The Impy is the more interesting casting.  And is of an older and even more rarely done model.  With 5 opening panels.  Including a SUPER cool center hinged hood.  In contrast, the Matchbox is a traditional Lesney Transitional - big and square and nice, a favorite model of mine for several decades.  How do I choose?

In the end, although I changed my mind a few times, the quircky charm of the rare Impy Cloud overwhelmed my loyalty of the traditional Matchbox Silver Shadow Coupe Convertible... 

Hope you enjoy the photos!

Vintage Matchbox Rolls Royce Sedans in burgundy but also silver and gold

Lesney's Rolls Royce Silver Shadow II is one of my favorite models of the post-transitional era, coming in the most common silver color, a rarer burgundy wine color and a rarer still elegant light gold - which is definitely my favorite color of the 3.  I've still got my childhood car - a silver model - but it's not clean enough nor mint enough to serve as a photo model.  

When I started to collect Matchbox again as an adult, I was thrilled to find that my Silver Shadow (the II) was actually the second Silver Shadow that Matchbox had done - and the original version that they had done (with opening trunk rather than opening doors) was equally as nice of a model as the subsequent.  In fact, its hard to decide which casting is the better model.  The first Silver Shadow was only available in one color - almost the same shade of the burgundy wine color as one of the three colors of the Silver Shadow II was released in...

But it got better.  A few years later, Matchbox (now made by Matchbox Toys International rather than Lesney) AGAIN introduced a Rolls Royce - now the successor of the Silver Shadow - the Silver Spirit.   Again, it was a lovely model, nicely sized and squared off, with opening doors.  It's 1 of my favorite models of the '80s.  And AGAIN Matchbox sold it in almost the same burgundy wine color as the previous 2 Rolls Royces were sold in (as well as a goldish-tan color that is similar to that of the rare Shadow II).  

I was always amused and pleased that 3 generations of Rolls Royces were modeled in the same color by Matchbox and I have frequently photographed them together.  Recently I completed a re-spray of the Silver Spirit in silver, to match earlier re-sprays of the Silver Shadow I (as well as the Silver Cloud - never a favorite model of mine - but nicer re-sprayed in silver than in the ugly standard cream color).  At the same time I also completed a metallic gold/bronze re-spray of the Shadow I - which although darker than the light gold of the Spirit and Shadow II - still looks nice in their company.  Which allows me to have a complete set each of the Shadow I, Shadow II and Spirit in the 3 original colors of the Shadow II - Silver, light gold and of course - burgundy-wine....

Hope you enjoy the photos as much as I enjoy these wonderful models!

(P.S.  Did you notice the other Silver Shadow II...  ...in blue?  This is an older re-spray that I did about 15-20 years ago, complete with contrasting leather colors in its seats....  Unfortunately my attempts to repaint the allow wheels was rather ham-handed, and a separate spray of the doors resulted in them being slightly darker than the rest of the body... ).   

(P.S.  Did you notice the other Silver Shadow II...  ...in blue?  This is an older re-spray that I did about 15-20 years ago, complete with contrasting leather colors in its seats....  Unfortunately my attempts to repaint the allow wheels was rather ham-handed, and a separate spray of the doors resulted in them being slightly darker than the rest of the body... ).