Renault 5 Turbo... 2 models with identical paint from Tomica and Corgi square off for a fight.. But what about Hot Wheels???

While it is common to find multiple toy companies model the same car, it is UNCOMMON to find them paint them in the same paint scheme.  But that's exactly what happened when both Corgi Juniors and Tomica decided to model the Original Hot Hatch, the Renault 5 Turbo, and paint them in the same rally-car yellow paint....  Sounds like an opportunity for a comparison!!!

Spoiler alert.  There is no comparison.  The Tomica wins hands down.  The Corgi is considerably larger, over-scaled for such a small car, and is very plasticky (particularly the side mirrors - though at least it has them vs. the missing mirrors of the Tomica).  The Tomica is correctly scaled, with a nice soft suspension (vs. the hard suspension of the Corgi) and with opening doors.   In keeping with the times (the early '80s) both cars have nice metal-work and trim detail, but the Tomica's is a little nicer.

Both cars have nice paint.  Its interesting to note that while the color scheme is obviously meant to be the same, it is still very different.  The base yellow paint is almost exactly the same shade for the two models, but everything else about it is different.  I call the paint a tie.

Overall, its an easy win for Tomica....    ...Or is it?

Enter the 30 year later challenger, Hot Wheels.

Hot Wheels doesn't have a Renault 5 turbo in yellow, but they did offer a high quality all metal Renault 5 turbo in blue or green, with rubber tires.  These are seriously handsome models, with amazing satin paint, a high quality feel, and of course, beautiful wheels and the afore-mentioned RUBBER TIRES!

While Tomica wins the award for the best original / vintage casting, and for the best yellow casting, the modern Hot Wheels castings are TOO GOOD not to easily sweep to a win over even the Tomica.  These castings are relatively easy to find on EBay, and for a price up to about $10, are definitely worth it.  The upstart challenger takes on the vintage cars, and wins....

Copied Porsche 910... Did Playart copy Corgi, or vice versa?

It sounds patently obvious to say that diecast cars are models of real cars...  ...Yet it is not actually always true.  In some cases, they are actually models of OTHER model cars.

I've seen it with Maisto flagrantly (and poorly) copying Matchbox' Audi Quattro.  And in this post, I show a fascinating example of Playart copying Corgi's casting (although I suppose that there is a chance that Corgi copied Playart casing).



There are several companies who produced models of this car, the most well known of which is the (red) model by Lesney's Matchbox.  That one actually looks very different (particularly in size, its easily the largest of the five) from the other models.  I also have a Dynawheels model (in brown), a Zylmex model (in blue, #910), a Playart model (in blue) and a Corgi Junior/Husky model (in yellow - a "Rockets" version with extra speedy wheels/axles).  Missing from my photos is a Speedy model that I spent an hour fruitlessly tearing apart my Matchbox collection trying to find.  Regardless, the last four are very similar in appearance and size, particularly the final two.  And upon closer examination, it turns out that the final two are actually copies of each other, with similar casting lines, choice of detail, etc. Examining the base and especially the opening engine compartment shows a very similar choice of detail.



In fact, the only two questions are 1.  Who did the copying...   Was it the second tier Playart copying toy giant Corgi, or was it the greater scandal of Corgi cribbing a design from no-name Playart, and 2.  Why bother?  Could it really have been that much harder to create an "original copy" of the real car?

P.S.  I suppose that as long as I'm showing 5 distinct (or is it 4?) models, I should at least pick a winner...  Who modeled the 910 best? 

Although I'm a big Lesney Matchbox fan, its easy to assign the Matchbox in 5th place.  Its a little too big, and just looks different from the others. 

The next 4 are closer in comparison, all nice and worthwhile models in their own right, even though several come from brands that aren't typically collected. 

In fourth place I assign the Zylmex, while its very nice - it just doesn't have the opening back hatch or the quality wheels of its competitors. 

The final three are in almost a dead heat.  But the Corgi's stance/wheels sets the model a little too high, giving it a 3rd place finish. 

Between the final two, the DynaWheels is missing the opening hatch of the Playart (and the Corgi), but the metal roof gives it an advantage over the all plastic roof of the Corgi and PlayArt.  The wheels also are slightly nicer.  Overall, its enough to put the DynaWheels in first place, ahead of the Playart. 

