Small, shiny and wheeled: Matchbox toys were once a staple gift to small boys from indulgent relatives.
I still remember my Aunty Edna giving me a small, bottle green Formula 1 car with a yellow stripe capping its slender nose. I didn’t know what make it was, so I turned it over to read the lettering on its base and mispronounced Lotus as 'Lottus'. It was a 1960 Lotus 19 F1 car, and would become one of many of these diminutive toys to litter my bedroom.
The owners of the brand, of which more shortly, have just relaunched it with arrays of models themed by European countries, each containing a mix of modern and classic models as well as utility vehicles. The UK collection includes Jaguar’s E- and Jaguar F-Types, a Lotus Elise and Europa (the classic variety), an MGB GT, a modern Mini Countryman, an LEVC taxi and a BMW M5 police car.
The French collection includes a Renault Kangoo van, a 1968 Citroën DS and, a little unexpectedly, a Lamborghini Gallardo in French police livery. German kids will enjoy a more imaginative range taking in a Unimog, a 1969 BMW 2002, a Mk1 Golf GTI and the appealingly oddball Golf Country. Italian bambini can choose from Lamborghini’s ’68 Miura and its out-there LM002 off-roader, plus the Alfa 4C and a current Alfa Romeo Giulia.
Potentially the most interesting is the Russian collection. Were it me, I would have modelled the ubiquitous Fiat 124-based Lada, the classic Lada Niva and a BMW X6 (the unfortunate star of many a Russian dashcam car crash video).
But there are no Russian makes, although there is a suitably gangsterish six-wheeled Mercedes G-Wagen that kids can run other Matchbox toys off the road with. Still, never mind the carping – it’s great to see this famous 68-year-old range of tiny toys refreshed.
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The Matchbox car is my favorite car. Thank you for sharing this useful information I love your words. Hope you will post more articles with similar content like this. I am looking forward to this
Ferraris always seem as rare as the road cars, except here in Italy (where there's always some kind of Matchbox(-style) give away at the newsagent's! I do remember having a Corgi Ferrari Dino 246 racer and a De Tomaso Mangusta, as well as a Lamborghini Muira (all three my older step-brother's cars), but I had to wait until my 12th birthday for a burago 1957 Ferrari Testarossa model (the quite big scale). I still have that. My Lancia Stratos in Alitalia colours looked like it had been through a whole year of tough campaigning, with dents and pieces missing or broken, and now lives in the car box used by my nephew! It istill one of my favourite cars of all time