The 'Holy Grail' Listing.

[GHOSTHUNTER]

#45, Ford Group 6.

The gathering of Three #45 Ford Group 6 models at the recent NEC Birmingham toy fair was a seriously 'Goose Bump' inducing moment. It had not been fully planned that way, but now very happy it happened that way and I believe at least one was planned to be shown, but to see Three of them in the rare 'Normal' Green (some call 'Flat' Green) colour, was a treat I am pleased to have witnessed.

On close inspection of the Three models, it became clear that one of them had a different shade of 'Ivory' for the interior moulding, none of us actually took notes of this and I can not remember now which one it was, you may be able to pick it up in the pictures above, but there are two interior colour shades.

I had a close look at the wheel mould numbers on the 'Pre-Pro' example and they seemed to be quite consistant, displaying badly defined numbers or letters, something I have seen before on the #69c, 'Drop-Top' Rolls-Royce and the letter 'A' was in evidence on these wheels, putting them into a very early production period, something you would expect on a 'Pre-Pro' model. It would now be nice to see what numbers are on the White 'Pre-Pro' shown on Nick's Guide for the Group 6.

Thanks again Guys for bringing these Three models together, be a while before this happens again!

GHOSTHUNTER.

[motorman]

Kevin it was Hugh's thin wheel prepro Group 6 that had the interior shade difference. It was very subtle and the photos taken at the time sadly do not quite capture it. You may also recall that not only was the interior a slightly different shade but the body colour was a very slightly different shade of green making it quite unique.

I have to agree though it was wonderful to see these 3 ultra rare models together. A very expensive line up.............will they ever reform?

[GHOSTHUNTER]

Thank's Alex for making that clear, duly noted.

Ghosty.

[fixer]

I was wondering how many more are there owned by forum members it would be nice to have a total and to see if there's any other variations other than the differences between Hughes prepro and our "standard " ones

[SMS88]

FEAST YOUR EYES, THE HOLY GRAIL IN TRIPLICATE!!!

In combination Hugh (Idris) Reg (Fixer) and me Motorman were able to bring our holy grails together to make a triple helping of flat green Group 6's. I am just loving it. As some of you will note Hugh's model is the prepro variant with solid thin wheels. I know Ghosty was paying particular attention to the wheel codes maybe he can confirm his findings in that regard. All in, a very expensive little grouping i am sure you will agree.

Sorry about the background colouring, it was the best we could come up with whilst taking a break at the NEC.

Great to see these photos ! Differences in shades of ivory only mean the seats were moulded from 2 separate batches of plastic OR the dye in one batch of plastic wasnt thoroughly mixed . The dye was actually the same colour on all 3 but the darker one has slightly less dye included in the clear plastic used to make all interiors and windows.

[motorman]

Yes Reg thats a good idea. Cant beleive i only have a standard version of one of the rarest matchbox models around

[MOKOSEX]

That Road Roller is an odd model and I can only think that it is one of a few models that simply missed the painting process for the driver, but clearly this would be normal practice on the later versions of this model. The #1b version also had the driver painted and it was not until #1c they decided to cut out that process and left the driver in the same colour as the main body.

An interesting approach to the missing roof, where somebody has added a non standard piece of bare metal, to help support the roof, which of course has now gone missing completely, so if the model were mine, I think I would remove that and leave the model 'As Is'.

Ghosty.

hi ghosty
you are a little bit out there
my model is not 1a or 1 b but a dinky sized early lesney,which was downsized and copied to make the 1a,in its earliest form without a driver its lesneys first toy sold by them in 1947,there are basically four versions of which the driver one is the last made,all are highly sought after and good condition flywheel ones(with a roof lol) have been nudging £1000,hence my holy grail nomination
dave

[fixer]

Yes Reg thats a good idea. Cant beleive i only have a standard version of one of the rarest matchbox models around

Guess we'll just have to make do

[numi]

I was wondering how many more are there owned by forum members it would be nice to have a total and to see if there's any other variations other than the differences between Hughes prepro and our "standard " ones

What about this?
numi

[GHOSTHUNTER]

OK Dave ("MOKOSEX"), thanks for that, does that explain the type of roof supports then, I have no knowledge of the early Lesney versions, so thought the model you were showing was from the '1-75 Series' and of course a #1a or #1b.

Thanks for coming back and pointing out my mistake.

GHOSTHUNTER.