The on-going pandemic-inspired shift to working from a home office has had a variety of impacts upon my work environment. In my “real” office, a small space in a nearby town, I felt some need to maintain a presence that was inviting to clients and whoever else might periodically need to come co-work with me. That meant keeping the number of toys (other than my extensive collection of antique computers, which is a whole other story) to a minimum. On the other hand, no such restrictions exist in my at-home office.
This has been a mixed blessing.
Mixed, since on one hand I miss the home/work separation that having an external office provided; but on the other hand being at home means that I get to work surrounded by my collection of toys. It helps when many of those toys are die-cast model cars. Nothing helps pass the time during a grinding Zoom meeting than playing valet in your own desktop used car lot. Or organizing the weekly tiny desk auto show. As long as one can keep a lid on the Zoom-Zoom noises, no one’s the wiser.
It seems to have been a little while since we’ve had a whole article devoted to one’s die-cast desktop fleet. Still, the periodic articles on classic die-cast models – such as Jason’s excellent review of his memorable collection, or a discussion of special edition Hot Wheels – indicates that I am far from alone among CC readers in having a life-long addiction to tiny vehicles. Welcome then to the part of my personal motor pool that I’m – thankfully for now – too large to fit into.
I’ve been an enthusiastic collector of 1:64 (or there-about) models since I entered grade school.
This (yes, this very pictured) “Aveling-Barford Tractor Shovel” from the 1966 Matchbox catalog – #43 – is one of my originals and it has survived being buried in the 1st grade sandbox and a particularly traumatic theft by some (now nameless) peer in Roanoke, VA.
My mom insisted that I go confront the thief – and involve school administration – to get the Aveling-Barford back. It was quite the incident as I recall and probably resulted in said peer ultimately getting a righteous walloping by parents and/or teachers. None of which made me any the more popular in 1st grade. That was an uphill climb and fortunately we moved out of state shortly thereafter, but I got the Matchbox back. And so there you have it. Or there I have it. Over 50 years later.
We kids scribbled on catalogs back then…as if we didn’t care that these would be collectors’ items half a century later. Sheesh.
Let’s just say that I was very serious about my die-cast collection even back then. But that’s not really what this article is about. Rather, this is mostly about my current collection…which just so happens to include all of the models that I had in 1966. And then some.
Before moving on to the newer cars, here are a few more examples of the vehicles that really excited me back then. The working vehicles.
#15 (from the 1966 catalog) “Refuse Truck” was, and is, a constant favorite. There’s something about the term “Cleansing Service” that’s just so satisfying, even to this day. Nowadays, the paint is sufficiently fragile that I want to be very careful with this model. Yes, I know that restoration is possible, but I am neither as talented nor as dedicated as Paul Restorer (34 THOUSAND subscribers). Plus, I kind of like the patina. I know where it came from.
Likewise, “Ford Refuse Truck” – #7 in the 1969 catalog – is particularly well-loved. It has the added feature of having a sliding, working rear half. So many of the Matchboxes from those days have features such as moving parts, little sets of pipes, stretchers, gates, etc.. I loved that stuff…all before it was decided that such tiny parts would be consumed by children and were therefore no longer permissible.
I’m sure that if any child took it upon themself to try to eat the barrels from my tractor and trailer (#50 and 51, 1966 catalog),
or the cows from my #37 Cattle Truck (1972 catalog), my mom would have insisted that I accompany the miscreant to the ER, await the forced expulsion of the barrel/cow/etc., and then report back as to the righteous walloping that said child would have subsequently received from teacher and/or parent (preferably both). The idea of any party taking legal action against Matchbox wouldn’t have been in the realm of imagined possibilities.
It should be quite clear that my limited perspective is due to the fact that a) I did not have many friends who played with my stuff and therefore tried to ingest it or b) I was really pretty good about threatening peers about the consequences of ingesting my toys. I’ll leave you to guess which.
My die-casts didn’t all have to have detachable parts in order to be favored. For example, “Wreck Truck” #13 in the 1966 catalog, has always been a hard-working favorite. Here we can see that it’s providing what is I’m sure much-needed roadside assistance to this more recently acquired 2004 RS6 Avant.
I wouldn’t want to be at the tiny little BP station when the Audi’s lilliputian owner shows up and discovers that he got a 2 wheel tow for his expensive AWD wagon.
