Volvo P1800 'The Saint' 

• 1970 
• 201 
• Corgi 
• Corgi Toys WhizzWheels 

1544439

Model cars

Volvo P1800 'The Saint'

201

Movie vehicle, Sports car

1970

1961

Groot Brittannië

I've rarely seen a model made in so many variations as this one! First up was a powder blue, red or pale tan non-Saint version in 1962 (cat.#228), red interior, spun wheels. Then the tv-series "the Saint" led to Corgi deciding to make a "Saint car", with a Roger Moore figure at the wheel... so cat.#258 was released in 1965 featuring either red or lemon interior, spun or (from 1967 or so) cast wheels and a red or a black/white bonnet sticker. Mix all this togeher and the list of variation possibilities becomes almost endless - and there's more: most versions have no moving parts, but it seems there's one with an opening boot, most versions have jeweled headligts, but I've also seen samples with painted on headlights! When Corgi switched to Whizzwheels around 1970, they still weren't ready to retire the good old Volvo, so it released yet again, as a whizzwheels version with catalogue number 201 - yes, this one! I'm not qute sure how many whizzwheels versions exist, maybe only the lemon interior still exists by now, but at the very least there should be a lemon interior/black&white sticker plus a lemon interior/red sticker version. By 1972 the car was finally retired. By then the whizzwheels version(s) had sold 147.000 copies, the non-whizzwheels versions had sold a stunning 1.159.000 copies, while the early non-Saint version sold 315.000 copies. Oh, and I almost forgot, that the Saint (non-whizzwheels) version was also included in the 1969 Giftset GS48 (Car Transporter Set) featuring a Scammell Car Transporter plus 6 cars (cat#s 226, 258, 334, 339, 340, 345) - the sales figures for this set are unknown, but numbers would be quite low. All in all, this Volvo sold so many copies, that it still remains 'easy to find' if you're not picky about the exact variant you want. But on the other hand, the countless variations mean, that the volumes are split out on more types. If you check the values, you'll see this reflected: a mint copy of this (whizzwheels) version is very expensive indeed (remember, it was only made in 147.000 copies between 1970 and 1972), but a 'reasonable condition' is relatively cheap, because in that condition it becomes simply a "The Saint's Car". Values are once again sampled from the guides at toymart.com. 'Good' and 'reasonable' condition are values unboxed!