And of course the biggest irony is that the copy-cat Playart took 2nd place, beating out the copied Corgi...!

Thanks for reading! 

A slightly uncommon car.... Corgi Junior Porsche 917

I like featuring unique and unusual cars/pieces from my collection on this blog.  Sometimes they are extremely rare.  Sometimes just something different from the ordinary.  And sometimes they are ordinary pieces after all, but ones that I like a lot.  

Some would say that there is nothing overly special about this car, a beat-up model of a mighty Porsche 917 race car, modeled by Corgi Junior.  But Corgi Juniors are already somewhat rare models, and this model has a nice feel to it.  

One of the things I like most about it is its size...   It is big and imposing taking up every millimeter of a standard slot in a Matchbox collector case.  Hot Wheels did an excellent 917 as one of the earlier entries in their Adult Collectible series (sold as part of the 4 piece Porsche set in the late '90s), but while that model had great realism / detail and an opening back, it always struck me as being a little small.  In contrast, this Corgi is imposing, scaring other race cars right off the starting grid.  

In other comments, I wouldn't have minded a more race-car-oriented paint scheme (not even a number on the side), and the gold color is rather bland and unexciting (think mid '00s gold Lexus RX300s!).  But the car rolls well on its standard issue wheel.  

Overall, a nice car that deserves a quick mention on this (heavily read) blog...! 

Fine Mercedes 300 E / TE castings by Matchbox, Corgi and Majorette

More Mercedes castings...  I'm not sure why I find Mercedes passenger cars in 1:64 scale to be SO irresistible... 

The early '90s Matchbox 300 E is a very high quality casting - with a nice heft, nice detail, door mirrors, opening doors, 8 dot wheels, a separate grill, etc.   I have it in the 2 common colors, it's probably available in others but these are the 2 that I most often see - a civilian version in light blue, and a German police version in white with green lettering.  Both colors are nice.  I wish I had it in other colors...  This casting would be an excellent candidate for a customization/re-spray - the problem is that they are somewhat rare - so these are the only 2 examples I have...  Both are very nice and represent the best of Matchbox from this period. 

However, fans of the mid-size 300 cars, and fans of wagons in general (me!) have additional options...  Majorette made a very nice blue 300 TE station wagon, with an opening rear hatch.  The 2 that I have are in the same blue color, but with minor trim differences.  The car is nicely sized from a length perspective, but sits a little high for my tastes.  The standard issue Majorette wheels are also a bit of a letdown - the Matchbox 8 dot wheels just look nicer.  Overall, the casting is a bit of a mixed bag, with the nice (the hatch, the heft, the integrated roof rack) being offset by the not as nice (the bumpers look plasticky, the high stance, the cheapy wheels).  But still a good enough casting that you should try to get it... 

Lastly, Corgi also had a 300 TE wagon, in this version at least in ambulance guise (not sure if it was available in civilian colors).  This is the definite 3rd place casting relative to the nicer Matchbox (1st place) and Majorette (2nd place).  While the size is nice (its within a smidge of being as long as the Majorette, and is actually a bit wider - giving it a chunkier appearance) and the metal detail is reasonable, it has no opening parts, ultra-cheap standard 4 dot Corgi wheels that would look cheap on a Maisto/Fast Lane, a grossly done light bar (its the cheapest police light bar that I've seen on any die-cast car - ever!), etc.  Overall, while I'm happy to have it in my collection, I wouldn't recommend that other collectors seek it out to buy it.  It's only a marginal casting, and being a Corgi is hard to find and frequently a bit pricier than other brands, so its probably not worth the money you'll have to pay... 

Corgi Error! "Porsche" BMW E30 M3...

This is a nice casting, an E30 BMW M3 race car, by Corgi, in bright orange. 

The wheels are unfortunate - standard ugly cheap-looking Corgi wheels, and there is no paint detail (taillights, etc.) other than the Canon, Castrol and #44 tampos. 


But the metal casting has nice and clear detail, clearly showing the kidney grill, lights, etc.  And its a somewhat unusual subject - while enthusiasts love the 1st generation M3, it's not a frequently modeled die-cast car. 

