Matchbox Superfast MB20-d Lamborghini Marzal

The Lamborghini Marzal was a one of a kind 1967 Bertone bodied concept car built on a lengthened Muira chassis. The 1:1 prototype was white, and of all the transitional Superfast pre-pros to survive this toy still exists in white, silver, metallic emerald green, metallic olive green, metallic silver blue and bright Muira yellow. Pre-pros and colour trials also still exist in the standard colours of metallic red clearcoat over silver primer, hot pink clearcoat over white primer, various shades of salmon over pink primer and lemon yellow over white primer which all made normal volume production during 1969-1974 when the Marzal was #20 in the SF 1-75 series.
Some of these pre-pro Marzals were fitted with standard regular ´realistic ´ chrome hub and black tyre wheels or prototype solid silver disc speedwheels on regular wheels axles and with baseplates that didnt feature the as yet unborn ´SuperFast´ name.
Clear untinted glazing and black seats were also pre-pro features which along with the baseplates missing ´SuperFast´ cast identify pre-pro components which may have been subsequently used up on early production runs of metallic red examples.

The Marzal was released late in 1969 as part of the first wave introducing the Superfast range and so it features prominently on the early trackset box artwork as well as being packed inside many sets made for Christmas 1969 in its ´F´ box.
During its 5 years in the range the Marzal also came in ´G ´, 'H' and ´I´ boxes as well as all blisterpacks with copyright dates between 1969-1974 and the zingomatic and broomstick packs. The G3 giftset issues came with sticker sets to decorate the car, and most red, pink or salmon variations have been found with these fitted. These stickers highlight the obvious minor casting difference between the left and right hand Marzals produced per operation of the mould. Marzals of all variations were made in equal numbers with a curved or a straight bonnet line below the front windscreen.

All metallic red issues came with 11x2mm 5 slot solid or hollow SuperFast wheels. In 1971 this casting was recoloured hot pink but was otherwise unchanged. In 1972 a further recolour to varying shades of salmon occurred just ahead of a tooling modification to enlarge the rear wheel arches so that 10x4mm wide 5 slot wheels could be fitted without reducing the play value of the plastic sprung suspension. Large rear wheel arch bodies can be found with thin wheels although flat top rear arch bodies are virtually unknown with wide wheels.
All yellow issues which were made exclusively for the Broomstick/ Zingomatic set featured these wide wheels, although at least one single example exists with the original flat top rear arch body which rubs against the wheels.
A minority of salmon coloured wide wheel Marzals feature silver painted baseplates.
All mass production #20 Marzals featured orange tinted glazing and off-white seats as did those of all colours painted & assembled in Brazil from Lesney made components, all of which were wide wheel arch bodies with 10mm x 4mm 5 slot wheels.
The Marzal casting was revived and simplified when given blacked out opaque glazing, a black plastic baseplate and tampo print race stripes for a new life as a Super GT casting from 1981.