50 years of Matchbox Magic (Part 1). 

Looking back on these old Matchbox kits, yes, they don't hold up so well today, in many ways, however in their day they were amazing to see: in colour, and they often looked better than the existing Airfix and Revell kits because these were NEWER!! They had newer, more detailed moulds, and often more accurate shapes too... and the pilot figure often came with a seat/better seat than the Airfix/Revell kits, and sometimes even a floor, stick, and instrument panel!! They were brilliant for kids like me in the early 1970s; they just seemed so 'hi-tech' compared to the competition!! 😁 The real beauty though is that the Revell re-boxings available now, of many of these old Matchbox kits are still pretty clean and flash-free!! And you still get the dioramas with the armour kits...!! 👍🏻 Charisma... Yes!! 😁👍🏻

Early 70's i loved buying and making matchbox models. The 2 colour kits were 30p from a local hardware shop. And because paints were so expensive I preferred the colour kits to the drab grey airfix. Then one day my nan bought me the Curtis Hell Diver 3 colour kit! Just awesome. Truth is I still prefer Matchbox because of the nostalgia. But also because they are such lovely kits to build. I recently bought a few on ebay in a moment of nostalgic madness. They really do take me back to happy times as a kid. As a man in his mid 50's my parents no longer around, these models also remind me of them. Of the days they would go with me to the hardware shop to choose the bewildering selection. Buy some britfix glue and get making. Thank you for this trip back in time and sharing the love of these wonderful models.

What do we want from a kit? Peoples' definitions may differ but the answer is fun.

The first Tamiya catalogue I managed to get as a child made my jaw hit the floor.The fully painted dioramas in the centre pages were stunning.I could never afford the kits till much later but it really fired the imagination.

I recently started building Matchbox models again after many years. For their time they were great being very affordable, 30p in the early 70's. The magic of ebay makes it possible to find them. I love to find the very vintage 1970's ones and have started to collect those. I am very envious of your collection.

The sheer amount of colours was a big part of their charm to me. The fantastic box art (i usually kept the front side of the box and the instruction manual for many years). The fact that the sprues weren't this boring grey but had two or three different colours. At a young age that was quite important. Yes I knew I knew I could and probably should paint them but I was a bit hesitant. Only after a couple of years I understood how simple painting them was, the tinlets were very small, you could use small brushes - you were not going to paint your house or your father's car. The Matchbox kits were also cheap (most plastic model kits were in those days) and quite a large part of available plastic model kits in toy shops were from Matchbox. Or at least that is how I remembered it... The multicoloured Matchbox kits probably kept me from buying other brands for years.

Back in the 70s, maybe the 80s, I bought a number of these: Sherman Firefly, Westland Lysander, Walrus, Panzer III, Aston Martin Ulster, and maybe more. Glad I found your channel. This was very interesting.

1st model I ever built was the 1/72 mig-21. I used to spend all my allowance on the 1/72 tanks and would play tabletop wargaming with them. Not a ton of detail, but they were sturdy and good for gaming.

Built quite a few planes and armour in the 70s, never painted them but really enjoyed them. Then in the early 90s Woolworths had loads on offer, and with a little son in tow, bought everyone i could find. This time, i airbrushed them and they were still really good kits, my favourite was the thimble nosed Beaufighter. The large amount of kits i managed to get from Woolies lasted thru to the early 2000s. Now ive moved on to eduard and newer airfix, and meng etc for armour, but i cant say i get the same enjoyment as i did building and painting those matchbox kits.

Excellent. What a great show and selection of classic kits.Well done.

I suspect that the Matchbox kit was to the generation born circa 1965 who spent those critical childhood and early adolescent formative years from five to fifteen growing up in the 1970s, what Airfix was to those of us born circa 1955 treading the same path in the 1960s. I was just emerging from plastic model building to other pursuits i.e. control-line aeromodelling, and then full size gliding concurrent with participating in a couple of sports passionately when the Matchbox kit era was emerging through to its zenith, but was very aware of them and even bought a few in the very early 1970s and later, early 1980s as I recall. I am astonished at the prices being asked on eBay for them today though! One would really have to be a diehard into Matchbox nostalgia.

I agree with you on the fit of parts. I have the Hawk 200,Alpha Jet, Strike master and F-5B on the shelf and no gaps in the finished models and absloutley no filler needed.

Excellent series on quite beloved(at least for me) model kits that I still cherish today. Thank you very much.

That was a wonderful time in modeling. Those kits first arrived in Atlanta in the early fall of 1973. Most were not too bad for their time...although their time has now passed. I do miss the time when models were relatively inexpensive and could be built in a weekend!

I hat a Matchbox F86 Sabre kit, almost 30 years ago. The fitting was nearly perfect. Something i didnt even knew it existed. Very good Kits and nice boxarts.

