I found this Matchbox car along with a trove of others in the rafters of a foreclosed house I purchased several years ago. Currently it sits on a shelf of my desk for several reasons, not the least of which is that it is in excellent preserved condition.
However, another reason is that I still have the exact same car from when I got it upon its release in 1980 while living in Germany. The real Porsche 928 was released in 1977 as a 1978 production model and Matchbox followed it up in 1979 as one of their 1980 range, specifically No. 59.
They produced it for the next decade in several colors, although production of the real 928 actually outlasted it, with the last full-size version rolling out of Zuffenhausen in 1995. The real thing was quite a revolutionary design at the time with its concealed bumper structures underneath the body-colored polyurethane coverings. Designed by Walter Möbius, it earned the European Car of the Year award in 1978.
The Porsche 928’s basic design has held up very well over the years. A genuine late ’70’s model looks a little dated these days (mainly due to wheel size) but the minor styling updates that Porsche endowed the model with over the years kept it at the forefront of interesting design and even 20+years after production, a mid-90’s model looks very modern.
This Matchbox model in gold with a tan interior isn’t the combination I would spec my own real actual 928 with but it’s become familiar and as a result when I see real gold 928’s it reminds me of this one.
On this car the doors open which is a nice touch and being one of Matchbox’s “Superfast” series, has the wide tires and somewhat springy “suspension”. Matchbox being an English company, this model is right-hand drive.
The interior is well-detailed with correctly bolstered seats, a center console that includes a nub of a shifter and a rear wiper and defroster molded into the plastic glass.
The details are quite good for being over 35 years old with molded in license plates and a slightly too large Porsche logo molded into the rear bumper cap. The license plate denotes it as a “V” reg car which would be appropriate for a vehicle registered in 1979. This is one of the little touches I love about Matchbox.
I’ve always been more drawn to Matchbox over Hot Wheels as I prefer realism to fantasy so when I go to the store and pick out ones to bring home for my boys I am always more likely to pick something like this over the latest “Phantomorgasmatron 5000 Galaxy Racer” resulting in thanks but sometimes groans from the boys due to it being a “regular” car. Maybe buying the cars for them is just an excuse…
The upside is that they are starting to recognize real cars on the street as sometimes being cars they have in their collection which is unlikely if I had chosen the Phantomorgasmatron 5000GR. We’ll leave that for someone else.
The car on the left is the one I found in the rafters, the one on the right is the one I’ve had since I was a boy that was played with hard and then in a box until my boys started playing with it at Grandma’s house where I rescued it.
They are identical and rolled off the same assembly line in England, just the one that I’ve had for 35 years has seen (much) more use and wear. The main difference I see is in the “glass” which brings up a question, my research shows that it was originally produced as clear but some other pictures I found (and the newer of my cars) have it in this amber color. I assume they switched colors during production for some reason.
The color is virtually the same, the pictures make it look a bit darker I think mainly due to wear and surface scratches. But the doors still open the same and the “shocks” also feel the same on both. They both roll great.
Nowadays they both sit on the shelf side-by-side, having endured very different histories but coming back together since being separated from a common source many years ago.
This is a great set of twins. Like you, Matchbox has always been far preferable to Hot Wheels in a vast number of ways. Once upon a time Hot Wheels offered some nice options (such as the gold ’69 Dodge Charger I swiped from my uncle) but it was always Matchbox in Jason’s Miniature Garage.
Also of special note is Corgi, another English company, that occupies some lofty positions in JMG.
I had a bunch of Corgi’s too, but a much larger format. I distinctly recall several Jaguar XJ-6’s in my collection with reverse opening hood and doors. Very nice. Until I discovered that they were large enough to be towable with a 3-4 meter long string behind my bicycle when I was about 8 and they all succumbed to severe body damage due to the “Mad Drifting Skillz” the imaginary drivers possessed as I weaved left to right on our street on the bike and it invariably all went wrong….I also coveted Kojak’s car (with Telly Savalas figurine!) but never owned it.
I like the Ford (?) tractor on top of your display. Is that a “Britains” brand model? They had (still do) some great agricultural machinery of which I had several as a kid.
Kojak’s brown Buick? The bottom row, second from the right, is Kojak’s Corgi, but repurposed in blue as a Metropolis police car inspired by one of the Superman movies from the late 1970s or early 1980s.
I just looked – the Ford tractor is a Ford 4000 with no indication of who made it. It’s missing a headlight and the exhaust from my running it off the end of the coffee table as a child. I did the same with the red VW that is right below the Ford tractor – the one with the hanging front bumper. The VW took a lot more abuse in good stride.
Sometimes old toy cars look better with patination, but this superclean shape needs superclean condition. Get onto the Matchbox forums and you’ll find an intense level of dissection regarding minor colour variations – makes CC’ers look positively lackadaisical.
I had this as a child, but it’s long gone. Great find (jealousy emoticon).
It is good that your old Matchbox cars did not fall victim to the youthful urge to master body and paint skills as my own did. Perhaps that experience is behind my adult philosophy of never screw with a decent factory paint job unless absolutely necessary.
