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I can add that Macau production of the MB 043 Steam Loco casting only started in 1988, after the mould had been in storage and unused for a few years (the Lesney England casting had last been made for twinpack TP-104 in 1985). Macau production in general ended in 1990, and the MB 043 was later produced in China (i.e. the SUTC factory in Shanghai).

Taking this into account and looking at the list in the Wikipedia article, I conclude that the Garden Festival pre-pro can only have been made for the 1990 Gateshead or the 1992 Ebbw Vale festival.

A few dates can be offered for the change of production from England to Macau because not all product lines changed at the same time, I am sure Christian can give us an accurate date for the miniatures range.

'Yesteryear' models changed during 1985.

Ghosthunter.

GHOSTHUNTER wrote: 'Yesteryear' models changed during 1985.

Actually Yesteryear production was transferred from England to Macau during 1987, around the same time as Super Kings and Super GTs (the latter went directly to China though). The final basic range Miniatures had been made in England the year before, 1986.

Just done a quick search and Lledo, Corgi and EFE have made promotional models for both of those and earlier Garden festivals, not seen any Matchbox, so maybe they did lose out on being involved.

Ghosthunter.

Having a quick look at what is on eBay a transit appears to have been used in 1992 the Wales festival , all the others are made by Lledo and EFE
Maybe this was offered alongside the transit as an alternative
Beat me Kev

To round this topic off, here is a picture (not mine) of the 1992 MC-806 gift set:



To my knowledge this is the only Matchbox item ever actually issued for one of those festivals.

ChFalkensteiner wrote:

GHOSTHUNTER wrote: 'Yesteryear' models changed during 1985.

Actually Yesteryear production was transferred from England to Macau during 1987, around the same time as Super Kings and Super GTs (the latter went directly to China though). The final basic range Miniatures had been made in England the year before, 1986.

Oddly enough I have 1987 in my own notes, but as I was on the net I looked in on Frank C. Carnahan's site and he says 1985, so I used that in case mine were wrong!

Ghosthunter.

Paul Carr is showing very similar models to those on his ebay page as 'Pre-Pro' models.

Ghosthunter.

Can I just say thank you guys
I have struggled to get somewhere with information on this one , my original post was over a year ago and seemed to have been missed (even i forgot about it) a chance remark in the "open letter" topic has awakened this and gone a long way to help me
Just goes to show how important it is to post even if it seems unimportant

fixer wrote:Can I just say thank you guys
I have struggled to get somewhere with information on this one , my original post was over a year ago and seemed to have been missed (even i forgot about it) a chance remark in the "open letter" topic has awakened this and gone a long way to help me
Just goes to show how important it is to post even if it seems unimportant

Yes, apparently I did not see that post back then. That must have been a time when I did not get to the forums much due to being very busy at work.

Now, by the way, I intend to replace that picture on my website with yours, if you don't mind.