Never knew that tomcat was moulded in those colours. Looks fab. Have to get 2..1 to build and 1 to keep in box.

The early 1970s Tamiya military vehicle kits were great, when they were battery and clockwork operated.

Very nice video Peter. I must admit I started way too late to collect these treasures, comparing with your collection I do only have about 40 of them now, mostly planes, but I got all ships, no cars at all ;-) Beside that, I do have a lovely collection of vintage Revell ships and some Airfix. Anyway, similar to your childhood, I was very in love with these kits in my early years in the mid 70's. The key factor that i did build them in such large numbers was not that they did fit so well. The reason was, they were availible here in our little village in Germany in every store. You could buy them in the supermarket, even a homegoods store had a little shelve with Matchbox kits. And this was a villige with about 1500 residents, you can imagine how many of the boys did build these lovely models. Just 10 years later I heard about Tamiya or Hasegawa. The artwork of cause did it for me too, it just influenced me so hard that I became a model box artist myself today. Thank you and keep up the great work!

Brings back memories of my youth Peter. Way back when i started building kits, Matchbox was my main brand, built so many, but my 2 favs were the 1/32 ME - 109, and the 1/72 Heinkel. Great videos mate, keep up the great work, cheers.

Lovely video thank you.The subjects were great.I loved them.

Pros …1… Some really cool subjects (It was long time before another Char B1 in any scale showed up, or HMS Tiger as a hybrid, or an He-70A, or a Wellesley, Stranraer, Heyford, Seafox, etc…). …2… Nice options on some kits (1:72 Tempest, 1:72 Hunter Trainer, He-70A, etc…) …3… Aircraft did not look like they were manufactured by a boiler maker (Lol. The 1960’s rivet mania was coming to an end.) …4… Interesting decal choices (like the Privateer) …5… Decent engineering (good fit, easily managed seams, somewhat sturdy. …6… Fantastic box art …7… Great value for the money …8… Flower class corvette in 1:72 …9… Very good quality control (only flaw I recall was a short-shot prop on a Brewster Buffalo) ………………………………………. Cons …1… The mad trencher …2… Extremely thick transparencies …3… Soft details and often over-simplified (e.g. Ju-188 or most of the Naval subjects) …4… What cockpit detail (especially those seats!) …5… Decals have a relatively short shelf life compared to other manufacturers …6… Not enough WWI, interwar and naval subjects (hahaha… just me) ………………………………………. Overall, Matchbox is truly magical, and even if the subject is completely eclipsed by another kit (like their 1:72 Me-262A, 1:72 Canberra or 1:72 Hellcat), I will still pick up what I can find. The 1:76 armor series are adequately detailed and fun. The Dornier Do-18! Love it. As far as I am concerned, Revell should re-release every Matchbox kit (with the possible exception of the original MiG-21 as the later “corrected” one exists).

Great tip on the Revell re-boxes. With that in mind, I'm off to the hobby shop bargain bin tomorrow! 😆

Hi Peter, sorry I missed your live today. I didn't have much free time today. You have a bunch of really nice kits there. I love the history behind the kit design and art work. When I started building kits back in the late 60's I mostly built Monogram, Revell and AMT. I was hot rods and dragsters back then. I don't think I have ever built a Matchbox kit. Great video as always! Have a good one. Jeff

Of the kits shown in this first part I had the He-111, the Me-110, the T-34, the Mitchel B-25, and the Wellington. I once came close to the 1/32 Spitfire but instead I bought the Tiger Moth, a decision which to this day I sort of regret. Most of these kits were left unpainted and I don't have them anymore. A handful of the Matchbox models I did paint in the 1980s still remain on my display shelves.

Cut my teeth on matchbox kits, cheap as chips and you got them in the local newsagents. What wasn't there to like! I've started getting the armour kits again and I think they stand up well.

I used to love the Matchbox kits, but I was completely baffled by their Japanese Zero fighter in ORANGE and WHITE plastic. I'm still baffled.

I loved Matchbox kits back in the day and still adore them now, preferring them over some of the more modern kits. They were fun to build, generally went together very easily and now I make them and paint them and still get joy from them. I know that some of the details like panel lines were wrong, especially the raised ones but I overlook that and just enjoy the kits bringing back many fond memory's from a bygone age.

Thanks for the trip down memory lane really enjoyed it

I'll be enjoying this! 😎👍🏻👌🏻👏🏻

Matchbox were the first models that I ever made, back when I was 9. Many of them ended up on my battlefield in the sandpit lol.

