ChFalkensteiner
Registered Member
Posts: 33
(4/2/07 5:10)
Reply
|
 Matchbox at Nuremberg 2007
A visitor to the Mattel stall at this year's Nuremberg Toyfair who casually passed by the Matchbox section could be led to believe that Matchbox is a brand of large ugly plastic playthings for small children. The fact that it also comprises a range of diecast model cars could easily be overlooked, as that part of the range was confined to one small corner of the display.
The items featured most prominently bear names such as "Shark Ship", "Polar Bear Scare" or "Ice Tiger Trap" and have no connection with cars at all. Also in focus were the Pop Up Adventure Sets of various sizes, each of which contains one diecast model as a minor accessory. I believe that all those items on display have been issued before and are already available in the stores.
Unfortunately all those items were of not much interest to me, so I was left to deal with the aforementioned small corner of the display.
Unlike the previous year, there was no sign of any forthcoming new castings or liveries to be introduced in the basic MB Miniatures range for the new model year. A large portion of the 2006 range was on display, including some of the most recent castings such as the Gas Tanker, Double Decker, Cadillac Hearse and Off-Road Rider (which have not been found in the stores over here yet so are technically "new"), but missing some others like the VW Golf GTi, Audi RS6 Avant and Ford Transit.
I was told that what we have found in the stores so far will have to suffice for quite a few more weeks, for Mattel Germany presently has absolutely no Matchbox stock to deliver to its customers, and this situation is not expected to change before March 2007 at the earliest.
The 2006 Stars of Cars were also shown, and I was assured that a new Stars of Cars range will appear again in the fall of 2007, but its contents is not known yet. In addition there were a few examples of recently issued five packs, one US issue ten pack from 2006 and a pack of Creepy Cars.
Similar to last year, the Skybusters range was displayed with up-to-date examples in wild colors as already found in the stores, and the large plastic "Skybusters Missions" planes were also shown once again.
The display included a group of Battle Kings twinpacks which seemed new to me, comprising the following pairs of models:
Dune Buggy / Armored Response Vehicle
Jeep Hurricane / Airplane Transporter
Humvee / Jeep Wrangler
Rocket Transporter / Air Lift Helicopter
Those packs appeared to be ready to be issued but are not intended to be made available to European customers.
The most exciting and eye-catching item included in the display was without doubt the Best of British range, which is also ready to be issued, but will understandably only be issued in the UK. Seven of the twelve scheduled models were shown in their blisterpacks:
Jaguar E Type - gold "34"
Jaguar XK - british racing green
Lotus Elise - orange
Mini Cooper - charcoal with Union Jack on the roof
TVR Tuscan - purple
London Taxi - black with cut tri-spoke wheels
Double Decker Bus - red "Best of British"
I have noted the remaining five models from the back of the blistercard:
Land Rover Discovery
Range Rover Sport
Land Rover 90
Dennis Sabre
International Armored Car (not sure what is "British" about this one)
These models are packaged in the style of the Superfast series, i.e. with individual cardboard boxes included; however the models themselves are styled more along the basic range with non-Superfast wheels. (The only exception is the Double Decker Bus which features Superfast retro 5 spoke wheels with red hubcaps.) Nevertheless the level of tampo detailing is sufficient, and the models do look very attractive indeed.
The Superfast series was not to be seen anymore, and I learned that it has also vanished from all of Mattel's order forms, supposedly worldwide. This means that no store chains are able to order Superfast models any longer, and the rumor that the "Wal-mart exclusive" deal will preclude the remaining batches from being available anywhere outside the USA seems to be true after all.
Also missing from the display were the Hitch n'Haul and Convoy ranges, and I could not find out anything definitive about the fate of those.
Finally, the four Dinky models as issued in the USA last year were shown, but it was pointed out that they are not available to European customers. At least that could be taken as a sign that the Dinky range will in fact continue, which unfortunately cannot be said about the Models of Yesteryear (nor Super Kings, for that matter).
To sum up, it has become very clear once again that Mattel has no interest in promoting the Matchbox brand - or at least the diecast part of it - in Europe. The remarkable efforts of the El Segundo Matchbox team are a total waste if the products of all their hard work fail to reach the general public on a worldwide basis. The sad truth is that Europeans - collectors as well as children and their parents - who used to like Matchbox models of the pre-Mattel era are left to find what appeals to them among the offerings of other companies like Siku, Majorette, Maisto or Welly.
|
Email This To a Friend
Topic Commands
Click to receive email notification of replies 
Click to stop receiving email notification of replies