But what makes this casting so unusual in my eyes, is what it says on the bottom...  "Porsche"! 

Really Corgi?  I know you were a British company, but still, Germany's not that far away...   You didn't know the difference between a Porsche and a BMW? 

I don't know if this is a 1-off example, a known-error, or whether all of these M3s were labeled as Porsches...  I have 2 Corgi collecting books published by Schiffer.  The Dr. Force book ends prior to the introduction of more modern toys like this BMW/Porsche.  The Manzke guide goes up past the Mattel era, but makes no mention of this individual casting (or the possibility of an error on the baseplate). 

I have some error cards, where the blisterpack card mis-labels a car.   For instance, I think I have a Matchbox Chevy Tahoe (like the one featured in my "Battle of the Full Size SUVs part III") still mint on card, where the card says that its an ambulance...  But I've never seen a casting baseplate error like this before! 

Who Made the Best Vintage Studebaker Lark Wagonaire? Lesney's Matchbox vs. Corgi's Husky

...And we are back with a true vintage post...  

...doing a comparison that must have been done many times back 40 years ago, when both these models were fresh off the pegs (or more accurately - fresh in their paperboard boxes). 

The blue Lesney Matchbox Studebaker Lark Wagonaire is a model that I've had in my childhood collection since before I can remember memories - at least back to when I was 3-4 years old.  Given that I was born in 1974, and Matchbox took their line to Superfast around 1969 (though of course it took a year or more for the stock to trickle down to the stores), this car is older than me.  I'm *guessing* that it was originally one of my oldest sisters' cars - that I exercised my little brother rights on and stole...   (not that they cared - they didn't care about Matchbox cars at all - and if I asked them now, I can guarantee that they wouldn't remember this model).  But it is probably equally likely that I got it as a new car when I was an infant, or that I stole/inherited it from some older kids collection when I visited their house.  Regardless, the model has been in my collection back to my earliest memories. 

However, the model pictured is not the ACTUAL model from my childhood collection.  While I still have that original model, it is even more beat up than the pictured model, with a broken front windshield and a missing retractable roof.   Therefore I chose to photograph this (marginally) nicer model. 

Its interesting that it was modeled at all, since in true 1:1 scale, the Studebaker Lark Station wagon was far from a volume seller in the USA.  Studebaker was in its last throws before bankruptcy, and while the retractable roof on the wagon was a nice gimmick, it didn't enable the car to set any sales records.  Why Lesney chose to model it, vs. other Detroit choices, is a bit of a mystery.

The interesting thing, but one that we often see in the toy world, is that Corgi chose to copy Lesney, and themselves model the same car.  Why we couldn't have had any other Ford/Chevy/Dodge wagon (beyond the full size Mercury wagon that Lesney came out with soon after) is again a mystery.  But regardless, Corgi brought the Lark Wagonaire to their 1:64 Husky line - in very similar size - and again with a retractable roof - which gives us a great opportunity for a comparison...!  Which toymaker made the best retractable roof wagon? 

Before I begin with the actual comparison, I'd better set the record straight about my biases...   Regular readers of this blog know that I'm a hard-core Matchbox guy - though I definitely prefer the later higher and softer-sprung superfast cars to the hard regular wheels cars (can you imagine how cool this Lark would be if Matchbox had converted it to Superfast spec...?).  And regular readers also know that, while I consider Corgi Juniors/Husky to be a legitimate and long term competitor to Matchbox, I generally don't prefer them over Matchbox/Tomica/Siku/Majorette/etc.  Will these biases impact my decision?  Read on! 

Size-wise, the 2 models are very close, but the Husky is a tad bigger - both slightly longer and slightly higher.  While the Husky is still very much in scale, it gives the Husky a bit more presence than the Matchbox.  Note that in real life, the Lark was not considered a full size car - so it SHOULD be slightly smaller than Lesney's (full size) Mercury wagon.  Anyway - Advantage - HUSKY! 

Detail-wise, both models have nice cast metal detail.  The Husky has a bit more, and deeper, detail in the metal, with more crease lines.  Both cars have "Studebaker" written out on the tailgate - but the Husky's lettering is slightly more pronounced and so easier to read.  I'll give the slight edge to the Husky on the metal-work, though the trim on either car would make any modern die-cast envious. 

