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Thought I would share a few Brazilian models I recently acquired. Nothing crazy exotic, but just really nice condition models and packaging. The blue box models issued before Trol seem quite scarce. The Pantera, Transit, BMW and Hellraiser appear to have the bodies painted in England and assembled in Brazil. The BMW has a fairly uncommon Manaus stamped base.

Great to see you back David, some very nice Brazilian models indeed. I particularly like the #19 Cement Truck, but what really caught my eye was the #45 BMW, I have never seen a Brazilian model with 'Manaus' stamped on to the baseplate. I really love Brazilian matchbox and this little lot has rekindled my interest. Hope you are well mate and let's be seeing more South American beauties please!!

very nice nearly mint condition brazilian models you've got, congratulations! the colour boxes themselves are very rare too.

i've been trying to sort out the various types of brazilian baseplates myself, which i couldn't find any documentations. there are 6 types/generations. i wonder if other collectors have done similar catagorizing or have more information on each type?


1. Roly Toys label

Should be the earlist type. It started from late 60s. At the time the parts were exported to Brazil from England and the paint and assembly was done by Roly Toys of Brazil.
2. Inbrima label

in early 1970s Roly Toys has set up factory plant at Manaus and the labels changed since then. The inbrima labels have three different sizes and colours noted. The black one is the most common.
3. Scratched-out

The "Made in England" on the baseplate was scratched out.
4. Engraved

The "Made in England" on the baseplate was engraved with "Fab Z. F. Manaus" on top
5. Plastic tab

Two small holes were drilled on the baseplate and a plastic tab "Fab Z. F. Manaus" was placed onto it. Three different tab colours were noted. White is the most common.
6. Manaus baseplate

From early 1980s, production was made completely in Brazil.
The baseplate, instead of Made in England, was changed to "Prod. Z.F. Manaus" plus either "TROL B.A. S/A", TROL logo, or "Inbrima S.A." three different kinds with the later the most common.

Thanks Ritchie, I collect Brazilian Matchbox however I am very conscious of the number of fakes out there including fake baseplate labels. The lack of accurate and detailed reference material is a major hinderance. I have only collected my Brazilians via other trusted collectors or with their recommendation direct from Brazilian sellers that they have built up contacts with and have a high level of confidence in that they only sell genuine vintage Brazilian models. It is an area of collecting that certainly should have its very own Hazard warning sign, but with a little bit of care and a bit of research you can acquire genuine pieces at reasonable prices.

Thanks again for the baseplate images that is very helpful.

Hi Ritchie,

Nice to see another Brazil collectors out there. From my understanding, the timeline of the base labeling is something like this:

From about 1965/66, Roly Toys only imported Lesney models assembled at the factory. These were resold in Brazil, often with import labels applied to the BOXES. These models are otherwise identical to Lesney.





In about late 1972/early 73, Roly Toys began importing unassembled castings pieces from Lesney. Rumor is this was for more favorable taxation from the gov't to promote assembly jobs in Brazil. These models were often affixed with a Roly Toys black label and are some of the rarest pieces. It is debatable if trial assembly of models occurred before this.

In about 1975, production moved to Manaus and the company name changed to Inbrima. The early Inbrima models were often affixed with Inbrima black labels. Model body and base castings during this production time seemed to variably issued pre-painted or unpainted (I suspect it is whatever the factory had lying around). Models after this point often had the words "Made in England" etched form the baseplate.

In 1976 a small number of models were issued with gold foil Inbrima labels.

After that the company transitioned to using mostly plastic tab bases. At that time, it appears some models were also issued with the Manaus stamped base I pictured above.

Toward the end of production (late 1970’s/early 80’s). They started affixing large white labels (similar to the one on the 20A you pictured). The early black Inbrima labels also started being used again on a small number of models.

With your models, I really like that Alfa Carbo, that is a very rare early piece with a genuine label. Roly labels are rare to find on anything. I think that green Lamborghini is not a genuine model. That large white label appears to be a reproduction to me. These large labels were not used until about 1979 and this casting is much earlier. I will post a photo of a genuine large white label below. The gold label on the Wildlife truck is quite rare and only issued in 1976. The other models you pictured look beautiful!



Trol seemed to take over production in the early 1980’s. It is my understanding these models were exported worldwide to collector markets and are much more common than the models only issued in Brazil.

Hope this helps. Do you have any additional information you have discovered?

David

(edited for typos and etching time)

Hi David, Thank you for sharing your recent purchases. I still regret making an expensive purchase of two Brazil fakes at the Albuquerque Gathering a few years ago.
They looked so beautiful and the seller was from Brazil, so I thought all was good. If I ever think of buying any Brazil models again, I am going to try and get in touch with you very fast!