Oh, believe me, there are several atrocities lurking in the toy box! And nowadays I don’t mess with factory paint either and any cars needing lots of care in this regard I usually strike from consideration.
When I was about 14 or so, my mother gave all of my Hot Wheels (many original ones from the late 1960’s) and other 1/64ths to my oldest nephew who was nine years younger. Needless to say, they did not survive very well. He did all the usual things to them, painted them, took them apart and blew them up with firecrackers and etc.
What fascinates me, is that there is a whole legion of adults who DO repaint and customize their Hot Wheels. I wish I had the time, but I have real cars I have to repair…
Ah, paint. I think I ended up using my Testors model paint on more Matchbox and Hot Wheels than on actual 1/24 models…with predictably embarrassing results. I still have the vast majority of them squirreled away in my parents’ attic, and I tend to cringe when I see what sort of “customizations” young Chris inflicted on those poor cars. Though it did inspire me a few years ago to go on a minor eBay spree acquiring unpainted versions of some of my more egregious errors!
Matchbox was also my favorite when I was a kid. I also liked the realism and I especially liked the double-decker busses that looked just like the ones I would see on TV shows or in the movies. The only one I didn’t like was the Unimog. I got one as part of a “Matchbox City” playset I got for Christmas when I was five or six and I always thought of it as that “ugly pickup truck.” I think it was the first one to go when we started blowing things up with firecrackers after one Fourth of July. (My double-decker is long gone-this is just one I found on Ebay, complete with BP-“That’s like Chevron in England,” explained my Dad-advertisements.)
I have the same gold 928 left over from my childhood collection, and it’s very well used. My daughters play with it now, and they’re much gentler than I was!
I always preferred Matchboxes to Hot Wheels for the same reason. And now many years on I’m glad that I did, because I have a feeling that a box full of Phantomorgasmatrons wouldn’t have quite the same appeal as a box of 928s, Sevilles, and Triumphs.
As a rule, Matchox had at least one working feature. Either opening doors, hood, trunk, removable top etc. Now nothing but at least its better than cheap Maisto models with blacked out windows with no interior
My uncle passed along his matchbox collection to me when I was a kid, this Porsche was part of it. The amber windows caught my attention and I remember studying it’s details carefully. I still buy matchboxes whenever I find them at tag sales and the occasional random lot on ebay. Superfast models are my favorites; lots of detail, slick wheels, and cool 70’s vibes.
Almost snorted my coffee at the Phantomorgasmatrons!
Like you, I always preferred the more realistic cars. Also, in Australia Hot Wheels went for $1 each when they came out, which would almost buy three Matchbox cars at 35 cents each.
Currently, Hot Wheels and Matchbox are both right at 99c here most places with HW going on sale to 79c fairly often (usually at my grocery store of all places). Since they now have the same owner, the Matchbox selection has become extremely poor and there isn’t often something worth buying. Sad state of affairs. I still look though and sometimes find and stock up on ones that interest me. It’s a cheap enough hobby to give a couple to the kids and put a couple in the closet…
Agreed that the 1/64th collecting hobby is plenty cheap. 15 years ago, when my kids were little the cars were generally about a $1 or so. Accounting for inflation, they still retail for about $1, but are actually cheaper than they were back then.
While I make a concerted effort to avoid the toy aisle now, my local grocery store has these on the end caps. Amazingly, I still find things I want to buy, even though I no longer have kids in the house.
About five years ago I thought Matchbox was on the upswing–they brought out quite a number of classics, in “normal” paint without stripes/logos/tomfoolery. Citroen DS, Jag XK120, Karmann Ghia, Lotus Europa, and my personal favorite a late 60’s Vista Cruiser in green over dinoc. But that turned out to be a phase, and lately, on my occasional pass through the toy aisle there aren’t any actual cars to be had at all from Matchbox. They seem to have become the “trucks and work/action vehicles” arm of Hot Wheels.
Phantomorgasmatrons? It sounds like something you give your girlfriend that you never brought home to mother… 😉
I have a love affair (so far unfulfilled) with the original 928. When I was in Germany in 1979, my older cousin took me to a ADAC Oldtimer race (like “vintage” races here in the States).He knew the guy driving the pace car, a safety orange 928 with the “optical” upholstery, it was the first time I’d ever seen anything like that, it stopped me cold for about a minute. Once I got un-vertigoed, I hopped in for the ride of my life, at least up until that time.
Much like I can drink and appreciate both Bourbon and Scotch, I like both Hot Wheels and Matchbox. I’d better, as Mattel owns Matchbox now. Regardless, when HW did a stock car, it was rather well detailed. Matchbox did it better and first, but HW made them up their game again. The revived Johnny Lightnings from about 10-15 years ago were pretty decently detailed, too.
When my girls were little, I introduced them to Hot Wheels. On the long winter Michigan nights we’d set up the track and I taught them both about Drag Racing and eliminations, elapsed times and other trivial items. We collected hundreds of cars, and both of my girls had their own “fleet”.
