Scaling Up – One Man’s Matchbox Mission
March 2, 2022
What was your gateway into cars? Was it a parent, who was passionate about all things propelled by petrol? Perhaps it was the cars of film and TV, leaping, skidding and jumping their way into your imagination. Perhaps you just had a natural curiosity towards them? They are, after all, a captivating thing for impressionable young eyes. Yes, it’s safe to say that there are many ways that cars could have become dear to you. However, the reality for small you and I was that owning a car was not really possible. For starters, the police take a dim view of toddlers in Toledos. No, for many of us, our passion for cars was kept afloat by something else. Toys. The offerings of Matchbox, Lesney, Corgi, Hot Wheels and myriad other brands. Our own, small-scale collections of otherwise unobtainable machinery.
I perhaps understand this more than most. Why? Mainly because I have around 4,000 Hot Wheels cars, still pristine in their blister packs. I have a couple of thousand other models, too. Matchbox, Greenlight, Corgi, the list goes on. I don’t display them. They’re not catalogued. I just like collecting them. It’s an easy hobby to get into. A couple of quid here, a couple of quid there, and before you know it you have a nice little collection. Having them brings me joy. But, as someone who lives in a flat, I must admit that the numbers are perhaps getting a tad out of control now. Plus, the notion of me having all these toys only to not play way them is a baffling concept to my stepson. Sorry, kid.
What I should have done is take a leaf out of Graham Heeps’ book. Now living in Canada, Graham is a British motoring journalist and like me, he has a staggering collection of models. But unlike me, a large portion of them have a point and a purpose. Made up largely of offerings from Matchbox, Graham has set about collecting 800 specific models. He has others, of course. Many, many others. But the 800, or the large percentage he has obtained at least, is arguably the most special.
The logic was first to collect Matchbox cars that fit within the company’s new casting numbers. These numbers started in 1982 around the time Universal Toys bought the British brand. Which itself would go on to be bought by Tyco Toys in 1992, and then Mattel in 1997. But I digress. The focus here is the first 800. Though 800 wasn’t the original goal, as Graham explains. “For a few years I was trying to keep up with the new releases and backfilling the ones I’d missed. Then, when the MB numbers hit 800 with the Road Roller in 2010, I arbitrarily decided that it was time to call a halt.”
It turned out to be a good place to stop, as Graham elaborates. “It was pure luck that this turned out to be a great place to cease the pursuit of every new casting number. I had no way of knowing that Matchbox was reaching the end of its most recent ‘Golden Age’, and that many of the next 150+ numbers would be allocated to some uninspired generics and cost-reduced rebodies of existing designs.” And that can indeed be an issue. As well I know from my Hot Wheels collection, variation of the same casting are an easy and cheap way to make money. And while the first 800 were in no way excluded from being offered in different colours or liveries, they were sill far more unique than anything that would follow later.
But the uniqueness doesn’t end there. Far from it, in fact, as there are some Matchbox cars in Graham’s collection that never even made it into production. This may of course lead you to question how he has them, and in the case of some, he doesn’t. Of the 800, he has 775. However, of the 25 ‘missing’, 18 never went into production. Dummy models may have been made, but Graham has not heard of any such examples. The other seven are still on Graham’s list, but it’s a case of networking, checking groups and forums, going to shows and that sort of thing. He’s in no rush though. In fact, he explained to me how finding them when he least expects it is part of thrill. Spending hours trawling the internet for them has less appeal.
Moving back to the unique cars, of the 775 Graham has collected there are seven that are more exciting than the others. There’s a Toyota Celica GT4, a Bugatti EB110, a Ford GT90, the Green Hornet, a Pontiac GTO and a few others that were never made. Instead, Graham has managed to obtain rare resin models of these unrealised models. They were assigned a casting number though, hence their place in the collection. Why weren’t they made? There are many reasons. Licencing, internal pressure (Hot Wheels is owned by Mattel, too), timing, the list goes on. It makes you wonder how many cars were this close to being on the toy store shelves.
It’s a fascinating collection, and one that I find enthralling. I’m quietly confident that those of you in the same late-thirties/early-forties bracket as me will feel the same. My collection of Hot Wheels didn’t start with Hot Wheels. Instead, I started buying back – even if battered – examples of the toys I remembered having as a child. And when they arrived, just holding them and interacting with them put me in a mental time machine. Memories of, without getting too deep, a time of less burden. Seeing Graham’s full collection of these cars I remember so vividly playing with sent me back in time once again, and I was glad of it. Yes, at their core, they are toys. But to find these older examples brings us, now as adults, something far deeper than perhaps the original makers ever intended. Trust me. Get online, have a look for some and tell me you don’t feel the same when you’re holding them in your adult hands. You don’t have to make ‘brum brum’ noises (though I’m not stopping you) to enjoy them.
What Graham has done here is preserve not only his memories of a time gone by, he has also amassed a collection of cars that represent his passions and serve to explain the course his life has taken as a motoring journalist. He’s also managed to capture models that, quite literally, don’t exist other than in plain, resin form. Sure, collecting die cast cars might not be for everyone, but I’m willing to bet that if you give it a go, you’ll find a joy you’ve not felt for years. And that’s not bad for a couple of quid. Well, until you add them all up.
With thanks to Graham Heeps, who has also penned a children’s book on cars from the world of motorsport along with the matching models. The perfect way to introduce your budding petrolhead to this thrilling world.
