Made in China

[ritchie]

Here are the Chinese made Rolls Royce Silver Shadow II. The right one is rare with white painted headlight and red painted tail light which i believe was from factory.

Cheers,
R

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[ChFalkensteiner]

I have not seen this kind of trim application on the black Silver Shadow before, and I have some doubts if it was really done at the factory.

The black Silver Shadow is found with two different shades of grey interior:



The one with the lighter interior came from China in the 1990s, the one with the darker interior came from a Blokker twinpack in 2005.

[ritchie]

I have not seen this kind of trim application on the black Silver Shadow before, and I have some doubts if it was really done at the factory.

The black Silver Shadow is found with two different shades of grey interior:

The one with the lighter interior came from China in the 1990s, the one with the darker interior came from a Blokker twinpack in 2005.

Very interested to learn about this Blokker twinpack. Any more infomation? How came they have this release again after all these years? Are they produced in 2005?

Many Thanks,
R

[ChFalkensteiner]

Very interested to learn about this Blokker twinpack. Any more infomation? How came they have this release again after all these years? Are they produced in 2005?

Many Thanks,
R

I call them "Blokker twinpacks" because the largest quantities were found at Blokker stores in the Netherlands, Belgium and parts of Germany, but they were available elsewhere too, e.g. from some online sellers in the UK.

They came into being when the SUTC factory in Shanghai was finally closed down in 2005 and large quantities of unsold models made before the discontinuation of Matchbox production there (which had occurred in 1998) were found in local warehouses. Those models were then packed in generic twinpacks featuring the "Hero City" logo (which had just been phased out on the regular issues) and distributed as job lots to various wholesalers in Europe.

A random example (old auction picture, I believe by Paul Carr):



So those models had all actually been made in the 1990s (or even earlier) but were distributed to retail outlets many years later. Most of the models were ordinary common variations from the basic range or five packs, but some were more interesting. We found some variations which had only been found on the Chinese domestic market before, and some which had not been seen before at all. Also lots of Premiere Collection models which had previously been available only in the USA.

I would say that was the last time that Matchbox Miniatures which were of real interest to collectors were found at retail stores in Europe, ending a tradition which had started with the MP-1 multi-packs in the late 1970s.

[GHOSTHUNTER]

Japan, Chinese and Italian MB9e Rolls-Royce..JPG (67.93 KiB) Viewed 2334 times

Here is a trio of MB39e models. At the back is the Chinese example on it's blister card, front left is a Japanese market example and on the right is an Italian boxed example.

The Japanese model in the bright yellow box, is numbered MB14 and is just a U.K. model, imported to Japan and re-boxed there during 1984. The Italian model is just a U.K. model, imported by Lesney (Italia) S.R.L. Bologna, re-boxed there during 1984.
The Chinese model is made in China with original tooling and blister card mounted there, during 1995-96.

The images below show the back of the Japan box and the back of the China blister card.

GHOSTHUNTER.

[GHOSTHUNTER]

Rear of Japanese MB14..JPG (60.73 KiB) Viewed 2334 times

How is your Japanese!

[GHOSTHUNTER]

Rear of Chinese MB39e.JPG (75.27 KiB) Viewed 2334 times

...and how is your Chinese for that long sticker at the bottom!

[GHOSTHUNTER]

In an earlier post showing his two black Chinese made #39e Silver Shadow II models, Ritchie points out the model on right has had the front and rear lights trimmed with paint. I have not seen any examples like this myself and Iike chfalkensteiner, have doubts about it being applied by the factory, despite the rear lights being done with a particularly dark red, (making it look very factory finish), but to then paint the front lights, on top of what is already a 'Chrome' effect component, is hard to believe. It obviously would be nice to see more examples of the R-R or even other Chinese made models from the same range, with painted lights etc.

GHOSTHUNTER.