View allAll Photos Tagged Matchbox
Matchbox - Hovercraft SR.N6 (1972)
Matchbox - Superfast Hovercraft (1976)
Matchbox - "Alarm Unit" Hovercraft (2004)
Matchbox - "Ocean Research" Hovercraft (2008)
czech matchbox labels (uncut sheet)
Factory: Solo Susice
From my collection: kindraishere.blogspot.com/
Whilst undoubtably the star of the latest Matchbox Moving Parts mix is the 1984 Rover SD1 Vitesse it would be churlish not to appreciate all the other castings which make their debut in this batch. Their new 1963 Ford Thunderbird is a little treasure and is so well detailed it could almost be mistaken for a semi-premium release.
Its intricate front grille arrangement is a work of art as well as its detailed engine block which is exposed once the bonnet/hood is raised plus of course it rides on my favourite chrome disc wheels.
Mint and boxed.
Ironically the Matchbox "Divco Milk Truck" has yet to see a milk related livery so I can only assume this weird but wonderful little vehicle did see civilian use too? At this price point its probably not relevant anyway especially when given genuinely appealing retro flavoured liveries such as this brand new SHELL themed Moving Parts release.
That cheeky bulbous styling which amazingly stayed in production until 1986 has been captured well especially on releases like this which actually get front tampo detailing.
Sourced recently from BTL Miniatures.
Mint and boxed.
2 loads of sand , cement , site hut and girders to unload . Both the Bedford and Foden lacked tailboards but I have several to hand . Loose girders in the bottom of a box & Leyland site hut lorry c/w hut was a nice find . The Albion Cheiftan cement lorry although playworn has reasonable transfers . All recent toyfair buys .
This veteran Landy is at home here in the wilds of the countryside. Looking a bit worse for wear but still working hard. Carrying all one needs for a long overland haul to somewhere amazing.
Matchbox built their models to last and this one is over 50 years old. Looks like it has had a great life providing enjoyment to kids for many years. Now retired from being played with and living out its remaining years in a collection.
So a couple months ago I found a decade old roll of unexposed Kodak Gold 200 in my junk drawer and started dreaming up creative ways to use it. I settled on a matchbox pinhole (35mm film rolls, an empty matchbox, soda can aluminum, and a crazy amount of electrical tape), and after exposing the roll I dropped it off at the neighborhood photo lab while eagerly awaiting the results.
It turns out that I made three major errors in judgement: first, I grossly underestimated the focal length. I now wonder if the space between the pinhole and the film is a direct reference what we call focal length; on my matchbox pinhole the distance between the front and back of the box is about 8mm, which (I think) is the equivalent of an 8mm lens. (Feel free to correct me on this if you know.) As a result, my subject, which I thought would mostly fill the frame, appears to be a great distance away, when he's only about 10 feet away in reality. The expansive sand in the foreground is only a foot or two of beach. Second, I overexposed everything by several stops; this isn't a huge deal with color negative film but still good to know. In broad daylight I would have been better served with 2-second exposures, not 10-second ones. Third, my pinhole wasn't perfect enough. If I do this again I'll get thinner metal and make a half dozen "lenses" which I'll scan hi-res and pick the best one.
But there were some pleasant surprises too, like the idea that light energy can be so powerful so as to burn itself past the edge of the frame. And here's something else cool, I learned that you have A LOT more control of the final image when you scan it yourself. The photolab's equipment couldn't scan the top and bottom edges of the film and the final jpg ended up being massively overexposed. I placed the original negative directly on the scanner glass and used the eye dropper tool to set black, mid, and high points, and voila, it brought back tons of detail the lab had lost. It's a time consuming process this way, but really satisfying.
Despite there being far more official Matchbox stockists in the UK than pre 2016 it seems they are all stuck at early 2023 batches with absolutely no sign of moving forward. It could be viewed that Mattel panicked at all these new retailers taking on the brand and vastly ordered stock in one huge allocation.
Thankfully European Action stores have bucked the trend by continuing to offer fresh cases in Power Grabs boxes and amazingly still cost the equivalent of just 1.00!
Visiting various Action stores whilst in France I was able to accumulate a huge amount of this years Case G which includes this newly recoloured 1957 Ford Custom 300. I went a bit mad buying loads of the debut black version and was able to do the same with its new red release.
A truly gorgeous casting with its crisp lines and liberal amounts of chrome.
Mint and boxed.
Probably the star of 2023 Case C even on this side of the Pond where the real AMC Eagle was never officially sold. Quite the pioneering vehicle for the ailing AMC and offered in a wide variety of different body styles, the most remembered being the Wagon.
A bit lacking on the front and rear detailing unfortunately, all the tampo budget seemingly being used up on the side panel with its era appropriate wood applique.
Found recently at The Entertainer.
Mint and boxed.
The super charming forward control Jeep FC now modelled by Matchbox for their ever expanding Moving Parts line. Short but sweet with its dinky sized cab and stubby rear tipper, neat detailing, chrome parts and lovely metallic green finish.
Mint and boxed.
