I still have the majority of the toy cars I grew up with. The smart kids kept their Star Wars figures in mint condition for a big collectable pay off but for me the one childhood toy I hung onto was my cars. The collection includes mostly Hot Wheels, Majorette and Matchbox of that late 1970s to perhaps the early 1990s. The later additions tend to be in better condition but I was never one to strap firecrackers to my toys so almost all have survived over the years. Anyone who grew up in the 1980s will surely recognize a few from their own toy chests.
This Hot Wheels AMC Pacer was one of the my favorite cars as a child. The painted on decals wore right off from the extensive play.
A little hard to see but this Pacer has its engine where the rear seat would normally be. As a young boy I distinctly remember asking my Grandfather if he would desire real life version. His answer of no on the account of it being too hot inside gave me my first inclination that I might be alone in the family as the only car person.
I really liked this Majorette Mercedes W124 with opening doors except for the fact that the front doors have a slightly different shade of silver to the rest of the car.
This Bedford auto transporter was a gift from a Scotland based relative.
I had two of these Hot Wheels Chevrolet Corvettes with an opening hood.
This Packard is also Hot Wheels. I added the orange paint at some point in attempt to boost the realism.
Land Rover by Majorette missing the roof rack which as I recall fell off very easily.
This wide body Ford Capri by Corgi had more plastic in its construction than an equivalent Hot Wheels or Matchbox.
My parents bought me this Hot Rod at some tourist trap type store on the journey from Canada to Texas in 1984.
The rear license plate is an unusual. I also have a futuristic van that is also equipped with the rear plate.
I recall that this Nissan 300ZX Turbo originally belonged to my brother but I claimed after he lost interest.
One of three Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham limousines I have. One of each in grey , white and black.
Ford Transit Super Van from Matchbox.
Hot Wheels Ford Woody with Good Year rubber tires.
Ford Sierra by Majorette with opening front doors.
This Chevrolet Citation X-11 by Hot Wheels has outlived most of the 1:1 scale examples.
That concludes the small dive into my childhood toy box. Anyone recognize a toy car they also had growing up?
I was born in the late 1980s and I am pretty sure I have an aqua version of the Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham Limousine or maybe it is a Mercedes W124, have not seen it in years. I have a Ford Woody Hot Wheels without the engine on top of the hood that dad helped turn into a crew cab Ranchero then reattached the rear window and I just saw that one recently.
The wheels on these vehicles were generally better about not breaking off, but if a wheel did break off I remember dad straightening the axle and being able to attach a new wheel from a parts car. With bigger toys sometimes a wood cutter would be used to make a new wheel and I think he even glued the rubber tread on the new wheel once.
I had the Corvette except in Silver. The Tomica version of the 300ZX, and three of the Cadillac limos..one of which I painted black myself.
My last few Matchbox purchases were a late 80’s BMW 5 series, a Saab 9000, a 90’s 300ZX, a Jaguar XJ6, Rolls Royce Silver Spirit, Mercedes 300E, and Sterling 825
I bought the Matchbox XJ6 for my wife – told her it was the only Jag we’d ever be able to afford.
A fun dive. I have one of those boxes in my own basement, which proves that I am a bit older than you are. 🙂 Maybe I need to take a dive into my own toy box.
The Pacer! Same color and everything!
Great cars! I have all of the non-Matchbox models in my current collection except for the yellow Hot Rod.
I belive its a ZYLMEX/ZEE Toy.
My parents hung onto a lot of the toy cars my brother and I had when I was younger, and in recent years my kids have played with them when they go over to visit (which is often, since my parents live in the next town from us). The youngest of my three children, who is now 3 years old, is by far the most toy-car crazy of my kids, which has apparently prompted my parents to pull out everything they have, including multiple boxes of cars that I hadn’t seen in thirty years. It’s fun to go over there and see them all. A few have worked their way back to my house.
The cars that we had were probably 50% Matchbox, 40% Hot Wheels, and 10% other brands like Majorette and Tomy. The oldest are from the late ’60s (I was born in 1970 and probably didn’t begin acquiring toy die-cast cars until a year or two after that, but I had some older cars for as long as I can remember, apparently left by cousins who lived out-of-state who came for a visit, forgot them, and never came back to get them. I was also fascinated with older pre-Superfast Matchboxes and would sometimes trade for them with other kids who had them). The newest are from the early-to-mid ’80s. My brother is five years younger than me, but I don’t think he bought very many die-cast cars after the point when I lost interest in them. Of the cars David posted:
–The Pacer looks familiar, but I don’t think I’ve seen one over my parents’ house. Maybe we had it years ago but it got lost somewhere along the way.
