What male child is or wasn’t familiar with the Matchbox toy brand? It was introduced in 1953 and got its name from the packaging, which resembled matchboxes. Mattel purchased the brand in the late 1990s, and it lives on today. So, you could carry your stash with you wherever you went, Matchbox brought out the Collector’s Case in 1968, which is said to hold 72 of the 1/64 scale cars. We don’t know where this interesting find will ship from, but it’s available here on Facebook Marketplace for $300 plus $13.18. An attaboy goes to “PRA4SNW” for this cool tip!
When I was growing up, I was a fan of Dinky Toys, the British-made metal cars which were probably a step up from most Matchboxes. I recently rediscovered a box of about 50 of those in the attic that I had back in the 1950s and 1960s. Their condition is fair to poor because I played with them a lot. And hard. Back when Dinky or Matchbox were new toys, nobody thought of keeping the little individual boxes they came in, making a case like this a great idea. Fast forward a few decades, and the boxes are worth about as much as the contents.
What is probably great about this case is that it appears to have a handle to easily carry your treasures. And about 55 of the 72 slots have a toy of some kind in them, and it’s hard to distinguish what they are. We assume all these plastic toys come with the case, but the seller isn’t 100% clear. And we don’t know if you got just the case when it was new, or if it included 72 toys for you to build your collection on? Of course, the box is worn, but maybe I’ll buy it to house my Dinkies!
As the sites possibly goofiest character, it should come as no surprise,,,I never had any Matchbox toys. In fact, I thought they were kind of lame compared to our HO race sets. I think some of the HO race cars had Matchbox bodies we cobbled together, but I don’t remember any of my friends having Matchbox alone. Not many survived when we moved away from the parents, and most ended up at a thrift store. One certainly can’t deny the fun that was had. Imagination was king.
I had this case as a kid, it might be in a box somewhere around the house. It came empty when new.
Neat case.. I had a different one growing up. I’m spotting a few Hot Wheels cars in there too. It’s amazing how much the things we grew up playing with can be worth nowadays. Russ, I remember Dinky toy cars too, I had some hand-me-downs from my older brother. I always enjoy seeing things like this. Thank you PRA4SNW for the great find, and Russ for writing this up. Now I’ll have to go digging for mine!!!
I’ve kept a lot of my Dinky Toys, the ones that were in the best condition. My favorite Matchbox car has always been this 1958 Cadillac – it even has a trailer hitch!
I had a case like this and 2 more smaller ones that were not official “Matchbox”
issued. I got my 1st matchbox cars in the early 60’s and had about 150 of them. Mine were in rough shape and I played with them hard. I got them out of my attic last summer and gave them all to my grandson. If they are in like new condition in the original box (they reproduce boxes now) they can be worth quite a bit. The ones that were played with hard not so much. Thanx for the memories.