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I collect a little Matchbox, Corgi and Dinky to relive my childhood. I'm not remotely as serious with this as with my Tamiya collecting and in no way obsessed with "new" condition. I want the cars to be complete and undamaged, but don't mind a few paint chips. So unlike the real Matchbox / Corgi / Dinky collectors, I don't have to spend a fortune to get what I want.

I have them in the same room as I store my Tamiya NIBs and my collection of aircooled VW / Porsche toys and models. The room isn't used for anything else and is kept cool, dark and with hardly anyone than myself going in there, so though I would like to put them into showcases to protect them from dust and display better, they are relatively safe and dustfree on the top of the cupboards I store the NIB Tamiyas in.  As said initially, I'm not really serious about this part of the hobby. It's just a little relaxed fun, so hardly any museum quality pieces.

Some impressions, including close-ups of some of the single favourites:

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On 11 April 2019 at 4:23 AM, Bromley said:

Well there the inspiration for the next Comical series vehicle....The Tamiya Comical Skyline!

meh, doubt it :) there's already a few cutesy shells around for M-chassis eg

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plus the same Tomy later hooked up with Takara Q-Steer & Tamiya to give us the Micro Buggies :D 

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can't get more anymore KAWAIIIIII! than those :P 

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okay... so the local HotWheels guys were holding a swapmeet. Thought I'd pop in for a looksee, not that I collect HW anyway so no temptation. It's mainly commercial sellers these days anyway, few privateers.

Tons of new/current HW... yeah the very latest 'basic' HWs look really cheaply made too :( so sad. Lots & lots of Anniversary or whatever other excuse to repop an oldie <_< so "values" of rare originals ain't climbing as much anymore.

Got tired of looking at fresh blister packs so wandered over to tables with old/used stuff...

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whoa... what's that little red thing peeking out top right?!? :o

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No way... none other than Superfast #29!!! 

138592D9-6283-45C2-B236-C446B81D6CE8.jpg

For an unboxed example it's minty mint too, not a single paint chip. :wacko: Windows are crystal clear, there's no 49yrs of fluff & cathair balled up inside the interior. Amazing.

Holy grail (shot glass?) acquired. B)

 

Once home pulled out the M05 for a comparo pic. 

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Here you can see the Matchbox's odd profile... rear screen rake is steeper than front windscreen.

 

 

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oh as for rest of the swapmeet... 

Most Interesting HW item:-

5E1FB4C8-F9F4-4BBA-A21B-4B6F413334F3.jpg

Wonder Woman's Invisible Jet :D 

 

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11 hours ago, WillyChang said:

No way... none other than Superfast #29!!! 

138592D9-6283-45C2-B236-C446B81D6CE8.jpg

For an unboxed example it's minty mint too, not a single paint chip. :wacko: Windows are crystal clear, there's no 49yrs of fluff & cathair balled up inside the interior. Amazing.

Holy grail (shot glass?) acquired. B) 

Here you can see the Matchbox's odd profile... rear screen rake is steeper than front windscreen.

 

 

yeah i agree that does look real mint to say it aint got the box.

is the rivit the original one under neath.

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12 hours ago, WillyChang said:

Wonder Woman's Invisible Jet :D 

Sorry for asking but is it in the photo you posted? :ph34r:

 

On 4/11/2019 at 4:27 AM, Mad Ax said:

I went through a phase of turning my cars into wrecks

Me too. But maybe not a phase. More like... my primary objective lol.

I created wrecks so gruesome that the life-flight helicopter had to be dispatched, but then only to collide! with the news helicopter that was attempting to report on the traffic situation below. Fire rained down on the traffic-stalled cars, and the entire emergency vehicle fleet was wiped out by the resulting explosion.

Cars cut in half and turned inside out. Buses plunging off imaginary cliffs and being turned into pancakes. Floods. Fires. Mud slides. I destroyed Matchbox cars almost as fast as I received them. When pressed about what exactly happened them all, I'd just shrug my shoulders and say "must gotten lost" :lol: Needless to say it wasn't long before the parents decided they wouldn't be replacing them. Can't blame them really.

Anyhow, due to my habit of reenacting horrific traffic accidents with nearly every toy I owned, my residual collection is pretty sparse. I had a dig through the carrying cases and recovered the few that I remember having as a kid. The "survivors" if you will. :D

 

First off, my only Tomica "State Police" cruiser I still have. A 1975 Dodge Coronet Custom:

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For those of you not terribly familiar with Tomicas, they were really a cut above the rest. Far more scale than their counterparts (this one happens to be 1:74) and the wheels and axle design provided a bit of "spring suspension" action that feels great when you push them around. I still love Tomica cars :wub:

 

A strong favorite; I was a big fan of racing stripes on this one, the Matchbox "Superfast" 1979 Porsche 928:

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My parents both owned variations of the Mk2 Celica and Supra, so naturally I had one of these, the Hot Wheels 1982 Toyota Supra:

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Lastly, and perhaps one of the more oddball cars in my collection of Matchboxes, the "Superfast" 1975 BMW 3.0 CSL:

