When I saw this old toy car in a display case at a second-hand store, I knew I had to have it.
Back when I was a child, I had plenty of Matchbox cars, but I never had an English Mark II Zephyr. I guess that’s simply because this toy car was a bit before my time; I started collecting Matchbox cars in about 1966, and Ford built the last full-size Mark II in 1962. I imagine that Lesney discontinued production of the miniature version at around the same time.
The toy Zephyr reminded me very much of a car that I saw in an article here on Curbside Classic about a year ago; part of a series by David Saunders on cars found at a junkyard in Alberta:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-european/storage-yard-classic-ford-zephyr-mkii/
It wasn’t easy getting the car home, but I’d wanted an old English Ford for a long time. I wasn’t going to let a little snow stop me. Fortunately, the tow truck turned out to be a big, burly Ford N-Series (CC here). Its Super Duty V8 and dual rear axles had the Zephyr out in a jif.
I’ll have to admit that I caused a bit of a traffic jam when I drove through town. I’m just happy that the snow had melted away by then; otherwise things would have been much worse. The buildings are old vacuum-tube radios, or “valve sets” if you reside in the Commonwealth. In keeping with our proud tradition of horrible automotive puns here at CC, the radios are a Delco (yes, Delco) a Philco, and a Packard-Bell.
Being the gentleman that I am, I pulled over to let the line of cars go by. If you look closely, you’ll see that this Mark II Zephyr is equipped with a trailer hitch. Once I get this old Zed Car running, I might shop around for a Matchbox caravan trailer. (Take that, Jeremy Clarkson, or the miniature equivalent of him.)
It was a pretty impressive group of cars, and I took a long look at them while they passed by. There was a very well-maintained AMC Gremlin, a Dodge Dart driven by drag racing legend Shirley Shahan and a red Chevy Volt driven by a guy named Todd.
Behind the Volt, there was a silver car that looked like an Aston-Martin DB-5. The guy behind the wheel of that DB-5 sure gave my Zephyr a dirty look. What a snob! It’s funny how such a brief encounter can affect you; I was really angry at the jerk in the Aston Martin. Traffic was slow enough that I could have walked up to the car and challenged him to a contest of fisticuffs, but I thought better of it. I guess you could say that I was shaken, but not stirred.
I left behind some pretty impressive cars in that junkyard, but hey! One project car at a time, right? Even so, it was a pretty tempting bunch. There’s a ’55 Nomad, a ’63 Thunderbird, a ’75 or so Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham, and the most unusual one of all, a battered Dodge Deora. What was the last time you saw one of those? In this rear shot of the Zephyr, we again see the trailer hitch.
For those of you who were brave enough to make it to the end of this rather silly tale, I have a special holiday gift. If you click on the image above, a full-sized version of a build-it-yourself Gremlin will pop up. You can then save the image to your hard drive and print it out. Then, grab your scissors and your glue and get to work! This image is also available at the Arctic Boy Gremlin Grembin: http://arcticboy.com/Pages/arcticboysgremlin3.html You’ll find it at the bottom of the page.
I’m getting a bit off-topic here, since this is a story about a toy Ford, but if you’re into AMC cars at all, I really recommend that you check out Arctic Boy’s website:
http://arcticboy.com/index.html
This is how my attempt at building a Gremlin turned out. It was admittedly a bit of a rush job, and it makes me wonder how long I would have lasted working on the assembly line in Kenosha.
Here is the rear view of the Mike-assembled Gremlin. The fit and finish aren’t as good as they could be, but I guess that’s typical for a car that was put together on a Monday. Your results may vary, and make sure to read the fine print on the instructions.
Merry Christmas to one and all!
@Actually Mike,
Very rare the trailor hitch is stil present, these were meant to be played with and we regarded Dinky, Corgi and the French Norev higher ranking then a Matchbox.
A Matchbox was often a gift from an old aunt who knew you loved toy cars but didn’t know sh**t about them (My sister always got the correct gifts)
Anyway, here’s a picture of the correct caravan for your Zephyr
Eat your hart out Clarkson !
We won’t drive one mile faster for you !
That’s the exact Caravan that I was thinking of, since it’s from the same general era as my Zephyr. I had a Matchbox horse trailer when I was a kid, but I never had a holiday caravan (or “travel trailer” as we say here in the States).
I wonder what it would have been like to be a child, and your mother takes you over to her friend’s house to play with her son… And the kid turns out to be a young Jeremy Clarkson. What would happen if that obnoxious brat got his hands on your Matchbox caravan or your Matchbox Morris Marina?
Poking a finger in his eye did the work !
