Vintage Rolls Royce Convertible Comparison

If you've just read my prior post, you know that I love the Lesney-era Silver Shadows...  ...and I also love the "Silver Shadow Coupe", as Rolls Royce itself initially called the 2-door coupe that would soon be renamed the "Corniche", a name it would hold for the next 20 years.  Matchbox stuck with the original name even after Rolls Royce renamed it as the Corniche, resulting in a Corniche Convertible called a Silver Shadow Coupe.  Which I find confusing...

Regardless of the confusing name, it's a great model in both thin and thick-wheel transitional versions.  Technically it doesn't QUITE meet the strict definition of a transitional - as it was never available as a regular wheel model - but it was made during the era of the Transitionals, and thus is sometimes considered an honorary transitional.  It typically is seen in an aqua-ish blue, but occasionally can be found in a yellowish-greenish-gold color.  For most diecast enthusiast, it is the only known vintage model of a Rolls Royce convertible.

But the fascinating thing is that it is NOT the only vintage casting of a Rolls Royce Convertible...  Instead there are not one, but TWO other contenders within my collection - and they are both very interesting and worthy contenders...:  1.  Majorette did a lovely and highly detailed casting of the Corniche as part of their premium series (red with the brown interior).  And Impy LoneStar Roadmaster SuperCar (did you get that full name?) did a Silver Cloud convertible (red with the ivory interior). 

So with 3 distinct and beautiful castings, the obvious question is...   ...which is best?

Frankly, it's a hard question.  All 3 castings are great castings in their own right, and each have certain virtues and advantages to them.  But while all 3 are fascinating, picking a least favorite is a quick decision. 

The Majorette is an amazing piece.  The amount of detail is over-the-top crazy.  The lights are real plastic (not just painted - and the other 2 don't even have painted lights).  The wheels are correct replicas of a Corniche's wheels, rather than standard Matchbox or Impy wheels.  The interior appears to have individual seats rather than a 1 piece molded interior.  The are decals on the dashboard for dials.  The list of detail goes on and on and on... 

But while the detail is amazing, the model has 2 primary and over-arching flaws that limit it's ability to compete....  First, its BIG.  And while I like big models of big cars (and the Corniche was a BIG car), this model is TOO BIG.  It is overly large.  It is closer to 1/55 scale rather than 1/64th scale.  In the photos you can clearly see the size difference vs. the other models. 

Secondly, its got no heft.  It feels very light and plasticky.  It looks nice, but as soon as you touch it you feel let down by it's lack of substance.  You find yourself tapping the panels to see if anything is made of metal.  So in the critical "gotta-have-it" factor, the "pick it up and play with it" factor, the Majorette drops in contention compared to it's correctly scaled and HEFTY less detailed competitors, and ends up with a strong, but still third place, finish. 


Which brings us to the next casting - the Impy.  I've always been kind of fascinating by Impy's, with thier castings of atypically modeled cars, and multiple openings.  Impy is the only true vintage toy-maker (at least in 1/64 scale) who regularly offers opening doors AND trunks...  ...and sometimes even hoods. 

And this Silver Cloud is so cool that it might just be my favorite Impy casting.  The opening doors and trunk instantly give it a leg-up over the Lesney casting, but a closer inspection reveals that the hood opens as well - in TWO central hinged pieces!!!  A total of 5 opening parts in an era when you were lucky to get even 1... 

Scale-wise, the model appears slightly narrow (although full-size Clouds always look narrow to my eye - so maybe its actually accurate/correct?).  I've never been particularly sold on the Edsel-ish look of the Cloud's headlights and grills -  and I don't like it anymore in the casting.  But - its a pretty accurate representation  (and very well done!) of an ugly front-end.

The casting is identified as a Silver Cloud MPW, where MPW stands for Mulliner Park Ward - Rolls Royce' in-house coachbuilder. 