Base-plate-wise, the Lesney has a metal baseplate, while the Husky's is plastic (Husky/Corgi was one of the first to go with plastic baseplates, though it took Matchbox 25 years to copy them).  Neither have any detail/trim on it, but the metal vs. the plastic feel makes it easy to give the advantage to the Matchbox...

Both models have nice detail on the grill and bumpers.  The Husky has a cross-hatched grill, the Lesney a straight slat grill.  Again, a close competition in looks, but the fact that the Matchbox's is metal vs. plastic again gives it the advantage. 

From a rolling perspective, neither car has any suspension, but somehow the Husky just rolls slightly nicer than the Lesney. 

Paint-wise, both cars are done in a flat paint.  But I've never liked the superman blue Matchbox color, so I'll give the advantage to the flat eggshell white of the Husky. 

Both cars have full interiors, with very equal detail in them.  The Husky is in ambulance trim which is kind of cool, but the Matchbox has a fully reasonable interior on its own.  I call this one a tie. 

Now we get to the most unique element of the competition - the sliding roof...  The Matchbox's is made of metal, while the Husky's is the same plastic "glass" as the rest of the glass on the car.  They both slide easily and cleanly.  Both are very nice and cool.  In either case, if the other car DIDN'T have it it would be a major point of differentiation.  I'll give the (very slight) advantage to the Matchbox. 

Which take us to the 2nd to last element of the competition - ie - other features.  The Lesney comes with a tow-hook - broken off in this car (and I think in EVERY one of my 3-4 examples).  But here the Husky shines - since while it doesn't have a tow hook - it DOES have a movable tail gate.  The addition of the dropping tailgate really adds to the appeal created by the already cool retractable roof, to create an undeniable win in the "other features" category for the Husky. 

Regarding other non-attached features, there should be a stretcher (similar to the one that Lesney included with their Mercedes ambulance) that is missing from this Husky model.  But the Lesney model is also missing IT'S other features - that being a (somewhat random choice of a) hunter and 1-2 dogs (some examples came with 1 dog, some with 2).  I actually have one of the dogs someplace, but of course couldn't locate it for the photo shoot...  I declare this category a tie.

So who wins the competition?  Well, the Husky wins 5 categories, the Lesney wins 3, with 2 categories ending in a tie.  And I think its very appropriate that the points work out in the Husky's favor, since I can't help but feel that its just a slightly nicer model...  Overall winner - HUSKY! 

Massive Comparison - the Car Carrier Extravaganza!!!

When I was a kid, I dreamed about how cool it would be to have a Matchbox tractor trailer that could actually fit a real Matchbox car inside of it.   I thought about this a lot, since I had a Matchbox 1-75 series 18 wheeler (one of the early ones, with the Matchbox logo on the trailer), but the box of the trailer was too narrow to fit a Matchbox car into. And, I had the awful Matchbox 2.5 inch long car carrier from the mid '70s (#11 - pictured to the right, in the foreground), with 3 tiny plastic cars permanently affixed to it, but even the 9 year old me knew that it was not what I wanted.

In the early '80s some manufacturer (Road Champs?) had a whole series of relatively cheap quality big rigs, and one of them was a car carrier (My cousins Joey and Shawn Sherburne had an example - I think it was orange).  But again it was too smaller and narrow to let any car other than perhaps a tootsie toy onto it.  My friend Andy Bradshaw had 2 kingsize car carriers from his brother's collection - that fit 4 and 5 cars onto them - but they seemed too big and out of scale - certainly bigger than my above-mentioned 18 wheeler... (Later as an adult, I realized that the King Size trucks were actually closer to true 1/64 Matchbox scale than the trucks in the 1-75 range...). 

Then Matchbox expanded their tractor trailers into the 'Convoy' series, and brought out a glorious tractor trailer that was pulled by an ordinary 1-75 truck (a red Kenworth COE - the right hand example in the below photo) but that fit 3 real Matchbox cars onto it, with even a ramp that lowered so cars could drive up onto it. I was simply bowled over, awestruck, by how perfect it was....  To this day it represents an excellent example of how a toy company could make a functioning toy while still staying within reasonable size dimensions.   

