7 replies to this topic

[Dave Crevie]

The Rise and Fall of Matchbox’s Toy-Car Empire

[Bill from NH]

I had some of the gray-tired ones that were made in England. I believe they were 59 cents each with some special pieces costing more. One of my cousins had a English friend who for years sent him two copies of every new Matchbox released, one to play with, one for his collection. That cousin passed away earlier this year, I have yet to find out who ended up with his Matchbox collection.

[Paul Menkens]

I still have quite a few of mine, all made in England by Lesney. There was one store here that sold them for .35! but  they didn't have a good variety. My nephew played with mine at my mother's house and when he grew up she gave them back to me. many were in rough shape cause a kid down the street came when I wasn't home and "borrowed" them from my mother and did his best to ruin them, leaving them in a mud hole! Some have made it onto my train layout, the tractor trailer trucks are close to 1/87 and some others have been painted with rust paint and are in the Paulville junk yard.

[Brian Czeiner]

I was a Hot Wheels over Matchbox fan myself, about 80/20. My Grandpop would get me one every day from Town Toy (the local toy store) when we walked into town. Good memories.

 

Matchbox restoration is becoming a huge hobby in itself that I would someday like to try out. I enjoy watching a guy from Australia called Marty's Matchbox Makeovers on Youtube. The detail in the castings from back then are just incredible. It makes me wonder why  today's manufacturing isn't of such quality.

[Dave Crevie]

I still have some. I used to get two every Christmas in my stocking, one from Ma and one from Dad. About 25 years ago I traded away about half of what I had to a friend for some 1/43rd die cast models that were more to scale. I still have;

 

           Jaguar XK-140  green      1957 original issue

 

          Jaguar D-type   green       1957

 

          MGA                 red            1958 

 

         Jaguar 3.4L Saloon green  1959

     

         Jaguar E-type   red             1962

 

         Lotus 22 F-1     green         1965

 

         BRM  F-1          green         1965

 

         Ferrari 250 SWB red          1965

 

Here's a link to a complete list of what Matchbox had;

 

https://matchbox.fan...atchbox_by_Year

[Bill from NH]

I've seen a couple restorations on YouTube. I gave all of mine to a younger brother to play with & when they got left at my parent's home they got played with by numerous nephews & nieces. Twenty years ago, I went through them & picked out 4 or 5 that had been mine & gave them to my son. They now reside in AZ, but I don't know if my teenaged grandsons ever got to play with them.

 

Hot Wheels is a big restoration hobby too. I never had any of them because they weren't available locally (in Maine) when I was collecting Matchboxes.

[Jim Difalco]

I never collected them but I do remember playing with them at elementary school recess. We had a decent size hill that was mostly dirt and we carved out a track about 2" deep down the hill. Then we would let them go at the top to see who's car could reach the bottom of the track.

 

Damn, that was 60 years ago.

[Dave Crevie]

67 for me. When the more detailed 1/43rd models came out from manufacturers like Jouef, Auto Art and Vitesse I started collecting those. The detail was so much better.;

 

Jouef Ford GT-40;

 

 

And their Ferrari 330P4, (with roof removed);

 

 

I had been collecting some 1/18th and 1/24th die cast, but those took up so much room. We were now starting to see the level of detail from those larger models in the 1/43rd scale cars.