With 5 openings in the model, it's hard to argue with the level of detail.  And unlike the Majorette - this one is undoubtably made of metal.  In fact, this rare casting is SO solid, and the detail is so great, that I find myself wondering why Impy's like this one haven't been driven higher in price.  How is a Hot Wheels Redline worth so much more than this car?!?  But while the Impy Silver Cloud MPW is an amazing piece - is it good enough to de-throne the traditional king of diecast Rolls Royce Convertibles? 

As mentioned earlier, the Lesney/Matchbox casting, is a lovely casting, with nice size, nice weight, nice detail, a soft suspension from the glory days of the Transitional SuperFast era, etc.  I particularly like it with the thin rather than the thick wheels (the yellow/gold one shown has the later thicker wheels while the blue has the thin wheels).  In mint condition with an undamaged windshield (they are fragile so poor condition cars frequently have broken or bend windshields) and a tonneau boot cover still in place (again - these seem to get knocked off easily), it's a grand-looking car.  The grill and headlights are a single stuck-on metal piece - similar to the Silver Shadow Sedan's, which looks high quality until you compare it to the Impy - when it suddenly looks "stuck on".  Overall, it's a favorite casting of mine, and (before seeing the Impy) I would have had a hard time believing that anyone else also modeled it - let alone modeled it better...

So the real question is - can the Impy knock off the Lesney Matchbox and take the crown of best Vintage Rolls Royce convertible?

This one is definitely going to come down to personal choice.  The Impy is the more interesting casting.  And is of an older and even more rarely done model.  With 5 opening panels.  Including a SUPER cool center hinged hood.  In contrast, the Matchbox is a traditional Lesney Transitional - big and square and nice, a favorite model of mine for several decades.  How do I choose?

In the end, although I changed my mind a few times, the quircky charm of the rare Impy Cloud overwhelmed my loyalty of the traditional Matchbox Silver Shadow Coupe Convertible... 

Hope you enjoy the photos!

Vintage Matchbox Rolls Royce Sedans in burgundy but also silver and gold

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... ).   

Beautiful XCARTOYS 1/64 scale VW Quantum/Santana wagon

The late '80s Volkswagon Quantum wagon was always a special car for me...  the mysterious large VW, under-powered, hopelessly outsold by the ubiquitous Chevy Celebrity Wagon and Ford's (junior) LTD wagon, hopelessly outsold by its own siblings (Rabbit/Golf/Jetta, and even the ungainly Vanagon), such a rare car, a car for mavericks, for intellectuals...   ...for me! 

Unfortunately, I never owned one.  And very few are left in the USA, a non-collectible car that has long since rusted into oblivion.  If you are a Quantum wagon fan (Santana in other markets), I advise you to visit China, where the squared-off Quantum/Santana (not the newer weirdly sized, rounded off aero Passat from the early '90s) was produced under license for many years.  In fact when I first went to China, I was stunned to see this halo car everywhere, especially in police use, as evidenced by this photo from my trip.

But I've never had a good diecast model of one.  No one made one back in the day...  

Enter Xcartoys, a Chinese toy maker who makes fascinating models of uncommonly modeled cars, including this lovely model of the late '80's Quantum/Santana wagon (they also modeled an equivalent sedan version - and both are available in multiple colors).  

The detail is top notch, its a very faithful recreation of one of my "dream" cars.  The trim is spot-on.  The size is exactly in scale (check out the reference photo of the Passat against Matchbox' full size Mercury wagon).  The wheels are correct.  The headlights are glass/plastic.  

In fact, the only real critique I have of the model is the lack of a suspension.  ...That, and the price.  

These XCARTOYS models aren't cheap.  Most of the ones listed on Ebay will set you back $20 when you include shipping, which make them an expensive proposition.  But I'm here to tell you that the quality is there.  So pick your model carefully, choose your color, pay your money, and enjoy a beautiful and unusually modeled car!  

Retail Shop-lifting/Fraud of Hot Wheels models!!!

