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motorman wrote:Ghosty,

I find your analysis of this model very facinating, I have a long way to go to collect all these casting variations!

SMS88 wrote:Lesney exported most of their production so most of the gold ones went overseas,USA ebay auctions are best way to find rare gold baseplate colours

SMS88 wrote:I never ever saw any gold SF69c on Uk blisters and I was looking from Christmas 1972 when they were 1st issued.Only 1 gold Roller ever showed up on my school playground back in 1972-73 -this was a very rare SF in West London - I never actually saw a 2nd one until this millenium and now have seen a few dozen of them loose in varying conditions this past 12 years,but only 1 gold with thin wheels,and none in lime gold.By contrast, SF46c Merc 300SE in gold WITH opening doors were very common ,more common than cast shut if memory serves correctly,certainly a harder to find variation today,just goes to show how distribution varied regionally
I have actively looked for different variations because this is one of my dozen favourite SF castings but its usually multiples of the same varis that show up here.I have from Nick´s table, all found in Denmark,
code 2(most common blue) code 3 code 9 code 14 (most common gold) code 23 code 24 code 26 - that is my photo on the listing page comparing the silver, gray and charcoal baseplates.I maybe able to make up one more code by swapping over a black folded roof if i look at my spares.Oddly enough i have never seen any gold SF69c with a black baseplate -clearly not common here!!
The code table is a mess because vanilla seat cars should be segregated as final production codes not mixed in with earlier models

GHOSTHUNTER wrote:Hi SMS88,

What you are saying more or less confirms this then, no 'Gold' models marketed on UK specific blister cards and I believe by the time UK 'Gold' models were in full production with the wider wheels, Lesney were not promoting the blister packaging as hard as before, there's certainly more closed boxes around with 'Gold' models in them, on the UK market.

Regards,
GHOSTHUNTER.

GHOSTHUNTER wrote:A member in an earlier post asked me what did I consider to be the hardest to find 69c, and I said it was difficult to answer this, but was proud of a 'Lime-Gold', (not my colour description here), on a 1971 dated, U.S. blister card.

Here is another model I find very desirable, in Gold with thin wheels and bright yellow base. I don't think these were made like this for very long, because of the wide wheels being introduced shortly after it's introduction. Using my own observations, it is the second body casting with small wheel arches, small door locks and the rounded edges to the cut-out under the rear bumper for the tow hook arm.

This is almost just a gold version of the last blue models.

Left click on the lower image to show full size.

GHOSTHUNTER.