They may not have invented time travel yet, but that didn’t stop me from raiding my local hobby shop near the end of March, 2021, and coming back looking like Marty McFly had been doing the driving! The sheer number of old kits that one of the local shops recently came into was truly prodigious (1200 or so), and I got my oar in early!
Given my bent for Matchboxes, it should come as no surprise that a tonne of vintage kits is sure to get my attention! Of course, there were some Matchboxes in there, and of course I snagged a lot of them; twenty, to be precise. I could’t discriminate, though, so I picked up some Japanese and a French kit too, just for variety.
Check out my Matchbox Mega Score on the Scores and Collections page. This is a haul so big, it has TWO polls in it!
The Sprue Lagoon 
The reason I voted for one in particular…
https://clarencesimonsen745590793.wordpress.com/2018/09/25/rcaf-supermarine-vickers-armstrong-stranraer/
Now thats a score! Well done. I have built all of one matchbox kit (they generally weren’t available when I was a kid) and I don’t see too many of them at the LHS to this day.
No, they’re kinda rare now, I guess. Good and simple. Basically, they’re paint and putty projects. They may not win shows due to lack of detail, but they look nice on a shelf, and that’s all that matters.
Yeah, getting that many was a real stroke! I usually get them in dribbles, not 19 at a time!
I love Matchboxes, and I love the challenge of seeing how good I can make them without resorting to aftermarket. In other words, how well can a basic kit be built and painted and will it still look okay on display? I say, it will!