May 25, 2023 • 29 mins
As the toy car industry exploded, new companies entered the market -- but the Matchbox/Hot Wheels rivalry remained front and center for collectors and distributors alike. In the second part of this special two-part episode, we explore what happened to all those old toy car companies... and why you should always (always!) hold on to your old toys.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous Histories the production of iHeartRadio Skirt Skirt. Welcome back
(00:28):
to the show Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so
much for tuning in. This is part two of our
continuing series on toy cars, which we promise is uh
is it much more interesting and involved than a lot
of people might assume. Let's give it up for the
referee of our race, super producer, mister Max Williams.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
What so can't we argue that this is actually part
four because you know we did two parts about the
toy cars in Japan, so yes, this is of thing.
I kind of think it's more than Zach got really
into toy cars for a little bit.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Our research associate, doctor Ze Well not think.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
If not complete us here in Ridiculous History. We do
our best, and the spirit moves us. Yes, and your
nol and I am Ben. And today we are picking
up on the rivalry we discussed on Tuesday, which we
kind of teased in part one. Here's what you need
to know. So there's Hot Wheels and their big rival
(01:30):
is the Lesnie Corporation, which is responsible for matchbox cars.
This really interesting story about how they came to be
called matchbox cars tune in for Part one. We should
also mention at the top another company that we we
didn't we didn't give airtime to earlier this week, and
that is Johnny Lightning, which might be familiar to some
(01:52):
of our toy car enthusiasts, but it's a bit of
a deep cut nowadays. I'd say, yeah, I looked them
up a little bit, and it does seem like they
had to tie in with speed Racer, which was a
really obviously popular cartoon I believe in the sixties. So
the early version or was called Clutch Cargo or that
whole other speed Racer and Clutch Cargo, where they had
very similar animation styles. But it seems like we were
(02:12):
starting to get into the realm of like TV and
film tie ins with these cars. But yeah, Johnny Lightning
and Hot Wheels were kind of eating match Boxes lunch,
match Box being sort of the legacy, first to market
toy car company that was really focused more on accuracy
in their you know, tiny recreations of classic cars, and then,
(02:36):
as we talked about in Part one, Hot Wheels kind
of entered the chat and was less concerned with that
more into like little decals and creating cars that didn't exist,
which proved to be the secret sauce, because you know,
kids are a lot less interested as time goes on
in period accurate recreations of Rolls, Royces or Porsche's or
(02:58):
what have you, and a little more interested in and
like things that sort of test the boundaries of the imagination.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
You know, it reminds me of the evolution that Lego
is undergone. And I'm a huge, huge Lego fan, as
I believe you are as well, And a lot of
Lego sets now are marketed toward adults, and I would
argue that a lot of die cast models are also
marketed toward adult nostalgia. But right now in our story,
(03:26):
it's let's say it's kind of like the late sixties
or so, and Lesnie is in trouble. They're in kind
of a tough spot because their sales are plummeting. They've
got more competition in the market, you know, hot Wheels,
Johnny Lightning, et cetera. And then also over across the
pond in the United Kingdom there are more competitors coming
(03:50):
into the phrase. So Lesnie responds pretty quickly. They release
a new kind of line of cars they call the
super Fast line. They're called super Fast because they have
these very low friction wheels. They have some new vivid colors,
and initially collectors say it was kind of weird because
the wheels were really narrow. They had to rework their
(04:14):
dye their manufacturing processes to accommodate why tires. Remember they
got into the game entirely because entirely because no, keep
it entirely because they were already a manufacturing force for sure.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
And as we also mentioned in part one, Hot Wheels
whole claim to fame or those Hot Wheels, Baby, they
moved really quickly. They used this leftover what was it
wires from the failed never Goes out of tune guitar
experiment that went awry, and it allowed them to just
have incredibly low friction for the wheels to turn incredibly fast.
(04:55):
Not to mention, their other hallmark was bright colors. So
it seems that Matchbox definitely trying to become a little
bit more like Hot Wheels to keep up with the competition.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
Absolutely, yeah, yeah, that's a good observation. Matchbox continues expanding
their line. They have the King Size and Speed King models.
Those are cars and trucks in a larger scale, and
then they tapped into the nostalgia that we foreshadowed mirror
minutes ago. They came out with the matchbox models of Yesteryear.
(05:28):
This eventually All Told became a series of sixty six
historic vehicles that were considered significant in some way, and
it ended with that coronation coach that kicked off their
biggest I guess they're like biggest era of Glory days
and we're getting a lot of this from best Ride
dot com by Craig Fitzgerald. I think Craig would be
(05:51):
a pal of ours. We haven't met, but a great article, Craig.
I mean it makes sense, you know, stick with what
you're good at. This is kind of what their whole
deal was, was making the classic cars and having them
look really accurate and having all the little parts die
cast correctly to appeal to more of a collector's market.