Brand: Matchbox
Series: 2000 Snow Explorer 3/5
Livery: Blue and White stripes, cartoon mountain
Scale: 1/75
Base: Black plastic - ©1998 Mattel
Collector/casting number: 78 - MB419
Country of manufacture: China
Place/date of purchase: Treasure Chest 2020
Condition: Minty fresh 10/10
Remarks/comments:
A box based on the book Coraline by Neil Gaiman.
This is my second matchbox for the International Championship League of Matchbox Stuffers. As a Neil Gaiman fan, this seemed the perfect theme. It's based on the book, I haven't seen the film yet, it doesn't open here until May.
I liked the Pandora box, her curiosity also got her into trouble.
1. A Nemi cartoon mentioning Neil Gaiman (and Terry Pratchett, two of my favourite writers). You can read it on the large size.
2. A recipe for roast chicken from the newspaper.
“Coraline’s father stopped working and made them all dinner.
Coraline was disgusted, “Daddy,” she said, “you’ve made a recipe again.””
3. MIST written on a piece of paper.
“Coraline tried drawing the mist. After ten minutes of drawing she still had a white sheet of paper with
M I S T
written on it in one corner in slightly wiggly letters.”
4. A taper representing the candle Coraline uses.
“She lit the candlewick with a match and watched it sputter and light”
(Hey, I could have left a matchstick in there!)
5. The smallest of a set of Russian dolls, representing Coraline.
6. A red bead that looks a bit like coral. Coralline in fact.
7. Felix the Cat pendant, for the black cat.
“There was also a haughty black cat, who sat on walls and tree stumps and watched her but slipped away if ever she went over to try to play with it.”
8. A stone bead representing a stone with a hole.
"Miss Spink...passed Coraline the stone with a hole in it.
"What's it for?" asked Coraline. The hole went all the way through the middle of the stone. She held it up to the window and looked through it.
"It might help," said Miss Spink. "They're good for bad things, sometimes."
9. A bee decorated hair clip representing wasps and hair clips. (You don’t get many wasp shaped hairclips).
Coraline’s father - “ “The air was alive with yellow wasps. We must have stepped on a wasps’ nest in a rotten branch as we walked. And while I was running up the hill, my dad stayed and got stung, to give me time to run away.” ”
And her mother - “ “Yes, dear. Now, I think you could do with some more hair clips, don’t you?” ”
10. A piece of blue and white pottery, one of 153 blue things. It has a picture of a tree on it, for the garden.
“She counted everything blue (153)”
“Where Coraline came from, once you were through the patch of trees, you saw nothing but the meadow and the old tennis court. In this place, the woods went on farther, the trees becoming cruder and less treelike the farther you went.”
11. An apple charm.
“She put an apple into each pocket.”
12. A little china mouse.
“He told Coraline that he was training a mouse circus. He wouldn’t let anyone see it.”
13. A metal trumpet charm, for the mouse orchestra.
“She fancied she could hear sweet music on the night air: the kind of music that can only be played on the tiniest silver trombones and trumpets…”
14. An American stamp for the Year of the Rat.
“ “Hello,” said Coraline. “Are you the rats?”
They came out from under the bed, blinking their eyes in the light. They had short, soot-black fur, little red eyes, pink paws like tiny hands, and pink, hairless tails like long, smooth worms.”
15. A small chard of mirror.
“Her mother breathed on the inside of the mirror glass, and quickly, before the fog faded, she wrote
HELP US”
16. A tiny glass marble.
“The gray glass marble from the bottom of the toy box sat, dully, in the pink palm of her hand.”
17. A light bulb from a torch. OK I know that’s stretching things, but you try and find a snow globe that small.
“It was a snow globe, with two little people in it. Coraline shook it and set the snow flying, white snow that glittered as it tumbled through the water.”
18. A Scottie dog on a cufflink.
“They were both old and round, and they lived in their flat with a number of ageing Highland terriers who had names like Hamish and Andrew and Jock.”
19. Half a ticket
“The dog put the flashlight down on the floor, and looked up at her. “Right. Let’s see your ticket,” he said gruffly.”
20. A pair of buttons, ready to sew on.
“And then she turned around. Her eyes were big black buttons.”
21. A rubbery spider charm.
“A spider scuttled over the back of her hand and she choked back a shriek.”
22. A metal black beetle charm.
“The bag was half filled with large shiny black beetles, crawling over each other in their efforts to get out of the bag.”
23. A threaded needle. The paper it’s on has a spider web pattern.
“…on the kitchen table was a spool of black cotton, and a long silver needle,”
24. A fairy charm.
“Coraline could have sworn that the girl had two wings – like dusty silver butterfly wings, not bird wings – coming out of her back.”
25. An ankh. Although Death, from Sandman, doesn’t make an appearance, you can feel her presence.
“The three of them came to small wooden bridge over a stream. They stopped there and turned and waved, and Coraline waved back.
And what came after was darkness.”
26. An iron key.
“She reached up and took a string of keys from the top of the kitchen doorframe. She sorted through them carefully, and selected the oldest, biggest, blackest, rustiest key.”
27. A wooden hand shaped charm.
“ “My right hand,” said the other mother, holding it up. She waggled the long fingers slowly, displaying the clawlike nails. “I swear on that.” ”
(Sorry for the VERY long explantion!)