Matchbox Superfast MB46-c Mercedes 300SE

The Mercedes 300SE joined the SuperFast range early in 1970 with the initial run using the same metallic blue bodies, clear glazing and ivory seats as the final regular wheels issue. It was packaged in an attractive ´F´ box which featured the correct blue car colour and as so many of these boxes were printed, many of the earliest made re-colour to gold candycoat over orange primer WITH opening doors were also shipped in these boxes.
This casting was altered after the first Superfast run to cut costs by casting the opening side doors closed although the opening boot remained. The tooling initially featured filled in doors with an unusually thick B pillar and a relatively rough area below the roof gutter line where the tops of both side windows are. However it appears that only one scarce run was made before the tooling was tidily and permenantly modified restoring the original slim B pillars and original side window shapes. Some had gold instead of orange primer under the gold candycoat so the final shade can vary significantly. These were all packaged in new ´G´ boxes or any blisterpack with copyright dates between 1969 and 1971

All #46 issues of the Mercedes 300SE were fitted with 11x2mm thin 5 slot wheels which could be solid or hollow or quite commonly a mixture of both.
This casting seems not to have been amongst the selection painted and assembled in Brazil before it was put into storage on deletion in 1972.
In 1976 as part of the planning for the new Two-Pack range this tooling was revived and some pre-productions were assembled painted various shades of olive and army green with old stock thin chromed wheels, plated baseplates and green tinted glazing, still with the opening boot.
In 1977 when military TP-14 was released with satin olive 300SEs, the body casting had been altered to cast in a closed boot and the baseplate featured cut away axle channels to accomodate 10x4mm wide dot-dash or 5 arch pattern wheels which were fitted on axles secured directly to the baseplate without any suspension. Clear windows, ivory seats, ´STAFF´sticker, no wheel chrome and unplated mazac baseplates were standard on all.

By 1981 the military twin packs were no longer a hot seller so the final UK production run were painted silver and most fitted with chromed instead of plain unplated 10x4mm dot dash wheels and packaged in various Supermarket special multipacks which included a well known Tesco special order. This tooling ended up in Bulgaria from 1987 and their production which is outside the scope of this site featured many different body and interior colours.