I’m going to go off on a little tangent here. There is a tiny bit of painting involved, but blink and you might miss it. If you’ve spent any great amount of time in my blog – and I certainly hope you have – you’ll probably have worked out that trams and buses, trains and London are amongst my list of loves. When I was a kid, probably up until when I left primary school, I was very fond of toy cars as well.
There were 4 main manufacturers in the early/mid 70s. There
were the Brits – Dinky, Corgi and Matchbox, then the US giant that was going to
topple them all – Hot Wheels. Dinky were great because they made fantastic
models based on Gerry Anderson series like Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet. Corgi
also did some very cool Film/Tv tie ins – the James Bond Aston Martin DB5 – the
1960s batmobile, and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang to name but 3. However these were
all larger models – Christmas or birthday presents, not to be purchased with
pocket money.
Up to 1968, Matchbox – by Lesney – were the most successful
die cast car manufacturers in the world. Since 1953Matchbox largely produced
faithful models of a wide range of mostly UK motor vehicles. The range expanded
until it comprised of 75 models, and old models would be discontinued, and replaced
by different new models. In 1968, though, the US toy giant Mattel launched hot
wheels. A chap called Elliot Handler came up with the idea after playing with matchbox
cars with his son. Apparently his wife Ruth was sceptical. She did actually
know a thing or two about toys, having created the Barbie doll over a decade
earlier, still, I digress.
The real key to Hot Wheels’ success was in putting the
emphasis away from realism, to exaggerated or invented designs, with very wild
and colourful paint jobs, and wide tyres which made them perfect for racing on
polyurethane tracks, which they also marketed.
By 1971, most if not all of the 75 Matchbox models now came
with what they called ‘superfast’ wheels in response to Hot Wheels. Also, the
range began to include exaggerated and even generic designs, clearly inspired
by the Hot Wheels ethic. Corgis responded too with their ‘whizzwheels’. Of the
three, Matchbox were always my favourite. The Corgi cars I had all had plastic
baseplates, and felt insubstantial compared with a Matchbox car. I have a
brother a year older than me, and a brother a year younger. It was my younger
brother who received a Hot Wheels track with a couple of cars in about 1970,
and I thought they were rather insubstantial too , although not as much as
Corgi. Their axles bent too easily for my liking.
It wasn’t only that. With Christmas money one year in the
early 70s I bought a Corgi Rockets polyurethane race track. As I recall, it
came with the Saint’s Volvo car, which had a base with the axles and wheels
which you could remove with a key and put onto another car. Why you would want
to, I have no idea. Compared with my best Matchbox cars, its performance on the
track was still rubbish.
The track came with a rather weedy plastic clamp which never
worked brilliantly and was soon broken. However I improvised a clamp and
starter from my Meccano set. For an encore, I also built a contraption which
turned my basic track into a loop the loop. This impressed my father no end. He
seemed totally unimpressed when I’d constructed all of the models in the book
which came with the set, but when I went off piste, as it were, he was all over
it. So, of all my cars, no Corgi ever came close to completing it, and the only
cars to make it were the Lamborghini Countach, which did it once, and the
Maserati Bora, which did it every time. Which put it high in my affections, for
sure However, my favourite of all was Blue Shark. It was no great shakes on the
loop, but I loved that car, and even today, if you showed me a photograph of number
61 Blue Shark my heart would quicken in response. Ahh.
So, to cut to the chase, I loved my toy cars, and Matchbox
were my favourite, I’m sure you got that. Right, ell, I’ve been sitting at my
desk at home an awful lot over the last twelve months, and a random thought occurred
to me looking at the shelves in front of my desk, crammed with books and
various what have yous, and also my painting of a Swansea tram, which has never
been for sale. It suddenly occurred to me – wouldn’t it be nice to have a model
of a London tram? A thought which was swiftly followed by – I wonder if
Matchbox ever made a London tram? So, I looked on ebay, and what I found was described
as a ‘Matchbox style London Tram’ It looked pretty clean, in pretty good
condition, and pretty damn cheap. So I bought it.
Thing is, though, a act like that, for a lot of us, is only
the first link in the chain. My tram had a banner advertisement for Typhoo Tea.
A little research revealed that Matchbox had made a tram – looking similar, but
advertising the News of the World. This was one of the first set of Matchbox’s
Models of Yesteryear, which began in 1956. This model was produced from 1956 to
1963. I found quite a load on ebay, and this one was very reasonable. So I
bought it.
Being a nerd is not a fairweather thing. You have to put the
hours in. So I did a little research, and found that although it has nothing
marking it as Matchbox, it was produced in 1985, as a one off promotional for
TyPhoo tea, who were celebrating their 80th birthday. If you look in
the photo, they look extremely similar. Despite there being 20 years between
them, the metal bodies, the main part of the tram, could have been made by the
same mould, or tools, or however they make them. There’s no plastic on the
original (News of the World) tram that I’ve been able to find. Even the wheels
are metal. With the 1985 tram, the baseplate is plastic, and a slightly
different shape from the metal plate on the original, which says ‘Made in
England’ as opposed to ‘Made in Hong Kong’ on the plastic one. The plastic
wheels on this one don’t work as well as the metal wheels on the original. The
roof of the TyPhoo tram is also made of plastic, and although it is very
similar to the original, sone of the details on it have slightly different
proportions to the original. The only decals on the Typhoo tram are the side
banners, while there are other decals on the original, a couple of which you
can see in the photograph.
