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Years ago, with the help of eBay, I built a "dream" small collection of Matchbox cars that I would've liked in childhood, and that would've practically been impossible to find amongst brick&mortar stores then.
Sorry, I'll admit I unboxed the ones still boxed, since I think toys are meant to be out and played with, not pumped collectible investments.
(I no longer have them, though. I was selling my Concept 2 erg, in preparation for moving house, and the buyer noticed my Matchbox dream collection in a tray on the table, and remarked that her nephew/grandson would love those. She'd just given me several hundred dollars for the rowing machine, and I was moving, so I threw in the Matchbox cars.)
A theme in the Toy Story movies was collectors vs. kids, and the toys always seemed to prefer being with the kids.
I think you made the right decision.
How odd, I have a collection of Hot Wheels though for my entire life I've preferred the feel of Matchbox, and I have an erg at which I suffer for hours a week.
I don't intend to sell my erg but I'm currently in the process of selling my Hot Wheels collection...I wonder if the buyer will notice my erg and remark how much they too love torturing themselves and would I perhaps sell it to them.
Love that you threw them in. I’ve found this funny as an adult in my life— you may spend time collecting xyz, but suddenly letting it go can be easy in certain situations.
That’s a cute anecdote, thanks for sharing :)
Good for you!
Those things were pretty popular in East Germany as present from your relatives across the border or bought at the 'Intershop' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intershop).
I still have a shoebox or two full of Matchbox cars in the attic.
Also I remember that during my job education as (industrial) tool maker in East Germany our master used to rave about Matchbox cars (and specifically Matchbox, not other brands) and how surprisingly hard it is to build the precision tools needed for creating such fine detail, and how baffled he was that western companies could afford to build such production lines "just for toys" - in that sense, Matchbox was even an effective Cold War propaganda weapon ;)
Part of me thinks "Oh they're just cast from cheap pot-metal" But if he was talking about the machining needed to make the molds (in a pre-CNC environment), including multi-part molds to allow for parts of the car that curved in (i.e. not a straight lift-out on release), then yes. The tooling needed to make them in volume, at the quality they needed, was pretty impressive for "just a toy"
So add Matchbox cars to Levi's 501s as subversive western imports. :)
> Matchbox was even an effective Cold War propaganda weapon ;)
Some Soviet exposure to Matchbox might well have been intentional by the West, given that we now know there was energetic and creative propaganda, including the CIA propping up an entire art movement:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/modern-art-was-cia-...
Today, spies can just robo-post on their adversaries' social media apps, to neutralize a dozen years of formative education.
Matchbox cars were the best!
In particular, they tended to roll much better than Hot Wheels.
The "axles" were some kind of fine spring steel. The matchbox cars had noticeably less drag than other brands and rolled farther and more straight. The plastic on the wheels was more flexible and smooth.
I do think that some thought went into how these things rolled. Or maybe I am mis-remembering my childhood experiences? I guess I will never find out!
>they tended to roll much better than Hot Wheels
The older history is different.
I was already a Matchbox fan when HotWheels were first introduced: HotWheels invented the "give it a push and it rolls a good distance" type of wheels-on-wire-axles, slick enough that they could make the HotWheels race track with the spinning rubber capstan sending the cars all the way around the track. A Matchbox's wheels would turn, but it would only roll inches if given a push.
Matchbox was getting crushed in the market. Then a year or two later (a long time when you're a kid) they introduced the Matchbox Superfast line which had the same type of wire-sprung wheels, but they still weren't as good at rolling as HotWheels.
but being a child on-the-spectrum I was pretty upset by the whole thing for another reason, because Matchbox cars were realistic reproductions of actual car models (Maserati Ghibli); HotWheels cars were imaginary fantasy cars (Green Goblin or something), and I couldn't stand them, I liked realism and my favorite way to play with them had a lot of parallel parking... but HotWheels were better.
so the end of the story is... I hit puberty
Nope, Matchbox were indeed the best. They were incredibly high quality compared to similar brands. Really surprising for such a cheap mass-produced toy.
The "axles" on Hot Wheels were a joke of a very thin metal wire. I had many Hot Wheels with bent axles, but I don't remember any of the Matchbox cars doing that. Sadly, as an adult spending enough time on the road as a driver, I've seen my fair share of real cars with wheels that eerily reminded me of those Hot Wheels.
Interesting. I remember my Hot Wheels rolling better than the few Matchbox cars I had (early 90s). Maybe the Matchbox cars I had were older and left over from my brother, or maybe the quality had changed at that point.
Nah the best ones were the Majorette cars. They had builtin suspension and would sit generally higher than Both matchbox and Hot Wheels. It gave them a less "racy" look out of the box than Matchbox and Hot Wheels but you would just compress the suspension by hand when moving them anyway if you wanted.
And that suspension allowed them to roll much better anywhere, inclusing outside in the dirt.
Also most Matchbox and Hotwheels ended up with bent axle from use while the suspension of the Majorette [1] would usually limit the risk of bending the axle unless you were crushing it.
