K-161 Rolls-Royce Silver Spirit boxes and blister

[ritchie]

Various packaging used by K-161 Rolls-Royce Silver Spirit:

Standard dark blue box (2 versions, Made in Macau / China)

1bbb7c59.jpg (90.08 KiB) Viewed 2481 times

SuperKing Gift Set (KS 808)

061019.jpg (83.48 KiB) Viewed 2481 times

SuperKings Super Value Pack (KS904) for Hong Kong market

DSC_1525ss.jpg (357.98 KiB) Viewed 2481 times

Blister for China market only (Rare)

150025.jpg (128.91 KiB) Viewed 2481 times

[Fox]

The gift set was certainly one of my best catch. Bought it all Mint for 3€ ! I've sold my boxed grey one.

[GHOSTHUNTER]

It looks like the model in the KS904 set has the wheels from the Mercedes-Benz, #K115...!

Ghosthunter.

[GHOSTHUNTER]

I actually have a few more MACAU boxes.

#1 MACAU, back panel.JPG (88.68 KiB) Viewed 2433 times

#1 MACAU, Bottom panel.JPG (71.27 KiB) Viewed 2433 times

...and

#1A MACAU, back panel.JPG (90.79 KiB) Viewed 2433 times

#1A MACAU, bottom panel.JPG (76.71 KiB) Viewed 2433 times

...and

#3 MACAU, back panel.JPG (89.09 KiB) Viewed 2433 times

#3 MACAU, bottom panel.JPG (75.44 KiB) Viewed 2433 times

...and

#3A MACAU, back panel.JPG (86.9 KiB) Viewed 2433 times

#3A MACAU, bottom panel.JPG (80.15 KiB) Viewed 2433 times

...and then the CHINA box with Two different models inside.

#4 CHINA, back panel.JPG (89.02 KiB) Viewed 2433 times

#4 CHINA, bottom panel.JPG (73.04 KiB) Viewed 2433 times

The model in here is the usual gloss finish body colour.

#4A CHINA, back panel.JPG (89.39 KiB) Viewed 2433 times

#4A CHINA, bottom panel.JPG (77.19 KiB) Viewed 2433 times

The model in here has a very matt-satin finish body colour.

Ghosthunter.

[matchboxmarcel]

I never saw the blisterpack !
Thanks for showing all variations of the boxes you have Kevin !

[GHOSTHUNTER]

Silver-Grey and Red MACAU issues.JPG (69.58 KiB) Viewed 2407 times

In 1981, Lesney was one of Four model companies I contacted about the possibility of them making the new Rolls-Royce Silver Spirit. The other Three were Western Models, Corgi Toys and Eligor.

Western Models released their 1st version in October 1981, Corgi said they had passed my idea onto their design department and I heard nothing from Eligor. Lesney released their version in 1988, after releasing a smaller model first in February 1987.

When the larger model finally arrived in the shops, I lost no time in buying a few for the purpose of keeping one for the collection and converting the others into superdetailed models with working steering and better overall detail. One of them was going to be converted into the Bentley Mulsanne 'Turbo'.

What a shock I had when the model turned out to be 1/40th and not 1/43rd scale, bang goes all my plans and so I never got any modelling done on them, they were not in a scale I like to work to!

Later when my collecting of variations of models became very serious, I looked at the model in more detail, especially the box artwork and a feeling something was wrong with the car depicted on the end-flap, shown below.

Rolls-Royce grille.JPG (131.1 KiB) Viewed 2407 times

Now, to me the grille is wrong, especially at the bottom of the grille slats and I got thinking that it could be a Bentley Grille which is angled from a centre point outwards. I got a steel rule and placed it on the box artwork so it was just touching the bottom of the grille slats on one side of the grille, the side where the slats have been drawn rather dark and the way the ruler was at an angle suggested to me that what I was looking at was a Bentley grille, over drawn to make it look like a Rolls-Royce grille!!

The same end-flap artwork here has a Yellow line to show where I placed the ruler and see how the line is at an angle. If this was a Rolls-Royce grille, it would be flat and the ruler (Yellow line), would run straight.

Bentley grille.JPG (168.86 KiB) Viewed 2407 times

I then looked at the box in general and I found that the box is designed in such a way it could easily be printed up as a Rolls-Royce or Bentley. Look at the rear features panel below.

#1 MACAU features panel.JPG (117.9 KiB) Viewed 2407 times

The Rolls-Royce Silver Spirit name appears only once and it is inside the features panel at top left, not outside. There is also a small badge on the lower section of the front wing which on a Bentley says 'TURBO', Rolls-Royce Silver Spirits did not have a badge here.

I also looked at the model itself to see if there was more evidence on the castings.

No front wing badges now!.JPG (52.59 KiB) Viewed 2407 times

There are no badges on the front wings, so that is correct for a Silver Spirit, so while they are on the drawing on the back of the box, they did not make it to production.

Now the baseplate and we find the Rolls-Royce Silver Spirit name has been put into a 'Tooling Inlet', so this could also be shown as a Bentley in the same way as the Corgi Toys Silver Shadow and Bentley T-Series bases were tooled, separate inlets for each car name.

Rolls-Royce Silver Spirit baseplate.JPG (133.46 KiB) Viewed 2407 times

While we are looking at the underside of the car, we can see a single exhaust pipe, another Bentley feature, because a Silver Spirit has a pipe each side of the car!

Single exhaust pipe here.JPG (71.3 KiB) Viewed 2407 times

With this evidence, I firmly believe the original briefing for this model was for a Bentley Mulsanne 'TURBO', a much more desirable car than a Silver Spirit.

This should be a Bentley!.JPG (40.22 KiB) Viewed 2407 times

Ghosthunter.