About Me

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No Fixed Abode, Home Counties, United Kingdom
I’m a 60-year-old Aspergic gardening CAD-Monkey. Sardonic, cynical and with the political leanings of a social reformer, I’m also a toy and model figure collector, particularly interested in the history of plastics and plastic toys. Other interests are history, current affairs, modern art, and architecture, gardening and natural history. I love plain chocolate, fireworks and trees, but I don’t hug them, I do hug kittens. I hate ignorance, when it can be avoided, so I hate the 'educational' establishment and pity the millions they’ve failed with teaching-to-test and rote 'learning' and I hate the short-sighted stupidity of the entire ruling/industrial elite, with their planet destroying fascism and added “buy-one-get-one-free”. Likewise, I also have no time for fools and little time for the false crap we're all supposed to pretend we haven't noticed, or the games we're supposed to play. I will 'bite the hand that feeds', to remind it why it feeds.

Saturday, November 30, 2013

M is for Matchbox Military Bits and Pieces

Military bits and pieces here, not everything, just a round-up of a few things not covered above, and/or photographed in the big session last year.

Mostly 1-75 Series small 'box-scale' stuff, I don't know when the Stingray fish-thing was made (there's probably a date on it but it's back in storage) but it must be before Carlton had the franchise in the late 1980's? Metal to plastic wheels, metal to plastic hooks, the ambulance lorry is a repaint, the Stalwart is missing its cover, a late trailer and dump-truck...all a bit of a mess but this stuff is sub-scale and not on my main radar. Indeed about half the above are left-overs from my childhood that somehow refused to die through adolescence and house-moves! Oh, and a Jurassic Park dinosaur tow-truck!

These are Matchbox Collectables from 1995, not sure if the mouldings have appeared elsewhere (Altaya, 21st Century, Del Prado?), this would have been some Universal or Mattel marketing thing with Dinky copyrighted on the same boxes!

They are rather nice models, compare the Battle Kings Sherman with the MC one. Die-cast and plastic parts, good level of detail and the finish is realistic, something always absent from the Battle Kings! Like the same-generation Corgi stuff there's a ratio of 5 parts packaging to 1 part model!

It was a short-lived venture going to clearance with a year or two and I missed out on a couple of others by not acting quickly when Andy from Harfield's got a few in the late 1990's!

Colour variations of the standard 1:76 scale boxed figure sets, with 'European Theatre' grey-blue Afrika Korps (top left) and grey NATO Para's (top right), I think they ARE grey now but these were a few years old a few years ago!

And - below them - the mad bright blue German Infantry I bought while visiting friends in Berlin in 1994 which must have been an early run under the Revell ownership? By which I mean there was/is a very small Revell graphic on the box but it was a year or two before you could get re-issues of Matchbox figures in the UK under the Revell banner.

The dreadful PVC offerings of the 1990's, least said - soonest mended, but...those images aren't distorted, the figures are that shape!

5 comments:

Paul Foster said...

Nice post Hugh, I have often wondered about picking up a few Stalwarts for my Cold War Brit's but not having handed one I was unsure how the scale match would be.

Keep up the good work.

Regards Paul

Paul´s Bods said...

I used to have tons of the matchbox vehicles, great Little things..mud and being dropped resistant

Hugh Walter said...

PF - Toward the end Dinky did a cheapie in a set of three with a Ferret and a DUKW, it was a bit big, but for War Gaming if you're not fussy...they are big vehicles...out of the water they were very tall.

PB's - Yes they were a nice little range, I live in hope of finding a loose Saladin with the barrel intact, but they were prone to braking and the boxed ones are silly money!

Desert Sea Design said...

I wonder if my mom stil has our old matchbox cars...

Hugh Walter said...

You can but ask! Cheers for passing DSD.

Hugh