Only five years after it left production, Matchbox has made a Holden Commodore VF SSV.
The Caprice PPV is a lengthened variant of the Commodore.
The VF series is equivalent to the WN Caprice, and mine is a WM which corresponds to the VE series, so this model isn't quite The Beast in this scale.
It's likely as close as I will get. The only WM/VE car they made was a Ute (read Aussie El Camino).
I found several for sale on ebay and bought two.
The one pictured above came on a blisterpack card, like you'd see at the local store.
The other set off a wave of nostalgia when I saw the listing.
The Matchbox box!
Back when I was a little kid, getting a new Matchbox car was something of a deal.
You didn't pluck one off a rack in the toy section.
You went to the photo counter of the local Osco/Jewel and there was a display case of, maybe, 12 cars in it.
You asked the person behind the counter to get you the one you wanted and they handed you a little box, like the one above.
It seemed more formal than today.
I, too, remember the Matchbox Ritual. It was to be treated as if you were an adult - - of course you went to the toy store with a parent, you weren't allowed to run around the store without a chaperone - - and so to the back of the store where the Matchbox glass showcase was, and often the store manager took care of Matchbox car sales himself.
ReplyDeleteI think it was the advent of Hot Wheels that killed off the Matchbox Car Ritual.