–I know we have/had the Bedford car carrier, which is a Matchbox. I have definitely seen my son playing with that one over my parents’ house.
–I’m pretty sure we have/had the Ford woody. In fact, Hot Wheels has a tendency to occasionally re-use old castings, and I’m pretty sure they’ve revived this one in recent years; IINM, my son has the new version in two different colors. Another Hot Wheels where I had one as a kid and my son has a more recent re-use of the same casting is a ’55 or ’56 Chevy Nomad.
–I think we had a Hot Wheels Citation, although I don’t remember it looking like the one in the picture. It may have been a different color. As with the Pacer, I don’t think I’ve seen one over my parents’ house, so it may have gotten lost somewhere along the way.
Regarding the Corvette with the hood that opens and the Land Rover with the missing roof rack: I’ve noticed that modern-day Matchbox and Hot Wheels almost never have opening hoods or doors, trailer hitches, or any accessories that detach (or could become detached), even though they were common features back in the ’70s. I’ve guessing that these have been eliminated over the years for safety reasons. My son likes the old models over my parents’ house that have these things, because he never sees them otherwise.
One final note: my son recently started preschool. In his preschool classroom, there is a basket with about a dozen toy die-cast cars. Inexplicably, one of them is a Matchbox from the 1970s. I know I had the same one when I was younger, which may still be at my parents’, probably in far worse condition that the one at the preschool. The name of the model escapes me at the moment; it’s a “fantasy vehicle”, not based on a real car (a yellow coupe with an open front cockpit, and I think the engine at the back).
I moved around a lot when I was growing up, so I don’t have many things left from my childhood. One thing I did manage to keep was my collection of toy cars, mostly hot wheels and matchbox. I probably have around a hundred of them.
The orange Pacer is awesome. I tried very hard to find one as a kid, as the real life Pacer is one of my favourite cars. I found a bright green hot wheels ‘Poison Pinto’ wagon at a thrift store, and I really liked that one.
The prized car of my collection was the DeLoran DMC-12 with opening gullwing doors made by a company called Zee Toys. Some other interesting finds I have are a Hot Wheels Oscar Mayer Wiener Mobile, a multi-coloured Maisto Citroen 2CV, and a few early 50’s Matchbox cars that I was lucky enough to find at a swap meet.
If I ever do have kids it would be fun to pass these on to them.
I remember that Ford super van quite well. It made its way into the bathtub a few times and got a bit rusty. Might still be in the attic somewhere. I also remember having 2 two-toned vanagons that had removable tops and that bicycles hanging on the back was part of the design.
What’s interesting is how these toys started off so new and shiny and by the by wore down, just like a real car. Like a microcosm. Speaking of micro, anyone still have a collection of “Micro-machines”? Anyone the same age as the author and myself will remember these, along with the rapid-fire spokesman. Fun ride down memory lane!
+1 on the micros!! I still have the not-quite-micro machine size, not-quite-matchbox size Monogram Mini Exacts too. Quite detailed for a 1/87 scale car! They’re from 1989. I remember “driving” the silver Corvette down the lap belt of my parents ’89 Regal GS and right into the compartment where the belt winds up. Broke my 4 year old heart. Either they got it out before they sold the car, or they replaced it. But either way, I got my silver Corvette back lol
Aha, mini exacts! I wondered if anyone else remembered those. I had (well, have) only two of them – the blue Thunderbird Super Coupe and the white ’69 Mustang Boss 429. Very nice detail though!
Need to search “the bay of E” for more of those little guys sometime.
I had quite a few Micro Machines as well. I passed them onto my children so most are scattered around the house now.
The yellow hot rod is a “Fast 111’s” (Fast Ones) car. They all had the large rear taillights and licence plate like that. I had a few of those, but I was really into Hot Wheels. I kept my Hot Wheels in cases and never mistreated them, so most of them are in very good condition.
