Corgi have now released a lower priced version of the New Bus for London model which is aimed at the souvenir & toy market rather than the model collector. The existing OOC OM466 series model which was launched back in the Summer of 2012 has already notched up an impressive 13 releases and it's clear it must have proved extremely popular with model collectors, however with a retail price of over £30 this was never going to be an attractive purchase for the casual buyer like the old Corgi Routemaster model has been for so many years.

Corgi has no doubt seen a gap in the market for a model of what is fast becoming a icon of London and has those produced this non-limited version for its existing Best of Britain range whic already contains other transport icons such as the orginal Mini, London FX4 Taxi & the forementioned Routemaster bus. All of the models in this range come in distrintive packaging based on the Union Jack, a theme that is also repeated on each of the models.

So what exactly is the difference between the original OOC model and this new Best of Britain version which retails for less than a third of the price or its OOC cousin.

Other details omitted are the driving mirrors and windscreen wipers, the tree guard protecting the upper deck front nearside windows is moulded onto the the new casting rather than being a separate plastic component.

Construction wise both models are almost identical with virtually all the red painted areas being die-cast metal. The front panel is a separate clear plastic component which has been over painted to produce the body panels & window surrounds. The die-cast baseplate found on the OOC model has been replaced with a plastic one, but this still has a similar level detailing portraying the underbody components..

All the plastic & metal parts fit neatly together with no ungainly gaps and in this aspect there seems to be no difference between this & the more expensive OOC offering.

The new model also has a few improvements over the original OOC, the air vents above the rear entrance are now larger and the front dash panel now has a larger recess for the registration plate, strangely the off-side air grilles haven't been amended and are still based on the mock up vehicle and are thus incorrect justas they were on OOC version.

You do wonder why Corgi decided to do a new tooling of this model when it appears so similar to the existing OOC model. This latest offering is slightly larger than the OOC model measuring in at 150mm long compared to 147.5mm of the OOC version. My calculations make the model just a fraction under 1/75th scale, but the difference is so slight that unless both models are stood side by side it really isn't obvious that they are different scales.

If your building a London diorama & want some additional low coats models then with the addition of a few extra transfers and some driving mirroe you could easily produce an externally comparable model to the existing OOC offering.

On the whole a good model which given the lower price is a welcome addition to the Corgi range, despite the tiny scale difference the model is easily compatible with other 1/76 scale vehicles.

I'm sure those wanting to do some customising will find this model an ideal candidate for repainting and other modifications. It's presumed the model can be disassembled in the same way as the OOC model, a process that involves the somewhat fraught job of removing the fragile plastic front component which is unfortunately glued in place.