So while maybe kids might not have been snatching these up,
(06:11):
they were pricier. They were much more designed, like you said,
with Lego for adults. So from around seventy two to
seventy three, Hot Wheels kind of entered into a little
bit of a sales decline of their own. In seventy three.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
Specifically, Battel switched from their kind of brighter house style
called Spectra Flame trademark, which sounds awesome, to something a
little bit maybe more realistic, a little bit more of
like a solid kind of matte enamel color. Because these
were not very popular, the ones that were designed from
(06:48):
seventeen to seventy three, and they weren't reused. These cars
from this era are particularly collectible.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
And in the nineteen seventies, mid nineteen seventy, let's say,
Johnny Lightning is already on the way out they go bust.
In seventy one, match Box is once again becoming a
force in the world market because it's modernizing its line.
And I want to pause here, by the way, Noel
and give a big shout out to all three of
(07:16):
us ridiculous historians. You know you're part of the family too.
You deserve to be backstage. Both myself and NOL have
continually struggled not to say, but what was it? Match book?
Is that book? Match book? It's tough, it's tough. Well,
they're both things.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
There's a match book and there's a match box, right,
they are real things. And I feel like the match
book is more common right.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
It's more common in the in the usage of matches
to this day.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Yeah, match boxes for the discriminating voluminist. Voluminist is the
fancy word for someone who collects matchboxes and match books,
So big shout out to my girlfriend Brandy, who taught
me that word and knows way more about matches than
I dare say either any of us.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
Can I also point out something maybe we didn't quite
discuss the original match box cars, you know, in their
first you know, kind of mass marketed line, which, as
we mentioned before, they weren't making them insane numbers at first.
They're packaging actually resembled match boxes. You can even see, like,
you know, the side where you would strike a match.
(08:27):
It's sort of like a brown, kind of brownish black
color what it looks like to have some sort of
fake grit on it. So they really were leaning into
that whole match box thing.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Yeah, and they were leaning into it pretty well, you know. Okay,
So match box is amid a lot of different kind
of corporate wars and initiatives. Right around the nineteen seventies,
(08:57):
Leslie begins to con tact different collectors and they send
Lesnie reps to these meetings and events. They're doing market research,
which is very smart because now they have people who
have bought in to the idea of these die cast cars,
and they want to figure out what their audience desires.
(09:18):
And this leads them to introduce commercial vehicles in their
models of yesteryear series. Obviously a Model T you got
to start with that. They also have a talbot. They
also put these period accurate advertisements on these lippt in
tea Coca Cola. You're transported back in time when you're
(09:39):
playing with one of these vehicles. It's pretty smart move,
I think. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
And there's a really cool article on a website that
is devoted to the history of die cast miniature cars
called Tutomini dot com dot br and in the article
Matchbox History by Alison Barrows, there's some excellent images of
what we're talking talking about, you know, including the original
designs that really do look a little bit kind of
(10:04):
you know, like old timey and antiquated. And they sort
of leaned back into their history with these Model TS,
kind of sporting the classic Coca Cola logo and Liptin's
and all of that. So this whole product tie in
thing was really starting to kind of hit the zeitgeist
and they were leaning into that pretty hard and it
was it proved to be successful for.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Them one hundred percent did and they didn't stop there.
They also started doing something that was fairly prescient. They
would make bespoke limited addition models for different markets or
in collaboration with different companies like Nestle or the famous
department store Herod's. And these items were again because they
(10:48):
were exclusive and they were limited, they were super desirable
for both the companies that sponsored it and for you know,
civilian collectors. So imagine it's a cool flex, right. If
you go to meet the corporate heads over at Herod's
and one of the things in the swag bag is
the custom Herod's car toy, that's a flex and I
(11:10):
think it's pretty cool. They also Matchbox makes a lot
of money from this, which that's like a department store. Right.
He's still the famous to this day, and I've been
it's huge, the one in London that I went to. Huge.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
I've heard I've heard tell I've never step foot of
one of my stuff.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
I was, oh, oh, let me tell you this is funny,
though you'll like this. The only reason I was there
is because my suitcase broke in London and I had
to buy I had to buy a suitcase, and I
just asked someone, Hey, do you know where I could
buy a suitcase? And this guy literally pointed in the
direction of Herod's and said, if they don't have it,
(11:45):
London doesn't have it.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
That should be their tag line. Another prescient thing that
LESNIE did was they, you know, they really were trying
to modernize their whole operation. So a guy named David
Ya came in and he renamed the company you got
rid of Lesnie, renamed it match Box International Limited, and
(12:07):
they actually decided to send their manufacturing overseas. You know
that we always think of made in China, and like,
you know, outsourcing manufacturing for stuff like this and toys
in particular places like China and Japan. They actually started
with Hong Kong and Macau. But because there wasn't enough
you know, this was still stuff that required some amount
(12:28):
of machining skill, you know, or fabricating skill, they could
not find a pool of skilled enough workers in those countries,
so they decided to outsource their foundry operations to China,
and this created the very first toy company joint venture
between Hong Kong and Shanghai. It was called Shanghai Universal
(12:52):
Toys Co.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Limited. So let's get back to match Box. They expand
further and now they're all about merchandizing. They realize that
they have become what you would call nimble, right, they
can expand across different platforms. They've made their deals with companies,
they've heard what the audience wants, so now they're getting
(13:14):
into other kinds of toys, dolls, games, action figures. The
cars also get increasingly complex as manufacturing processes improve. You know,
you see cars that have have mechanisms that the older
cars didn't, like a lug on one of the wheels
that can move parts like spinning fans or things like
(13:36):
moving engines. Pretty cool stuff. They also have military vehicles
that was the Battle King's Line. They have model ships
and I've seen some of those, and those are pretty cool.
