Models of Police Imps

• Corgi
• Vanguard (Lledo)

Corgi

Corgi produced a panda police car with a blue roof light. It was based on their Monte Carlo Sunbeam Imp and the plate at the front carried a 'Police' sign. It had a policeman driver. Sales no. 506; introduced May 1968, discontinued 1972.
There are three versions, all with single headlights:

Photo: Duncan Chew

1. white with black doors
2. #506 - light blue with white doors - no policeman driving it. 1969-1972
3. #506 - white with black roof - only produced for nearly a year in 1968-1969

The police panda Imp was initially painted white with a black bonnet and lower doors. 'police' decals with red lettering on a white rectangle were applied to each of the doors and the front Monte Carlo Rally plate was retained for a further 'police' decal with white lettering on a black background.

The interior colour was changed to brown (Peru Brown) for the police Imp and a police driver figure was included. Only the louvre style wheels are known on this model.

Bonuses: driver figurine; jewel headlights; opening rear window; suspension; tilting seats

The packaging of this first version of the police Imp was the traditional all-card box, which was still being used for the smaller Corgi models of the time. The style had changed again, however, and now included the new square background Corgi dog logo and the box sides in blue and white lettering.

The police Imp sold 211,000 examples before it was replaced by a new version in February 1969. This new version was painted pale blue and features fluorescent door decals which shone in the dark. Most examples of this second version had a white painted band over the roof, extending down over the doors. A rarer version, still in pale blue, only hadthe lower part of the doors painted white.; this version is illustrated in the 1969 Corgi catalogue.

A third version of the police panda Imp appeared in 1971. This reverted to a white body, with the bonnet and doors also in white and a black roof. The fluorescent door labels were retained.This last version was packaged in a window box and was withdrawn from the Corgi range in 1972.

On introduction the police panda Imp was priced at 6s 3d (31p) and had increased to 40p by 1970 with a subsequent reduction to 39p.

Vanguard

Vanguard released 5,000 sets of Police Pandas in October 1998: a Hillman Imp and a Triumph Herald together in a box. Wing mirrors and number plates are not yet attached.
(made in UK) PC2002. Limited edition Cert.No.2979 (5000).