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Matchbox the 50th Anniversary GB Chat


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Hi please count me in it please, might have to be a mosquito or a wellington ,i have just inherited them from my late fathers stash, 

                                                          thanks ian

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4 hours ago, JOCKNEY said:

Hi Rob

I hope you are well

Can I add you to our growing list of participants  ?

Cheers Pat 

 

Hello Pat

 

Yes just plodding along taking it a day at a time.  

 

Hope you are well.  We seem to be experiencing Scottish weather at the moment so perfect modelling weather (sans painting) unless of course lots to do inside the House (which there is!).  

 

Yes please sign me up whether it be 2022 or 2023 with the usual caveat of no guarantees although it would be good to relive the past and put a dint in some of the started Matchbox kits (let alone the unstarted Matchbox Kits) in the “Stash”. 

 

Keep safe over there. 

 

Best Regards 

 

Rob 

 

 

Edited by Rob S
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Great stuff Rob

 

The hosts of this one are very flexible with regards to started kits, so if theres an opportunity to finish some of your started Matchbox kits, that's all the better.

 

Cheers Pat 

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3 hours ago, Rabbit Leader said:

 

So which 'one kit' do you have V.P? 

The Big One from Boeing :yahoo: The Kit I Did Not Build As A Kid, the one that got away! Aftermarket decals because I try to concentrate on one Bomb Group (381st from Ridgewell). V-P

2020-06-04_05-41-56

 

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4 minutes ago, vppelt68 said:

The Big One from Boeing :yahoo:


Why of course it would have to be the Big Fort.. why didn’t I guess that?? That’ll be great V.P and I look forward to seeing it come together during this GB. 
Cheers.. Dave 

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I'm going to get in early (for a change) and declare my first build - PK-551 Handley Page Victor K2 (sorry @nimrod54). This is the very first Matchbox kit I bought, actually in 2014 - I had got the book 'Vulcan 607' about the Black Buck missions to the Falklands in 1982 and read about the role played by the Victor tankers. I went for the earliest molding of a Victor I could get - Matchbox! I'm looking forward to reading up on the back story again. 

 

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59 minutes ago, Ventora3300 said:

I'm going to get in early (for a change) and declare my first build - PK-551 Handley Page Victor K2 (sorry @nimrod54). This is the very first Matchbox kit I bought, actually in 2014 - I had got the book 'Vulcan 607' about the Black Buck missions to the Falklands in 1982 and read about the role played by the Victor tankers. I went for the earliest molding of a Victor I could get - Matchbox! I'm looking forward to reading up on the back story again. 

 

I have happy memories of building the Victor in the "summer"* of 1985, after I had finished school and was waiting/hoping to start university. "Vulcan 607" is a good read as well.

 

*It rained a lot, as I recall.

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On 16/03/2021 at 05:37, Rabbit Leader said:


Thanks V.P, as with all Matchbox loving modellers, I frequent this site often. I’m sure we can find some kind of date, perhaps good old Wiki might even help? 
 

Cheers.. Dave

Dave, we need this book: '1973-2000 The Story Of Matchbox Kits' https://picclick.co.uk/1973-2000-The-Story-Of-Matchbox-Kits-133426669483.html

 

Does anyone have it??

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1 hour ago, Ventora3300 said:

I'm going to get in early (for a change) and declare my first build - PK-551 Handley Page Victor K2 (sorry @nimrod54). 

 

 

Don't worry about that Mike, you go right ahead and build what you want, I look forward to watching it come together. Enjoy the build mate. :thumbsup:

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Errr may have to rain on everybody’s parade.  2023 will be the 50th anniversary of kits coming out according to the book!  
“The first batch of ten models appeared in England around April 1973”

p7. Carbonel J-C, 1973-2000 The Story of Matchbox Kits, Paris 2011

It also records the Matchbox kits being discussed in Airfix Magazine of March 1973 but whether of press releases or pre- production kits isn’t obvious.  I suspect from the comment from Scale Models April 1973 that both magazines were referring to the kits having been announced at the Toy Fair in January?

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9 minutes ago, malpaso said:

“The first batch of ten models appeared in England around April 1973”

 

Whoops.... Celebrating Matchbox’s 49th anniversary in 2022 doesn’t sound as good as having a Group Build 50th Birthday party in 2023!!
Apologies everyone, I may have gone off half cocked on that date. Perhaps we should postpone it for another year? 
Cheers.. Dave. :banghead:

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There's an advert placed by the company in the May 1973 Airfix Magazine for "A great new range from Matchbox": Fury, Spitfire, Boeing P-12, Zero, Alpha Jet, Fw 190, Lysander, Gladiator, Huey-Cobra [sic] and Strikemaster. Recommended retail price was 23p.  Jones Bros of London were advertising them for sale in the same issue.

 

23p was actually quite steep, as the equivalent Series 1 Airfix kits were retailing for 19p!

