Large Lesney Superfast collection for sale

[vetrad]

I live in the USA and have been collecting Lesney Superfast for about 15 years. I have decided to part with the standard issue and preproduction portions of my Lesney Matchbox Superfast collection. I am narrowing my collecting interest to Lesney Brazil. The portion of my collection I am selling consists of about 1500 Lesney Superfast production pieces and 125 preproduction pieces. I hope the moderators do not mind if I post this in the Superfast Chatroom and share some pictures of a few highlight models. I am happy to answer any questions regarding the provenance of the pieces. I have acquired many of my prepro models from Nigel C’s friend Graham T, so often the prepro models I am selling are the actual ones pictured on Christian’s Site. The sale is scheduled to be offered through Vectis Auctions this autumn.

Please feel free to contact me via private message or post here if you have any questions about a particular model.

-David

[motorman]

Simply outstanding David!!!!.

I am glad to hear you will continue your interest in Matchbox Brazil. As you know i also have a great deal of interest on Brazilian matchbox and your advice along the way has been invaluable. I am deterrmined to make a new home for one or rwo of the prepros you have pictured. Your auction will be amazing.

[GHOSTHUNTER]

Yes, just amazing to see so many rare models together, but I must admit, if I had such a nice Family as you have David, I would not be wasting my time on model cars...

Good luck with the Auction.

GHOSTHUNTER.

[SMS88]

Amazing collection - if they were mine I wouldnt be able to let them go
please share close ups of the olive Marzal - never seen this shade on a Lesney before BUT it was a Hotwheels spectraflame candycoat so the existence of your Marzal is proof that Lesney considered copying one more spectraflame shade than most people were ever previously aware of........ we have dark blue on the Europa, red ended up on Marzal, champagne gold on the BMC , orange didnt get out until 1970 on the Mini , green was on the Group 6 , anti freeze being the 1st on the 73 mercury wagon,light blue on the Cortina GT, pink appeared in 1970 on the Alfa Carabou , Magenta on 52 Charger and purples on 67 VW but no spectraflame aqua , brown or until today, olive seen on Lesneys......
That yellow Muira rides a bit low - does it have a non standard baseplate?

[vetrad]

Simply outstanding David!!!!.

I am glad to hear you will continue your interest in Matchbox Brazil. As you know i also have a great deal of interest on Brazilian matchbox and your advice along the way has been invaluable. I am deterrmined to make a new home for one or rwo of the prepros you have pictured. Your auction will be amazing.

Thanks Alex, I hope you get the ones you want. There are many other nice models including other prepros I did not picture here.

I find the Brazilians are the most challenging to collect and the little production details about them very interesting.

Yes, just amazing to see so many rare models together, but I must admit, if I had such a nice Family as you have David, I would not be wasting my time on model cars...

Good luck with the Auction.

GHOSTHUNTER.

LoL, I thought I would put a face to my name, I never could get the avatar picture here to accept one! Spending more time with the family is definitely a motivating factor for me selling these.

Amazing collection - if they were mine I wouldnt be able to let them go
please share close ups of the olive Marzal - never seen this shade on a Lesney before BUT it was a Hotwheels spectraflame candycoat so the existence of your Marzal is proof that Lesney considered copying one more spectraflame shade than most people were ever previously aware of........ we have dark blue on the Europa, red ended up on Marzal, champagne gold on the BMC , orange didnt get out until 1970 on the Mini , green was on the Group 6 , anti freeze being the 1st on the 73 mercury wagon,light blue on the Cortina GT, pink appeared in 1970 on the Alfa Carabou , Magenta on 52 Charger and purples on 67 VW but no spectraflame aqua , brown or until today, olive seen on Lesneys......
That yellow Muira rides a bit low - does it have a non standard baseplate?

Hi Mick, It was a difficult decision to let them go but I am ready to let other people enjoy these nice models. I will see if I have other pictures of the Marzal, it is a color I have not been able to find on another model. This one came from Graham T. Christian has a played example on his site that I believe is the same color: http://www.mboxcommunity.com/cfalkens/M ... a-prha.jpg

The Muira has unclosed rivets, clear rear window and mazak baseplate without slashes. I never opened it up to look if the suspension or internal baseplate was different.



-David

[SMS88]

Thankyou David for the link - I can see that the other Marzal is a light metallic green not a candycoat. great to see the Muira baseplate - I clicked on the image and it took me to your wonderful photobucket album - a very enjoyable 45 minutes with my breakfast looking through all the photos - here is that special olive Marzal http://s1177.photobucket.com/user/Lesne ... 0.jpg.html

Looking closely at the olive Marzal, it doesnt appear to be a candy coat, it appears to be a metallic , in fact very close indeed to a metallic olive colour used on the earliest production of the Hillman Avenger. The satin finish reminds me very much of 1970s metallic rattle can colours which did in fact have a very fine grain and cover really well indeed. There is no reason, particularly given the satin finish of other colour trials like the light metallic green Marzal, not to consider the possibility that Lesney put together their trays of colour trial Marzals for approval using rattle can colours that were as close to the Hotwheels spectraflame range as possible. The paint wear on the light green Marzal shown on the link to Christian´s site is consistent with non oven baked rattle can paint from circa 1970 and that particular shade could be a 1969 Ford Cortina colour.
It would be wonderful to know the wheel mould numbers on the few 1969 cars in Davids pre-pro colour trial selection - we know from actual Superfast production that Lesney rejected the Hotwheels spectraflame rainbow concept in favour of a mixture of bright candy and dayglo colours so this Marzal is firmly in the 1969 time frame before all dark colours were dropped (last was Iso in 1971)

[GHOSTHUNTER]

I believe I have the wheel mould numbers for the Green Marzal from earlier postings. If it is the same model, they are solid design with...29G, 21G, 43G and 14G.

GHOSTHUNTER.

[SMS88]

I believe I have the wheel mould numbers for the Green Marzal from earlier postings. If it is the same model, they are solid design with...29G, 21G, 43G and 14G.

GHOSTHUNTER.

Not the expected numbers without suffix or prefix on early wheel moulds which feature irregular shaped slots looking rather hand cut on a model released autumn of 1969 and trialled with the very earliest wheels. Red 67 VWs seem to be easy ways to find early wheel sets with those irregular shaped slots

[numi]

Superb Sf production & Pre-production specimens u have there David.We all know that its gonna be tough to see this go into auction but i guess its time when its time to set them back into the marketplace and into collections.Im sure that as an advanced collector & faithful hobbyist that these models had given u years of pleasure and leave u with good memories too!
I wish u all the best in the forthcoming auctions.
numi

[vetrad]

Thanks for the nice words Numi. It is bittersweet passing the models along but I have given a lot of thought to my decision and it is the right move for me and my family.

Mick, Graham says he is nearly certain the Lamborghini came from Nigel C and it was likely an experimental color used by Lesney. I agree with his assessment.

-David