Comparing those two models – the 1966 truck with the 2006 Audi – illustrates one way that the Matchbox/Hot Wheels line has changed over the 40 years in between.
The wrecker model isn’t actually identified as to what it was based upon (it’s a Dodge, although I’ll have to leave it to the experts here to be more specific). The Audi is very specific as to year and model. It seems from reviewing the 1966 catalog that relatively few vehicles back then were provided with specifics beyond maybe manufacturer. So we have “Taxi-cab” (#20…from the illustration, I am guessing it’s some kind of GM) along with Mercedes 230SL (#27). I suppose that this has something to do with getting (or not) the rights for certain and specific models. But then again, we also have Pontiac Grand Prix (#22)…which looks like a 2-door, non-yellow, version of the not-specific-to-manufacturer taxi cab. It’s just always been curious to me as to why certain models are fully identified whereas others are left generic.
While the working vehicles, all of the trucks and heavy equipment, and anything with detachable pieces were my favorites, I did eventually shift my attention to cars. The advent of Superfast in the early 1970s definitely pushed me in that direction.
Starting in the early ‘70s, I began to acquire more and more cars. Among my favorites here were the Lamborghini Marzal (#20) and the Iso Grifo (#14). I recall finding out that the Iso Grifo was produced by a company that had its roots in the manufacture of Italian refrigerators. I’m not sure how I managed to figure that out in a pre-Google world, but I did, and it was a fact that 12-year-old me loved to employ to bore the crap out of anyone who would listen to me (you could count that number on one hand and have fingers left over) in 1972.
As much as I loved the Iso Grifo, I loved the Marzal more. So much that I had (have) two.
Clearly one was played with considerably more than the other, hence the more worn finish. I should note that this means that I had one more Marzal than in fact ever existed in the real world. Although neither of mine was sat in by Grace Kelly, so I imagine that they’re a lot less valuable than the actual car.
And so when I say “play”, what I really meant at the time was “raced”.
Superfast!
Yeah, I have that one too. The car in the illustration.
OK, I couldn’t resist showing it with the closely-related Citroen CX Safari…which has a detachable boat.
BMC 1800 Pininfarina. #56. Another never-produced, yet still real, car. The actual car never made it past the prototype design phase in 1967. The Matchbox model though ran from at least 1969 through 1972. For whatever reason, mine was never a particularly strong performer on the jumps. This would be an early lesson on the difference between the performance claims in ads – or on boxes in this case — versus real life.
I had a lot of boxes of Superfast track, and this bears some explaining. Sometime around 1972 or 3, my mom discovered a local Maryland department store – at this point I cannot recall which one – that was going out of business and slowly liquidating its toy department. The low-low closeout prices offered spurred my mom to purchase multiple sets of Matchbox Superfast track.
The catalog/insert from one of my many boxes of the stuff indicates that there were five basic sets (SF-1 through SF-5) that were differentiated by increasing complexity and their number of components. SF-1 started with a rather sad single strip of track. SF-5 got you what you see above. 180 curves, starting gate, etc.
If there was one thing you could say about Mom (and there are lots of things you could say about Mom, but that’s another story as well) it’s that she was definitely what we would now call a “completist”.
We kids didn’t have much for toys, but if what we did have happened to be produced in sets or collections, we generally had to have them all. She made sure of that to the best of her ability…and when that ability was facilitated by a liquidation sale, we definitely scored. In absence of wholesale discounts, nearly everything we might want was deemed “too expensive” and thus we didn’t get it or had to scrimp, beg, and save for it on our own (i.e., how I got the actual die-cast vehicles). Once she latched onto collecting something, Mom’s logic was that if one couldn’t collect the whole set, there was not much point in even starting by buying just one small part. Right… So it was either all or nothing, most often nothing. But when the switch got flicked to “all”, as they say, Katy bar the door. Anyway, Mom became for a brief and shining moment what I am sure was the DC-area’s leading collector of Matchbox Superfast track sets and accessories. For her, the objective was to buy one of everything, and then several of some just for good measure. Not that she played with it. Rather, it was just sort of an OCD-by-proxy thing. Hence my comprehensive collection of Superfast track sets. Well, in this case I guess I benefitted.
There were times during the traumatic years of moving from Maryland and winding up in North Carolina where I think the only thing I had for entertainment was to spend my days setting up the Superfast race tracks (combining the sets, of course) to run increasingly complicated gravity-fed competitions with my sister.
