"MATCHBOX" copies etc.

[GHOSTHUNTER]

Hi guys,

I thought a section on copies of our favourite models needed to be put in place, brought on by the interest of the 'CRAGSTAN' gift set I recently got from the Slough, (Windsor) toy fair.

Unfortunately, many of the copies are made of plastic and certainly not made in England, so this flies in the face of the forums title, but by putting it in the 'Lounge' section, it puts some distance between the proper English made Lesney products and the copies.

There is no doubting the overall influence that the model car ranges have had on the toy industry, the '1-75 series' and the 'Models of Yesteryear' have been directly copied by several Hong Kong based toy companies and several toy car ranges from other companies have been 'based on' the Lesney products.

I would like forum members to show their "Matchbox" copies in this section, no matter what condition the models are in, a bad model is better than no model at all, so all are welcome.

Include models that you are not sure if they are copies, somebody here may reconise it and identify it and confirm if its a copy.

I have added the picture of that 'CRAGSTAN' gift set as a start, but will add some more pictures and information soon.

GHOSTHUNTER.

[Moyboy]

Would love that Cragstan set and have a few here myself but nearly all are plastic but here are a few of them
The large Y14 is Blue Box, the MG is a Guisval and most of the others are Hong Kong type models except for the Cadillac which is from an Eastern bloc country, probably Czech


These 2 are definitely Russian I think


Some Cragstan models

[GHOSTHUNTER]

Hello moyboy,

You have some wonderful 'copies' there.

I am facinated by all these sort of toys, because they can add a certain 'flavour' to our collections, its obviously nice to see rows of original 'Yesteryears' and the like, but having models, (or should I continue saying toys..!), like these, is a further talking point and people will always ask about them like the unusual colours etc, not realising that they are only cheap plastic versions.

The 1981, 'GUISVAL' range are interesting as they only copied a few 'Yesteryears', the MG and the 540K Mercedes and their Cadillac looks like it has been based on the 'Yesteryear' Stutz bearcat.

I had a chance of buying all the 'MILTON' veteran cars at an earlier Windsor toy fair, but because they had not copied a 'Yesteryear' Rolls-Royce, I left them on the stall holders table...whoops!

The Eastern Bloc models, (the Packard and Stutz) are fabulous, I would like to see the baseplates as there may be some clues as to who made them.

Thanks for coming back to me on this topic, I will be putting together an item on the 'CRAGSTANS', so keep looking in, I hope you find it interesting.

GHOSTHUNTER.

[GHOSTHUNTER]

'CRAGSTAN' were a very large American based toy importer and distributor. They arrived onto the toy scene in the late fifties and struck deals with some of the big names in toy manufacture for the marketing of various toy car ranges, including the large tin-plate cars from 'BANDAI'. In the mid 1960's, they contracted one of the Hong Kong toy companies to produce a large series of friction powered toy vehicles that included two sets of trucks, a set of classic cars and a set of veteran cars. The veteran cars consisted of four plastic models all copied from contemporary 'Models of Yesteryear' subjects, but in a larger 1/40ish scale.

These were released onto the U.S. markets in 1968 as seperately packaged models for just under 60cents each. They all had rather crude 'friction power' motors
and 'mock' gold plated trim like the wheel rims, grilles and lights etc.

In 1969, the same set of veteran cars were being marketed by 'BARTON TOYS' in Canada as 'VINTAGE SERIES' in similar clear plastic boxes for about the same price and the models were in exactly the same colours.

Another company by the name of 'MORTOYS' marketed the models twice, at some time in the 70's, the models had a cable remote control unit fitted and the models were in bright solid colours like bright red etc and then the models were really brightened up by having the main body 'Chromed' and finished with a 'Candy' colour paint, (much like the 'Hot Wheels' models), but without the remote control function, just the 'friction power'.

This set was marketed as 'Superspeed' antique cars, but none of the cars kept their original name...
The Rolls-Royce was called a 1912 Simplex.
The Packard is called a 1910 Mercedes.
The Spyker is called a 1909 Thomas Flyabout.
The Maxwell is called a 1901 Fiat.

All four models are packaged in a generic box design very similar to the original Cragstan type, but they then have the same model number, 1104.

In 1976, the original Cragstan models were re-issued with very minor moulding changes, the Rolls-Royce for example has had some little braces added to the front of the chassis to keep the front axle away from the chassis moulding, (this sounds very familier, I think another company does this sort of thing, can't quite remember who they are......!!!), and they were moulded in new colours.

GHOSTHUNTER.

[GHOSTHUNTER]

The gift set models.JPG (48.99 KiB) Viewed 23912 times

These are the gift set models out of the box, which as YYS4BOB mentions is homemade, but is fine for keeping the models in as there are no original boxes for the models.

[GHOSTHUNTER]

gift set models with friends.JPG (53.7 KiB) Viewed 23912 times

Here is the same set but with a few friends. The two extra Silver Ghost models are the original 1968 issue in yellow and a 1976, re-issue in yellow.

[GHOSTHUNTER]

The Spyker has a tyre problem!.JPG (32.97 KiB) Viewed 23909 times

The Spyker has a problem with it's tyres. In fact, all the Cragstan models have problems with the tyres. If you don't remove them from the rims as soon as you can, the two compounds will react with eachother and the harder of the two plastics, in this case the wheel rim, will bubble into a soft sticky mess.

ooh! what a mess.JPG (46.37 KiB) Viewed 23909 times

[GHOSTHUNTER]

Original and Copy.JPG (35.52 KiB) Viewed 23907 times

Here is an example of the "Matchbox" model and the larger Cragstan copy next to it. Given time, I could probably find an example that even has the spare tyre carrier in the same position as the Cragstan, its just that there are so many of them!

[matchboxkiwi]

Love the gift set. I have three of these models. Didn't know much about Cragston so thanks for the information.

Cheers Steve
Matchboxkiwi

[GHOSTHUNTER]

The 'CRAGSTAN' models are fairly easy to come by, unless you want the later 1976 versions, then these are harder to find, but trying to find the 'MORTOYS' or 'BARTON TOYS' versions are very hard to find. The Barton toys were just re-boxed Cragstan models in the same colours, the Mortoys models were modified with the addition of a roof moulding and of course the 'Candy' colours as I mentioned earlier. The image below shows both models on their Cragstan inspired hanging card displays.

The Mortoys version of the Maxwell is renamed as a 1901 Fiat. See my earlier post for the listing of the other renamed models.

At some time, the first Cragstan models came to the U.K., but the Barton Toys and Mortoys did not.

GHOSTHUNTER.