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This was an odd one as there really weren't many BMW models offered in the US market at that time. Likely that my Dad had a sharp eye for the outliers. I coveted the this car enough to spare it from the fiery death-crash. And yes, the Sharpie lines around the front and rear windows were an early attempt at adding some "detail" to my scale models. :rolleyes:

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No interest in collecting these, but do have 30ish in a bag here. All well played with, but anyway fun to look at once a while. 

image.jpg

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i like the ones that the hoods and doors (some with trunks) that open.

i always think of Easter Island (Rudolf the red nose raindeer) of all the unwanted toys :lol: i wish i had all my Gi Joe"s back:(, plenty of of Tonka's still :)

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5 minutes ago, Klausen said:

No interest in collecting these, but do have 30ish in a bag here. All well played with, but anyway fun to look at once a while. 

image.jpg

make a shadow box for some of them. Too nice to keep in a bag. i have some of the larger scale Corgi style types and the like i find digging trenches and under houses, a few i just clean them and leave them as is. wind up ones are just a kick in the pants.

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13 hours ago, topforcein said:

yeah i agree that does look real mint to say it aint got the box.

is the rivit the original one under neath.

yes all proper ^_^ not a repaint or repop (I don't think the mold for this exists anymore? Haven't seen any new stock made in decades after original issue; MB has done newer Mini sculpts since) 

Rear central exhaust (:huh:) and front numberplate are super sharp - these hang out and are first to get dented when played. Tyres are still showroom fresh. Amazing survivor... pity no box. 

Besides, who would be able to repaint them THAT BAD :lol: the casting is seriously grotty before they dipped it into the paint vat... you'd not be able to resist doing some paint prep if you'd paintstripped it to refinish :P 

Seller says it came from an old toyshop that's been going 30-40yrs, rediscivered in a long forgotten drawer out the back :) along with a few other MBs including this silver beast from 1981:-

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Better still, seller said he had priced them 10+ yrs ago and hasn't revised them up since :P he wasn't joking - heck I didn't even bother haggling.

 

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18 hours ago, OCD said:

I created wrecks so gruesome that the life-flight helicopter had to be dispatched, but then only to collide! with the news helicopter that was attempting to report on the traffic situation below. Fire rained down on the traffic-stalled cars, and the entire emergency vehicle fleet was wiped out by the resulting explosion.

Cars cut in half and turned inside out. Buses plunging off imaginary cliffs and being turned into pancakes. Floods. Fires. Mud slides. I destroyed Matchbox cars almost as fast as I received them.

The A-Team and a hundred other stunt films and wannabes was the height of television when I was growing up, so cars getting exploded and cartwheeling through the air was what we expected.  Actually I think that series has a lot to answer for.

I'd been watching it for years before I realised the bad guys didn't actually die.  And it was only as I approached middle age that I realised that this isn't a good thing.

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My dad (passed away 20 years ago at aged 61) had circa 1500 matchbox cars including almost 2 complete sets of the original yesteryears. He purchased an almost complete set to finish the set (the other collector would not split them up).  I remember many weekend trips to look at matchbox cars and dad purchasing them along with trips to the local hobbie shops on a regular Friday night. The owner of the shops put anything newly released aside for dad so he never missed out and he had other stores in different cities organised to source additional specials if he wanted more than one of anything limited. I was never short of my own matchbox cars to play with. All of dads were housed in 3 roof to floor glass display cabinets and two other large glass cabinets. I am not sure we even have a picture of them which is a little disappointing. When dad passes away mum and my brothers had the task to catalog them (I live 1500 kilometres away and was expecting a 3rd child at the time) and put them all back into their original boxes. Given the internet was relatively new we ended up sending them to the UK to be auctioned off. I kept all of the VW’s from the collection and his first ever collected car - a Morris Crowley bullnose. They are packed away at present as we recarpeted the entire house and I have not managed to get to the boxes they are in yet. I will share a picture once I get them back out and see if we have any other photos of the larger collection.

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Some nice collections in this thread.
I have a few of mine still, in extremely played with condition. Not sure where the rest ended up. Probably the bin.
I did hand them down to my little brother, but they were a long way from mint when he got them anyhoo.

My cars were a real grab bag. I had Matchbox(of course) Hotwheels, Tomica, Corgi, Husky, Siku(from Germany), Majorette, maybe a Dinky or two. There were possibly more as well.

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A few Hot Wheels from my childhood 45 years ago...  I was surprised my parents saved these and gave them to me a few years ago.  Here are some of the best from my small 20-car collection; they were all loved and used frequently.  My son has a full set of Highway 35 and Acceleracers in his closet.

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i cherish the beat up ones if not more than the semi-mint ones "just because they have endured" that's how tough these lil cars are, when you really think hard not too many things out last a die-cast toy.

a friend (yes i have just enough) sent me a sheet of a collection series of Hot Wheels USPS Forever stamps just last week, i have a very small stamp collection i do not collect stamps on purpose, even have a small sheet of Blue Chips Gram's gave me years ago, that Ol' Sayn' "it'll be worth somethn' some day" HA!      grandma was the very best.......

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I got a couple of photos of my old Rolls Royce to share:

Matchbox roller Matchbox roller

Probably the only roller I’ll ever get my hands on :D

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