73c Mercury Commuter

[nickjones]

To answer Christians question, the picture in the guide almost certainly shows a superfast model as I don't have the no gas filler variation with regular wheels.
We all know Lesney often kept components in storage before using them at a later date, It is not impossible that some completed regular wheel bases were paired up with later superfast bodies and then sold perhaps in giftsets?.
We have two highly experienced collectors claiming to own examples, how many more do you need.

[Idris]

...how many more do you need.

Just the one (for my collection)!

[motorman]

...how many more do you need.

Just the one (for my collection)!

[SMS88]

To answer Christians question, the picture in the guide almost certainly shows a superfast model as I don't have the no gas filler variation with regular wheels.
We all know Lesney often kept components in storage before using them at a later date, It is not impossible that some completed regular wheel bases were paired up with later superfast bodies and then sold perhaps in giftsets?.
We have two highly experienced collectors claiming to own examples, how many more do you need.

I dont personally accept claims not backed up by good photographs especially when they come from collectors with known access to lunchbox special,pre-pros,colour trials and sales samples however we all know that this is your database so of course we all respect your listing anything you choose to list even if some collectors wrongly or rightly consider the variation to be a fraud.

Aside from Dick mentioning RW cars including the #73 made for some unidentified Giftset in 1973, I personally have never before yesterday ever heard mention of RW versions of SF models being officially made by Lesney for sale (and no other similar models have ever been discovered or discussed here before) a minimum of 3 years after the SF73 Mercury wagon joined the SF range in an F box in January or February or march of 1970 keeping its RW body for almost all production prior to the red recolour in 1972.

[nickjones]

Well, We all know Jack Odell would trim costs wherever he could, So if a bin of completed regular wheel baseplates were found in the warehouse there's no doubt they would find their way onto a body, I'm sure a plated baseplate with metal hubs, tyres and axles would have to either be used or thrown away as it would not have been suitable to go back into the melting pot, Also the 3c with enlarged wheel arches and regular wheels exists (I also have one) so why not the Mercury sf body on reg baseplate.

[Idris]

Aside from Dick mentioning RW cars including the #73 made for some unidentified Giftset in 1973...

That's not what Dick meant (and he has already added a clarificatory post to clear up any confusion).

[Idris]

Well, We all know Jack Odell would trim costs wherever he could, So if a bin of completed regular wheel baseplates were found in the warehouse there's no doubt they would find their way onto a body, I'm sure a plated baseplate with metal hubs, tyres and axles would have to either be used or thrown away as it would not have been suitable to go back into the melting pot, Also the 3c with enlarged wheel arches and regular wheels exists (I also have one) so why not the Mercury sf body on reg baseplate.

I'm wondering whether the situation here isn't analogous to that of the RW 15d Volkswagen in metallic red, i.e. hopelessly out of the timeline, yet known to exist.

[SMS88]

Well, We all know Jack Odell would trim costs wherever he could, So if a bin of completed regular wheel baseplates were found in the warehouse there's no doubt they would find their way onto a body, I'm sure a plated baseplate with metal hubs, tyres and axles would have to either be used or thrown away as it would not have been suitable to go back into the melting pot, Also the 3c with enlarged wheel arches and regular wheels exists (I also have one) so why not the Mercury sf body on reg baseplate.

To the best of my knowledge I have never seen nor heard of any nul nada RW3c bodies fitted with SF baseplates & ZERO members of this forum have ever shared any photos of any factory rivited SF baseplate fitted to a RW3c body with its tiny arches.SF3c bodies would have been available no later than the spring of 1970 as an early G box release.