I have one of those red C-cab trucks, called the “T-Totaller”, but mine is near mint. Same with the orange “Packin’ Pacer”. My brother and I also had a few of the non-HW that you photographed as well.
Some of my Hot Wheels on display in the den. Note the one non-HW is my ERTL General Lee. 🙂
I’ve got a few of those as well. I always wanted one of those GM motorhomes but never did manage to find one.
I am disappointed that my GM motorhome is so beat-up. I’m sure I owned it from new. However, not only was I pretty young when I got it, the motorhome was too large to fit in the case with my other HW, so it got thrown loose in the box with my non-HW toy cars. My Space Cop (white car, bottom right corner) is of similar vintage, but has fared better.
Case #2.
My mom yardsaled a few of my oldest HW cars. I was able to find replacements from old stock still still on the store shelves for a few of them. The white 3-wheeled jet car is a replacement. The green dunebuggy on he right is a replacement for a yellow one.
I had a ’36 Ford coupe called the “Neet Streeter” in blue. it had a black hood scoop and a big decal on the back with the words “Oldie but a goodie”. I was upset that that one got yardsaled. I was only able to find a replacement painted in an ugly pink colour. I bought that one, but it is not on display.
Man, you and I had a lot of the same cars – I had 2 Neet Streeters, but both of mine were maroon.
I have 4 ice cream pails full of cars at my parents house – mostly Matchbox as I preferred realistic cars to whimsical. Whenever we visit, my two boys immediately dive into the buckets. It’s funny, a lot of their favorites were also my favorites – like father like sons I guess.
Hey, a crack up *and* a flip out! Nice selection of oddities. I have a few crack ups but the one flip out I had seems to have disappeared.
I probably have about 50% of the ones in your photo…but most of mine are pretty severely play-worn, with the exception of some ebay scores of recent years. Yours are in pretty immaculate shape for originals!
Yep – they were made by Kenner. I have the same car, although mine is maroon and my license plate is North Dakota. I want to say the name is Super Coupe. I had a couple of others too, but they were more on the ridiculous side – a racing semi and some other nonsensical 6 wheeled thing.
I’ve got a boxed one of those Bedford TM car transporters. The cars on it look a bit like Leyland Princesses – perhaps Vauxhall Chevettes would have been more appropriate! One of my favourites was a Foden cement mixer that had gearing that made the barrel rotate as you pushed it along. And it didn’t disappointed in the looks department – the casting really captured the rounded cab shape and had fine detail including the ‘Foden’ script.http://www.vintagebritishdiecasts.co.uk/1index/xx21d.htm
Look at this, my father bought this for us in 1981 in Salt Lake City. Miss my childhood!
I had most of the cars featured, not all in the same colors though. I loved the Majorette Caddy limousines–I have all three colors too.
Out of my old ones, the Pocket Cars (Tomica) and Majorettes were my favorites. I also had quite a few Corgis.
One of my favorites, though, was my green Cougar Villager. This is not my original one, but one I got back in the ’90s from my folks when I was old enough to want a mint one. I still have my original one too–though it is a bit more weathered!
I had that exact same car. I couldn’t say what all of the other cars were but I know there was a light blue Citroen CX wagon, A-Team van & Corvette, General Lee & Boss Hogg Caddy convertible, a couple of cabover Kenworths with trailers, one with a NASA rocket, white 1932 Ford roadster hot rod, etc. Given they were mostly Matchbox and a few Hotwheels I don’t recall any Australian or even Japanese cars amongst them.
The cars are all still in a box at Mum’s place, and I have released a few for my nephew & niece to play with while they are still in the reckless destruction phase & won’t ‘appreciate’ them.
Next time I’m visiting if I have time they would be a good subject to practice my macro photo skills.
Same story here. The cougar villager was one of my favorites as well,and I still have my original–which was repainted by me, twice, and then had most of the “repaint” chip off so it looks like hell. But it survives. And I have a near-mint ebay find as well, though not with the minty box like yours!
As a kid who grew up in the 50s/60s I wish I had kept a few of my toy cars but since many were plastic (they were cheaper and so I went for quantity over “quality”) they probably wouldn’t have survived perfect care. BUT, I am trying to make sure my love of cars of all sizes is passed to the next generation. My youngest nephew gets a slow but steady stream of cars and trucks when it looks like his collection needs an addition. I just wish the really neat cars that were around 25 to 35 years ago were cheaper/more widely available. Right now he is making do with many Chinese-sourced models.
