Since the end of Toys R Us as we know it, I've spent a lot of time in thrift stores. I stumbled on this teal and pink Matchbox Nissan 300-ZX from 1993 just last month for $2, carded. It's unusual to see stuff that old, still in the packaging, at a thrift store - occasionally I'll see old Spawn figures or Starting Line-Ups at Goodwill, but this might be the oldest thing I've seen as far as packaged toys at a thrift store go. So I went through the records, picked up a Peggy Lee LP, and spent myself a whopping three dollars. If you're in to toy collecting or music, neither hobby has to be expensive - you can find a lot of great things if you're willing to give something new a try.
Context can make a toy look great, and my going around looking for another cool Matchbox car - and this being literally the only one in the whole store - it looked pretty good. I don't know if I'd have bought it in a pile of 50 other cars in a store but the colors were just so bright I couldn't say no. It's also worth noting that the pink interior, as well as the optic yellow and pink stripes, sing nicely under UV light.
The Matchbox brand has been owned by many companies - Lesney, Universal Toys, and today it's Mattel. But in the 1990s, from 1992-1997, it was Tyco.
In the 1990s we saw both Hot Wheels and Matchbox transition to less metal and more plastic in their toy cars. The base of this one is black plastic with a metal chassis and nifty gold wheels. It has rear view mirrors, a place for a license plate, clear headlights, and some genuinely 1990s deco. For fans of the Jazz Dixie Cup, this should stand out as being a loud, wildly colored design that would probably make for a great t-shirt. It has a sun roof looks surprisingly good (as in, not faded) for a car of its age.
I don't know much about cars, but I do know a nice old toy when I see it. The orange to yellow gradient on the cardback with black line art just looked amazing, and the recognizable Matchbox logo fit right in. The packaging dimensions are nearly identical to modern releases, which is kind of amazing when you realize how few toys from 30 (or 70) year ago are still being sold in some form. You don't see this kind of coloring anymore - most cars in this brand are solid, bland colors without any embellishments - so something like this really stands out.
This one fits nicely on orange Hot Wheels track - it's not too wide - and the wheels roll pretty nicely. It feels a little wider and has slightly better proportions than I would have guessed, meaning it's going to look a little distorted compared to the body view you get from Hot Wheels - which are skinnier and longer, generally speaking.
This seems like a perfect example of what toys were like in the 1990s. If you had G2 Transformers, you know where I'm going - recolored toys with a lot of neon. It sells, people liked bright colors a lot but nobody seems to be terribly interested in this kind of coloring today. They're missing out - it's loud, it's weird, and I love it. If I stumble on more cars like these, I'll pick them up, but I think dumb luck plays a lot in to what I decide to buy. And it's unlikely that I or anyone will just find a 31-year-old $2 toy on our rounds.
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