Product Description

This is the best buy for collectors with a passion for pocket-sized racers with access to collector pricing and photos of their favourite "compact cars" and the tools to make the most of every collecting opportunity.Compact and organised format, with listings for a variety of cars allows collectors access at shows, and in hobby shops. With price listings for each car, collector advice, and contact information for the most popular collector clubs, this small-size guide truly represents the idea that great things come in small sizes.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #205794 in Books
• Published on: 2008-05-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 512 pages

About the Author
Tom Larson is a respected and experienced collector, with more than thirty years of Matchbox interest, and more than 2,500 cars in his collection. He also chairs the Matchbox Northwest Collector's Club.

Customer Reviews

Beautiful book, but purely for the beginner!
I admit I am obsessed by Matchbox, specifically Superfast! This book includes Superfast as a main topic, and a review I read indicated it was suitable both for the starter and established collector, so I purchased it! It is indeed a superb book, very clever and original in its diminuative format, with an interesting introduction, and superb photography. I knew a book so miniature in size could not begin to be comprehensive, but I still feel it is a missed opportunity. For the beginner this book is absolutely ideal, for the established collector, it serves very little purpose. Though I accept it could only ever hope to capture one picture of each model variant, I was surprised to find that it also only gave one estimated price, for the easiest to find example in each case. This despite nearly all pages having sufficient room to list prices for at least three or four variants. It would have been far more interesting if the easiest to find model, the toughest, and an example somewhere in between were noted, there is room without doubt. Although the author does state that prices are always in flux, and it is a bad idea to argue with a seller over price, the fact remains that someone with limited knowledge would have difficulty relating the standard version quotes given here with prices for the many many harder to find models available. There is an eight page section devoted to rare regular wheel models, which is excellent even though I do not collect them, and helps to aleviate this issue to a degree. I was astonished to find, however, that no such section was availed to the Superfast range, despite a plethora of possible entries which could have filled 100 pages, a really strange decision in my opinion. The inclusion of Models of Yesteryear also seems totally incongruous to the content of this book, as no other larger range is shown, and it almost seems like the author merely wished to show us that he collected these as well! The later, post 1982 models are shown as a very random affair, although a good variety are photographed, there are many many variants missed out, which is quite irritating!
There are also a few too many errors, the #66 Mazda RX500 is omitted altogether, and a #26 Cable Truck is shown sitting on the exact same box as the Site Dumper on the previous page: it seems hard to imagine this collector did not have the correct box! A rare #38 Army Jeep with foiled wheels is priced as a standard model, as is a white roofed Dodge Challenger Revin Rebel, and several of the more recent models are estimated at prices which they would never realise, modest though the quotes are. I may seem overcritical here, I appreciate prices are incredibly difficult to pin down, and this book at this size has to be limited in its scope by design. However the fact remains that it could have contained much more information than it does, to make it both a valuable tool to the new collector, and to satisfy the experienced collector. On this second front I really feel it is a missed opportunity. Dump the Models of Yesteryear in the 3rd edition, include Superfast rare models, a fuller range of post 1982 examples, and give a bottom, middle and top quote for each of the regular and 69-82 Superfast ranges. The book would then be perfection!

An outstanding collection of beautiful Matchbox models photos
Two years ago I discovered (the 1st Edition of) this book, and found it an outstanding collection of Matchbox models photos. The 1st Edition of the book covered mainly "Regular Wheels" and "Superfast" series, containing some post-Lesney models also. However, some models were missing: Superfast "Toe Joe", the "Porsche 910", the Superfast version of the "Lincoln Continental" , among some other Superfast "missing celebrities".
This 2nd Edition is no doubtdly a huge improvement of the previous edition. "Toe Joe" and others are still missing, but the Porsche 910 is welcome. Is has a lot of additional (and good-looking)pictures of models in the "Regular Wheels" section, as well as in the "Superfast" section. Post-Lesney covers a wide period (1982 to present) and therefore it still is a symbolic approach to all the existing models, despite an improvement on this section also. A new section was included for "Models of Yerteryear", which provides a short overview of this extensive product line.
However, there are still missing the "SpeedKings" and "SuperKings" product lines, which have some important Matchbox models, specially in the 70's.
In summary, a very well organized book, with excellent (colour) photographs, that works like a "catalog", a "photo album", or, as the author claims to be the scope of the book, in the book collection it belongs, a "field guide for prices". It is much more than that, in fact, due to the excellent "show case" for the principal models, and also because probably this book is intended for the American market (prices are in US Dollars, and some models are (at a first sight) the ones existing in the US (at least for Suparfast models), so it would only be useful in the US...
But don't worry: you can easily "forget" it is a Price Guide, and simply view the (excellent) photos of these outstanding models that have been childhood companions for so many of us. An excellent book, worth the 5 star rate, despite some improvements it still may present on the next Edition...in the pursue of perfection ... Matchbox models and their fans deserve it.