About 25 years ago we moved into a house that had a cubby-house on low stilts over a large sandpit in the back yard. Our kids found the twin to your grey Caddy buried in the sandpit.
Are those BL wedges on that Bedford car carrier?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_%28car%29
‘Inspired by’ might be the best description. http://cochesaescala-charger.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/truck-bedford-tm.html
Oh yeah, I recognize a few of these and had several of them myself.
I had that ’40 Woody, but in orange. Sits REAL nice with the brown and I think mine was one that had a rear axle on a pivot mount so you could jack it up in a California rake.
I definitely had the Packin Pacer. It had a funky 70s paint job.
I had that car carrier too…prolly lasted 5 seconds before I just HAD to remove the cars so I could play with them.
I remember Fast 111’s too. Didn’t have that one but I had a sandrail and a shark looking car. I remember them being extremely fragile, not nearly as stout as HW or MB.
I can tell you that my having literally HUNDREDS of diecast cars as a kid (all long gone now) helped to set the gearhead hook in me at a young age. The original HW ‘redline’ mag wheels have a heavy hand in why to this day Im all about coke bottle style mags.
While my diecasts were long ago yardsaled or gifted to my younger cousins, I do sill have most all of my AFX slot cars from when I was a kid. That collection exploded in the early ’00s when I got heavily into collecting again. Ill have to do a mini COAL on those sometime….
Impressive collection. I have some of the cars from my childhood also. But from several decades earlier. Promos and built kits, mostly ranging from Christmas of 1959. (I was 8 yrs old) A 1960 friction powered thunderbird, to various Thunderbirds (some built kits, others, dealership promosof the early and mid 60s, Several Pontiacs, a 61 Tempest, sedan (Saloon) a 63 Bonneville Conv. and a 65 Grand Prix. another survivor is a 65 Chrysler 300 HT. (See snap,That one took a first place trophy at a model show in 65) They all survived by being placed in a trunk and forgotten. in the lower level of my parents house for over 2 decades. No displayed along with my collection of Automobilia in my home office.
Is that a Jo Han? Back in the day when styling meant something, Jo Han had really high quality models, both promotional and those that you could buy and assemble. On top of that, Jo Han took a more offbeat approach to which cars they would feature and you got some out-of-the-ordinary selections (such as AMC products) that the big model makers (Revell and MPC at the time) did not feature.
In fact, in an ironic twist, it could be said that, with Jo Han, you got car models that were of higher quality than the real things.
It is indeed a Johan. as is the 62 Dodge dart HT I also have form back in the day. Johan models did seem to have better detailing. But I can’t quibble to much as AMT at the time was pretty good. Johan I remember really touted their “Flat pack” packaging with a shorter but wider box than those used by AMT or Revell. here is a pic of the other Johan Survivor, the 62 Dodge Dart HT.
I had (have?) the Pacer. I think I recall the decals were not painted on but were actual paper based stickers back then on Matchbox cars, that’s why they are gone now. I still keep a few of my nicer ones around, the others (hundreds) are in a big box at my mom’s house for when my kids go over there to visit. I was (and still am) always a bigger fan of Matchbox than Hot Wheels, prizing realism over fantasy or exaggeration for the most part. Nowadays when I buy them for my kids at Target they are usually disappointed that I came back with a red Datsun 510 instead of the PhantasmRocketRydrrrrr or whatever for example…
I think they got rid of the opening features to keep the cost down. hot wheels were about a dollar in the early 70s, and now the play quality ones are about a dollar. they had to do something…
It is impressive they have been able to hold the line more or less on pricing over the decades. Everything else has massively increased.
My dad’s backyard must have 100 or more of these buried just below the grass line. These date back to the mid 60’s when Matchbox was overtaken by Hotwheels. Hard to believe these things continue to sell today. I was under the impression that kids were only interested in video games. Some things will never change!!
I was grown before Hotwheels came out and never owned any Matchbox. But I do still have a cast iron 1938 American La France fire truck that I got from a man at church in 1952 when I was seven. He was moving to Florida and gave all the kids toys his kids didn’t want.
I keep getting asked if I want to sell it and I tell them the price is about $1,000,000 more than they’d ever come up with.
