From about 1975 onwards I was a massive fan of the die-cast metal rolling wonders known as Matchbox cars. Everything I knew about motorized transport I learned from these three-inch cars. The best ones, of course, were the ones with extras like opening doors and trunks. Interestingly, though, they all had exactly the same wheels.
Here's comes the nostalgia part: My dad used to have a Saturday morning routine back then. I'd go with him on the number 74 bus from Primrose Hill into Camden Town, which was nothing like Camden is today. It was more like a barren wasteland populated only by Scottish alcoholics that lived in Arlington House and hung out either in The Mother Red Caps (now the smaller bar on the corner of the World's End - which at the time had doors to the toilets so low only Scottish alcoholics and 6 year-olds could walk through without having to bend down) or the Good Mixer on Inverness Street.
There were two primary missions to this journey into Camden: One to hand in the football pools for that week which never won, and the second to get some fresh bread from Biroth's bakery on Camden High Street. Sometimes we'd go into Syd's barbers to get our "short back and sides" hair cut, and a lollipop for being good. Sometimes we'd pop into the cafe on Inverness Street and get beans on toast. But all of this was a prelude to getting those pools in to the newsagents, because on the wall opposite was the cabinet that held all the Matchbox cars (there was another one underneath that held Smurfs, but I generally ignored those). They were 50p each. Sometimes I was even allowed to buy two.
All of the below are cars that I had in my collection until one day in the 80s, I got bored in my sister's bedroom and trashed them all with darts before giving the remains to my nephew to play with. Why do we do that?
I use to have some Corgi cars, and even a couple of Dinky's, too, but neither of those were cool. Let's face it, Matchbox even made stationwagons look cool.
Shame there's no fake wood paneling down the side. If I recall correctly, though, the bottom door on the trunk at the back could flip down. I know I did have one that did that, might not be this one.
There were quite a few that were obviously made up, like this Fire Chief's car. Can't even figure out what it's supposed to be.
Ah, a classic. With doors that opened, too.
Again, a rather stately vehicle with opening doors.
This is one of the first ones I picked up. Looking back on it, I have no idea what the hell attracted me to a pink Datsun. It's not even a funky 70s color. What was I thinking?
Yep, I had this too. It's a track that you linked up and raced the cars down, it was flexible plastic, with raised edges to keep the cars inside the track, so you could create little hills and jumps and so forth. Loved this stuff. No idea what the hell happened to it.
Okay... My Matchbox collection had a hierarchy; a kind of cross between a pantheon of gods and the Cosa Nostra. The leader of the pack in this rag-tag group of die-cast vehicles was the De Tomaso Pantera. I think I saw one once in real life and nearly wet my pants. De Tomaso was the coolest-looking, meanest, most animalistic car of them all. This one, along with the beefy Pontiac Firebird turbo at the bottom of this list, which was the Enforcer, ruled all my other cars. Yeah, I said it. My Matchbox cars had their personalities, which really makes wonder what kind of kid would put the windshields out with a dart, but I digress.
Another made up car, perhaps, or a dragster? Who knows. All I know is it looked like it had rocket launchers on the top, and that enough for me to buy it.
And of course, anything to do with space just had to be mine.
The Hellraiser, like quite a few of the dragster-style cars, is questionably based on a real car. It might be, it might not be. If we had the kind of Top Gear back then that we do today, I'd probably see it on TV, but back then... Not so much. These were great for racing on the Super Track, but with no canopy and such a big engine, I'd imagine anyone trying to really drive that beast would just sucked out the top on a straightaway.
This one was just goofy. The back wheels were connected to the little guy in the middle, so his head would pop up and down as you pushed it along.
Hey, this once had a number, and racing stripes! And doors that worked! Forget that it's a Renault, this is one car that obviously moved, and fast! Zoom-zoom, indeed!
This is probably the lamest one of the collection. It doesn't look fast, has a color scheme still stuck in the 60s, and the doors don't work, despite this one even having handles imprinted on those doors, which many of the cars didn't. Definitely one of the early purchases. I was young and impressionable back then. Like, yeah, 6, so sue me.
This was another crazy hot rod car I had back in the day. Anything where you could see bits of the engine were a turn-on for me when I was 6. Otherwise, a fairly non-descript car.
Hmm... Yeah. I don't know why they made it, I don't why I bought it, but... Yeah. Hovercraft. It had little wheels under it.
I was looking at the Hellraiser and thinking, didn't this come with, like, an engine cover that flipped up backwards? No, the Tanzara did. This held the rank of 3 in my pantheon of cars. I *hearted* my Tanzara. And, as an added bonus, it was part of the much-maligned Matchbox Streakers line.
I had to hunt a little further to find me a picture of my Enforcer, the beefiest Pontiac Firebird you ever saw. I may have mentioned before that I've always had a thing for that particular car in real life, and this is probabloy where it started. It just screams muscle, racing for pink slips, picking up chicks in Daisy Dukes on the main drag, doesn't it? Forget the fact that it's the kind of car you buy during your mid-life crisis, it's seriously cool, man.
There were many more in my collection, if I find any more pics I'll post them. Pics here are courtesy of 70er Matchbox, and Matchbox 1-75.
