Lesney's Rolls Royce Silver Shadow II is one of my favorite models of the post-transitional era, coming in the most common silver color, a rarer burgundy wine color and a rarer still elegant light gold - which is definitely my favorite color of the 3. I've still got my childhood car - a silver model - but it's not clean enough nor mint enough to serve as a photo model. 
When I started to collect Matchbox again as an adult, I was thrilled to find that my Silver Shadow (the II) was actually the second Silver Shadow that Matchbox had done - and the original version that they had done (with opening trunk rather than opening doors) was equally as nice of a model as the subsequent. In fact, its hard to decide which casting is the better model. The first Silver Shadow was only available in one color - almost the same shade of the burgundy wine color as one of the three colors of the Silver Shadow II was released in...
But it got better. A few years later, Matchbox (now made by Matchbox Toys International rather than Lesney) AGAIN introduced a Rolls Royce - now the successor of the Silver Shadow - the Silver Spirit. Again, it was a lovely model, nicely sized and squared off, with opening doors. It's 1 of my favorite models of the '80s. And AGAIN Matchbox sold it in almost the same burgundy wine color as the previous 2 Rolls Royces were sold in (as well as a goldish-tan color that is similar to that of the rare Shadow II). 
I was always amused and pleased that 3 generations of Rolls Royces were modeled in the same color by Matchbox and I have frequently photographed them together. Recently I completed a re-spray of the Silver Spirit in silver, to match earlier re-sprays of the Silver Shadow I (as well as the Silver Cloud - never a favorite model of mine - but nicer re-sprayed in silver than in the ugly standard cream color). At the same time I also completed a metallic gold/bronze re-spray of the Shadow I - which although darker than the light gold of the Spirit and Shadow II - still looks nice in their company. Which allows me to have a complete set each of the Shadow I, Shadow II and Spirit in the 3 original colors of the Shadow II - Silver, light gold and of course - burgundy-wine....
Hope you enjoy the photos as much as I enjoy these wonderful models!
(P.S. Did you notice the other Silver Shadow II... ...in blue? This is an older re-spray that I did about 15-20 years ago, complete with contrasting leather colors in its seats.... Unfortunately my attempts to repaint the allow wheels was rather ham-handed, and a separate spray of the doors resulted in them being slightly darker than the rest of the body... ).
(P.S. Did you notice the other Silver Shadow II... ...in blue? This is an older re-spray that I did about 15-20 years ago, complete with contrasting leather colors in its seats.... Unfortunately my attempts to repaint the allow wheels was rather ham-handed, and a separate spray of the doors resulted in them being slightly darker than the rest of the body... ).
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