Some of my fondest memories of my childhood are of Matchbox and Hot Wheels cars. Joseph Dennis’ spouse is from my neck of the woods in Northeast Ohio, in fact I believe she may be from my neighborhood (but separated by a number of years). Joseph writes about his exploration of my hometown and the (proto Wal-Mart) Valley View department store.
It was at that store that my father fueled my Matchbox and Hot Wheels desires. We usually went there on Saturdays for various and sundry items, and if I was well-behaved, I could get a Matchbox or Hot Wheel of my choosing. I was well behaved for a very long time. Up until about middle school, actually…
Since my kids have grown up and moved out of the house, I have cut back on my 1/64th collecting. I occasionally pick one up here and there (I have an odd obsession with Hellcats), but have throttled back the collecting instinct. I was at a flea market in Saugatuck, Michigan during Memorial Day weekend and I was very proud of myself. I actually walked by a cabinet full of 1/64 Hot Wheels, Matchboxes and others WITHOUT PURCHASING ANYTHING!
I can really appreciate the tiny talisman that the Matchbox 928 has become for Jim. I have a few of those myself.
I’m replying to my own comment. Hmmm…
A Christmas tradition in my house is to set up the HW track, instead of a toy train. We exchange Hot Wheels (or Matchbox cars) based on what we think each other would like. It was a tradition started in college with my roommates and when I got married (and had children) we continued on with it.
Great find and write up! I had that car as a kid in the early 80’s, but lost it somewhere along the line. That’s unfortunate because I still have many of my cars, some even in decent condition. I still buy new ones sometimes, like most on here I favor models of real cars, most often Matchbox but Hot Wheels has had many good cars over the
The new cars are good sometimes, with good accuracy and detailing. Lesney era Matchbox are still the best ever because they usually had a moving feature like doors and always had SUSPENSIONS!!! Sometime around 2000 Matchbox stopped doing suspensions, which in my opinion always set them apart from Hot wheels for superior play value. It really makes a big difference. Some of my favorite cars as a kid were Tomy pocket cars from Japan. Very high quality, and they always had opening doors and some of the best suspension action and rolling smoothness in the business. Unfortunately they are not sold in the U.S. anymore and they don’t do American cars now. They are available online and still have the features and quality they had back in the 70’s and 80’s.
It was a great time to be a kid in the late 60s early 70s when Matchbox was the General Motors of diecast.
Then along came Hotwheels with their fine springy axles ( the first versions were actually like torsion bars, each wheel had a seperate axle/spring) mag wheels,wild colors,etc.
This forced Matchbox to rush their Superfast versions to market by Christmas 1969.
Matchbox of this era is my favourite but some of the early HotWheels are gorgeous.
This would be one of my favourites
Apparently one of the rarest and most valuable 1-75 is this tow truck with the cab and rear tray colours reversed.
That same No. 59 Porsche 928 was one of my favorites as a child also, though mine was turquoise rather than gold. That casting is still, to my eye at least, one of the most detailed and best proportioned that Matchbox ever put out. I still have my original 928 as well, though it’s missing about half its paint and the doors have a pronounced sag if not shut securely. You were gentler on yours than I was on mine, judging by your photo! I found a near-mint example on the bay of E sometime in the early 2000’s to augment it, and it’s instructive to see them next to each other. The details really jump in the clean version. Anything else fun in that attic find trove?
These Lesney superfast, and the similarly detailed “early Macau” cars that followed, are my favorite era of Matchbox–both because they correspond to my childhood memories (born in ’80) and because they are, with a few exceptions, real cars that could see on the street in non-garish paint scemes. As mentioned in previous comments current Matchbox are kind of a lost cause, and while Hot Wheels has upped their game recently with some interesting new castings, the paint jobs tend toward the crazy, usually with an obnoxiously large Hot Wheels logo on one of the panels.
There are still worthwhile models out there–I have a few each of the 1/64 from Auto World, M2, and Greenlight, not to mention the late lamented Ertl American Muscle from about 10 years ago. But they’re hard to find in stores and the price of entry is steep. But still, nothing compares to the memories of standing in the toy aisle of the K-Mart on W. Market street in Greensboro, age 6 or so, and pondering how to choose “just one!” of the wonderous selection available in those yellow blister packs.
Oh, there are more of the “Rafter Classics” for sure!
My earliest memories of Matchbox cars were shopping for them in the little combination Toy and Bicycle shop of Herr Manfred Zahn in Germany in the mid-70’s. He had the display case with No.’s 1-75 near the counter. If you wanted to see one, you’d tell him, he would go under the counter and pull out the individually boxed item, carefully open it and hand you the car. You’d then ponder it while he patiently watched you until you handed it back to either approve the purchase for a few Deutsche Marks or repeat the process with another one. He always had the higher quality toy selection, the other toy store across the street mainly carried Majorette. Of course every few months we’d go into the big city (Freiburg) and at Kaufhof spend time looking at more Matchbox, and the offerings from Siku and Schuco as well.
For some reason I have an aversion to paying more than about a dollar for these things. I look at the Johnny Lightnings and the upmarket HotWheels offerings and never pull the trigger. $1 just seems like a great and justifiable value.