Buy one or two trams and buses, and you’ve got one or two. Buy 4, and you’ve got a collection starting. And the problem with that was, that once I’d researched the London tram ad bus models that I had, I learned about London tram and bus models that I hadn’t. I mentioned the Type B Bus earlier. Another toy brand that I held as much love for as Matchbox was Airfix, and Airfix made a model kit of a London Type B Bus, which I never bought, but used to ogle in the Airfix catalogue. So it’s always been a little iconic to me – I even painted a watercolour of one once.
Research revealed that a B Type bus had also been an original
Model of Yesteryear. A search on eBay brought up this: -
The appeal was that the B type itself was in basically sound
condition, although missing its driver. The cosmetic condition wasn’t brilliant,
but nothing that I couldn’t tackle. More than that, though, it also came with a
late 1960s Matchbox Routemaster. Ropey condition mind you, but nonetheless, it’s
another iconic London bus for the collection, which was essentially a free gift
since it was the Type B I was buying. I did as little repainting work as I
could, having matched the very dark red that Matchbox used for this model. Then
I bought a set of decals from the web – more expensive than both buses, but since I’d paid very
little for them this wasn’t a bad deal. I applied the decals, and this was the
result: -
I haven’t touched the Routemaster yet. As it is, on the shelves,
turned round so that the side with the remaining decal shows it doesn’t look
too desperately bad. In the future though it will really need a respray and a
new set of decals. Sadly, a previous owner has applied the front and much of
the sides with a cote of matte red, which isn’t even a match for the tone of
the original. In the mid 60s this Routemaster was number 5 out of 75. However
an earlier version of this came out in 1954, just one year after the first 4
Matchbox cars. It’s different enough that I’m very tempted to buy one if the
price is right. As for the bus itself, well to me, the Routemaster will always
be The London Bus. Throughout my childhood, and for long after I left London
the mighty 207 Routemasters plied the route between Uxbridge and Shapherd’s
Bush Green, a staggeringly long journey which took about 3 weeks if memory
serves me correctly. Then there was the 65 from Ealing Broadway to Chessington
Zoo (before it became the World of Adventures).
I firmly believe that most of the pleasure in collecting, and
pretty much all of the pain, comes from completism. The desire to have a
complete set of, well, whatever it is you’re collecting. In my case, it’s Matchbox
London Buses and trams.
I have to be honest, I really didn’t realise that Matchbox
had made so many. I’m only interested in collecting the smaller scale models,
so I get to rule out Superkings and the like. Even so, I found out that I need
at least the following: -
Models of Yesteryear London Horse drawn bus. This one came out in 1959 and ceased production in 1966. They’re not
uncommon on eBay, but you get what you pay for. If you want one in decent
decorative order, complete with both horses still attached, they’re not as
cheap as I’d like. It’s a must have though.
London Trolleybus Matchbox no. 56. This came out in 1958 and was
produced until 1965, several years after the last trolleybus ran in London. The
trolleybuses were phased out a couple of years before I was born, but I clearly
remember visiting the London Transport Museum when it was temporarily based in
Syon Park before the Covent Garden museum opened. I could not believe the size
of the trolleybus – they were monsters with no fewer than 2 rear axles. I’ve
drawn a trolleybus in Kaunas, but not painted one yet. This is another must
have.
Daimler Bus Matchbox no. 74. This bus was made from 1966 to 1971.
For the first couple of years it was in cream and then green livery. However
for the last couple of years of production it was also available in London
Transport livery. I’d like to have one, but as it’s a more modern bus I can’t
say I’m losing sleep over it.
The Londoner (Daimler Fleetliner) Bus Matchbox 17 This is a model of the type of bus
which plied the E1 and E2 routes while I was growing up. I always pigeonholed them
as ‘square buses’ and they never earned the affection that people had for the
Routemaster. This model stuck around for a while, with various versions being
produced from 1972 – 1981
Leyland Titan London Bus Matchbox 17 To be honest, at first glance there
really isn’t much difference between this bus and it’s predecessor, the Fleetline.
It has to be said, though, that this one really had staying power. With a
number of variants in decals etc. there was still an MB17 London Bus Leyland
Titan being produced in 1996, with it finally being discontinued in 1997.
Models of Yesteryear 1920 Preston Tram London Transport
Livery. This came
out in 1988, and was produed for the next couple of years. To be honest it came
out in quite a number of different liveries, but I’d like to get hold of the LT
one. Frankly, I would have thought that 1920 was too early for a tram to be
branded London Transport. Nonetheless, I’d like one if I can get it.