On the otherhand we all know Lesney made literally millions of SF73c with the same RW unaltered body because its arches offered good clearance for 10.5x2mm SF wheels - it was an early SF conversion WITH RW body in F box which makes it much more numerous than G box only transitionals. We know the gas tank flap was removed at the same time as the wheel arches were widened as part of the program to give all SF 4-6mm wide tyres in place of the initial 2mm wide tyres BUT this program didnt begin until well into 1971 AFTER the final trucks + #42 crane had gone SF early 1971 and the #34 VW replaced by the SF34 F1.As many of us know, metallic lime painted no gas tank flap wide arch SF73 bodies are relatively rare,in my estimation 1 in 20 of SF lime survivors today simply because the 1971 tooling alterations were made probably no more than 1 production run before the red recolour and 2nd tool modification to roof was introduced.Other models like the deep green SF53c tend to be 50:50 unchanged RW:SF wide arch bodies on survivors today. Its so much easier to spot fakes or lunchbox specials when they incorporate rare castings with a very short production life - so few SF73 bodies were made WITHOUT gas tank + WITHOUT roof bars while the tooling was in transition between 2nd body : wide wheels then 3rd body : bonnet altered for triangular sticker with optional roof bars (red SF73) or Police light (SF55)

The red RW15d + blue RW25d (and green RW53d in my personal opinion)that exist in penny numbers have ALL appeared from sources known to have factory connections and are regarded as lunchbox specials made to order for collectors and not genuine mass production for retail sale.RW metallic lime 31c exist in greater numbers so there is some sort of circumstantial evidence to support retail release of these although if I recall correctly the playworn examples have always come from London which could simply indicate that a few dozen trial models were shared out amongst factory workers rather than thrown back into the melting pot & recycled. What was the source here in recent years telling us that most trials models went back into the melting pot once they had served Lesney´s purposes???? Judging from the amount of scrap found around the factory after it closed they were not tidy at all when it came to getting scrap back into the melting pot so workers taking toys home is actually much more convincing alongside Nick´s recollections from his sister of large numbers of cars ending up in the canal not the melting pot!

[kwakers]

We don't know for a fact that the 73 body was not re-tooled in 1970 Mick. Perhaps the regular wheel body die was first modified without gas cap and used for a very short period in preparation for the larger wheel wells. As Tinman said just last week about the 19 Lotus Racer, sometimes die changes came in gradual steps, not all at once. Nick's details on it do not coincide with an early pre-production because it has the newer baseplate. As with many secretive early collectors, we don't allow, enjoy, or encourage such online negative discussions of our valued original rarities. Because of those discussions, rarities are sometimes kept for our own enjoyment Mick. To use 'fake' and 'lunchbox special' here on this site makes me a little apprehensive about showing a couple of uncoded models I am sharing with Joe and Nick right now.......They were found in circulation 3 years apart in different areas of the U.S., but who can believe a very secretive 'old collector' who sounds just like the one with that 73 with no filler cap..........
Mike Stannard's Code 1 on the 24 Rolls is in fact the hub capped version, not the solid BPW Idris. Mick can't prove Mike wrong on that one as far as my own early Stannard's Guide is concerned. That is another discussion for another time I guess. Cheers, kwakers

[kwakers]

We don't know for a fact that the 73 body was not re-tooled in 1970 Mick. Perhaps the regular wheel body die was first modified without gas cap and used for a very short period in preparation for the larger wheel wells. As Tinman said just last week about the 19 Lotus Racer, sometimes die changes came in gradual steps, not all at once. Nick's details on it do not coincide with an early pre-production because it has the newer baseplate. As with many secretive early collectors, we don't allow, enjoy, or encourage such online negative discussions of our valued original rarities. Because of those discussions, rarities are sometimes kept for our own enjoyment Mick. To use 'fake' and 'lunchbox special' here on this site makes me a little apprehensive about showing a couple of uncoded models I am sharing with Joe and Nick right now.......They were found in circulation 3 years apart in different areas of the U.S., but who can believe a very secretive 'old collector' who sounds just like the one with that 73 with no filler cap..........
Mike Stannard's Code 1 on the 24 Rolls is in fact the hub capped version, not the solid BPW Idris. Mick can't prove Mike wrong on that one as far as my own early Stannard's Guide is concerned. That is another discussion for another time I guess. Cheers, kwakers