Description:

From viewing images of diecast model cars for sale on the internet, this red car is a Corgi Classic model 9021 of a 1910 Daimler. Slight damage to this car suggests it is a toy that has been played with, but such detailed models are also collected by adults. Without the original box the car would have much less value for a collector. The Corgi brand was launched by Mettoy Playcraft Ltd in 1956. Theirs were the first model cars to feature plastic windows. In the first year of production the company sold 2.75 million cars. Two of the best known Corgi cars are the James Bond Aston Martin DB5 and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. The original Classics series of which this model number was produced between 1964 and 1969.

In the story section of this description is a photograph of the same car with model passengers. There is also a photograph of an actual 1910 Daimler and for comparison a 1920 family car, showing how little car design changed, probably due to the impact of the First World War. Prior to 1910, when it was acquired by BSA, Daimler was a Coventry based, independent British car manufacturer, which had bought the rights to the name from its German roots. For fifty years Daimler held a Royal Warrant, but the toy car is unlikely to be a model of one of the most prestigious vehicles.

Typical features of cars of the period are: the open top with a folding canopy; four seats with the rear door higher than those at the front, running boards; a spare wheel or tyre attached to the driver’s side; two headlights, sometimes supplemented with an oil lamp; a pneumatic horn; a flat radiator; the hand brake placed inside the car and a trunk at the rear: hence the American use of the term trunk where the British use the term boot which derives from the rear seat for coachmen in the days of horse drawn coaches.

More information:

Date 1910s, 1960s
Material(s) MetalRubber
Item number MBPO218

Questions to help you remember using this item

  • What makes of diecast toy cars can you remember?
  • When you were a child did you play with model cars?
  • Do you have any special memories associated with toy cars?
  • Why are diecast toy cars less popular with children today?
  • If you are female, were you given toy cars as presents as a child?

User Stories

The two photographs below show the toy Daimler car featured on this site and one which had passengers with the original box.

The following image is of a driver in a Daimler taken about 1910. Note the similar features to the model car.

The photograph below is of my grandparents and great grandparents in the family’s car, which was bought in 1924, but may have been made slightly earlier. Note that many of the features are similar to those of the 1910 Daimler, showing how little car design had changed over the decade.

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