Since that time I've considered myself a connoisseur of car carriers and have eagerly collected them, with the provision that they had to be able to carry ordinary 1-75 Matchbox cars.  And it now seems like a good time to run a comparison test, to see which one is best.  Can my childhood favorite Convoy series rig win the crown for best carrier, withstanding severe competition from some of my newer additions?

I found 17 unique castings in my collection, across 5 distinctly different scales.  The smallest is undeniably the worst, and the clear loser in this competition, the earlier mentioned 2.5 inch long Bedford car carrier with the tiny affixed plastic cars.  It has nothing going for it - little detail, no interior, un-removable cars, etc. 

The next size up is where the fun begins - in roughly 1/90 scale (though these pieces were sold as part of the 1/64 scale collections).   I have 4 examples - the early blue/grey Lesney grey wheel Accessory Pack example, a yellow EFE piece with an Atkinson tractor, the earlier mentioned red Matchbox Convoy series pulled by the Kenworth COE, and a rather customized Hot Wheels Adult Collectible pulled by a classic Ford COE.  I forgot about the Hot Wheels unit until after the main photo-shoot - so I have a separate photo of it below.


The Accessory Pack and the EFE tractor trailers will fit smaller cars onto them - particularly the grey wheel or smaller regular wheels cars from the early-mid 60s.  However even with those, only the smaller examples of them will fit onto the bottom rack.  The Accessory Pack piece does not have a movable rack or any way to manually load the cars, and also doesn't have an interior on the cab.  In contrast, the EFE tractor is a beautifully detailed piece, a real show piece.  The top rack drops down and there is a ramp to allow car boarding.

I've already talked about the red convoy series.  It'll fit most matchbox cars onto the bottom or top racks, as long as they are not extra wide or too tall.  A huge plis is that tt can be pulled by any 1-75 series tractor.  The example pictured is my actual childhood example - though I also have a version in blue that I picked up as an adult.  The Hot Wheels piece is more different than the others with a very different trailer design.  The lower rack is artificially low so it'll only fit the specific cars that it came with (a Midget Sprint car and a C1 Corvette). 

Then I move into the next size of carriers - which I think are closest to 1:64 scale.  The picture to the right shows 7 of them, although the 2 in the middle are identical Corgi units but with different cabs (for the sake of the comparison test I will only include 1 of these). 

Starting from the left, I have the Lesney Major Pack #8 with the Guy Warrier tractor.  This is a nice piece with a folding top rack and a loading ramp, holding 4 total cars.  There's not much to critique on it, other than the fact the cab is permanently attached to the trailer, the loading ramp is a little steep, and there is no interior in the cab.  Next up is the Lesney Super King #11 DAF car carrier in yellow.  Again the cab (I love the DAF cabs) is permanently affixed to the trailer.  The trailer fits 5 cars with adjustable chocks.  I love the bright yellow color (its also available in a rarer blue color which I don't have). 

Next up is a Corgi Juniors Volvo unit from the '80s.  What is so unique about this carrier is that it has a trailer that can carry an additional 4 cars.  Both ramps drop and allow easy loading and unloading.  This unit also has adjustable chocks for each piece. 

The next 2 newer Corgi units (in blue) also have trailers - but these trailers run flush with the first trailer - allowing the cars to be driven from one trailer to the other.  In addition, this is the only design of them where the ramp for the front most trailer only drops half way down, requiring usage of the rear-most trailer to actually load cars (refer to the right photo).  This ramp design actually feels like the most realistic ramp design among any of them.  These are nice units - with a very modern and sophisticated feel.  One has a Renault cab, the other a Scania tractor. 

The last 2 units in this (approximately) 1:64 scale are the newest units and are widely available in the US at Walmarts and similar stores.  The first is by M2, and features a classic Dodge tractor.  Only the back half of the top rack actually drops down, but it is works fine, or would if there was a ramp that actually reached to the ground.  While I'm pleased to have this carrier, and like the old fashioned look of it, I'm a little disappointed that they didn't make it feel even higher quality.  The trailer has a plastic feel to it.  The last of these units is from the newest Matchbox tractor trailer series.  It looks nice from a distance, however the trailer is 100% plastic which really hurts the feel of it.  There are no wheel chocks at all, adjustable nor cast.  It holds 5 cars, but it really doesn't feel as nice as the '80s Convoy version. 