My time in the Army saw me moving around a bit and as moving goes it sucks. I like to pack my kits myself when moving as I dont trust removalists, and a recent move in Darwin assured me of that belief. For some reason I had missed packing two Matchbox kits of the Wellington and Prowler, and on unpacking a box with heavy items I found buried underneath my two missing kits (the contents unharmed thankfully) I asked myself who packs heavy things on top of fragile things? I think the jury is still out on that one. And to top it off, they packed both my phone and wallet after I put them on the kitchen counter! Anyway Im in the process of trying to restore my two boxes using tape, glue and evergreen styrene sheet to help support the crushed sides of them.

Thanks Peter - I love these nostalgia trips. I admit to not being a 'collector' as such and buy kits to build them. I recently bought a 1974 issue Matchbox Ju188 (PK-109). The Roy Huxley artwork was inspirational, even the text on the front 'A Gruppe 33 Junkers 188 F.1 reconnaissance aircraft working with the North Sea U Boat fleets picks up an Allied convoy bound for Russia'. The kit is simplified for sure but it was a joy to put together and paint (and display on the included stand!). I have kept the box for nostalgia. I am currently working on a 1973 Revell Nakajima Gekko (H 105), which is more akin to a short run kit (lots of clean up required) but has some lovely surface detail.

Another great video, Peter. This took me back to my early days in the 70s of stringy glue, finger-printed wings and fogged-up canopies! Thank you.

Thanks for your YT live about Matchbox vintage modelkits !!! Lots of them in my stash in France ;)

'Charisma' - that word perfectly encapsulates the Matchbox kits for those of us lucky enough to have them as part of our childhoods. Where else would you get multi-coloured plastic, choice of decals/schemes, very reasonable prices, and, my absolute favourite, the armour dioramas (my favourites were the Firefly's bridge scene and the jagdpanther bursting through the brick wall...). Thanks for sharing, Peter-super video...!

Great video, bought back memories back in the day and I have a few in the stash too😊

I was in the right place at the right time to purchased the Matchbox 1/32 Spitfire, Lysander, Sea Venom, and a 1978 reissue of the Airfix 1/24 BF 109E from a toy shop in the late 80s, for less then the asking price for each of them. I was visiting my Grandmother in Cootamundra, a rural town in NSW. On my way home I travelled into town to check up on a story I had heard about a chain of toy shops in rural areas, that sometimes had hidden "treasures" gathering dust and long forgotten about, lucky for me "Coota" had one of these shops and as I was about to find out these stories sometimes turned out to be true. The facade of the shop was quite old as far as country towns go and not at all interesting, on entering I notice a lack of stock on the shelves and customers as well, a sign of the times I guess. I started walking along the row of shelves searching out for these "treasures" and to my growing annoyance found nothing of interest when I reached the back of the shop, now lighting in these old buildings especially at the rear with a lack of natural light could almost be in semi darkness, and this was one such store. In the semi darkness I saw more shelves so I made my way over and to my astonishment there sitting on this empty shelve gathering dust were these three Holly Grails of the kit world, and the 109...lol, barely able to conceal my excitement I quickly grabbed all four and took them down to the front counter (and for a moment I thought I heard whoops of delight coming from within the kits boxes....lol) the owner (a lovely middle aged women) on seeing what I had in my arms told me they had been sitting down the back for the last 10 years or more with not a spark of interest in them. They must have been awfully lonely down the back there by themselves waiting for the day when someone would come in and take them home and cherish them forever I told her with a smile on my face. She made my day by selling them to me for way less then the asking price for them. To this day I have them in my stash of classic kits unmade.

Have seen a build log on the Harrier in Scalemates, and yes the kit was literally binned as he scratched built most of the interior and exterior.

I remember the Matchbox ads in the comics (I used to get the Victor every week): "Moulded in two colours...no need to paint!" 😃

Great video Peter. I know that Matchbox page for some time now, i just hate the watermarks lol born in 1963, always was a Frog kid, when Matchbox came out i didn´t like it, beacause of the colours, but a friend had some and i noticed they fit very well and started buying some of them, so my " choice " back then was Frog, Matchbox and the very expensive Hasegawa. I ended up losing all my kits because of my mother give them to my cousins to play while i was away as an Air Force cadet flying Chipmunk´s in 1983...but 5 years ago i saw a Frog Hawker Sea Fury on eBay...and now i´m at 356 unbuilt kits, but just because i work in Lisbon and my house is 400 Kmaway, buying materials inks glue etc, to start building in November. I managed to get almost all the Matchbox kits i like, airplanes only, still missing some 1/32, Lysander, Puma, Tiger Moth. Helldiver and about 10 at 1/732, problem is they are almost only available in the UK and United States, and EU taxes are very expensive an ridiculous to the point of having to pay VAT twice !!! i watched all your reviews and even downloaded them ! i wish you had ALL the Matchbox kits to review.

Afer watching this I really, really want a Heinkel 111 now.

