Boxed Sets were available throughout the production of the Wrenn Formula 152 system from September 1960 through to its demise, probably during the latter months of 1967*. From the outset the first Set introduced was the No 1 Basic Set and this remained the only Set available until a batch of Sets then appeared after August the following year. It was probably named as the ‘Basic Set’ because it only contained Cars, Controllers and Track. Significantly this Set did not include a Deflector Straight since these were not launched until a few months later, the following year, in February 1961. The other Sets followed in August 1961 and were featured within the Catalogues and Price Lists through to the last Special Sets that were advertised in the modelling press in January 1967. All of these later Sets included a Deflector Straight and when the 2nd generation of Set boxes were introduced, later in 1963, the ‘Basic Set’ title was removed from the Price Lists when the new Set No 1 was then launched. This time it did include one of the Deflector Straights but with actually less pieces of track, although the Set now contained T8-Curves.
Most of the Sets were available with two Cars whilst some later Sets contained three Cars and these were denoted with an ‘A’ suffix. Included in each of the Sets was a small, square, sealed Blue paper bag which contained ‘Spare Current Collectors and Fixing Screws in Case of Loss or Damage’. All of the Sets also included a Cream guarantee card with Green printing featuring a perforated return section (similar to a postcard) for registering the ownership of the Set with the manufacturers. The highest number seen on the Sets guarantee card is B 34854 and for the Cars B 37339, are any higher numbers in existence?
Two Extension Packs also became available in August 1961 which included a number of Track sections, Bridge Supports, Fencing & Fence Posts. One of these included an additional Car and a Controller as well as the other items listed above. Both Extension Pack boxes were the same size being 10⅝” x 8⅛” x 1½”.
The 1st generation of Set boxes were constructed from rectangular pieces of strawboard which were assembled with gummed, paper overlays to rigidise the boxes. The paper overlay which covered the box lid was printed in Yellow, Red, Green & Black featuring a Black & White overprinted photograph of a Grand Prix race on the box lid, face and both long sides. It featured the words ‘Wrenn Formula 152’ over an illustration of a plan of an oval track layout including the words ‘Triple Electric Model Motor Racing’ and ‘Made in England by G. & R. Wrenn Ltd., Basildon’. The box base was covered in a glossy, Dark Red paper. Whilst the size of the box lid was standardised at 17½” x 10⅝” x 2¼”, the box base was available in two different depths of 2¼” or 2¾”, the extra half inch enabling more Track to be included in the box to accommodate the larger Sets. Latterly Wrenn changed the totally strawboard construction for all of the Sets by introducing a small Pale Yellow vacuum-formed polystyrene tray which held the Cars, Controllers and the Bottle of Oil. This was so successful that all of the later 2nd generation Set boxes, included a complete vacuum-formed tray to retain all of the components.
When the 2nd generation of Set boxes were introduced during 1963, Wrenn were still manufacturing the Vibrator-motored Cars but this change was probably prompted by the introduction of the new Set No 0. This time Wrenn decided to accommodate the different sized Sets with manufacturing one size of box in two different heights, with both the base and lid being the same height. The boxes were 18½” x 14″ with heights of 1″ or 2¼” and were both constructed from folded White cardboard, with the lids having full colour printing to the top of the lid and sides. This design used an illustration to the box top which included two of the original Coopers together with a new illustration of a Maserati 250F inserted between them. The rest of the lid design included graphic areas printed in similar colours to the previous generation lids, again with the text included. The same method of identifying the different Set contents was also used as previous. When Wrenn introduced the new DC-motored Cars they just changed the text which featured in the Black rectangle to the bottom left hand corner of the box lid face to highlight this change.
Finally the 9-Volt Set in the ‘Grand Prix’ range was launched, probably at the latter end of 1967 running through into 1968*, although the exact dates for these cannot be confirmed as yet. This Set used the same sized box and construction as the previous Set No 0 but with a different illustration on the box lid. This is generally considered to have been the last Set made available and these Sets reverted to a minimum number of contents as itemised below.
Contained: 2No Cars, 2No E1 Hand Controllers, 2No Figures, 2No ES12 Return Leads, Bottle of Oil, Instruction Manual, Fencing* & Posts. 2No T1 Straights, 8No T4 Curves (4” radius), 1No T20 Deflector Straight & 1No T25 Terminal Straight.
*There were 2No flat lengths of Barrier Fencing included (as opposed to the usual coiled full lengths), each 18” long with printed advertising company logos in Red & Yellow.
Contained: 2No Cars, 2No E1 Hand Controllers, 2No ES12 Return Leads, Bottle of Oil & Instruction Manual. 7No T1 Straights, 8No T4 Curves (4” radius) & 1No T25 Terminal Straight.
**By August 1963 the Track contents within the Set had been changed, which coincided with the introduction of the 2nd generation of Set boxes and the new Set No 0. This new Set No 1 now contained 4No T1 Straights, 8No T8 Curves (8” radius), 1No T20 Deflector Straight, 1No T25 Terminal Straight plus Fencing & Posts.
Contained: 2No Cars, 2No E1 Hand Controllers, 2No ES12 Return Leads, Bottle of Oil, Instruction Manual, Bridge Support Set, Fencing & Posts. 6No T1 Straights, 10No T8 Curves (8” radius), 1No T20 Deflector Straight & 1No T25 Terminal Straight.