Of course, my sister had nothing to do or play with either since the family’s toy budget was entirely invested in Matchbox track at the time. So she was my foil/foe/opponent in all die-cast races. In my family, “toy” was something that the children – male, female, whatever – played with. Together. Because it was there. So there weren’t my toys or my sister’s toys…there were simply “toys”. We sucked it up and shared, and if you didn’t like that you could go outside and find some rocks to play with. Or feed squirrels. Whatever. So long as it didn’t cost my parents money it didn’t really matter to them.
A year or so later, when some Raleigh retailer liquidated its toy department, Mom fell into a giant trove of some sort of off-brand Barbie stuff. Another completist project ensued (the hundreds of “outfits” available for those things became all-consuming and dwarfed the Superfast obsession of only a few years earlier), and Superfast was left hanging so far as an object of obsession and something that my sister wanted to play with along side of me. But that’s ok. I had no interest in whatever these dolls were (not that there is anything wrong with that) and anyway I was getting a bit old for playing zoom-zoom with my little sister. I was moving into darkroom photography and using those skills to make money and buy my own toys (all of which related to cameras and darkroom gear).
Oh, and since I know it will come up, how come I didn’t have the ubiquitous orange Hot Wheels track? I’d become familiar with that early on at a friend’s house in 2nd grade. This was the same friend (whose parents were also weird…although in their case because they were Soviet exiles) who introduced me that Fall to this new TV program called “Sesame Street”. Or maybe I introduced him. I can’t remember, because…2nd grade. At any rate, we’d go to his house after school and race cars on his Hot Wheels track and watch TV. Ultimately we discovered a show called What’s New — a sort of late 1960s public television version of Mr. Wizard that came on right after Sesame Street. It’s this show (and its theme song) which sticks in my head when I recall after-school racing because frankly at age 8 we’d pretty much mastered the counting and alphabet stuff and without a doubt it was more fun watching a show where the host periodically blew things up than it was watching….puppets.
Sorry Bert and Ernie.
Therefore, I knew Hot Wheels. But I also knew that for the most part back then, Hot Wheels weren’t even attempting to replicate actual production, or even potentially production, vehicles. My allegiances were with Matchbox and the realistic (although sometimes maddeningly non-specific) models.
I just could never get with the giant exposed engines.
Although I will grant that the paint jobs were quite something. So yeah, I have a handful of the famous 70s Hot Wheels which may or may not be worth money. I honestly don’t know and really don’t care. I don’t plan on selling them.
Part of the mostly-Matchbox VW collection. For some reason, all of the Hot Wheels VWs are terribly off-scale.
Nowadays I sometimes even mix them up a little. Mixing a little fiction in with the truth.
Beach Bomb is not entirely possible as a real vehicle – particularly not the side-loading version that I have – but those surfboards are removable parts, so I’ll give it a pass.
Likewise, I give the Hot Wheels Hulk-logoed “Spoiler Sport” and the Vette-Van credit just because they’re cool. The Vette-Van looks like something that almost would have been made by a customizer at some point in time.
But I’ve digressed. Sorry.
Bringing this whole discussion up to the present day, nowadays – since Mattel operates both Hot Wheels and Matchbox (Oh, the HORROR!!!!) there’s relatively little difference between the two lines. Both have their share of realistic as well as “fantasy” cars.
This Hot Wheels ‘68 Dart is not quite accurate, but it is close enough that it sometimes shares parking lot space with my more-realistic modern Matchboxes.
Such as this set of dog-tastic ’71 Vista Cruisers. Although they’re both itching for just a tiny little dab of red paint so that the tail lights actually look like tail lights. That would of course be my opinion, not Mattel’s.
Naturally, my fleet is heavily weighted toward wagons.
Volvos.
A nice old Fairlane and a MB wagon.
The Mercedes seems to be transporting doughnuts. Maybe it’s been converted to biodiesel and the doughnuts are a gift from the fryolator owner where they most recently tanked up.
The Matchbox Mercury Commuter is an odd duck since the Matchbox version apparently lasted longer than the actual car. I have the 1972 version of the model, but Mercury discontinued the Commuter in 1968. Also, for some unknown reason Matchbox felt the need to put a ginormous graphic of a cow on the hood.
I’m not sure how many actual Commuter owners opted for the cow-graphic. My guess is not many. But should I ever obtain a last year made (1968) Commuter, I will definitely add the cow-graphic as a Matchbox tribute.
