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This site is for all modelers and collectors with an interest in vintage Matchbox plastic model kits.
It is dedicated to the memory of the founders, engineers and illustrators who made these wonderful kits come to life.
Use the categories on the left to browse through the various ranges of kits. The search box is handy to find information about specific kits or models.
Besides browsing the pictured information of each of the kits you may also find it useful to look through the original catalogues which
have been listed by year.
Scroll down to see what 's  since June 30th 2009...
A short history of Matchbox plastic modeling kits
Matchbox kits originated in 1972 when Jack Odell and Leslie Smith, the management of Lesney Products & Co ltd,
decided they wanted a share of the plastic model kits market. This is where Maurice Landi, a keen aircraft person, came in.
Lesney management hired him to design a range of Matchbox plastic modeling kits.
It was his job as project engineer to come up with subjects which could be found, measured and photographed.
In other words those aircraft which he had access to. When he had prototypes made up by their own staff, they would be presented
to the owners Odell and Smith. Lesney management would decide under his advice and give him the budget to realize the kits.
To provide attractive packaging Roy Huxley was hired as illustrator to draw the box-art for the kits.
Later other illustrators, Doug Post, Ross Wardle and Ken Rush, also worked on some of the Matchbox kit packaging.
The majority of illustrations however remained to be drawn by Roy Huxley.
The early years -
The first appearance of Matchbox kits was in 1973 when they appeared in the Matchbox Collectors Catalogue.
The main range of Matchbox toys were die cast model cars. The first plastic model kits were a range of twenty aircraft
in what was to be known as "the purple range" numbered PK-1 to PK-20. From the start Matchbox kits were designed to be attractive
to the younger modeler by casting them in multiple colors.
Already in 1974 the plastic model kit range had grown so much that a separate catalogue appeared "Matchbox Kits Catalogue 1974-75".
In a few years time the model range had grown to over 30 models in the two-colored purple range and extended into many other ranges
of larger aircraft and ships and vehicles as well. The majority of the aircraft kit ranges were molded in three colors.
This gave a good looking appearance even when the model was finished without painting.
Each model was molded in a set of colors that was chosen to give an appearance as realistic as possible in this way.
Expansion and recession -
In 1979 Lesney bought AMT, after which we saw combined AMT/Matchbox catalogues appear.
Several attempts were made to integrate the ranges. A recession in the UK brought a less fortunate period for Lesney.
On September 24th, 1982 the Matchbox kit range was taken over by Universal Toys, a Hong Kong based firm owned by David Yeh.
The Universal Group bought Matchbox Toys Ltd. and the marketing companies for France, Germany and Australia for 16.5 million pounds.
In Hong Kong a holding company was formed for them, called Matchbox International Ltd. Later Universal Matchbox Group.
David Yeh engineered this takeover of UK-based toy manufacturer, Lesney (Matchbox) Group.
Those days, it was almost unthinkable for a Hong Kong based manufacturer in a British colony to take over a star enterprise in the UK.
This however, was only the first in a series of takeovers.
Part of this info was shared by Ted Taylor, IPMS UK, who knew Maurice Landi personally.
Thank you so much for filling many gaps in our knowledge!
Scope of our attention
Multi-colored Matchbox kits have been produced up to 1990, and for the moment we set this as the boundary for what we
regard as vintage Matchbox kits. We focus on the kits that were released under the Matchbox label.
For a couple of years Lesney owned AMT and both ranges were joined. AMT kits however are regarded out of scope for
this reference.
For a brief period original Matchbox kits have been sold in the US under the AMT brand.
We show a just few examples of these and provide more detail in our catalogue area.
In 1991 Revell bought the molds for the whole range of kits and got a ten year lease to use the Matchbox brand name
from 1991 up to 2001. See our guided tours section for more details.
After 2001 a number of the Matchbox kits have been released under the Revell brand. You will likely
see a number of these models to be available in your local shop right now. Notice that some of these kits have been
remodeled since or released with new decal sets.
From a pure modeling perspective these kits may even be preferable to the serious modeler as having the whole kit
supplied in one color will make it easier to obtain a homogeneous paintjob. Vintage Matchbox kits can be found on auction
sites like EBay where your fellow modelers, who likely have huge stashes of unbuilt kits, offer them to the highest bidder.
In this site you can find:
Pictures of all aircraft kits in all ranges throughout the years up to 1990
The Armour kit ranges
The 1-700 Ships ranges
Automotive kits
Motorcycle kits
Matchbox and AMT/Matchbox catalogues (updated May 2008: improved picture quality!)
Tip: use the Quick Find box to quickly find all variants of kits made for a specific aircraft. For example search for "spitfire". Press the looking glass to list all kits that match your keywords.
 developments
June 2009
Added a guided tour on the whereabouts of the Matchbox brand name in the nineties when licenced to Revell. Here you find some fascinating details as drawn up by Dirk Ommert on this period.
May 2009
English catalogues added for the years 1986 to 1989 that surprisingly show differences with catalogues issued in other languages.
Courtesy of Tony Benstead.
Kits added:
Aircraft - PK-20 reissue of 1977
Ships - PK-61 and PK 351
Automotive - Four AMT/Matchbox reissues
April 2009
A whole collection of Matchbox catalogues has been added.
These complement our range of catalogues well into the nineties.
A number of gaps that we had in the eighties range have now been closed as well.
Courtesy of Dirk Ommert.
March 2009
Several pictures added in the ranges Automotive, Ships, Aircraft and Armour:
PK-301, 302, 303, 304, 306, 307, 312, 451, 452
PK-62
PK-405, AMT 7117
PK-72, 76, 79, 82 and 172
December 2008
Many thanks to the support by the Classic British Kits SIG, operating on the Unofficial Airfix Modellers Forum, and their fabulous PK-2008 project.
Besides the many pictures that have been offered generously by the builders we have many pictures taken at Telford by Oliver Holmes.
Our aim to collect pictures of built kits has therefore been coming along nicely.
We are now able to show a variety of painted and unpainted models with the listed boxart.
In our guided tours section a topic has been added to show an overview of the PK-2008 display as it was seen at Scale Model World, November 15 and 16 2008 at Telford UK.
Pictures of built kits can now be seen for as good as all kits that existed in 1978 and many more:
Aircraft Purple range up to PK-35
Aircraft Orange range up to PK-121
Aircraft Red range up to PK-409
Aircraft Green range up to PK-504
Ships kits up to PK-163, also the PK-901 Flower Class Corvette
The Automotive Blue range up to PK-306
A majority of the Purple and Orange ranges of the military armour kits
November 2008
Our virtual shelfspace has been significantly expanded. And our traffic limit has expanded likewise. That means we are adding more pictures to the site.
We have included pictures of sprues, instruction sheets and decals for many kits.
The catalogue range has been expanded extensively, ranging to the AMT /Matchbox merger up to the last catalogue produced under licence by Revell in 1998.
August 2008
During the summer of 2008 quite a few AMT-Matchbox kits arrived from the USA. Which allows us to show some more of these package variations that originated around 1979.
Check out the category Aircraft/AMT-Matchbox! For a complete overview the 1979 and 1981 AMT Hobby Kits Catalogues have been included in the catalogues area.
March-May 2008
The range of Armour kits has been added. Also some pictures of built aircraft.
February 2008
The launch of the site after three years of ideas and preparation! The first content contained a range of catalogues and almost all Matchbox aircraft kits.
Let us know what you think. Do you like the site? Use the Contact Us form to send us your input.
Much appreciated!
I hope you enjoy this site.
Reinhold
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