Contained: 3No Cars, 3No E1 Hand Controllers, 2No ES12 Return Leads, Bottle of Oil, Instruction Manual, Bridge Support Set, Fencing & Posts. 6No T1 Straights, 10No T8 Curves (8” radius), 1No T20 Deflector Straight & 1No T25 Terminal Straight.
Contained: 2No Cars, 2No E1 Hand Controllers, 2No ES12 Return Leads, Bottle of Oil, Instruction Manual, Bridge Support Set, Fencing & Posts. 10No T1 Straights, 10No T4 Curves (4” radius), 1No T20 Deflector Straight & 1No T25 Terminal Straight.
Contained: 3No Cars, 3No E1 Hand Controllers, 2No ES12 Return Leads, Bottle of Oil, Instruction Manual, Bridge Support Set, Fencing & Posts. 10No T1 Straights, 10No T4 Curves (4” radius), 1No T20 Deflector Straight & 1No T25 Terminal Straight.
When first introduced, these contained the necessary components to enable the Set No 1 to become a Set No 3 (with the Extension Pack No 1) or Set No 3A (with the Extension Pack No 1A). However, by August 1963, all of the standard Sets included a Deflector Straight, so this piece of Track was removed and then these Extension Packs included an additional T1 Straight as a replacement. This also enabled them to extend the new Set No 0 into a Figure of 8. Please see the article in Newsletter No19 for details.
Contained: a boxed Bridge Support Set, Fencing & Fence Posts. 3No T1 Straights*, 1No T20 Deflector Straight* & 2No T4 Curves (4” radius).
*By August 1963 this Extension Pack now included 4No T1 Straights.
Contained: 1No Car, 1No E1 Controller, Bridge Support Set, Fencing & Fence Posts. 3No T1 Straights*, 1No T20 Deflector Straight* & 2No T4 Curves (4” radius).
* By August 1963 this Extension Pack now included 4No T1 Straights.
Contained: 2No Cars, 2No E1 Hand Controllers, 2No Trackside Pits, 1No Grandstand, 2No ES12 Return Leads, Bottle of Oil & Instruction Manual. 11No T1 Straights, 6No T12 Curves (12” radius), 7No T8 Curves (8” radius), 12No T4 Curves (4” radius), 1No T21 Chicane, 1No T20 Deflector Straight, 1No T25 Terminal Straight, 1No T40 Lap Counter Straight, 1No A5 Set of Decorative Transfers, 1No A6 Flag Sheets, 2No A1 Fence Posts, 2No A2 Barrier Fence, 4No T34 Track Clips & Flag Supports, 1No T35 Flag Poles, 1No A11 Spectators, 1No A12 Track Personnel, 1No Bridge Support Set & 1No 0074 Landscape Sheet.
Contained: 2No Cars, 2No E1 Hand Controllers, 2No Trackside Pits, 1No Grandstand, 2No ES12 Return Leads, Bottle of Oil & Instruction Manual. 8No T1 Straights, 4No T12 Curves (12” radius), 4No T8 Curves (8” radius), 14No T4 Curves (4” radius), 1No T21 Chicane, 1No T20 Deflector Straight, 1No T25 Terminal Straight, 1No T40 Lap Counter Straight, 1No A5 Set of Decorative Transfers, 1No A6 Flag Sheets, 2No A1 Fence Posts, 2No A2 Barrier Fence, 4No T34 Track Clips & Flag Supports, 1No T35 Flag Poles, 1No A11 Spectators, 1No A12 Track Personnel, 1No Bridge Support Set, 1No T32 High Level Supports & 1No 0074 Landscape Sheet.
Contained: 3No Cars, 3No E1 Hand Controllers, 2No Trackside Pits, 2No Grandstands, 2No ES12 Return Leads, Bottle of Oil, Instruction Manual & 1No Twin DC Power Unit. 14No T1 Straights, 9No T8 Curves (8” radius), 11No T4 Curves (4” radius), 1No T20 Deflector Straight, 1No T25 Terminal Straight, 1No T40 Lap Counter Straight, 1No A5 Set of Decorative Transfers, 1No A6 Flag Sheets, 2No A1 Fence Posts, 1No A2 Barrier Fence, 4No T34 Track Clips & Flag Supports, 2No T35 Flag Poles, 1No A11 Spectators, 1No A12 Track Personnel, 1No Bridge Support Set, 1No T32 High Level Supports & 1No 0074 Landscape Sheet.
Contained: 2No Cars (9-Volt motors), 2No E1 Hand Controllers, 3No T1 Straights, 10No T4 Curves (4” radius) & 1No T25 Terminal Straight* 4No Pieces of Barrier Fencing**, 12No Fence Posts, 2No ES12 Return Lead, 2No unpainted Figures, a Bottle of Oil, an Instruction Manual*** and 1No Battery Link.
*This section of track was special and only seen in these Sets. Two versions of this have been seen, one being as a standard T25 (with all 8No Terminal Pins) but having one of the steel links between an inner pair of Terminal Pins removed. This matched the drawing in the Manual but another, possibly later version existed and three examples of this have been seen. This one only had the 4No central Terminal Pins and only one steel link but with the outer pairs of Terminal Pins and their brass connecting strips missing (which were unnecessary) and with these holes just left open. Possibly these were much later examples when Wrenn would be considering closely any unnecessary expenditure.
**There were 4No special flat lengths of Barrier Fencing included with printed advertising company logos just in Red, 2No 18″ long and 2No 9″ long. For details see Newsletters No15 and No20.
*** The special paper Instruction Manual included a code number GP/10/67, could this indicate that this was introduced in October 1967, in time for Christmas?