And finally, my current fleet has been augmented with a number of vintage BMWs. This illustrates a rather cool feature of the current Matchbox/Hot Wheels offerings, and that’s the fact that if you keep checking you can often find releases in a variety of colors. Naturally, I have to get the new colors as they emerge. Hence three 2002tii’s and three Volvo 850’s. The collection will grow as new colors become available. What is that saying about apples and trees?
This addiction to gathering all of the colors, and all of the cool wagons, and so on is abetted by the fact that I don’t have to go far out of my way to buy these things. Mattel has figured out that selling Matchboxes and Hot Wheels in grocery stores is a sure-fire way of moving models. In my local stores (and it seems that all of the big chains do this), there are Matchbox and Hot Wheels on the end caps of at least four aisles plus a row of cars for sale hanging above the candy on every other check out lane. Surely these are there to capture the attention of shopping cart-riding kiddos; but I have to say that most of the time it’s the adults who I see pulling through the rows of hanging blister packs. At 99 cents a car (that seems to be the going grocery store price), it has become incredibly easy to pick up whatever strikes my fancy during each week’s shopping trip, since going to the grocery store is the one constant in my life since March 2020.
As the work from home thing continues and as easy access to new models from the grocery store causes my die-cast collection to grow by the month, my thoughts sometimes return to racing these things. After all, I do still have all of that Superfast track. Unfortunately what I don’t have is the room to set it all up.
Of course, due to the fact that there’s not an idea under the sun that hasn’t found its way to exploitation and commercialization on the Internet, the planet has multiple YouTube channels devoted entirely to die-cast car racing. Subsequently, I don’t have to go to all of the trouble of setting up my own raceway. Instead, I can spend my time watching other people do what I might could really do myself…and help them as well get rich from the concept abetted by my own laziness. It’s a wonderful world in which we live.
One of the most prolific of these die-cast racing channels is that offered by 3Dbotmaker. This fellow truly has nailed the color commentary for a real race announcer and runs a race series that allow viewers to send in cars to compete. I totally love how he treats entirely ridiculous scenarios – such as the fact (something we all learned as 8 year olds) that half of the cars on a die-cast race end up turning turtle and stalling on the track — as totally normal and as if these events were part of “real” racing . It’s a deceptively simple concept, but given the apparent amount of work and talent involved (he has videos showing how he builds up his sets, created his track layout, etc.) I can’t begrudge him making enough money from YouTube to create what is probably a pretty decent living. A pretty decent living playing with die-cast model cars. Arrrrrggghhhhh.
Still, I have to admit that I’d love to run some of my own races where I could match up odd rivals such as my original Superfast Miura against this 2009 Prius. In the world of die-cast, we may just discover the fastest Prius on the planet.
And who wouldn’t want to run the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile against pretty much anything? This ’75 Caprice will do.
That race might need the services of both the 1963 Cadillac Ambulance and the “Poop King” (a truck of no specific model, but yes, the little porta johns/choking hazards do detach). Believe me, these are the scenarios that are developed daily here in the home-office motor pool. Where expansion is only a trip to the grocery store away.
Super cool! Being an only child, I had quite the lovely collection of Matchbox, Hot Wheels, Majorette, etc. cars and many, many Ertl farm and construction toys including some pedal tractors. Summer of 1999 I was really hot after a new Specialized FSR mountain bike and my dad said sure – if you sell your toys. So most went away that day at the garage sale. I managed to keep just a few select favorites, though.
I certainly still like diecast and you best believe each trip to Target involves a stop at the toy aisle to glance at Hot Wheels but I buy only .001% of the time. I can’t get past how cheap/unrealistic most toys are today so why bother.
Today I work for an agriculture company so my 1:24 John Deere combine from 1988 adorns my desk, as does a 1:16 1950’s John Deere 60 tractor pulling a 4 row planter.
The ’68 Commuter kicked off a sort of once-a-decade tradition of Matchbox doing Mercury wagons rather than their more popular Ford Division counterparts. They did a ’77 Cougar wagon and a first-gen Sable wagon as well.
Speaking of Matchbox wagons my latest acquisition of theirs is a Subaru Forester, the current version in green. It’s what the Matchbox brand always did best, a realistic presentation of an everyday car compared to the more over-the-top Hot Wheels.
