Vauxhall Astra Police variations

[David Tilley]

Up until recently I owned 1 version of the 1987 issue Vauxhall Astra Police in this livery....

It is the version in white with blue/red lines and Police on it. As you can see, having had it from new and being pretty young still at the time it is a little scratched. Having many other Astra Police liveries in mint condition this one being non-mint sort of lets the others down. So I have decided to do something about it. Sadly I cannot get the replacement right....

There we go. Oh wait, the windows are green. Okay let's try again....

There we are. Oh wait, the wheels are chrome.

Well now I have 3 versions of this particular release of the Vauxhall Astra Police. I am still to find my replacement for the original one I owned. I will get it at some point, or end up with the world's largest collection of 1987 MB8 ROW Vauxhall Astra Police vehicles in the world in the hunt. Either way it is going to be fun to continue hunting.

BTW for anyone keen on side by sides of the new purchases from the last 2 months....

[GHOSTHUNTER]

Thank's David, as a former Vauxhall collector I find these very interesting, as I still maintain a running master listing of Vauxhall toys and models.

GHOSTHUNTER.

[ChFalkensteiner]

I think that those greenish windows were caused by environmental influences, so that model probably had blue windows when it came from the factory. The blue windows of the Astra Police are notorious for turning green rather easily. But as with most other blue window models of that era, you can find lighter and darker shades of blue which are quite noticeable and definitely came from the factory like that.

The model with silver plated hubcaps was first issued in 1988 and remained current until 1991, so you can find quite a few minor variations on that one. The earliest examples are supposed to have come with Macau bases, and I am still looking for one of those, i.e. the combination of Macau base and silver plated (as opposed to white) hubcaps.

The vast majority of the silver hubcap models has China baseplates, and those can be found in either flat or gloss black, and the latter with the "Made in China" lettering cast flat or on a raised platform.

The 1987 issue with white hubcaps also has an early short run variation which remains elusive for me: that is the one on which the baseplate says only "Vauxhall Astra GTE" but not "Opel Kadett GSi". That early base casting is common on the civilian (red) Astra but rare on the police car.

In addition to that, you can always begin to distinguish shades of the red and blue tampo colours and slightly different thicknesses of the tampo stripes and "POLICE" lettering.

Amassing a dozen or so different examples of this livery should not be too difficult...

[David Tilley]

Thanks Christian for the info. Definitely more to look for. You could be right with the green windows. I only just got this model, so have no idea on how it has been stored for the last almost 3 decades. So anything could have happened over the years. All I know is it looks good to me, and the green appears uniform throughout, so I am definitely keeping it in my collection.