We all know diecast collectors aren’t all perfect, but we still hope that they are at least pretty “ok”.  So I was disappointed to find such an obvious piece of evidence of the depravity of my fellow collectors in this swapped and returned blister pack ... 

Yep, you see it correctly.  Both blisters are labeled “1980 Dodge Macho Power Wagon”, but only 1 of the blisters actually contain that premium $6 model.

The bottom one instead contains a 50 cent cheapo Maisto model, which has apparently been inserted into the premium Hot Wheels blisterpack and carefully resealed, in order to return the packaging to WalMart and get a refund. 

So someone actually thought that going through the effort to pay the $6 to buy the real one, bring it home, carefully cut open the packaging, take out the nice truck, insert the 50 cent cheapo truck, then drive back to Wal-Mart and fraudulently present it for a refund, effectively "buying" the premium toy for a $5.50 discount , is somehow less dishonourable, and thus a better use of time, than simply outright stealing the toy...?!?   Really?!?

(Or perhaps, it's simply a less risky way to steal, since he isn't actually "shoplifting" by walking out of the store with the unpaid toy in his pocket?).

P.S. I'm pretty sure that this model is the first time the adjective "Macho" was ever applied to a Matchbox/Hot Wheels car...

Unusual Playart Lotus Elite

So there I was in my last post, complaining about Matchbox making a new (and worse) casting of a Lotus Europa, a car that they'd already modeled in much better and higher quality detail 40 years earlier, and I literally said something along the lines of "why couldn't they just have modeled a DIFFERENT Lotus, like for example, a Lotus Elite?!?".  And then my EBay search of  vintage PlayArt models turned up this very model of a Lotus Elite - and at a very attractive price!  And 3 days later the package arrived at my house, and I tore it open, and...  

...and I was met with perhaps the nicest PlayArt model that I've ever encountered!

What a cooincidence!

Frankly, the pictures don't do it justice.  Perhaps its due to the paint, which is kind of bland, a flat white and medium green, with tampos that don't look overly well applied.  But its the other stuff that makes it.

The casting is solid.  The doors don't open, but the cutouts are so deep as to be convincing - such that I actually pulled on the doors for a while until I was satisfied that they weren't just tightly stuck - but that they were in fact cast shut.  The car weighs nicely.  It's sized nicely.  The wheels are good.  The suspension is good.  The detail is excellent.

On the downside, the paint is...   ...OK.  And the size is typical Matchbox size, which means that for a tiny car like an Elite it is scaled too large, the same size as a full size late '60s Mercury wagon (shown in one of the above wagons). 

But all of this pales - since - who actually has another 1/64 Lotus Elite?!?  This is another example of PlayArt coming through to bring us cars that none of the major players modeled (Fiat Dino anyone?  BMW 2002?).  

All in all, a great model and a proud addition to my collection!

New Matchbox castings that repeat old castings finally are legitimate contenders to Lesney models!

I really dislike when Matchbox makes a new model of a car they've modeled before...   Invariably its a more plasticky and poorly done version of an excellent Lesney version.

About 10 years ago they issued new castings of a '68 Marcus Cougar, a Lotus Europa, a VW Microbus, and others.  In every instance the new car was poorly done.  I always wondered why people would buy these new guady and plastic creations, when the high quality originals are so easily available on EBay for just a few dollars in fair/good condition?

But I also dislike it because each time they do it, Matchbox throws away an opportunity to do something truly new.  With so many cars that have never been modeled (how many Nissan Altima's have you seen in 1/64 scale?), it seems a pity to do a second rate job of something that has already been done well.  Why make a second casting of a Lotus Europa when Matchbox could do a Lotus Evora instead?

Well, Matchbox is up to it again, making new models of cars that were done during the Lesney years.  Except this time, the new models are premium 50th anniversary models, with a $5.50 price tag.  And this time, the quality is indeed better...  Which made me ask the question - of whether any of these new models of previously modeled cars are actually and finally better than the original Lesney models?