Автору видео очень идут усы и бакенбарды...кроме шуток!!Это я отвлекся...а видео как всегда интересное.❤😊

I too grew up with matchbox kits and I loved them. I’ve retired now and I’ve started recreating the armour models in 1/35 scale. Great vid, thanks.

I would like to see you do a segment on Modeldecal Decals, if possible. Although long gone now, they were the first professionally researched and produced decals. Some I bought were just for the instructions!

Great video Peter, I loved the matchbox kits when I was a lad and I have a growing collection of unbuilt matchbox kits. I think what you expect from a kit depends on who you are? when I was a lad I loved the construction aspect but not so much the painting. Now I'm older I prefer to take my time and make it as realistic as I can - I also have access to more materials than when I was 12. I suppose its the difference between being a modeller and an assembler. Having said that I do love Lego.

Great stuff Peter. That was very interesting. Thanks for the tip about the Matchbox kits website. You’ve given me a dilemma though! I’ve recently convinced myself not to get the new ICM 1/32 Tiger Moth because I have a perfectly good Matchbox one in the loft. Now I’m thinking that perhaps I shouldn’t build the Matchbox one. Oh, decisions, decisions….

Would be interesting to see inside that big Spitfire box - I recently built the Revell re-boxing of it. Turned out quite nice - notwithstanding the trench-like panel lines, but at least they were (mostly) recessed - Added a harness and some extra details in the cockpit and the (empty) wheel bays. Drilled out the guns/exhausts - and posed it with some panels open on the starboard side (gun bay and a side engine panel)

Enjoy your broadcasts, Peter...... Why so many lights...?? And, generally, what do all we model makers do with all our builds, any ideas, answers.. Regards

When I was a kid I mainly built Matchbox, Airfix with the occasional frog kit when it was a subject the other 2 didn’t do, because of cost and that’s what Woolworths and WH Smith sold. I don’t think I built a Revell kit. Tamiya were the holy grail because of the expense. Though it’s funny now some of their kits are now the cheapest around. I built the Matchbox Mk22 Spitfire not long after it first came out but I can’t remember what it cost. Though I remember WH Smith having the Matchbox MkIX Spitfire on a special offer for 85p but I can’t remember the year.

I've a few of thos kits still un built . Maybe time to build them. Box art was lovely back then . Not like now days .

Like the sidies by the way, nice look. Great feature I liked the Matchbox kits I would get mine from Woolworths. The kit that always stands out in my minde is their 1/72 Spitfire Mk.XVI/IX a choice two kits in one box just by cutting a bit of the fuselage, although only one kit in each box. I have one in my stash and also the Wessex helicopter. I remember saving my pennies and getting the 1/32 Spitfire and Loved it. A real joy after doing the Airfix 1/24 Spit😡 would love to have got the Messerschmitt and Puma, and didnt they do a Lysander. Would there be a place for the muti colour kits now, I think so for the youngster staring out. I like a kit that is going to give me a good representation of the subject I'm building without fighting with it but giving me a good platform to further improve on if I wish. I think in general that's where we are with most manufacturers these days.

If I remember correctly I had the ltv Corsair and prowler from matchbox but had to go to revel for the crusader. As for old airfix have fond memories of building the Hercules X2, Sunderland and Catalina. I loved building either manufacturer

I loved matchbox as a kid, so much in fact that there is only 1 1/76 diorama I haven't built. I believe Revell are going to re-issue the 1/32 spitfire.

Hi Peter great show on matchbox kits the only one I remember doing was the 1/24 Dauntless I think it was matchbox correct me if I'm wrong .

Major Bloodnok moustache I see! 😜 Good video. I don't think I squirted glue all over this one when I was young though. Thanks 😉

Forgot how many i built omg lol i remember them being a lot less hassle than airfix and preferring them was not a fan of the crazy colour of the plastic on some of them lol

If you compare the Airfix Spitfire IX to the Matchbox one, they were light-years apart.

Back in the day I enjoyed doing the armour kits having a simple base for the model was a brilliant idea and is why I stopped buying Airfix armour at the time. Such a simple base is all you need pity Airfix do not do that in there starter kits great for beginners.

I have to disagree with you peter to a certain extent on airfix reissuing old kits and not making the piont of it being and old kit. I can think of at least 2 old kits that were reissued in the current red box style. The first is the sea hawk which I think came out in 2010..not an ancient kit but its not new (Mat over at model minutes did a build of it and mentions it) and the other is the Fouga Magister which when they brought it out actually claimed it was new but it turns out it was a straight up reissue of the original release from 1975 /1976..the only think that's different we're the decals... Gone were the west German luftwaffe and French Patrouille de France decals and in came Belgian air force and Irish Air Corps silver swallows decals.

have dropped you an email Peter. re base