The most beaten Allanté in the world !
The truck in the first picture may be re-issue of an early Hot Wheel (at very least it’s similar). The originals of course had the “Spectraflame” translucent metallic paint and the red-line wheels, and are quite collectible now. (Not quite Star Wars -level collectible, but some of them are worth well into three figures.) I lusted after the original version of that truck as a boy in the late 60s, but alas never got it.
Many of the wild hot rod-style Hot Wheels were designed by Tom Daniel. He also designed 1/24 plastic models for Monogram. I had many of them, but unlike my Matchboxes and Hot Wheels unfortunately those got tossed at some point. Oh well, with the amount of stray glue my 9-year old self got on them, they wouldn’t make good displays now anyway.
I wish I had taken better care of mine. I was maybe 9 or 10 when Hot Wheels came out and had several of the early ones.
When I get my completed plastic model cars from my parents’ basement, I’ll have to post pictures here. I never built anything box-stock.
I was buying these in the ’80s for my own collection – and still am buying (apx) 1:64 scale toys that represent vehicles in which I have some interest. They have to be authentic road cars and stock.
I do miss the greater variety of brands available in the ’80s – mostly mentioned above. The Majorette line was widely available but I have not seen it for many years. There were accurate Euro models that one did not find from the the two main lines. Zee/Zylmex was lower quality, lower price but lots of variety. I remember their ’82 Riviera convertible with opening doors. Tomica was hard to find but, as now, of excellent quality. I bought many Tomicas in Japan in the early ’80s and at American toy shows in subsequent years. Ertls were somewhat more crude in detail but quite durable and covered American subjects other companies ignored – shoebox Ford convertible (top up), fastback (apx ’50) Chevrolet two door sedan (“Fleetline”?), ’56 Ford Crown Victoria – and had opening doors.
Grandson is now addicted to them too; he got a box of 72 various (and realistic) M & HW cars this last summer and rarely can be seen without one in his hand.
That reminds me, my son has a ’56 Chrysler 300B and a ’53 Studebaker Starliner from a company called Maisto. There’s no interior (blacked-out windows) and the chassis is simple black plastic, but the bodies seem to be accurately scaled and have good detail. I was surprised that they chose to produce these particular cars.
Your story mirrors mine, I have all of my die cast cars and none of my extensive Star Wars collection. By the way the one with the large license plate is made by Kenner they are called “Fast 111’s”. It is not clear why the 111 is possessive, but it is.
Ah, 1/64 cars. One addiction I never really outgrew. I have almost all of my childhood collection, with the exception of ones that were totally broken (and a few of those stayed around for junkyard scenes). Of course they were *well* loved and I wasn’t much of a fanatic about keeping them shiny, so many of them have seriously worn paint, bent axles, or worse. But also a lot of memories tied up in those little cars. I also went through a phase where I would repaint some of them with testors paint intended for plastic models–did anyone else do this? Most of the repaints…did not turn out so well. I was undeterred.
My oldest cars were from the early 80’s and a few late 70’s examples inherited from older cousins, so I’ve always had a particular affinity for Matchbox, especially the made in england lesney models. I’ve bought a number of those on ebay, both “shinier” examples of ones I already have or ones I always wanted but never got. Also vintage hot wheels and some of the late superfast matchbox from the late 80’s/early 90’s.
In things of recent manufacture, I really liked Ertl’s American Muscle 1/64 models from about 5 to 10 years ago. Fantastic detail on those. More currently, I’ve been picking up some M2 auto-thentics and more recently Auto World premium. And that’s only 1/64…I also collect 1/18 though those are a bit harder to find space for so I probably only have about 15.
Maybe I never aged past about 10 or 11. 🙂 My wife is a saint for putting up with it, even if all of my “little cars” as she says are confined to my office!
Excellent post, David!
I had that Pacer when I was maybe 8 or 9! Always thought it was cool. I used to push it around making a sound that I thought sounded like glasspacks. My mom must have thought it sounded too much like farting noises, because she made me stop.
The Mercedes is a 190, I have the same in this livery:
https://http2.mlstatic.com/D_NQ_NP_2X_276121-MLM20706813193_052016-F.webp
I have the Land Rover and the Cadillac Limousine too, and I had the Sierra as a kid.