Me n' Matchbox - A digression

 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 80^th 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.

They look rather a treat on my shelves. So much so that I thought to myself – hmm, I wonder if they do any nice London buses too? So when I saw this pair on ebay (other auction sites must be available although I’ve never heard of them) going for a snip. I put in a speculative maiden bid, and won.

Now, I will come clean and admit that I thought I was buying Type B buses – I’ll say more about that later. However when they arrived, something was bugging me. Then I realised what it was. The Type B London Bus only has 4 windows along the side. These buses are definitely longer. The writing on the base plate is very small, but a little bit of research revealed that these are in fact Type S Buses. Not as well known as the earlier Type B, the Type S was used from 1920, being bigger and having more capacity than the type B which dated back to before the First World War. They too were part of the Matchbox Models of Yesteryear series. The Schweppes version is slightly older and was produced for a couple of years from 1982. For a while after that it came advertising Haig Whiskey, then in 1988 advertising Rice Krispies. Production ceased the following year. These are very nice models. They’re in very good condition, and look as if they’ve never been played with since they were removed from the box. (Which is a little bit sad, mind you). The scale is bigger than the typical matchbox models. They’re nicely detailed, but the top deck seems to be completely made of plastic, which is a little bit of a shame. 

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 am stupidly, ridiculously pleased at the way this has turned out. It doesn’t look mint – I left a few chips in the paint, but I do think that it’s come up well, and I think it’s a lovely wee thing. As for the driver and steering wheel – well, we’ll see.

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.