The first model in question is my least favorite of the 4 new castings being compared today - a VW Microbus.  Interestingly, this is an earlier version than the late '60s one they did 10 years ago - this one is a 1950s version.  But even more interestingly - during the Lesney years Matchbox also made a 1950s version AND a later 1970s version of the Microbus, meaning that modern Matchbox has now made TWO new versions of older Lesney castings...  And even more interestingly - the original Lesney 1950s microbus actually came in 2 versions itself - the green version with the low roof, and the silver version with the raised roof.

To be honest, I never was crazy about either of these two original Lesney 21 window Microbuses.  Maybe its that they never came in superfast form?  Regardless, this might be a good opportunity for the new casting to finally be declared better than the original.  But the Microbus is also my least favorite of the 4 new castings as well...

The new casting is a red and white Microbus, with opening doors.  The paint looks pretty good - but somehow my impression of it is poor.  It just looks and feels like a toy rather than a model.  It doesn't feel like metal rather than plastic.  The wheels are too wide, etc., etc.

Overall, when it comes to the new microbus, I'm not crazy about the new casting.  Even though I'm not crazy about the old Lesney versions either - they remain better than the new version.  Given the choice between a new Microbus for $5.50 from WalMart, or a reasonable condition original for $5.50 on EBay - take the EBay version...





Next up is a bit harder of a comparison.  The original Lesney 300SE is a beautiful and high quality casting.  It came with BOTH opening doors AND an opening trunk and was available in blue and green - and then in gold in the superfast version (though oddly many lost the opening doors in the transformation) - (and later an army staff car (though now also losing the opening trunk)).

The new version is a pretty dark red color and comes with opening doors.  It looks pretty nice - but quite simply doesn't have the heft or presence of the original Lesney versions.  Conclusion - go ahead and buy the new one - but not until you have first bought the original Lesney version.

 Next up - a new version of the VW type 3.  This new version has a REALLY cool matte white paint job - one of the coolest paint jobs of any modern Matchbox car.  Plus the gold wheels add a super-sporty touch.  The combination of the paint job and wheels manage to make one of the LEAST POWERFUL AND LEAST SPORTY CARS EVER actually look powerful and sporty....  This is a COOL model!  You should buy it!

But is it better than the original Lesney version (shown in beat up red regular wheels, or a better condition plum superfast version)?  As regular readers know - I'm a big fan of the Lesney Transitional Superfast cars with thier silky soft suspensions combined with original Lesney detail quality - so its really hard to rank a new modern example  as better than the Lesney version.  But maybe its a high enough compliment to simply declare that while the new version can't quite unseat the original version - at least it made it a close and interesting fight...

 ...which brings us to our final comparison - of a late '70s Porsche 911 Turbo.  This Lesney casting for me (shown in silver and royal blue - though many other colors were available) is one of the most iconic Lesney Matchbox castings ever made.  It's a beauty of a casting both in look and feel, with opening doors and a tow hook (since EVERYONE tows their boat with their 911....).  (Just kidding....  I own a real 911 and a real boat - and I've NEVER considered using the 911 as my boat's tow vehicle...).

But the new dark blue casting is a worthy contender - sized exactly right and spot-on size with the original Lesney casting.  The doors open and the paint detail is incredible.  Even more than with the VW Type 3, the competition is tight and tough.

The original Lesney versions still have a more solid heft and feel - and their doors close with a more satisfying click...   ...but the paint detail on the new one is so good that it makes up for the difference in heft.  In addition, I've noticed that some of the later original 911 turbos (made actually by Matchbox International rather than Lesney - in fact the royal blue one in the photos is a Matchbox International version) somehow seem to have less precise metal/metal detail.

So where does this leave me?  Can the new version legimately claim to be a more desirable model than the original Lesney (and later) version?

Well...

...Ummm...

...(gasp)...

Maybe!

Maybe, just maybe, this new late '70s Porsche 911 Turbo is as good as an original Lesney toy.  Do youself a favor and buy both and compare for yourself!