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Shite in Miniature II


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@Datsuncogalways seem to miss these on a Friday, he had some buses there that are steals even at a tenner, if any of the three Geminis were about at any point in the future I'd be interested (those being the Arriva London, the black/silver 36 one & the silver Wright demonstrator). I will have to set a reminder for the next time around just in case!

On another note, my local Tesco toy section is now all 'The Entertainer' so there is a decent haul of Hot Wheels but the Matchbox stuff has gone now as a result it would seem.

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Well, for once, a visit to Tesco wasn't a complete waste of time.

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Yaasssss! Not one, but two as well. One can stay virginal and unopened, and one can get a bit of detailing. If anyone is desperate for one, there were still a couple there, that I can nip out and grab tomorrow. (Although it looks on here that I've been the only one unable to get hold of Matchbox up to now...)

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I'm liking this one as well. As Senior Cog's detailed pics showed,  this is a really nice model/toy.

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And as bog stock everyday stuff also floats my boat, this also appealed. I do like the real life Mazda 3 too.

That was it though really, I was tempted by the Kangoo and the Dodge flareside pick-up thingy but I put them back reluctantly. No Capri, naturellement...

I've also got a few winging my way from Ana's site on FB. I've got the yellow MGBGT and red Mister Two in the little boxes, and a carded Mitsubishi 3000GT, which I missed from the last release. Missed out on the Capri by milliseconds. Come to the conclusion that that little blighter is going to elude me...

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Found out what the raised chassis Sand Digger is

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There were two types, this one and a monster truck tyre version

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Wormhole alert - this is where I found the pic, loads of things I never new existed;

https://vebuka.com/print/130921040910-5e916e761bff57b6a1e87252a2c96bed/Matchbox_1984

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Well, having had half an hour or so to spare, I got Sharpie happy on one of the Matchbox Mercs.

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Nowhere near the standard of the Bunglebus Kustoms version, but blacking out the lower sections made a big difference.

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Being a 123, the bumper end caps should be blacked out, but I didn't really want to add any more black to it. So I just extended the rubber trim on the front bumper around the corners and added one to the rear bumper.

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Some silver on the door handles and mirrors break up the black.

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Some amber on the indicators and a bit of detailing on the grille.

This is why most of my diecast cars stay unmodified but it was a bit of fun! 🤣

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Does anyone know what the deal is with old Matchbox? I’ve recently discovered you can get Bulgarian ones as well as the normal England ones. They look the same other than the writing on the base but seem to have different colours available that the England versions didn’t. 
Were they made under license in Bulgaria or something similar like that? 
Are there other countries that made them?

Ive never seen them before.
 

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Quote

Matchbox models made in Bulgaria

Mikro'67

Mikro'67 (МИКРО'67) is a Bulgarian manufacturer of diecast models for Matchbox, Gama, Schuco and others. Their factory is in Razgrad.

In 1983 they started making first five Superfast and w few Superking models for Matchbox using imported wheels. Up until 1989 they made seventeen Superfast and sever Superking models. The deal with Matchbox allowed them to only sell models on the Bulgarian market. No export was permitted.

In 1991 they started a "second wave" of Superfast models but after a few years Matchbox broke the contract because many of the models were exported from Bulgaria. However Matchbox was unable to get back some of the dies. All Mikro'67 models made from Matchbox dies after the split are considered unauthentic by Matchbox.

If you click on the link below you can see some of the Bulgarian variations,

SEARCH RESULTS (vectis.co.uk)

Matchbox were also made in Brazil

Christian Falkensteiner's Matchbox Inbrima Index (cfalkensteiner.com)

 

Also you can get Japanese market Matchbox in Japanese style boxes with specific J prefix numbering

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2 hours ago, danthecapriman said:

Does anyone know what the deal is with old Matchbox? I’ve recently discovered you can get Bulgarian ones as well as the normal England ones. They look the same other than the writing on the base but seem to have different colours available that the England versions didn’t. 
Were they made under license in Bulgaria or something similar like that? 
Are there other countries that made them?

Ive never seen them before.
 

Hungary made them as well, they’re pretty slapdash though. They haven’t made them since maybe 2004-5 ish but you can pick them up on eBay etc as new old stock.

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2 hours ago, danthecapriman said:

Does anyone know what the deal is with old Matchbox? I’ve recently discovered you can get Bulgarian ones as well as the normal England ones. They look the same other than the writing on the base but seem to have different colours available that the England versions didn’t. 
Were they made under license in Bulgaria or something similar like that? 
Are there other countries that made them?

Ive never seen them before.
 

Seems there was a deal starting in the 80s to ship old unused tooling to Bulgaria for local sale. Initially this had to be returned after a year so the Bulgarians would make as much use of it as possible in that time and churn out umpteen different variations using whatever paint they had. Later shipments ended up being kept indefinitely so a load of 1970s/80s Matchbox carried on being made in Bulgaria well into the 2000s. There are supposedly so many colour variants nobody has ever attempted to compile a definitive list of them!

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Correct - first error of this type I've found.

Found this Bburago Beetle in TK Maxx - quite an oddity being a roof chopped oval, but having the front quarter mounted "crotch cooler" vents only fitted to 51-52 split windows 

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Got home to this very tidy Guisval Datsun - someone didn't plan the base text very well though

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Lastly the Corgi Model Club not-a-Citroen DS landed

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11 hours ago, danthecapriman said:

Does anyone know what the deal is with old Matchbox? I’ve recently discovered you can get Bulgarian ones as well as the normal England ones. They look the same other than the writing on the base but seem to have different colours available that the England versions didn’t. 
Were they made under license in Bulgaria or something similar like that? 
Are there other countries that made them?

Ive never seen them before.
 

I have around 3doz MK4 cortinas in various colours /liveries from there main difference is that front doors a cast as part of  body whereas UK version has opening ones.

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8 hours ago, sheffcortinacentre said:

I have around 3doz MK4 cortinas in various colours /liveries from there main difference is that front doors a cast as part of  body whereas UK version has opening ones.

They did the doors cast shut in the U.K. towards the end of production, I’ve got one with day glo windows and cast shut doors. I think the rarest is a China production one in the early 90’s with flames on it. 

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Sometimes you just have to give something a home, and that's how I came to rescue this Britains JCB Telehandler.

Spotted on a high shelf in a Brighton charity shop, it must have belonged to some giffer's collection. It's not perfect; it's lost part of the windscreen guard and the gems for its headlights, but everything works, and the paint and - amazingly - paper stickers are intact.

Three quid.

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