I'd like to think I speak for a lot of Americans when I say that much of what we've learned about English Cars comes from when we played with Matchbox cars & trucks. Unfortuantley, most Americans aren't as much of a car freak as I am. Still, I have to admit that without them, I might've never learned about Foden Trucks, Ford D-Series trucks, or some of the more far-fetched models like the "Stretcha Fetcha" ambulance(was that based on a real vehicle at all?). I've got a question though. Did any Americans, or anyone else from countries that don't have right-hand drive in their vehicles ever try to move the steering wheels in Matchbox cars over to the left?


Just curious.

I think I didn't even notice that Matchbox were RHD I really had few of these, most of the cars that I had when I was kid were from Majorette (same scale as Matchbox) and Solido (1/43th), two French makes (so LHD and more focused on French cars).

Now that you say it, indeed the old ones are RHD
http://antp.be/pic/miniatures/00000296.jpg?Renault_17_TL
http://antp.be/pic/miniatures/00000436.jpg?Iso_Griffo
Newer ones seem LHD
http://antp.be/pic/miniatures/00000243.jpg?Volvo_480
http://antp.be/pic/miniatures/00000289.jpg?Saab_9000_Turbo

I have a few matchboxs as well, one of them is a Mercury Sable Station Wagon (love it) and im not sure now if its left or right hand side, i also have a Bentley or a Rolls and a Rover Sterling, this two are right hand side, i think i have more matchbox but i dont remember right now, and besides from this scale the brand i have the most are majorette.

Anyway i have never tried to change the steering wheel, why would i? and why would you Ddey?

Here you see the Bentley or the Rolls i dont know what it is


Here the Sterling


And here the Sable


I think that others i ave are matchbox as well but them all are left hand side.

Ehh, you know. Being younger and not knowing any better.

The Sable is indeed nice I like the Sterling too.

I had alot of those cars growing up. My nephew took them over but now that he's getting older...I took them back!!

btw..if you ever want to sell that blue beetle, let me know. I've been looking for that one since i had it as a kid. i think mine was red.

That Beetle is from Majorette. Quite common here, I guess that in USA it is not so much the case?

I use to have a lot of 'Hot Wheels' and 'Matchbox' cars when I was little. When I grew up (though I still feel like a child at heart) and grew out of playing with them, I put them in storage. Later on after my son was born and he was old enough to play with small hard toys, I took them out of storage, cleaned them up, and gave them to him (big mistake on my part, as he destroyed most of them)

Though some were not well taken care of anyway, but there were a few that were still in mint condition.

You mean my blue Beetle ? As Antoine points out it i a very common car here, the toy i mean, so if you ever come to Europe youll surely find it, look also in ebay you may find some as well.


Oh and Antoine im glad you like my Sable and Steerling

With my old Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars I would always like to make Police chases or extemely violent car crashes. I do not have many of them left, but if I do they're probably in storage.

we used to get Majorette. i remember also having a TransAm that was one as well as an RX-7. Then stores stopped carrying them. We also used to get "Pocket Cars" which I think were made by Majorette. Now mostly sold are Hotwheels, Matchbox and Maisto.

I'll have to check the cars I took back from my nephew. I think I had the Sterling and the Sable too. My favorite ones I took back were the Matchbox "World Class" cars. They had painted tail and headlights and rubber tires. I knew as a kid I shouldn't open the packages since they cost 2x-3x as much as a regular car...but I loved playing with them.

Do you have Bburago in America?

only the larger 1/24 and 1/18 scale. there might be hobby shops that sell them but most stores dont.

Yes. My 1961 Jaguar E I think is.

I don't know if Bburago still sells toys in America, but I had a set of Ferraris and Corvettes when I was younger. Most of them are gone now, except for a heavily damaged Mondial, a 288 GTO and a Corvette, but i remember playing with the Testarossa a lot.

I had a lot of Majorettes too, and even had a whole parking garage set to go with it. I seem to recall two types of Majorettes- completely metal ones with opening doors (my favorites) or cheaper, completely plastic versions that were good for tossing around. They certainly got me interested in European cars- I really liked the Mondeo, the 405 and the Transit

Majorette sold European models in USA? That's funny, as these cars were not well known by US kids I guess? (I suppose much less than some famous US cars by EU kids, like Pontiac Firebird and other ones)

I had some Majorettes at one point, so I can confirm they were sold here.

I mean the European models of Majorette. As I know that they also made several US models.

Here's a site by somebody who collects Matchbox cars, This one is the 1973 line:
http://www.bamca.org/cgi-bin/175.cgi?year=1973®ion=W&blister=0

A lot of these just don't seem like they could've ever been real, like Toe Joe, Soopa Coopa, Stretcha Fetcha, Tyre Fryer,, and yet I swear I saw a Freeman Intercity Commuter in the movie "The Nasty Girl."
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100557/

I've seen, that the range of available toy-cars was different in different countries. So when I look at oldtimer-markets or toy-collector-events at the stuff, toy-collector's or -dealers from Holland or Sweden for example, are offering, it's often different than the toys from local dealers.

Nowadays the differences aren't that big any more. Here you can find all these China-made stuff, which you can find everywhere else, too.

But in the past, so ca.until the end of the 80ies, it was different. Yes, Matchbox was well known, but they have sold just the toys, as they've produced. No special models for other countries. Corgi was similar, too.
A bit strange for German kids of the 60ies and early 70ies because the most models, they never have seen in reality on the streets.

I still have the 1:43(?) Corgi-Police-Ford Cortina GXL. I remember, that, when I was small, I was wondering about that strange Ford Taunus. I've recognized the car as Taunus, but the little different shape has irritated me indeed

My toy-cars from the 70ies were (still are, the most of them have survived) mainly from SIKU and Majorette, Matchbox, too. I also have some single cars from Corgi, Norev, Schuco, Efsi, etc. Except the ca.400 WIKING, which I've collected in the 80ies.

A propos special toy-versions for different countries: were there some companies, which realy have made them? I remember just WIKING, which, for example, had sold in Denmark and Switzerland the local post-cars and -buses.

At my childhood in the 70ies, good toy-shops had WIKING, MÄRKLIN, SCHUCO, also SIKU and Matchbox for sale (and some minor popular brands, too). SIKU and Matchbox were available in supermarkets, too. Sometimes supermarkets had Majorette, too. Majorette often you could find at gas-stations either.
Norev was harder to find, more at dealers on open markets, not in shops. From Norev I own a Citroen Dyane and a Chrysler 180.

I was interested in Majorette, too, so I was always happy, when we went on vacations to Holland - there the Majorette-variety was bigger.

A propos Holland: as a special holiday-souvenir I've bought in 1983 in Middelburg the ANWB-wegenwacht-Renault 4 from Bburago. I thought, that this was something very special, which my friends will never get