24c Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow saloon.

[matchbox_n_molars]

Has it been officially noted that the 24c Silver Shadow is the clear choice of this Big Man??

[SMS88]

Thank you George for your picture, most welcome and thank you Gavin for your comments, but please none of this 'Mr', 'Esquire' etc, I'm a simple guy (my school reports can confirm this!), just Ghosty is fine

"Gavin" mentions the idea of #24c not being finished in a Silver colour and this is one of the colours chosen before full production started and one example has been photographed for a model magazine article (shown below), and the model is either a 'Pre-Pro' or a colour trial, it has not been confirmed either way, but looking at how the glazing component is falling down inside the model, it may well be a 'Pre-Pro'.

SILVER COLOUR TRIAL, MID-1967.jpg

GHOSTHUNTER.

The 1967 world wide collector catalog shows one in Tippax grey with red seats in the corner of the large group shot - this has been discussed here before but car above looks lighter & without grain than silver,perhaps another Tippax grey example!

[GHOSTHUNTER]

Has it been officially noted that the 24c Silver Shadow is the clear choice of this Big Man??

Yes it has, because it has a huge boot for the toys

Ghosty.

[GHOSTHUNTER]

Hello SMS88, the original magazine article (possibly by Nigel Cooper, mine mislaid so can not check), gives the colour as SILVER as opposed to GREY and I am sure Nigel would have described the model with a certain amount of accuracy, so I am sticking with Silver-Grey until a colour version of the picture surfaces.

Yes I know of the 'Tippax' grey model on that catalogue and the same picture was used on the UK Price lists from Jan 1967 until May 1967 then of course in the pocket catalogue for 1967 on page 16, where it was seen in colour. I believe it was deliberately put at the back of the bunch of models because of it's GREY colour, being a neutral colour and not a colour trial finish, so it was not given a priority position in the display for that picture.

How many non-commercial based models are released in a colour of that shade, certainly not many saloon cars and GREY is still used today by many toy and model manufactures on mock-up and preproduction models.

The grey #24c has not shown up in any other Lesney or Matchbox media that I have seen, so I conclude it was painted in a proper colour not long after the picture was taken and maybe the blue pre-production model that we know exists is the same model or it is one of the two brown pre-production models shown in another catalogue image.

Shown below is the 'Tippax' Grey model.
The blue 'Pre-Pro' model facing to the right on the table.
Two brown models in the trays.

GHOSTHUNTER.

[GHOSTHUNTER]

Here is the detail picture for the inner rear wheel-arch brace and an odd addition to the casting and I can only assume they had the occasional problem with the whole back of the body, because one example in my collection has been folded at this point, the only damage on the otherwise very good condition model and by adding the inner brace I can see it would help to prevent this from happening.

I will post a picture of this example later, as I can not find it among my other examples for this atricle.

Rear Wheel-Arch brace.jpg (98.86 KiB) Viewed 611 times

GHOSTHUNTER.

[GHOSTHUNTER]

Here is the last detail picture showing the two 'hinge-arm' apertures in the back wall of the boot. A similar picture appears on Nick's code listing for this model with highlights pointing out the difference in height between the two.

How you describe this depends on what part of the casting you concentrate on, the cut-out area or the metal area around it. I have concentrated on the actual cut-out areas, describing them as...High and Low apertures. On the model with the High aperture, you can just see the actual hinge-arm pivot points, but on the Low aperture model, you cannot, they are hiding behind the part of the casting at the top that makes up the boot's back wall.

High and Low hinge apertures.jpg (50.66 KiB) Viewed 609 times

This is another odd casting modification carried out by Lesney, on the face of it, it serves no real benefit.

GHOSTHUNTER.

[GHOSTHUNTER]

Along with most of the '1-75 Series' models, #24c has it's OOPS! moment and here is a link to one owned by a forum member...viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1245...and shown below is my example.

'MY' #24c OOPS!.JPG (51.66 KiB) Viewed 603 times

These I class as Negative Variations and don't include them on my listing, but keep them out of interest as it makes it easier to read the wheel mould numbers when they have them!

GHOSTHUNTER.

[Diecast]

Hi GHOSTHUNTER
I am adding some old phohos.
Antonin

[SMS88]

Hello SMS88, the original magazine article (possibly by Nigel Cooper, mine mislaid so can not check), gives the colour as SILVER as opposed to GREY and I am sure Nigel would have described the model with a certain amount of accuracy, so I am sticking with Silver-Grey until a colour version of the picture surfaces.

Yes I know of the 'Tippax' grey model on that catalogue and the same picture was used on the UK Price lists from Jan 1967 until May 1967 then of course in the pocket catalogue for 1967 on page 16, where it was seen in colour. I believe it was deliberately put at the back of the bunch of models because of it's GREY colour, being a neutral colour and not a colour trial finish, so it was not given a priority position in the display for that picture.

How many non-commercial based models are released in a colour of that shade, certainly not many saloon cars and GREY is still used today by many toy and model manufactures on mock-up and preproduction models.

The grey #24c has not shown up in any other Lesney or Matchbox media that I have seen, so I conclude it was painted in a proper colour not long after the picture was taken and maybe the blue pre-production model that we know exists is the same model or it is one of the two brown pre-production models shown in another catalogue image.

Shown below is the 'Tippax' Grey model.
The blue 'Pre-Pro' model facing to the right on the table.
Two brown models in the trays.

GHOSTHUNTER.

Nigel posts here sometimes so we all know if he has seen a silver one it is really silver and perhaps he will show us a new colour photo of it if it belongs to him! We know from past models that Lesney used yellow as their preferred colour on pre-pros + mock ups. The grey 24c has red interior and made it to the pro photographer so we can be confident that this colour trial had passed the intial round of the selection process and clearly looked very smart - indeed the fact that Rolls Royce insisted as part of the licensing agreement that the Mattel Hotwheels Redline Rolls of 1970 was painted metallic gray is enough circumstantial evidence to support the theory that gray with red interior colour trials were made at Rolls Royce´s suggestion to go off against the brighter metallic red + metallic blue options Lesney preferred. Many chipped common Hotwheels metallic gray Rolls show evidence of spectraflame colours under the paint but only the 1st run appears to have escaped the Hong Kong factory without being repainted metallic gray.
BTW the lower ´´brown´´ model becomes a standard red if the obvious colour saturation is reduced to normal levels

[GHOSTHUNTER]

In reducing colour saturation on that picture to make the two #24c models more of a red colour, surely the other models colours will become too light and look washed-out!

GHOSTHUNTER.