Once got a Renault 8 Gordini, the car I loved when I was a kid, but not for sale in the Netherlands, but saw it in a French toystore.
Did not even know it existed !
A Dinky, only made for France back then.
I got it as a holiday gift and played with it day and night, with my brother
who choose a Berliet truck !
A friend of mine ruined it, and I had nothing left to do but poking my finger into his eye.
Actualy rightfully so, saw one for sale at a toy exhibition, $ 500, the seller did not even blink his eyes !
Two cars I got hot and bothered for in my late teens were Mini Coopers and R8 Gordinis. All of the hoons had them in Paris and I didn’t stand a chance against them in my Simca 1000. I would still love to have one. The closest scale model that I have been able to find on eBay is my Eligor 4CV Gordini
@Kevin Martin
Look at my Avatar.
A Red R8S
Not a Gord, but I found this baby by accident in Italy near Rome, she still wears her Roman licence plates, never imported her, I cannot bring myself to it to loose the old style Italian plates!
Like you, I was so impressed as a kid by those BLUE little monsters.
Cool! I have an old Zodiac in the same color!
Hey, so there’s at least two of them left, then! I really like the fact that the color of my car (and yours) matches (at least approximately) the color of the Mark II Zephyr in David’s article from last year. It’s too bad that these older Matchbox cars lack the interior detailing of the later ones. One of my favorite cars when I was a kid was the Vauxhall Viva, which in real life, wasn’t a particularly exotic car, and looked rather like a contemporary Chevy Nova. However, it had those strange rectangular headlights and a steering wheel over where it ought not be, which made it seem very cool.
Another model car i didnt have but had the real thing a Vauxhall Viva I had a 1970 estate in white with black vinyl top not much of a car it was well worn when I bought it and I swapped it for a Triumph Herald coup’e/convertable, My Nana had a 68 Viva from 8000miles which was a great car.
Good for you Mike!
I rescued a quartet of Vauxhall Victor Estate Cars last year. I added a white roof to the one with the poorest paint, but couldn’t bring myself to repaint the entire car.
Remember these and the red Jaguar MkII with opening bonnet, which, in the early sixties was regarded as being very cool
These Vauxhalls were treated with more respect, the tailgate could open !
I have one of those Jaguars too. My mom found one in an antique store in Downers Grove years ago and got it for me.
I also have a copper and turquoise Lesney Vauxhall Cresta from another one of those shopping excursions.
Won’t make you a promise, but I sometimes come across ye’ól Matchboxes for next to nothing, see what I can do and tell you when and if I found something for you.
Here in the Netherlands they are still very disregarded !
Estate cars, huh? That’s a very practical choice. I imagine you’re tempted to put little tiny “brougham” emblems on them. It’d be a nice touch (bazinga).
Never had a matchbox Zephyr I had a full size 62 MK2 though a beat up old dunger on Valiant charger rims straight thru exhaust headers and rust it lifted the top off No 2 piston when too hot one day and began using more oil than petrol so became rebar.
Oh, the memories….my first toy car was a Matchbox Ford Anglia of the same vintage and color. And later I also had the very same Zephyr, with that trailer hitch…and eventually a trailer too….all long gone; the realities of having two younger brothers and all the toys getting tossed into big boxes with lots of other toys. Thanks for the trip back in time…loved that car.
Glad to hear I’m bringing back such fun memories. The only toys I have left over from childhood are that Matchbox tow truck, the Hot Wheels Deora and some battle-traumatized stuffed animals.
I still have my Matchbox Ford tow truck too. Comes in handy when the red Matchbox VW fastback won’t start.
I’m not too surprised to see another Matchbox N-Series still on the job. They really built those things to last. Sorry about the fastback.
+2 on that tow truck, really comes in handy when the Foden 8×4 dump truck goes down. I also have the Dodge D-series tow truck in BP colors for smaller jobs.
I had the Dodge BP tow truck too. Lost it long ago but I’m going to search eBay for one. It was one of my favorites. I really liked tow trucks as a kid.
My parents have a bunch of old toys at their house that my brother and I had in the ’70s/early ’80s, which they have pulled out in recent years for my kids to play with. My youngest, who will be 3 in March, is by far the most into cars of the lot, and a bunch of old Matchbox and Hot Wheels recently emerged from somewhere in the garage, including one of these Ford tow trucks. When Paul wrote the CC on the Ford N-Series a while back, I immediately recognized it…from having had the Matchbox.
