New Auction Record for Matchbox Cars
A Matchbox Mercury Cougar with features from the toy’s earliest production reached a record price for the iconic brand.
A pale-yellow Matchbox 1968 Mercury Cougar sold for £22,050 (about $29,500), the highest price any Matchbox car has achieved at auction.
The tiny toy car was the star lot of the Matchbox Magic sale held by Vectis Auctions in Stockton-on-Tees, England, on January 20. Staff at Vectis, considered “the world’s leading auction house for selling Matchbox toys and collectibles,” knew it was something special. The auction house reports that the record price was the result of “some frantic online and telephone bidding from across the world.”
In addition to its excellent condition and original box, both of which always increase a toy's value, the car is a snapshot of early Matchbox history. The Matchbox 1968 Mercury Cougar is usually seen in lime green. The record-setting car’s rare yellow color, which collectors sometimes describe as cream, comes from an early limited run. It also has what are now known as “regular wheels,” which can be black, gray, or silver, made of plastic or metal. This car’s wheels are black plastic. Lesney Products, maker of the Matchbox brand, began using a new type of low-friction wheel, known as Superfast, on all their cars in 1969, the year after this car was produced, to compete with Mattel’s new high-speed Hot Wheels.
The first Matchbox car was created in 1952 by Jack Odell, who worked for the English die-cast toy company Lesney Products. Odell’s daughter’s school had permitted students to bring in toys only if they were small enough to fit in a matchbox, so he scaled down the design of an existing Lesney toy car to suit the rule. Smaller cars could be sold at even lower prices, making them even more appealing to children. Lesney was exporting millions of these tiny cars by the 1960s.
Despite the brand’s initial success, it faced financial difficulties in the 1970s and went bankrupt in 1982. The brand was bought by Universal Toys. In 1997, it was sold to Mattel, the maker of its rival Hot Wheels cars, which continues to produce and sell toys and collectibles under the Matchbox brand today. The brand remains an icon among toy car collectors; Matchbox cars were inducted into the Strong Museum of Play’s Toy Hall of Fame in 2019.
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