On first day usually the Hotwheels would roll best followed by Matchbox then Majorette on perfect surface. After tear and wear[2] it was the exact opposite horder with Hotwheels wheel dragging on the ground and wheel arches with their bent axle, Matchbox dragging mostly on the wheel arches with the axle also bent a little and the Majorette would be mostly unscathed.
Obviously YMMV it really depends if you used them on a mat/carpet, on a table or outside in the dirt and how careless you where. I still have some matchbox and hotwheels in pristine conditions because they were supercars or racing cars and I wouldn't have used them outside in the dirt.
[1] it was really a very simple design with one U shaped steel wire that would act as a spring for all 4 wheels.
[2] hotwheels axle were junk and would bend just by looking at the toy with too much intensity
I was born in 76, exactly 10 years after my brother.
As a result I inherited a lot of his toys when he grew out of them, such as his car collection (which wasn't all that huge). I bought my own ones in the early '80s and comparing them they weren't even close in quality.
The build quality of the older cars were far superior. The metal was thicker and stronger and any moving elements like the occasional opening door would last a lot longer. Sometimes you'd get a new car that could compete in a distance race down a sloped track, but in general their build quality felt very random.
There was especially one from my brother that was my favourite, I think it was a '76 Chevrolet Corvette in orange. It was extremely solid and ran very well, unfortunately at some point I tried to paint it and that damaged the axles, after which it was never the same.
Over here in Europe I loved going on holiday to Spain as I could pick up [French] Majorette-brand toy cars, which I remember having much smoother wheels, so they would coast faster and longer than either Matchbox or Hot Wheels.
> Whereas a Hot Wheels is designed to race down those iconic orange tracks, and often feature wild customizations or complete fantasy builds, a Matchbox is more realistic and accurate.
This is exactly what I've noticed with a little one that loves toy cars. We often end up getting Matchbox because they're cooler and not meant to only rocket down a Hot Wheels track. Hot Wheels are too much fantasy these days, Matchbox is where it's at.
My dad kept a lot of his old hot wheels from the late 60s and what is fascinating is those orange tracks even from then still fit with tracks you can buy today. They've modified the design but they still connect.
Makes you think will what you build keep the same interface or at least backwards compatibility 50 years from now? Probably not and most wouldn't blame you. But it brought us a lot of joy to take things we bought in target that day and connect them to those old sets.
As a kid I also liked them because they were heavier and felt higher quality for that reason.
I had Hot Wheels orange tracks with loop-the-loops and stuff.
But also had the glow-in-the-dark fold out Matchbox City in a suitcase.
My 4th grade teacher used the orange track to swat hands and backsides. The worst offender in class was taken to the book room and disciplined. I swear the both liked it. She also brought a refrigerator card board box in and set over him and his desk.
Have recent experience with both. Hot Wheels makes both replica and fantasy cars. IMO, replica Hot Wheels are better than equivalent Matchbox.
TBF Hot Wheels do both, but the realistic ones tend to be significantly more expensive, and hence mainly not bought by/for kids .
Hot Wheels has a ton of realistic cars if you want them. It's also legal to use them not on an official track.
There were Matchbox tracks too.
I remember Matchbox cars and had a few. I mainly had Hot Wheels and a few off-brand toy cars. And I kept all my 1:64 cars in a carrying case with Fast 111s branding, another die-cast line by Kenner whose gimmick was tiny license plate decals on the rear of each vehicle, each with a random state and number.
But Matchbox really sticks out in my mind as the manufacturer of the die-cast Voltron toy that every kid wanted in the mid-1980s -- and only rich kids got; at $60 in 1985 or nearly $175 in today's dollars, that shit's steep. I did end up with the Panosh Place plastic Voltron. It was plastic, and the lions didn't combine in a show-accurate way to form Voltron, but I didn't care, it was Voltron.
These days, we have Transformers from Robosen that transform on their own and respond to voice commands -- so rich kids' Christmases are on a whole 'nother level now.
I had two legs of the die-cast Voltron that my rich, snotty cousin gave me when he lost the other pieces. They were so big and heavy and just so cool. That, combined with my thundercats dagger (that came free with my sweet thundercats underwear) made me the coolest kid on my schoolbus for like three weeks.
This article made me wonder what ever happened to Micro Machines. They just sort of dissappeared from the public consciousness. It seems like the brand (Micro Machines) was stopped from production, and its IP sort of died away when Galoob was bought by Hasbro [1]
I used to have a huge collection of them. My mom amazingly kept them around, and now my kids have a huge collection to play. What a present!
Micro machines were awesome! I still remember the commercials with the fast talker.
It's funny how a random thing can date you so specifically, it seems like their heyday was only from 1987-1994 or so.
I think there was a consumer safety issue that made it hard for to hit their core demographic. iirc their small size got them a "5 and up" recommendation.