The Matchbox Zephyr was a little before my time. I was born in 1970, and so began collecting Matchbox in the early ’70s, although I had a few older ’60s models that came from various places. I think some were given to me by my older cousins, and I can remember trading for a few with a friend of mine who had somehow come into possession of some older models (I was really intrigued by these mysterious Matchbox that I had never seen anywhere else; to him, I think they were just old beat-up toys).
One online source that I found indicates that the Matchbox Zephyr was produced from 1962 to 1968. My recollection is that Lesney would frequently keep making Matchbox models even after the real-life vehicles they depicted were out of production. I don’t think the Dodge Challenger and Mercury Cougar Villager they had in the late ’70s even came out in the first place until after their real-life equivalents were already a thing of the past.
This was my very first diecast toy in the early seventies, a Hanomag Henschel with a tank semi trailer by Siku. High quality and very detailed for a toy. Dual tires, a tilting cab, hoses, a working fifth wheel coupling etc. Many Siku toy trucks would follow. Other Hanomag Henschels, Mercedes, Volvo and Magirus Deutz. I was more into trucks, I had just a few toy cars. I remember a green metallic Rover with its spare tire on the boot lid.
Siku is still alive and kicking.
When I was a kid in the ’80s, the Kay-Bee toy store at the mall in Bettendorf had Siku models. I got several, including a 911 Polizei, Granada Turnier, Mercedes G-Wagen softtop and W115 sedan. My brother got a jade green Passat wagon. It’s a shame they haven’t been available around here for 25 years or so; I really liked them. I do still have most of mine.
You will like this site Tom. Siku’s older V-series (like the Hanomag Henschel above) from the sixties and early seventies, both the cars and the trucks.
http://sikuner.de.tl/Siku-V_Serie.htm
Wow, great site! I especially like the MB 230SL with the garage, the ’66 Fleetwood 75 with four opening doors, the Taunus 17M with opening sunroof, Citroen DS and especially that ’65 Bonneville convertible. I’d also love the ’65 Buick Wildcat, ’58 Edsel and ’69 Continental Mark III. Wow, what variety!
Surprising that Siku did so many American cars–there are a ’65 GTO convertible and ’70 Judge too!
If only I had a time machine and about $100 🙂
Here’s my personal US favorite, a Ford F500 truck with a dump trailer.
http://sikuner.de.tl/V-314-Ford-F-500-mit-Kippanh.ae.nger.htm
I really can’t remember that Siku had such a huge variety of car models, I must have ran to the shelf with the trucks all the times….Indeed, lots of American cars too !
Hi Johannes, just found three examples of your favorite truck, the Peugie 505 killer and the 3500 Rover, all happily together
Merry Christmas
That’s the Rover alright, thanks ! With a working suspension if I recall correctly.
Are the Volvo F89 trucks from Conrad ? Corgi ? You’ve got a great and wide collection. Couldn’t you make a wreck of a Peugeot 505 diecast model to make the whole scenery complete ?? With a scaled down guy standing next to it, big smile on his face….
Hi Johannes, they are 1/87 scale AWM Herpa trucks, the trailer is a French Trailor unit from German maker Roskopf I adapted.
Still find these Volvo’s at Ebay.de under Volvo F88 or F89
Cheers !
Proost !
Those rigs look very detailed for 1:87, I guess you did most of that “detail work” yourself. I never went smaller than 1:50.
After the Siku-era lots of 1:24 and 1:25 truck model kits from Ertl, AMT, Heller and Italeri. Only once I did a (metal) model kit of a 1:50 FTF 8×4 truck from MIHO. It came out really great, highly detailed and painted in the colors of a trucking company nearby. No idea where that model is right now, but I found this picture of the same model.
(Source: http://home.kpn.nl/miede042/cat.html)
Driving a Siku truck, as a young kid, also meant you had to imitate the sound of a roaring truck diesel. Not only that, also upshifting, downshifting, air brakes and the fuel pump at the gas station.
Dump trucks and (semi) trailers were mostly loaded with small beans or rice. Dumping a load of rice on the living room’s carpet was not such a good idea…a bit hard to pick it up with the wheel loader.
Later on in the seventies I also got the farm equipment from Britains. This is the MF tractor I remember well.
I have one of those. Mine’s the later issue with the two-tone paint: orange on the lower body and silver above. Yours is the first issue.
Nice Zephyr and collection Mike. One can only imagine how many of these die casts from the 50s until today are buried perhaps only a foot or so in the sand/soil of the backyards of so many suburban homes. Kids are notorious for loosing track of these, when their collection grows. It’s amazing how resilient they were to lawnmowers.
The Fisher-Price garage, which seemed to be made forever, was the perfect ‘home base’ for that tow truck.