Very nice collection. Yours are a little earlier than mine but I still have most of my childhood diecast vehicles. They were by far the favourite toy so I have a good number. They are also in good shape because unlike a number of my peers I was very picky about their condition and how they were played with.
Like you I’ve bought some of the new Hotwheels and Matchbox. I like the realistic ones the selection in recent years has aligned with my interest.
Wow, does this bring back the memories! I must be about the same age, as my childhood Matchbox and Hot Wheels collection contained many of the exact same vehicles in the same colors. Among my favorites where the Mercury Commuter with the dogs in back (mine was lime green), the purple VW 1600 fastback, #15 refuse truck, and the Dodge BP wrecker. Two other particular favorites were a ’65 Pontiac Grand Prix and a 1964 Chevy Impala taxi which was found buried in the sand of my aunt’s Jersey Shore summer house 40 years after it had gone missing.
I also preferred the Matchbox cars for their realistic renderings of actual vehicles rather than the caricatures put out by Hot Wheels. There were some exceptions, like a blue metallic ’70 Olds Cutlass 442, which proved to be irresistible to a “friend”, who stole it. Just as described above, the tearful confrontation that followed ended badly for him, ended the friendship and we moved out of state a few months later.
Mercury Commuter with the dogs in back (mine was lime green)
Same here. How many thousands of this model and color did they make?
It’s great to see so many familiar models, and to hear a familiar story of theft! In kindergarten, I brought in my latest car for show and tell, and at the end of the day when we all went to the box to collect and take our objects home, my blue Bugatti 35 was missing.
Many weeks later, it shows up as another kid’s show and tell. I knew it was mine because as it was passed around, I looked at the bottom and sure enough, it had my sister’s scrawled initials from her swiftly-curtailed toddler romance with Sharpies.
At the end of the day, I got to the box first, grabbed it back, then stuffed it under my ball cap. Unlike me, Ronnie decided to make a big fuss, and we were all forced to turn our pockets and book bags out. I left to the sweet sounds of his full melt-down temper tantrum.
When we would get tired of setting up the orange hot wheel tracks, we’d whip each other with them, leaving some nice welts. I too, spend an inordinate time hovering around the diecast end caps for an adult. Hmm.., maybe I’m not.
Discovered 3DBotMaker’s vids at the beginning of lockdown thanks to a link at Car & Driver. It’s always a good day when a new video comes out.
I always preferred Matchbox to Hotwheels, but I also had a small collection of Corgi cars as well. I say a small collection, because yes, they were always “too expensive”, but I think I amassed about half a dozen as birthday or holiday gifts. A RR Silver Shadow was a favorite. They were very realistic and of very high quality, and I remember the fancy glass display case at the department store where I first spotted that Silver Shadow. I think it was Bloomingdales, but it well have been Lord & Taylor. The acquisition of a new Corgi model was an event in my young life.
Such a terrific post and accompanying photos. I seriously started feeling the same kind of excitement I used to with each new Matchbox / Hot Wheels acquisition while reading.
My longest owned diecasts must now be about 60 years old. There’s four in this picture, nos. 24 Excavator, 35 Horsebox, 57 Wolseley 1500 and 64 Military crane truck. Sadly the Excavator has disappeared (presumed lost, ‘digging’ in the garden), but I still have the other three, albeit scruffy, unboxed, some with bits missing. The last diecast I bought, a couple of years ago, was an Oxford Diecast Triumph TR4. Tiny, but a nice little scale model.
My guess on the Mercury Commuter wagon is that this was supposed to be a wagon used on a cattle ranch. That’s why the cow decal is on the hood. I base that on the dogs in the way back which I’m also guessing are Border Collies, which are natural herding dogs. I too still have several old Matchboxes but they were used hard. Tootsie Toys were also still around when I was a kid but I don’t think I have any anymore.
Here you go. I still have one Tootsie Toy, and this I believe I’ve had even longer than the Aveling-Barford Tractor Shovel. I don’t know what year this is. I occasionally run across the same model online and they all have the bed tilted this way due to a broken pin at the end of it closest to the cab.
Very nice! My oldest ones are various Dinky Toys from the mid/late 50s.
Much later I started collecting 1/43rds, mostly Porsches and Ferraris. That got to be a somewhat $alty collection….. 🙂 As a young teen however, I got heavily into the AMT/JoHan custom car kits. Many of those got butchered on the altar of no taste ala G. Barris, but some survived all these decades!