As someone born under Iron Curtain I had no idea Micro Machines were real toys and not just a video game :o We had smuggled Matchbox cars, Lego, bootleg Star Wars figurines, very lucky/wealthy/with politically connected parents kids had G.I. Joes and Barbies, but I dont know anyone from my generation who had Micro Machine toys.
I was older when they came out, but I loved them even though they were on the expensive side.
I still have a pencil case full of cars and its pretty much the only toy that I've managed to keep. I guess being small helped!
I had so many Micro Machines, and I've been wondering the same thing about their fate for years. I thought they were so much cooler than Matchbox or Hot Wheels. There were tons of Micro Machine airplanes too!
Growing up in the Eastern Bloc, it was such a joy to own/get an original Matchbox. Memories...
Matchbox were made of metal too, not mostly plastic with minimal metal like many of today's toys for children. I gave some of the ones my little brother and I played with in the early 1980s to my neighbor's kid last year. They were a little scratched and scuffed in places but that just added to the versimiltude. They had all the wheels and the hoods and doors and other moving parts still move and close.
In my day, we had roughly 3 classes.
Tootsie Toy, which, originally, were either rough die cast or stamped metal. They were literally just hollow shells of cars with axles, in solid color. They were sold loose in a box next to the penny candy. These cars were small, 1" to 1.5" long. Tootsie Toy, later, really up'd their game. The cars were about twice as big as Matchbox/Hot Wheel.
Next were Matchbox, these were the "replicas". They had the normal sized cars, but they also had some King Sized, I was particularly fascinated by this truck and trailer pipe truck they had.
Then, there were Hot Wheels, which were mostly fantasy cars. Splittin' Image, Red Baron, the surf board truck, Jack Rabbit Special. I swear we had hundreds of feet of Hot Wheels track as a kid. And then they brought out the Sizzlers, electric, rechargeable cars. Those were a lot of fun. Also there were the Hot Wheels Heavyweight and the Chopcycles.
Oh, and I should also mention the Hot Wheel Factory. This was back when the toy companies had no compunction selling toys with open heating elements to children. Here you melted rubber-ish compound into an injection mold system where you'd place bases and wheels into the mold and squeeze molten rubbery plastic to make your own cars.
At the high end were Corgi, those were really nice. I had a very nice ambulance. The cars were hefty. But they were rare, not like Matchbox or Hot Wheels.
Trying to compete with Hot Wheels was Johnny Lightning. Known mostly for their elaborate race sets. Where Hot Wheels had things like the Super Charger (which had a pair of spinning wheels used to shoot cars out one end, very useful for loops), Johnny Lightning had a conveyor system. Kind of like a marble track, with cars.
Dinky had some really nice stuff, but they were very exotic. There was a small toy store near where I lived that had not just those, but another line that was very detailed construction equipment. It was all out of my price range as a kid, though. I was definitely wanting Dinky's Thunderbirds models.
> Mattel is looking over its various intellectual properties and imagining a Scrooge McDuck–sized swimming pool of cash.
Pah, these small reporters with their small ambitions! Scrooge McDuck didn't have a "pool of cash", he had a whole silo-sized building filled with cash, and the "pool" that he used to swim in was merely the visible surface of it: https://www.duckipedia.de/images/archive/d/d3/20230517100725...
As an American growing up in the late 70s/early 80s, we called all die-cast metal cars “matchbox cars,” even though many (all?) of them were Hot Wheels. I never knew there were two competing brands.
The quality of toys seemed to be in steep decline after my generation. I had a collection of Ertl diecast tractors growing up, and the detail was spectacular. Occasionally I have seen the toys section in big box stores and it looks like Idiocracy in comparison.
Back in 1967 or 1968, my grandmother gifted me five or six Matchbox cars. As far as I remember, I was the first kid in my school to have the, and started off a huge craze among my friends. When Hot Wheels were introduced a year or two later, we saw them as flashy imitations, and I never had a Hot Wheel in my house until my wife started collecting them 30 years later.
One of those original Matchboxes was the bright red Jaguar XKE, a car I have never fallen out of love with (and managed to re-acquire a few years ago).
I have a set of hand-me-down Matchbox and Hot Wheels cars I had growing up. There's an astounding difference between them and the newer ones my kids have been given. I actually use that difference as a lesson in workmanship to my kids. See, you can choose to make things cost less and take less material, but there's a tradeoff in quality....
Related: there is a fun to watch YT channel hyper-specialized in diecast car races
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRMUZDVwmC0
There are a bunch of youtubers who restore Matchbox vehicles, eg https://www.youtube.com/user/pso316a/videos
Even as a child I preferred Matchbox over Hotwheels. I still buy a cool looking moving parts or construction vehicle if I find it interesting. Cool article!
I still like to collect these. Something about small toy cars with intricate details really tickles me. I really like classic car lego sets too. Great read
Matchbox was certainly the gold standard when I was young (in France). I don’t recall ever hearing of Hot Wheels — maybe those were just in the US?
Hugged to death, or just geoblocking whole countries for no good reason? Getting a 403.