NO.32 FIRE CHIEF
Impy Version (1968) / Flyers Version (1969-76)
No.32 is a Fire Chief car based on No.18 Ford Corsair. Matchbox had a Fire Chief car in their range since 1963 so it’s surprising it took Lone Star until 1968 to introduce its version, especially given how cost-efficient it was to produce a ‘new model’ from an existing casting.
Standard Impy models had ‘Fire Chief’ printed on the bonnet. Some examples have this in a larger font (intended for use on Lone Stars 1/50 scale Fire Chief Chevrolet Corvair from its Roadmasters range). As with the Roadmasters Corvair, Lone Star produced a version of the Impy Corsair for the German market with ‘Feuerwehr’ printed across the bonnet. This is hard to find especially a boxed example.
Even rarer is a version of the Fire Chief car not based on the Corsair but instead on the Chrysler Imperial. The was more commonly found as No.16 Police Car so could easily be issued as the Fire Chief car instead. I’ve only ever seen a single example of this model so it maybe from a trial run.
There are much fewer variations on the Flyers version, initially dark red was used before the model reverted back to a standard shade of red.
impy (1968)
flyers (1969-76)