At least to cost of gas is extremely low with these lil vehicles!! 🙂
My tiny, scratchbuilt Fleet is also very low cost for materials………DFO
Great article, and wonderful collection!
About ten years ago, my parents moved out of their long-time home, and my collection of childhood Matchbox cars saw the light of day for first time in decades. I took (re)possion of the box, and handed the cars to my daughters, who loved them. Except for three – they’re sitting on my (home) desk, shown below. They are as follows:
1. Bustleback Seville: This was my “daily driver” Matchbox as a kid — it’s well used, and has the faded paint to prove it. I remember playing with this car a lot, and when I’d play with friends, I usually picked the Seville for my own use. It’s earned a cushy retirement sitting on my desk, keeping me company.
2. Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow: Even as a kid, I knew that Rolls-Royces were too nice to abuse, so I kept this one on display in my bedroom. It was for looking at, not playing with. And therefore, 40 years later it looks brand new. I couldn’t pass this one on to my kids, and see my great efforts at preservation get wasted, so I kept this one too.
3. Datsun 280Z: I have no idea why this Matchbox is in as good shape as the Rolls-Royce, but it is. Maybe it got lost in my messy room for a few years… maybe I got it right at the tail end of when I played with Matchboxes. But it’s clearly not been played with much. Given its showroom-new condition, I kept this one as well. (Oh, and I can’t fathom why this Matchbox was made with a big, red trailer hitch.)
The rest of my collection still resides upstairs with my daughters, who still play with them occasionally. I’m glad about that. They even bought some new ones of their own.
As as for your collection, I love that Iso Grifo!
Eric – I am pretty sure your Seville is not a Matchbox but rather a Tomica. Mine’s in a storage lot near the desk.
Oops – you’re right! I’m afraid I used “Matchbox” in a generic sense.
Growing up in the 1960s in Painted Post, NY there was a store called Martin Marine that mostly sold marine supplies but happened to have a toy department, or at least the remnants of a toy department. New-old stock Matchbox from the early 1960s, mostly British trucks and cars I had never seen before. And AMT models from the mid-1960s, stuff no longer available at toy stores. Must have been a hobby store, as in hobby farm, not meant for profit.
Guess I was too old to be captured by the on-going Hot Wheels/Matchbox craze, but about 20 years ago, I began to marvel at the 1:18 Maisto, & Burago die cast models priced at $9.95 at Costco. So, began the collection. The first was the ’55 Mercedes 300S, & has grown slowly to about 75 more “space hogs” occupying four shelves, an antique cabinet, a mantle, & a bar top. While most early ones were purchased new, in the last dozen years I’ll snare a few from antique stores, & yard sales. Some are now “worth” 30-40 bucks, so when the grand kids inherit this pile of metal, no doubt the collection will cover a month’s worth of groceries.
This is an excellent post. I’ve also got an ongoing die-cast addiction, and you inspired me to set up an traffic jam on my deck railing with Doc Hudson and Tow Mater. I was a 7-year old Matchbox fanatic when the first Hot Wheels cars came out in 1968. The only original Hot Wheel that I still have is the Deora, probably because it didn’t get used much, as it was the slowest, with skinny tires at all four corners. You have taken much better care of your toys. I can’t believe you still have all of the choking hazard parts! I always lost those little bits immediately after bringing the toy home.
Uh, it looks like someone ate the surfboards off of your Deora. 😉
Cool! I had an extensive HotWheels and Matchbox collection as a child, and even had a collection case for them with the plastic trays. And that orange track stuff, too! That got passed on to one of my younger cousins back in the day.
On a bigger scale, I also remember Corgi (and Dinky) models, which were at a higher price point. The classic one was the James Bond 007 Aston Martin DB with the ejector seat – now a pretty nice collector’s model.
Donuts or warm up weights for baseball bats?
I had a whole folding case full that I haven’t seen for many decades. Step-monster probably tossed them, Dad’s a pack rat.
A sibling gave me a lime metallic ’49 Cadillac sedanette 20 years ago, which I still have.
Somewhere up in the dusty old attic of my parents’ house is the two-toned matchbox VW Westfalia I had as a kid. Actually, I had two – one blue on and one orange one. It would be awesome to find the orange one one day since I ended up buying the real thing as an adult.
