Mission, Possible: Collecting the Matchbox Premiere/World Class Series

This has been a couple months in the making.

First, a little bit on what’s been going on regarding me and my diecasts. I've recently been busy overhauling my collection. I was in bad need of slimming it down because I've completely run out of space to display all my cars. When you resort to putting your cars on the floor, you know you’ve got a problem. A diecast problem, further exacerbated by excessive DLM’ing. I started getting organized. I bought some Jammer cases to store a portion of my collection. I started trading away those I didn’t want for those on my wish list. I’m in the process of selling off the rest of what I don’t want anymore.

I soon realized this wasn’t getting the job done. I was receiving as many cars as I was dishing out. I’ve started scouring eBay for highly coveted pieces. As of now, I still have cars on the floor and runneth over on my desk.

However, the one important takeaway from this is I’ve been able to “improve” my collection. That means when I look at each and every car I own, I can honestly say “that’s a keeper.” No more indifference or “meh”. Sometimes you get caught up in the moment and purchase models that you might like for a week and never look at again for the rest of your life. The more you collect, the better you get at resisting the urge and the more you learn not to repeat your mistakes. Without a doubt, I’m much happier with my collection right now than ever before.

Which brings me to these. I’ve always kept the mentality of only buying diecast that I’ve found in-person. To me, 90% of the fun in this hobby is the hunt. That being said, I’ve opened up to purchasing cars online because I’ve realized that sometimes the models you really want are the ones you can’t find in stores. Ultimately, the most important part of this hobby is to collect what you really like, and I really like these. I mean, love these.

What are they? They’re models from the Matchbox Premiere and World Class series. Nostalgic stuff. The World Class series came out in the late 80’s and was succeeded by the Premiere series in the early 90’s. These are, in my opinion, the best that Matchbox has ever done. We’re talking full details throughout the whole car. Lights, badges, vents, window trim, door handles, even the interior, for crying out loud. We’re talking rubber tires a la Real Riders. Some of them have metal bases. Some even have opening features. This is top of the line stuff that even the current Best of World series can’t hold a candle to, and to think these were released more than 25 years ago.

I’ve started amassing lots of these. I hope to eventually have every release from both of these series. That’s years away from happening, but it’s important to take things slowly. It’s important not to overpay for a model just because you’re worried about not ever seeing it again. A slow process is sometimes the most enjoyable one. I’ve been able to acquire all of the models here on great prices. Some of them have been absolute steals. All are in excellent condition. Some were still in their packaging when I received them. Needless to say, they’ve been freed as they should, and you will be seeing them here.

So what’s the plan? Well, I’ve got more than 80 models here, spanning more than 50 different castings. How about one casting, (perhaps more?) per day, for a whole month? It’ll be a Matchbox May, and it will start tomorrow!

Stay tuned!