Why Matchbox Cars Are Important By Drivin' Ivan

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September 5, 1:44 AM

by Ivan Katz, Sports Car Examiner

 

 

My Matchbox car collection has definitely helped to influence my love for certain automobiles.   The Lotus Europa, Iso Grifo, and Ferrari Berlinetta were my favorite Matchbox cars and still remain among my favorite sports cars to this day.   Matchbox cars were always my favorite toys growing up and I still have my prized collection which continues to grow (I really need to stay out of antique stores).    I guess my Aunt Barbara is partially to blame for my Matchbox car obsession.

I was amazed at how my Aunt always had these incredibly old, yet brand new Matchbox Cars still in the original containers.  These containers at the time were the “matchboxes” that gave them their trademarked name.   She would give them to me and my brothers as birthday gifts.  After a few years these wonderful presents from my aunt came packed in the more recognizable blister packaging that we are familiar with from today’s models. 

Matchbox cars were produced by the Lesney toy company in England which started in 1947.  The cars were sold in boxes that were the same size as the match containers of the day.  Throughout the 1960’s die-cast metal toy cars were quite popular, and Matchbox shared the successful market place with its rivals Dinky and Corgi which were also made in England.  In 1982 Lesney went out of business and was taken over by Universal Toys who continued making them in England until the mid 80’s. 

As an avid collector, I feel that the cars made in Macau during this time lacked the true quality of the earlier cars.  Thankfully quality later improved when they were purchased by Tyco Toys in 1992, and then by Mattel in 1997.  This made for strange bedfellows with their long standing rival “Hot Wheels” who are also owned by Mattel.   

Though I always preferred Matchbox cars to Hot Wheels, in recent years, I think that the company has focused more attention on Hot Wheels cars and therefore the selection in the range seems to be much larger.  The average Hot Wheels display area takes up at least 3 times the area of Matchbox cars.  In a sense, with some of the more recent offerings from Hot Wheels, I feel that they have taken on a more “Matchbox  Car” feel in recent years.   

Although I have had a few Hot Wheels cars in the past, I have recently begun to buy more of them to add to my collection.  Matchbox continues to be a separate line from Hot Wheels and Mattel plans to keep it that way by continuing to produce the more realistic cars based on actual production cars for the Matchbox line.  Mattel has had recent success in the collector’s market by bringing back the “Superfast” line and marketing it in retro style packaging.  Today’s Matchbox and Hot Wheels cars seem to be very well made, and the graphics and selection have certainly improved.

It was quite a thrill for me to purchase a few cars at Harrods (they have a great selection of die-cast toys), while on my first visit to London in 1993.  They of course came in a proper “English” but slightly modified version of the original Matchbox design. 

Now I’m sure some readers will think that I’m sounding like an old geezer, but I think that the world today could benefit from more kids playing with Matchbox cars rather than sitting in front of a TV or computer for hours playing video games.   With a video game the user is spoon fed a certain environment and asked to make decisions and moves based on rules defined within that specific setting.  Playing with an actual toy such as a Matchbox car gives the child a helpful, fun and tactile object with which they are only limited by their boundless creativity to think up a myriad of scenarios and games to enjoy. 

There has been a lot of talk about the negative effects of video games on children in the media in recent years.  The only violent scenarios that I dreamed up while playing with my Matchbox car collection was to occasionally have a “demolition derby” with them.   This was where you would run the cars into each other from long distance (sometimes on the Matchbox race tracks) or into the occasional wall.  Now of course today, I deeply regret those actions because I remember some of those cars like the Racing Mini and the Lotus Super 7 that would be worth a pretty penny these days had I not smashed it beyond recognition as a kid. 

The only other abuse I can remember while playing with Matchbox cars was how my older brother would convince me that 5 cents (to buy a piece of gum) was a fair trade for my latest VW Beetle Matchbox car gift from Aunt Barbara.  Of course as a 7 year old I was tricked into thinking that the piece of gum was much more valuable than the Vintage Die-Cast Volkswagen.

Though I certainly remember some bad kids back when I was in school, the violent events that have occurred in recent years have certainly escalated to frightening and incomprehensible levels.  According to Dr. Douglas A. Gentile in his article “The Effects of Video Games on Children: What Parents Need to Know,” “simply put, the amount of time spent playing video games has a negative correlation with academic performance.”  He goes on to say that, “Playing violent games leads to increased physiological arousal, increased aggressive thoughts, increased aggressive feelings, increased aggressive behaviors, and decreased prosocial helping."

Now Matchbox cars make great gifts that encourage a child to use their imaginations as they inevitably dream about the day when they will be able to actually drive the real thing.   Perhaps the world will be a better place in the future if more kids were playing with Matchbox cars, and maybe someday these kids will become engineers, auto designers, graphic artists, cartoonists, mechanics, or even writers!

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