MATCHBOX MIMICS

If you have any interesting pictures, information or suggestions for this page, please Email them to me - Pete, Brisbane.

The success of Matchbox toys in the 50s and 60s spawned many mimics, also called rip-offs, copies, fakes, pirates,  copy-cats, name them what you will. The smaller toy manufacturers, particularly in South East Asia where copyright laws were lax or non-existent, saw it as a way to cash in on the success of the most popular toy series of its day. Some copy-cats were metal, some were plastic. Very few were any where near the quality of the Matchbox series. I have just a few such Matchbox mimics, some pictured below together with contributions from other collectors in the USA and Austria. To me, these attempts to copy Matchbox toys have their own charm, and play their own part in the rich history of small toy vehicles, as much as the genuine Lesney range itself. If you have any for sale or swap, please Email me.

ABOVE: A set of Matchbox mimics in what appears to be a gift set. They are made in Japan probably some time after 1959, after the Yesteryear Santa Fe loco was issued. The castings are quite thin. They are obvious Matchbox copy-cats, with matchbox type boxes. (Found by Peter Seaman, Brisbane, Australia, at a swap meet in Melbourne, Australia, in 2000.)

ABOVE: The Japan copy-cat, left, and its Matchbox counterpart the 1A Road Roller, right.

ABOVE: A plastic cement truck, "F77 MADE IN HONG KONG" cast under the cab roof; and an ambulance, no markings. The truck has plastic wheels with steels pins for axles, while the wheels and axles of the ambulance are one piece plastic. Both are made of flexible plastic.(Found by Peter Seaman, at a swap meet in Brisbane, Australia, in 2001.)

ABOVE: A copy-cat, left, of the 12A Land Rover, right. There are no markings indicating where it was made. The model pictured has been repainted, the original colour appearing to be a light green (Found by Peter Seaman, Brisbane, Australia).

ABOVE: A plastic copy of Y-4-B Shand Mason, made in Hong Kong, alongside the original (from the collection of Christian Falkensteiner, Linz, Austria).

Three copy-cats from the collection of Randy Vincent, Omaha, Nebraska: 13B Wreck Truck copy in plastic, "Hong Kong No. 263" on the base; a 5B London bus copy in plastic with "7429 Made in Hong Kong" on the side - size is identical to the "real thing"; and a die-cast copy of the No. 14 King Size Taylor Jumbo Crane made in Spain by Joal, no date on the box. Randy says it is actually better than MB because the tires do not fall off from age! Otherwise it is detailed about the same, but not as sharp as the MB.
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