Now I start getting into the larger scale trucks, which still hold Matchbox size cars, but where the cabs seem a  little out of scale... 

First up is the coolest - the Corgi Tri-Deck carrier.  This version is so cool precisely because it has 3 (three!) car decks, allowing it to hold 7 or more cars.  It also has a retractable set of dolly lifts for when the trailer is separate from the cab.  This unit is a very rare unit and one of my favorite pieces - I like it so much that I have 3 examples of it! 


After the Tri-deck Corgi is another Corgi - the blue Carrimore Mark 4 with the Ford tractor.  While this one doesn't have 3 decks, it looks and feels very high quality, again has retractable dolly wheels, and the COE cab tips up to reveal the engine. 

The Lesney Super Kings K-40 Courier transporter is next.  This has a nicely molded set of ramps/racks, with molded in wheel chocks.  It feels nice until you compare it with the high quality Corgis, when it suddenly feels like a toy rather than a collectible. 

The yellow SIKU is a more modern unit (15 years old), but is nonetheless 100% metal.  It also has an attached trailer, (with a concave and convex break point - allowing it to turn corners without losing connectivity), and holds 7 cars.  Each of the 2 top decks drop down, allowing creative loading, and alone among the units it has 2 individual wheel tracks that reach the ground and retract when not in use. 

Finally, the Majorette unit.  It doesn't have all of the bells and whistles of some of the competitors (and feels more like a toy than a collectible), but it is all metal and holds 5 cars.  It is a high quality and solid unit, just without some of the real exciting twists of the other carriers. 

There is only 1 example of the largest size group, this green Corgi Ford Transporter.  This one is actually too large for 1:64 Matchbox (the wheel tracks are too far apart - and my Mercury Police Cruiser falls through the middle), and is really made for Super King or full-size Corgi toys.   It has individual wheel chocks and a dropping top ramp, but doesn't feel quite as nice as some of the other larger Corgis. 

So, which one is best?  For this comparison test, I compared all 17 units across 13 categories.  Most of the categories were in a 10 point range, with 5 having only a 5 point range.  The maximum possible score was 105.  ....and the winner is ...:

The Corgi Tri-Deck, with a score of 94 points.  This wasn't at all a surprise to me - it came into the competition as one of the favorites.  Three decks is hard to argue with, especially when you add in the additional quality of the detail on the cab, the detail on the wheels, a jack to hold the trailer up when not attached to the cab, and movable wheel chocks.  What surprised me was that the Siku came in 2nd, a unit that has some very impressive qualities (particularly its loading ramp arrangement and retractable ramps to get to the ground), but whose overall appeal seemed slightly less than some of the others.  3rd (Corgi Carrimore) and 4th place (the huge Corgi Ford) were also from the larger sizes, proving that my point system did not offer enough value to the more Matchbox 1-75 sized carriers. 

It wasn't until 5th and 6th place that we moved into the more moderately sized, with 2 more Corgi's claiming those spots (heavily helped by their having the 2nd trailers, and a nod of recognition to the very unique loading ramp movement of the Renault/Scania).  This really is an amazing accomplishment for Corgi - their 5 units were all in the top 6!  In contrast, the best placement for Matchbox' 7 units was 7th place - the DAF Superfast. 

And its not until 9th place (a tie) that one of the smaller units finally place, the Hot Wheels COE.  It was held back by its plastic body. 

Somehow by childhood favorite (the red Matchbox Convoy Kenworth COE) ended up 3rd from last, in 15th place.  The fault was mostly that its 3 car simple approach was less exotic than that of its competition.

And as expected, my childhood non-favorite, the tiny Bedford, ended up dead last. 

Anyway - a fun experiment and comparison.  I hope you enjoyed reading it.  And check back again, since I feel that I may want to re-compare the trucks using different categories and different scaling, to see if the rankings get shaken up. 

The Holy Grail letdown... Matchbox Lesney Rover 3500 - civilian and police

Every collector has an item that they've chased for a long time but it always eludes them and they seemingly never get it... 

