Matchbox: The Official 50th Anniversary Commemorative Edition [Hardcover]

Mattel (Author), Richard Scholl (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 11, 2002

For over half a century Matchbox vehicles have entertained children and collectors of all ages. This book is a celebration of the classic toy car from its inception to today.

Take a historical journey through the past fifty years with Matchbox vehicles. Along the way, you'll read about how Matchbox cars were invented, the history of diecasting, and the large variety of vehicles produced over the years.

Have you ever wondered why certain vehicles are considered more collectible than others? Or why Matchbox cars are numbered and what those numbers mean? The answers to these questions and more can be found throughout the pages of this authoritative book.

Accompanying the informative text are photographs of more than a thousand spectacular vehicles from throughout Matchbox history and its diverse product lines.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

This is an unabashedly commercial paean to the wonder of the die-cast toy called Matchbox, now in its fiftieth year. This more-pictures-than-words toy-table book takes its readers through the origins of not only the namesake company but also its predecessors (Lesney Products was the first) and its competitors that eventually blended into the business now owned by Mattel. Factoids blitz the many pages of color photographs; a single 1961 afternoon, for instance, saw more Rolls Royce Silver Ghosts produced (albeit in Matchbox style) than in a span of 60 years. Products are, naturally, front and center in this commemorative edition, from the cartoon colors of Sesame Street-character mobiles to the intricately detailed airplane collectibles. At the end is a celebration of the unknown creators and manufacturers behind the brand, the Matchbox Road Museum, and--what next?--the Matchbox Club. A happy birthday song for a never-aging product. Appended is a trademark listing. Barbara Jacobs
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author

Richard J. Scholl has been a consultant, award-winning creative director, and author who has written about collectibles and the industry for more than fifteen years. He has written numerous articles on collecting and was managing editor of The Matchbox Collector, a newsletter published by Matchbox Collectibles for many years. Scholl worked full-time for The Franklin Mint for several years and has since developed advertising and reference material for many of America's most prominent direct marketers of collectibles, including The Hamilton Collection, Lenox, Bradford Exchange, Action Performance, Ashton-Drake Galleries, Disney, America Remembers, and Matchbox Collectibles. Scholl has also worked for toy companies including Tyco Preschool and Tyco R/C. A published poet, Richard is the author of The Running Press Glossary of Baseball Language, and he has been a research consultant and contributor to many other books. An adjunct professor of communications at Drexel University for eighteen years, he is president of The Scholl Group, a full service advertising, communications, and marketing firm. He earned his Bachelor of Art degree in Writing and his Master's Degree in English from the Pennsylvania State University. Born in Pittsburgh, Richard now resides in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, with his wife, Catherine, and two children, Geoffrey and Jennifer.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Universe; 50 Anv edition (October 11, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0789306859
• ISBN-13: 978-0789306852
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 1 x 11.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,063,534 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great photos & stories; missed opportunity, March 4, 2005

By 

James N. Mcnally (Grosse Pointe, MI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Matchbox: The Official 50th Anniversary Commemorative Edition (Hardcover)

This book has incredible details about the business of Matchbox, its incarnations over the years, and its related companies. The production quality of the book itself is top-notch (for example, the photos jump right out at you), but there are some features that detract from what could have been the definitive coffee-table book on the subject.

There are some notable errors in the photo captions, and some photos are re-run on the same or neighboring pages. The book identifies "rare" color schemes for the models, but inaccuracies makes one wonder about the credibility of those assessments (examples of glaring errors: reversing the identifications of the Iso Grifo and the Ford GT, or showing regular wheel vehicles from the mid-1960s under the caption of "Superfast" vehicles, which did not come around until 1969). At times the photos are shown on page after page with no real connection to each other. In that respect, the book lacks basic organization of the photo content (although the informative articles are arranged chronologically).

This is not a price guide, nor is it a comprehensive listing of the multitude of Matchbox products over the 50 years covered by the book.

I suspect the typical customers of this high-end book will be devout Matchbox collectors. They may not perceive this as the valuable half-century compilation the publishers had probably hoped for.

5.0 out of 5 stars Matchbox 50th anniversary commemorative edition book, February 6, 2010

By 

cowboybilly "Billy" (SAVANNAH, GA, US) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Matchbox: The Official 50th Anniversary Commemorative Edition (Hardcover)

This book definitely helped me to increase my knowledge of collecting, the value of my collection, and the pure pleasure of seeing so many of these items since my childhood days. This was by far the best purchase for personal annd collecting purposes. I highly recommend this book for avid collectors and for people who just enjoy Matchbox products.

4.0 out of 5 stars Quite an Interesting Read. A Book for Fans of one of the World's Most Popular Toys, November 17, 2008

By 

James N Simpson (Gold Coast, QLD Australia) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Matchbox: The Official 50th Anniversary Commemorative Edition (Hardcover)

This is not a price guide, so if you're buying it to see everything ever produced by Matchbox over its initial 50 years then you will be disappointed. There are no prices at all in here either which is good as even the ones in price guides are never very accurate anyway. Saying that though, this does have a substantially large range of photographs of various vehicles and to be honest I've found more vehicles in here that I'm interested in than are listed in Warman's Matchbox Field Guide: Values and Identification and other price guides, books which I found very disappointing and not worth buying as they also severely lacked anything close to a comprehensive list. The bonus of the vehicles shown in this book is that the photos are clearer and bigger than in those price guides and the vehicles are all in new condition when photographed.

The market who this book would primarily appeal to is families where grandparents can get together with their own and subsequent next generation kids (grand) to reminisce and talk about their childhoods and the difference in the vehicles they all played with.

This is book is sponsored by Mattel so other than not being critical of Mattel, obviously access was given to their products and contacts (collectors) to get pictures of new condition vehicles. Downside with the images is that most have no description and although the chapters are in chronological year order you have no idea what they or the series they were from are actually called if looking for them. For example I found some really cool Looney Tunes one in here including one with Bugs going through the windshield (after obviously forgetting to buckle up) which only after sifting through various Looney Tune listings on e-bay discovered fall under the Pro Racers series). So although it is easy to find the answers it would have been nice if when putting in the photos the publishers had bothered to do this.

There is a lot of information on Lesney (company who started Matchbox) and the various owners of throughout the years. Since Matchbox has been owned by the same parent companies who at one stage also owned their competitors (Mattel at the time of publication owned Hot Wheels and Matchbox) you get to also learn a little bit on Corgi and all the other main diecast car companies (with the exception of Johnny Lightning) as well. Another great thing is that this book covers the global reach of Matchbox and does not just talk about either the USA or the UK as most price guides and competitor books do.

I'm no huge collector or knowledge holder of Matchbox but I did notice a few mistakes in here, such as one of the few pictures with a description lists a car as Victorian Ronald McDonald's House, when the vehicle has a picture of the map of South Australia on the side. I would find this hard to believe as these two bordering states of Australia are huge rivals but if this is legit than why no story with the explanation? More likely it is a mistake not picked up in the American staffed editing room.

Other than these few mistakes though, this is a very nice and interesting book to read. I've learnt quite a lot about the favourite toy of my childhood and found a few vehicles that I will look for as a mild collector. Easily the best of any Matchbox book for either of those two requirements that I've come across.