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It's an interesting point about 1972/73....

 

Went over to "Matchboxkits.org" to see if I could get any clarity - It lists the first Purple range kits as 1972/73 and when I looked at the box art for the Hawker Fury (PK-1) it said 1972 on the back.

 

That said, I remember my first Matchbox kits being given to me for my 7th birthday in 1973 (3 Alpha Jets, in case you were wondering) and I don't have any recollection of them before then.

 

Still up for it whenever it is.

 

IanJ

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21 minutes ago, AWFK10 said:

23p was actually quite steep, as the equivalent Series 1 Airfix kits were retailing for 19p!

 

Which apparently equates to £2.23 in 2021 using an inflation calculator - How come a lot of these reissued vintage kits are £6-7 these days?!!

 

IanJ

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2 hours ago, Ventora3300 said:

Dave, we need this book: '1973-2000 The Story Of Matchbox Kits' https://picclick.co.uk/1973-2000-The-Story-Of-Matchbox-Kits-133426669483.html

 

Does anyone have it??

Yep! There’s also a book of Matchbox Box Art to get excited about:

 

https://www.wingleader.co.uk/shop/the-golden-years-of-matchbox-art-roy-huxley

 

If anyone fancies combining two CBK themes in one and doing a Matchbox kit box art diorama...

best,

M.

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10 minutes ago, Bonhoff said:

 

Which apparently equates to £2.23 in 2021 using an inflation calculator - How come a lot of these reissued vintage kits are £6-7 these days?!!

 

IanJ

That would be based on RPI which always gives a low figure as most products have become cheaper over time (and I suspect the powers that be adjust the basket for RPI to hide real-world inflation).  Comparison with a wages index (which always seems the most realistic comparison of how actually affordable things were) gives 23p as £4.80...so still less than current prices!

 

a good site is www.measuringworth.com which uses 4 different calculations depending if it’s an item, wages, something you or I might buy or what a Government pays!  Eg £15,000 for the prototype Spitfire in 1936 equates to 

1 million in commodities,

nearly 3 million against average wages,

almost £5 million as per capita GDP or

£6.72 million as a proportion of GDP - this last would be the “government “ price.😟

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OK managed to consult my Airfix Magazines and also my copies of Modelworld from the same era.  I took photos of the relevant pages and will send them to Dave in the morning (or later this morning seeing it’s after midnight). 

 

In Airfix Magazine I found the following

 

(Not much actually as it seems there must have been an Editorial edict to not give Matchbox any or at the very least reluctant coverage and certainly any comments about the kits were very disparaging. ) 

 

July 1973 

“Matchbox: aircraft kits” 

Announcing the first ten kits having been available for some time after first being shown at the Brighton Toy Show in January (?).  

 

In Modelworld I found the following

 

March 1973 

A reference in the Editorial saying “Press Time” was mid January prior to the major Toy Fairs. 

 

April 1973 

“Modelworld News”

A paragraph or two announcing the first ten aircraft releases. 

 

June 1973 

“New Products” 

A paragraph or two stating that Matchbox kit are now readily available in Britain. 

 

Given the lead time of producing a kit and the physical evidence of the “1972” stamp on the early kits I’d go with 1972 as the “Birth” year of Matchbox plastic kits. 

 

Edited by Rob S
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In that same issue, a Badger airbrush is priced at £19.25 and a compressor at £38.15. The average weekly wage in 1974 was £41.70, apparently, so the cost of the two items works out at 137% of that. Average weekly earnings before tax today are £571, so on the same basis a comparable airbrush and compressor would cost £782.

 

 

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2 hours ago, malpaso said:

 

It also records the Matchbox kits being discussed in Airfix Magazine of March 1973 but whether of press releases or pre- production kits isn’t obvious.  I suspect from the comment from Scale Models April 1973 that both magazines were referring to the kits having been announced at the Toy Fair in January?

 

I flicked through the March 1973 Airfix Magazine but couldn’t see anything obvious.  Must have another look through it to see what he is referring to. 

 

The Brighton Toy Fair in January 1973 seems to be the one where they were first revealed but obviously they were manufactured before this as evidenced by the “1972” imprint on the first subjects so I’d go with that. 

 

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12 minutes ago, Rob S said:

 

I flicked through the March 1973 Airfix Magazine but couldn’t see anything obvious.  Must have another look through it to see what he is referring to. 

 

The Brighton Toy Fair in January 1973 seems to be the one where they were first revealed but obviously they were manufactured before this as evidenced by the “1972” imprint on the first subjects so I’d go with that. 

 

Yes, they would have been designed previously (and hence copyright marked 1972) but announced at the Toy Fair in January 1973 at which point retailers and wholesalers (who in theory would have known nothing about such kits before then) could order them for their shops so would not arrive in the shops till spring’73 at the earliest.

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