For me, this Rover 3500 is that thing - that Holy Grail.  I've been wanting this car for about 25 years- it may be the last unique Matchbox casting (at least in the 75 series 1:64 scale) that I didn't have, from the mid '60s through the present day (and excluding some of the really weird or uncollectible stuff). 

I first saw it in the first Matchbox collecting book by Dana Johnson and thought that I'd like to have it.  Unfortunately there are very few of them around (I'm guessing that they were sold more in the UK than in the US) and so I just didn't stumble across them the way I did other models.  The years and then decades went by, and my collection grew and grew.  It no longer became a question of what models I had, but of what models I didn't have.  And this Rover became more and more of one of the few cars I didn't have, and then finally, the only car I didn't have. 

I finally got the less desirable (my opinion) police car about 6 months ago, but only just got the civilian version recently. 

There is often a let-down feeling after getting something you've been chasing for a long time - and that was the case for this car.  I was disappointed to find that the base was plastic -  very unusual for the lesney era - it must have been one of the very first plastic baseplate castings that they did. 

The sunroof opens - but it flops around a lot and often opens crookedly.  The cars have a tow hook and the detailing is reasonable - but not exceptional.  Corgi Juniors also did a 3500 in the same era, and while I haven't done a formal comparison, I think the Corgi may be the nicer piece.

My Corgi is red with an opening hatchback, the typically stiff suspension and standard Corgi wheels.  I'm generally not a huge fan of Husky and Corgi Juniors models - the Huskys are too small in scale, and the Corgis (even marked with Whizawheels) don't generally have the supple suspension that you would expect them to have.  The detailing is low and they generally feel like the company didn't work too hard on them.  So I was surprised to find that I might like the Corgi Junior 3500 more than the Matchbox 3500....  Interestingly this typical quality differential of Matchbox over Corgi is NOT true for the larger scale  toys - full scale Corgis are often nicer than equivalent Matchbox Super Kings. 

In sum, the Holy Grail was found....!  ...and identified as having a plastic baseplate....   All in all, a bit of a letdown...

Finally, a 308 worthy of Magnum PI

When I was about 8 or 9 years old, I received my first Matchbox Ferrari 308 GTB (left row of cars).  It was red, with a black prancing horse on the hood of the car.  The lines of the car were voluptuous, with curvaceous flared fenders, and a long length that barely fit into a Matchbox case's standard slot.  It was a big beautiful car, that looked the way an exotic sports car should look.  But it had one big problem - as cool as it looked - it somehow looked entirely unlike a 308 - particularly unlike the one that Tom Selleck drove in TV's Magnum P.I.  I couldn't find my childhood car for this photoshoot - but it was very similar (but more beat-up) to the one shown in the left rear of the photo. 

Soon after, I also acquired the Hot Wheels version of the 308 (called "Racebait 308") (middle row of cars).  Mine was red and long ago was lost - the versions I have now are replacements for that original car.  Interestingly, it was the exact opposite of the Matchbox model.  Short and small vs. long and large, hard-edged with slab sides rather than the curving lines of the Matchbox.  But it did have one thing in common with the Matchbox - in that as much as it looked very different from the Matchbox, they BOTH looked nothing like Magnum's 308. 

Even as a kid I wondered about that.  How could both cars have the general shape of a Pinanfarina 308, with the appropriate styling cues, but still look both entirely un-alike and entirely different from the real thing?  It might have been the first time that I really thought about what makes a good model vs. a bad model.  And the thing that really bothered me was that I LOVED the way those early-mid '80s Ferraris looked, and so really wanted a nice model of them.  They all looked great - 512BB, 308, 328, 288GTO, even the oddly-proportioned Mondial was a looker.  But both Matchbox and Hot Wheels had failed with this car. 

Between the 2 models, I easily preferred the Matchbox version.  It at least looked exotic, and seemed higher quality than the Hot Wheels.  So I played with it a lot, but always wishing it actually looked like a 308...  In a 7th grade flea market at my school I acquired a number of additional toy cars, including another version of the red Matchbox 308 - this one with "Ferrari" written on its sides (not shown).  Later as an adult I got the red and blue Pioneer version (not shown).  In one of my earliest painting attempts I took another red one apart and painted it british racing green (not shown).  While the paint itself was OK, the dark paint with the black interior didn't work - the car was too dark - and it just seemed wrong for an Italian sports car to be painted in England's colors.  My favorite of all of the Matchbox models is the yellow version shown with the starburst wheels. 

