Rover 3500 Collection

[matchbox360]

Beautiful models, Racing Freak... it’s great to see the whole 3500 family out in force!

Thanks for reviving this excellent thread!

Cheers,
Ken

[RacingFreak]

Wow, can't believe I haven't posted since Jan here. Well probably because I haven't had many Rover's since the brilliant dark shade with cream interior from France

However I had one new in March:


It was for very cheap and listing went by for few weeks unsold, so I just had to. I ran out of money shortly after and was being forced to skip a few But later on upon closer inspection I noticed how considerably thick the paint is sprayed over, so that's neat!

And today arrived a long sought after variation I've scored last week! Seems like being outbid on many Rover 3500's I tried to get (of variations I already had ) paid out for something good. Call me mad, but indeed have been chasing a Made in China casting variant of the Rover 3500 for months till now and finally got one for insanely good price

Some pics:



And a quick overview of the collection so far, without the ones in the workshop:

( I need a new box! )

I will now try to mention some differencies between the Macau and China casting:





The chinese version has rather transculent plastic interior piece and noticeably the wheels are different type (wider), more base edits - like rivet enforcement at the front - that is to prevent common problem that occured during Lesney years that caused the base to split at the front if the rivet has been pressed over too powerful. I happen to have one example with such problem:



But as it is a completely mint one (minus the base) and with the very rare dark tan interior I don't mind this problem

And also "Rover 3500 Made in China" lettering on the base entirely remade over and the windows look a bit more blueish than the Macau one. Additionally there seem some small adjustments on the bodylines, noticeably at front (Rover badge is hidden - just like the real SD1 copcars), on the boot lines and the doors. Noticeably the bonnet tampo is upped a little bit and there's more spacing between the letters.

I'm also aware of versions existing with the proper narrow wheels, but I was just not fortunate enough to see one, there was a triple pack in the USA for $24.00 in mid April that sold so quickly, so I couldn't even look at it properly, but even though the tampo's were worse on it and I don't think it had the narrow wheels either. Whatever, I'm happy now and will still continue to look around for a narrow wheels variation and now only left is to get a ZF Manaus Made in Brazil one, which is the last time this casting was ever produced. In my opinion it's based on either the chinese casting or a pre-production casting due to the fact the tampo's are based on the pre-pro version seen in catalogs.

[maldat]

Wow so many different ones, Heres mine... The rear door glass is darker than all other windows, which I find quite odd as is it all the same plastic.

MB 8h Rover.JPG (32.81 KiB) Viewed 705 times

EDIT: to say this came in a made in England blue box dated somewhere between 1981 and 1983. (I say those dates as I have them in those dates) I hate blue box's and I do rehome made in UK cars in what I think is made in England box's.

[RacingFreak]

Wow so many different ones, Heres mine... The rear door glass is darker than all other windows, which I find quite odd as is it all the same plastic.

MB 8h Rover.JPG

EDIT: to say this came in a made in England blue box dated somewhere between 1981 and 1983. (I say those dates as I have them in those dates) I hate blue box's and I do rehome made in UK cars in what I think is made in England box's.

Very nice! I have one playworn coming in of these with the black interior/chrome siren soon, found it at last from the USA

Yes, I don't think the Police versions came in the picture boxes at all (it won't make sense for them to do so too), so far I've seen them in blister packs and blue boxes. Tbh I really like the generic blue boxes and blister packs. Generic, yet appealing and still looking better than Mattel's packaging nowadays. But afterall it's all just packaging, so it doesn't matter for me. I haven't opened the blister packs because in my opinion they are vacuumed better than the window boxes. Soon I will post some new variations I managed to get

[maldat]

I lost the plot with blue box's in the 80's .. They were a trap ..you had to read the fine print on box. .I only ever wanted made in England. The French 1985 catalogue has the UK made vairants (spelling). which is good ref

[RacingFreak]

My second yellow Rover 3500 has arrived today


Yes! - I've got it from matchboxtom on eBay, we did a trade deal, I've sent him three Bulgarian "abominations" as motorman would call them:

I will miss the of course, the Pontiac was also an extreme one off rarity being a test model, but I enjoy the yellow Rover 3500 more than anything else!!

Also got this mint Rover 3500 from Germany recently.


And a group pic of my finest Rover 3500 models. There are models in the boxes too


I think I did well! I'm very happy right now and I hope this tendency of finding one yellow Rover 3500 on comfortable price will stay for atleast few years. This is probably the only model I've had too much luck in finding the rarest variations

[GHOSTHUNTER]

Hello RacingFreak, been following your Rover 3500 thread with interest and you have some fine models in your collection. Do you know if there are other one-make car collectors among us and if there are, would it be a good idea to give them their own thread, like you have done here...

The Jaguar thread.
The Ford thread.
The Mercedes thread.

...and so on.

I obviously would have a Rolls-Royce thread but I am also into Vauxhalls so there would be another one and because yours is titled as ROVER 3500, I know where to come to see models of that car, if I want to see Mercedes, I could go straight into that thread, what do you think, would this work and do other forum members want something like this?

GHOSTHUNTER.

[RacingFreak]

That would be great! Will be awesome to see this realized

[GHOSTHUNTER]

That would be great! Will be awesome to see this realized

OK RacingFreak, all I ask of you, is that the main topic title...Rover 3500 Collection...(this is the title you type in when staring a new TOPIC), can be modified slightly to read...The Rover Collection...and if you yourself were the first person to type that title, you should be able to edit it next time you go to the the very first page of your thread, if this does not work because of the time period, maybe a site moderator or admin member can edit it for you.

I see these specific 'one-make' car threads as somewhere we can post our models with the various unrecorded variations for further discussion, while Nick sorts out his approach to updatng his guide, but they are not intended to replace his guide, just somewhere to park our findings until such time they can be added to his guide.

I am going ahead with the Rolls-Royce and Vauxhall titles and will add some pictures to both and will just add that all models should be Matchbox only, and as we are in 'Micks Matchbox Superfast chatroom' they should be 'Superfast' only.

Lets see how it develops.

GHOSTHUNTER.

[RacingFreak]

That would be great! Will be awesome to see this realized

OK RacingFreak, all I ask of you, is that the main topic title...Rover 3500 Collection...(this is the title you type in when staring a new TOPIC), can be modified slightly to read...The Rover Collection...and if you yourself were the first person to type that title, you should be able to edit it next time you go to the the very first page of your thread, if this does not work because of the time period, maybe a site moderator or admin member can edit it for you.

I see these specific 'one-make' car threads as somewhere we can post our models with the various unrecorded variations for further discussion, while Nick sorts out his approach to updatng his guide, but they are not intended to replace his guide, just somewhere to park our findings until such time they can be added to his guide.

I am going ahead with the Rolls-Royce and Vauxhall titles and will add some pictures to both and will just add that all models should be Matchbox only, and as we are in 'Micks Matchbox Superfast chatroom' they should be 'Superfast' only.

Lets see how it develops.

GHOSTHUNTER.

Oh.. though there's one problem. It might cause confusion with the Range Rover models?

What about thematic Collection threads though? Like Jaguar XJ6 Collection, Ford Transit Collection, Ford Capri Collection etc.. just an idea

Either way it's fine by me