Corgi OM46003 Wright Eclipse Urban - Lothian Buses
Released October 2006
Review by Donald Grant
One
of the new castings from the Corgi Original Omnibus Company stable for
2006 is the Wright's Eclipse Urban single deck bus. It's a welcome
addition to the range complimenting the Gemini and Fusion models already
in the OOC range.
The model I purchased is OM 46003 and is a replica of one of the large
fleet of Urbans with Lothian Buses in Edinburgh. Dealing with the
casting itself first, I find that the example I have is well made and
well put together with no obvious flaws to the casting itself. Most
important of all is that it does capture the look of the real vehicle
very well indeed and should prove to be a popular casting for Corgi.
Crucially the vehicle is current and still in production which gives
Corgi as yet unknown livery options for the future over and above those
of operators already running these buses.
Now I'll deal with the Lothian Buses version itself and sadly Corgi have
got it horribly
wrong.
We knew from the outset that it wasn't going to be 100% accurate but I'm
afraid in this case too many liberties have been taken. For some reason
known only to themselves Corgi seem to be totally incapable of
reproducing the correct shade of Madder as used in Edinburgh, theirs
always has too much of a brown hue. For this there is no excuse! Within
their range in the past they released an Optare Solo in the Park & Ride
colours for the Addenbrooke's Shuttle which is in a maroon livery.
Even this is closer to Lothian's madder than Corgi used on the Urban.
Had they used it on the Lothian Urban the model would have been
greatly
improved. Incidentally in comparison to an EFE model of an Edinburgh bus
the Adenbrookes Solo is almost identical in hue.
Whilst the application of the Lothian Harlequin livery is very well
executed Corgi have again taken a liberty by applying an advert for the
Royal Yacht Britannia on the offside. The advert itself is well done but
the bus being modelled has never had the advert applied to it in real
life! The real bus (fleet number 131) also has guide wheels for the
guided busway on the western outskirts of Edinburgh, the model does not.
Finally the worst sin of all. The model has a large air conditioning
roof pod fitted, the prototype does not! Again there really is no excuse
for this as a more correct smaller pod type (two of them) is fitted to
the Fusion models so Corgi already had the moulds in place for the Urban
model if they had chosen to use them.
So summing up what we have is an excellent casting with loads of
potential but in the case of the Lothian model too many inaccuracies
which spoil the enjoyment of the model for collectors of this fleet.
It's such a shame that what should have been a jewel in Corgi's crown
has turned out to be a crown of thorns.
LDG
The opinions offered in the reviews
on this page remain those of the author,
and do not necessarily represent the of views of The Model Bus Website.
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