Well, at least in my opinion, that’s really the Holy Grail of die-cast collecting…to have miniature versions of your actual, full-scale, vehicles. Aside from the new MINI, I’ve found very few die-cast versions of my own cars. I’d love a 1:64 E91 (no such thing seems to exist). There is a Corgi Volvo 245, but that lives on my son’s desk at college (since the full-sized one lives here at home).
His IRL 245 doesn’t have a matching caravan (although it may have in its life before here)…but I’m working on that.
I have a diecast 2018-20 Honda Fit that was a pleasant surprise since the ebay seller in China called it 1/32 scale, which others in the series are, but when it arrived it was 1/25 scale. I haven’t scaled it out precisely but it is just enough smaller than Tamiya’s 1/24 gen 1 Fit to reflect the slight scale difference and just enough smaller than the Revell 1/25 PT Cruiser to reflect the difference in the real cars’ sizes.
I intended to paint it silver to match my real car but the factory-applied blue is so good I’ll keep it. It’s the color I would’ve gotten on the real car if Honda hadn’t dropped all the color options for the 6MT except silver and gray.
Here’s a pic link; https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71P9hpS3RQL._AC_SL1500_.jpg
I was surprised how many of those early Matchboxes I have, the loader, cleansing service truck, Commer ice cream truck, dodge tow truck and a Foden 8 wheel dump truck. Mine are similarly “loved” but they survived me and my children along with a mix of newer Matchbox, Corgi Jr. and Hotwheels.
I still grab the occasional die cast that catches my fancy since both Matchbox and Hotwheels have improved quality lately. My favorite surprise find was a Matchbox Mazda CX-5 in Soul Red metallic just like my real CX-5, which means I need to find an aero body F150 diecast to complete the set.
Wow! Your childhood pretty much coincides with mine, judging from the cars and the catalog you show. I still have many of mine, and used to get them out for my son to play with on special occasions. Back in those days they were just funny old toys to him, he wasn’t into cars like I was, and was more interested in newer ones anyway. When the grandkids come, they play with his old ones, but they have never seen mine.
I was never really into Hot Wheels cars though I wound up being given some. I lost interest in Matchbox cars when they tried to out-freak Hot Wheels. But by then I’d moved on to plastic kits – much more satisfying, as I can build them my own way. And still do. Though I will admit they take up a lot more space. 🙂
Great story! Being the only child was a godsend when getting presents as I was so into diecast when I was little that I received them from EVERYONE in the family!
Those early MBXs ring the bell for me as I had pretty much all of them myself. I still collect 1/64 today and gravitate toward realistic vs fantasy of all every current and past diecast make.
This post jogged up an old memory from the cobwebs that might have otherwise been long forgotten. As a young kid, maybe 7, I was at a yard sale that had a box of Matchbox cars. There were probably at least 30 or more in that box. I was with my father and I told him that I wanted them. I had $1 in my pocket. Dad told me how to go about inquiring on a price, so I asked the guy how much he wanted for the box. He asked me how much did I have to spend. I told him $1. He said that this was just such a coincidence because that was just how much he was asking for that box of Matchbox cars. I paid him my dollar and was now the owner of a fleet of Matchbox cars. What a gentleman! He basically gave them to me, and I’d bet that he is no longer with us, but I still remember his generosity over 50 years later. What a good guy!
What a lovely memory.
I’m roughly the same age as you, turned 59 yesterday. I had parallel obsessions with the hot rod style Hot Wheels and the usually more realistic Matchboxes. But there were some wild hot rod style Matchboxes, and some relatively realistic Hot Wheels -and those became my favorites. (Other than my Matchbox Superfast Lotus Europa, which was *the* favorite of favorites.)
I work from home and they’re all in a display case by my desk.
(Also I wrote a CC article a while back about mine, called, I think, (T)COAL)
Great article, thank you! I have bought many extra Matchbox models over the years, and I can always tell which were my originals from childhood, as I had carefully painted in the rear lights. Back in the mid sixties most car magazines were black and white and I would colour in the tail lights there too.
What a super essay! Thank you, Jeff. I recently picked up a slightly used 1971 Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser Matchbox for my five-year old godson who is the only person on the block who enjoys cars as much as I do.
This was so cool thank you! I still have most of my Hot Wheels cars including a chrome bodied Camaro (part of a series where you joined the Hot Wheels Club). Most are from the ’60’s and most are not the fantasy cars. I have 1 Matchbox Volkswagen Fastback with opening doors.
