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Old Matchbox kits


RGronovius

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During my youth, I probably built more of those multi-colored Matchbox airplanes and armor kits than those of any other single manufacturer. I know some still hold up well but many of them are more nostalgic than serious kits; but do any of you still like to build the old Matchbox kits?

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Back in the 80's I collected the diecast Matchbox cars. My dad brought home some of the Matchbox ship kits for us to build. I look at them now on eBay and just don't remember them being that big.

Anyway, I enjoyed building them, no clue where they are at now though.

Now, as I'm older I have picked up the Matchbox Formula one cars in 1/32. Just haven't built them, but I also think I picked them up for nostalgic reasons.

Chris

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I can remember the Matchbox kits. Somehow, I could never make out why they moulded parts of the kits in different colours though.

Revell I believe bought out all the moulds some time ago and we see the occassional re release of the old Matchbox kits from time to time.

Thankfully they do not go in for the ghastly colour combinations that Matchbox did all those years ago.

The 1/32nd scale Tiger Moth and the Spitfire Mk22 have been released by Revell.

Revell also bought out many of the old Frog moulds but I have not seen anything knocked out from these for some time.

Back in the Halcyon days of the 60's and 70's when pocket money kits were coming out of kit manufacturers ears have long gone.

The market has become aimed more at mature enthusiast modellers now, so there is an expectancy of quality that is reflected in the price.

e.g I recently looked at a 1/24th scale car kit from well known Japanese manufacturer that was priced at £48.00 sterling here in the U.K. OUCH!

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Rob,

 

Even now there are folks who not only remember the Matchbox kits fondly, but build them and their CBK (Classic British Kits) brethern. Scale Aviation Modeller Int'l has been runninng a series by Mike Grant in each issue where he takes one of these older kits and using modern techniques, turns out mini-masterpieces. At the risk of pluging a modeling forum other than this one, the UAMF (Unoffical Airfix Modeling Forum) is a place where folks meet to discuss these kits. BTW, Revell Germany seems to be the folks who have the old Matchbox molds.

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Rob,

 

Even now there are folks who not only remember the Matchbox kits fondly, but build them and their CBK (Classic British Kits) brethern. Scale Aviation Modeller Int'l has been runninng a series by Mike Grant in each issue where he takes one of these older kits and using modern techniques, turns out mini-masterpieces. At the risk of pluging a modeling forum other than this one, the UAMF (Unoffical Airfix Modeling Forum) is a place where folks meet to discuss these kits. BTW, Revell Germany seems to be the folks who have the old Matchbox molds.

 

 

Dave, I assumed this because I first ran across the old Matchbox armor kits in Revell of Germany boxes about a decade ago. I've seen and picked up a few of the now-Revell kits of the subjects I was rather fond of and some of the ones I didn't get a chance to build when I was younger.

 

As to the colors, armor kits were of reasonable color schemes, but I agree that many of the airplane kits were in some wild colors. My favorite kit was an A-20 Havoc that had a bumblebee nose art.

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I love 'em. Wish I had some to do all over again. Maybe Revell-Germany will release a bunch more. I also remember in the late 70's when a KayBee Toys store in Green Bay, WI sold Matchbox 1/32 scale kits for $5.00 a piece. Got the all.

Edited by JeffS
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Revell released the FROG Skua kit under their name for one.

 

If you've got a Matchbox HMS Exeter kit, you may have something worth a quid or two. It's the only injection kit of this ship and is actually not that bad. It goes for larger (Big?) bucks to collectors,

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Our local Kay bee toy & hobby shops carried those MPC reboxes of Airfix armor and a series of their aircraft that said USAirfix. As a kid, those were all I could afford and that were available.

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I'm one of theose Classic British Kit guys -- that said, I grew up on Airfix, but never saw FROG because we didn't get them in our LHS, and Matchbox hadn't even come out when I took a hiatus for the Army. In fact it wasn't until sometime in the late 80's that I even knew they existed when I saw the Flower in a hobbyshop window near Warrington while in the UK.

 

That said, I love 'em -- and have recently expanded from aircraft to their autos and the their military diorama kits. I did the Heyford and the Auto Union for our CBK SIG display at SMW 2010.

 

We have just started a Matchbox Wellington group build over on UAMF -- here's the link http://gregers.7.forumer.com/viewforum.php?f=241

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I still have 15 or so unbuilt matchbox kits. Have to wait for the right alignment of Sun, Moon and certain stars before I can build them.....

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  • 2 weeks later...

Our local Kay bee toy & hobby shops carried those MPC reboxes of Airfix armor and a series of their aircraft that said USAirfix. As a kid, those were all I could afford and that were available.

 

 

I had a bunch of the "3 in 1s" im the MPC boxing back in the day. Even then I realized the decals were crap. The first one applied had usually fallen off by the time you put the last one on.

 

Matchbox was great for releasing kits of airplanes no-one else would, and in some cases, no-one has yet. Is there another injection molded 1/72 F3D Skyknight or Supermarine Stranraer?

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Our local Kay bee toy & hobby shops carried those MPC reboxes of Airfix armor and a series of their aircraft that said USAirfix. As a kid, those were all I could afford and that were available.

 

I have fond memories of our old Kay bee. Good selection of models for national chain. I was sad to ours close. :smiley19:

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I enjoy building those old Matchbox kits too. In fact, if you go to my thread in the "On the Bench" Forum, you'll see the Hawker Hunter I'm building now. I also built the Supermarine Stranraer as well and had a blast! I even enjoyed rigging it!:smiley22::smiley20: I also have about half the Matchbox armor models finished too.

 

Good times!:smiley17:

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Yeah, Aaron, I can see how much you 'can't stand' Matchbox kits! Those are fabulous!

 

I just started another Matchbox kit: the Privateer. man, what a trip! I'll try to get some pics up soon. Meanwhile, I got some paint on my hawker Hunter already.

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For a long time I avoided the older kits from Matchbox, Airfix, Monogram etc. Then a few years ago I ended up with a couple and re-discovered how much fun it is to build something quick and easy. Now probably half the kits I build come from one of those companies. Cheap, quick and fun to build.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have 2 of their 1/32 Stukas. With a little aftermarket items they may turn out okay. I'm also narrowing down my models to just airplanes and scratchbuilts. getting rid of ALL my armor kits.

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I am 65yrs old and started modeling when I was eight. i started with Aurora, Lindburg, Hawk and such. As an adult and 1/72 became the scale to build I started to get and build Airfix, Matchbox and Frog kits. I still have a bunch of them unbuilt in my stash, probably an few hundred kits. I.ve gotten into building again. Takes me back to good old days when I wasn't worried about a lot of details, of course back then there was not a lot of reference material like thee is now. Once you put the finished model in yourdisplay case no one sees tne details in the cockplit and such anyway.

 

Tom

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