Early A2a Matchbox car transporter Text variation

[Idris]

.... there was a comment about there being two different widths of stamp/stencil.

I have some details that I think may cover the sizes etc including some images that I was going to post in Accessory section. Can post it here if you wish.
Regards
Bert

I've just moved this discussion into the Accessory Pack area of the Forum, so post away!

[yellowfoden]

I believe there were multiple stencils/stamps used giving rise to a few forms of text.

Black text markings
There is the long version text layout measures 50mm , shown on top in pic from mrmoko.

Then there are three smaller text layout versions of approx 35.5mm in length.
The difference is in the lettering layout and could be due to stencil or stamp aging but type 3 is clearly a different stencil/stamp.
The best way to pick the difference is in position of letter X in the word BOX
1 Is directly above the second R in the word transporter
2 In next version the R is slightly offset right of X shown by jmainau recently and mrmoko
3 In the other version the R is set to the right of X and on this version the gap between the words car and transporter is greater. This one is on Nicks site
Apologies for the quality of resized / cropped section but it shows the gradual changes.

Depending on the quality/type of the printing some clearly show serifs and others do not, along with the thick and thin lettering.

Both of the examples shown by mrmoko are shown on page 250 of the 40 year book.

I recovered four of Antonin’s pics in his absence, I hope he is ok with these being relocated. Thank you Antonin.
Also resized a recent post pic from jmainau as this shows nice clear serifs. Thank you jmainau.

Regards
Bert

[Idris]

Brilliant! Thank you, Bert!

[Idris]

IIRC, when U.K. Matchbox covered this model, there was a comment about there being two different widths of stamp/stencil. I'll look for the article this weekend.

U.K. Matchbox covered the model in Vol. 3, no. 1 (Mar. '79) p6, with follow-ups in Vol. 3, no. 4 (Apr. 79) p26, Vol. 3, no. 4 (Jun. '79) p73, and Vol. 3, no. 6 (Aug. '79) p110.
The wide-spaced text shown in the first post is listed as coming in either dark blue or black, whereas all subsequent non-decal lettering was black.
Furthermore, a range of lengths of the second-type text (covering 35 mm to 38 mm) were identified, leading to the conclusion that these were the result of some kind of stretching process affecting the applicator rather than genuinely different designs.