Then around 1997, I suddenly noticed a set of new models on Hot Wheels cards.  These new models looked different from the other Hot Wheels models - as if they had been designed by a different designer.  They seemed too realistic for Hot Wheels, and the cars that they modeled were not new cars.  Hot Wheels had gotten ahold of left-over Corgi castings and were re-issuing them as Hot Wheels (I actually have both Corgi and Hot Wheels versions of the '80s Corvette and the '90s 500SL and can confirm that they are the same castings). 

One of these Corgi castings was of a 308 - and glory be - finally I found a 308 that actually looked exactly like a 308.  Magnum/Selleck would have been proud. 

Best of all, even 18 years later Hot Wheels is still occasionally using the casting - the rubber tired version was purchased in the last year or so.  If you see it on the pegs in a store - grab it up - you'll be getting the best 308 made by a main-stream toy-maker. 

(Note that Hot Wheels has also recently done a really nice model of the old 288 GTO - particularly when dressed up with rubber wheels and better paint detail in premium $4-$5 version). 

70's European Sedan-Based Ambulances - Matchbox vs. Corgi vs. Majorette

I've always loved the Matchbox Superfast version of the Mercedes Ambulance (left-most car).  But when I recently found the Majorette Citroen DS ambulance (middle car), complete with flags on the front of the car, I decided a European sedan-based ambulance (modeled in 1/64th scale) comparison test was in order.  In going through my collection today I noticed that I had a third contender, another Mercedes ambulance, from Corgi.  Given Corgi's reputation for making high quality models (particularly in the larger scale) and the fact that it was a European sedan-based ambulance, I felt that I had to include it (right car). 

 However in the actual comparison, the Corgi was not even in the same league as the others.  The car is light and plasticky (the base is plastic), without any opening doors or gates, and without even an interior.  The detailing is poor, with ambulance-related tampos rather than any detailing paint.  The wheels look like they could have come off of a drug-store brand toy car.  They even copied Matchbox' 'Binz' name (why?).  While I'm happy that Corgi made an attempt, it just feels cheap, an embarrassment to the Corgi name.  Relegating the Corgi to last place is an easy and immediate decision.

Picking a winner between the other two is much more difficult.  The Lesney Matchbox has a nice weight to it, and the spring-loaded suspension rolls well.  The grill and bumpers and lights are cast into the base so are a different color than the body - giving a quality look and feel.  The detailing on the body is sharp and precise.  I chose the model with the early thin superfast wheels which are in a correct scale for width.  The lift gate open and a stretcher is included.  I actually have several of this model, both in superfast and regular wheel forms. 

As for the majorette Citroen, it is the only example of this model that I have.  The scale is correct and right in line with the Lesney.  The flags on the front fenders are a really nice touch.  Like the Lesney Matchbox, the bumpers and grill are cast into the metal base, so contrast nicely with the white body.  The headlights are actual plastic and a seperate piece.  The body has nice sharp detailing.  The lift gate opens (but its plastic so feels cheaper than the Matchbox), but my model does not have a stretcher (there is a patient cast into the plastic way-back).  Again, the wheels roll nicely and the suspension is springy.  This will be a tough choice to pick!

In the end, I gave the edge to the Majorette, on the basis that:  1.  It is rarer than the Matchbox (not quite a fair criteria I know, but its my blog so I'm the boss!),  2.  The lights, bumpers and grill are so impressive, and look higher quality even than the Matchbox' high quality grill/bumper/lights.  The Matchbox did have the separate stretcher, but I felt that was contrastingly equalled by the Majorette's front flags.   The Matchbox also had a better and softer ride, but it wasn't enough to make up for the first 2 factors.  Nice win Majorette - and nice effort Matchbox! 

As a P.S., I'm including photos of the equivalent Matchbox in a Speed King higher scale car.  This is VERY similar to the smaller 1/64 version - with detailing that is essentially identical.  The Speed King has opening doors and a blanket for the stretcher - but is otherwise the same model as the smaller car (not a bad thing!).