Back in the ’60’s there were also the competing Johnny Lightning cars. Back then we always thought of them as cheap Hot Wheels knockoffs. Lately I see those cars back in stores, this time catering to us old farts. They seem to focus on ’60’s cars and have great detail, including period correct stock looking wheels! I was quite impressed!
I… have a problem.
Oh geeze….. 🙂
I see your (magnificent!) collection, and raise you:
I particularly love the store displays that that Dutch collection includes.
Gadzooks! Quick, let my show this to my wife. “See? It’s not nearly as bad as you think and tell people!”
A terrific article! And thanks for the shout-out…I had forgotten about that article.
Like you, Matchbox surpassed Hot Wheels as I’m an authenticity type of guy. I vividly remember being in first and second grade and classmates having the Spoiler Sport and Vette Van you show. They certainly liked theirs but my interest was stifled due to the fantasy element. Does that reflect a lack of imagination on my part? Who knows.
I’m glad you put this together. It seems I didn’t cover but a portion of my collection so perhaps I need to dig them out and do something with the remainders.
My small desktop fleet parks under the pedestal of an Apple monitor. It is all Hot Wheels: red, blue and yellow 2017 Ford GT and red 2016 Ford GT “race”.
I want to thank you for providing that link to americanarchive.org (“What’s New”). I didn’t know about that website, and I found a 15 min. film I’ve been seeking for 39 years, which I thought I’d never see again. I watched it when I was home sick from school, and the film had a lasting effect on me. “The Human Community” #6: Toxic Wastes. The music is haunting, the photography excellent; the message–powerful! Who knows how many times this actually happened in New Jersey?
https://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-387-375tb6pn
I will search that site for more hidden gems. P.S.: I remember many of those Matchbox cars, and I still have my collection of models from the late ’50s through the ’70s, along with a few catalogues and “Matchbox Collectors Club” Newsletters.
You’re welcome, Poindexter. I have to say that I searched for web info on What’s New for literally years before I found that americanarchive.org site a few years ago.
What’s New was a dear dear favorite show when I was about 8 – 10 – perhaps due to the associated memories of playing Hot Wheels with a pal after school – and so I wanted to dig up info. But being as it was somewhat regional public television, and also that it happened at a time (the very late 1960s through early 1970s) that I maintain is a kind of blindspot for popular culture memories reflected on the Internet, it was super hard to find.
Glad that it helped you find something you were looking for as well.
A bit late here; a very engaging and fun article. My toy cars were passed on to my younger brothers, as part of the growing Niedermeyer car pool, so I don’t have any of them. But I have picked up a few along the way in more recent years. I’ll have to share the here one of these days.
I’ve been meaning to chronicle what’s left of my collections, from childhood and more recently, but Jeff you’ve raised the bar very high. Your cars, the catalogs, and especially the stories. Thanks for an enjoyable read!
I have most of the miniature toy cars I had when I was a child. Quite a few Matchbox, a brand called “Husky” which were apparently made by Corgi, but sold in American Woolworth stores, and then Hot Wheels, which I never saw until 1969, when a local hardware store started carrying them. Hot Wheels cost a whole dollar. Matchbox cars in the plain box cost 55 cents, while the ones in the blister pack cost 59 cents (or sometimes 69 cents, depending on the store). Husky cars cost only 39 cents. Then there were a few odds and ends from other manufacturers. Dinky, Corgi, Lego (they were plastic), Impy, Johnny Lightning.
Funny how no one mentioned Husky. The Citroen ID station wagon might be a Husky or maybe a Corgi Junior. And Woolworths. Went out of business in the U.S. in the late 1990s or so.
The Citroen is a Corgi Junior.
I have a vague recollection of Husky die-casts. I didn’t know that there was any relation to Corgi’s. I also recall a larger scale metal vehicle brand called Husky.
That, of course and the boys’ clothing department at JC Penney and Sears that I needed to shop in when I was about that age….
Husky diecast were sold in Woolworth’s over here too. Unlike Matchbox they were always in blister packs. They were renamed Corgi Juniors (Rockets with fast wheels) around 1970. Very few of the models were duplicates of what Matchbox did, other than really obvious things like the E type Jaguar.
The plastic suspension was probably the weak part of the design. The extended flaps that supported the axles could break and you ended up with a low rider, though for the Citroen DS that would just be like it was parked overnight!