If you want to look at those, go over to
the Autopian th g A U T O Pia in
the Autopian dot com and check out the article Matchbox
(13:58):
celebrates seventy years of making tidy cars with these special
zinc models by Mercedes Streeter. They're really well done and
if you are remotely into toy cars or know someone
who is, this would be the fun part for you.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
And I got a little ahead of myself earlier when
I was talking about shipping the operations overseas, because that
came as a result of some financial trouble that Matchbox
or the Lesnie, the Lesnie corporation was having because the
UK economically speaking, was not doing well in the mid
to late seventies. The Matchbox cars were selling just fine,
but Lesnie as a company was not doing well, and
(14:32):
they ultimately went bankrupt. And this is in the early
eighties and nineteen eighty two, so they actually sold their
whole operation, or most of their production line, some of
their molds, other properties. They had two universal toys and
that gentleman David Ya. And that's when things start getting
shipped overseas, and that whole Shanghai operation starts kicking.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
And I want to stay on two to many for
a bit because I re like this source. It's it's comprehensive,
it's a really cool website. They also explore how hot
wheels had their own kind of ups and downs during
the nineteen eighties. The hot ones wheels were introduced in
(15:16):
nineteen eighty one, they had painted hubs and they had
thinner axles all to the thinner axles primarily to give
them more speed. In nineteen eighty three they released another line,
the Real Riders, and I love how dramatic their toy
line names are. These were the first Hot Wheels toys
with rubber tires, and people liked them. People really liked them.
(15:42):
But the problem was this is a business and they
weren't making enough money. So the line was halted in
nineteen eighty seven because it just costs so much to
make those toys.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
And here we see kind of some drama in the
big car industry, you know, the regular size ones, kind
of bleeding into problems with the miniature car world. General
Motors is about to release their new Corvette, but are
experiencing some technical issues on the production line, so the
(16:13):
release of the Corvette is actually delayed. But Hot Wheels
at this point was already designing the miniature version of it,
and it actually ended up getting released before the GM
car was officially released. This did not sit well with
General Motors. You think they would have discussed this, but
it maybe was an issue of production and they needed
(16:34):
to get it out to recoup on you know, the
production costs. They were ready to go so General Motors actually,
But then again how they canceled their whole contract with
Mattel for them to license, you know, because these are
these kinds of recreations are licensed, if they're having official
branding and all of that. You think that somebody at
the toy company would have realized this was a bad move,
big picture, right.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
Yeah, exactly. And let's go back to Matchbox is Exodus
from the UK. The first batch of Matchbox vehicles made
in China comes out in nineteen eighty five. They're created
in Macau, which is also famous for gambling. You could
say Matchbox took a gamble, I suppose. And they do
this for five years until nineteen ninety and then between
(17:19):
nineteen ninety and nineteen ninety two they're produced under license
by different company, Yong Thai Toys Company, and then they
get bought by Tycho. And might date myself a bit here, folks,
but I remember Tycho Toys growing up as the less
expensive also ran toys in the Lego aisle. They made
(17:40):
told a lot of stuff, but they also had the
not quite Lego a lot of dump trucks and things, right,
a lot of military stuff as well. Maybe we talked
about Tycho for a little bit. Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
Ticho was based in New Jersey, in a little city
called Mount Laurel. They were originally focused on electric model trains,
but as a lot of these companies ended up having
to do, decided to pivot to other offerings, which was
really crucial. And they're finding them finding success, you know, diversifying,
(18:14):
which included their purchase of the Matchbox brand. But in
nineteen ninety seven, Tycho Toys itself was acquired by guess who, Mattel.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
Ah Web, Yeah, well at time. And this means that
Matchbox and Hot Wheels, who are once bitter rivals, are
now in the same family together and strange bedfellows, right.
It happens all the time at the heights of the
corporate world, which is why so many things that appear
(18:45):
to be different brands in your local grocery store are
in fact owned by the same parent company. Mattel does
something pretty brutal, pretty shark like. They start to strip
the brand of assets, they sell off the kit division,
and then they start downgrading the quality of the toys.
(19:06):
These are known for being die cast metal vehicles, and
now they're being replaced by plastic models, and they're making
these non realistic vehicles that are generic brands so that
they don't have to pay any kind of fee to
a producer of a car. So they it's like in
that awesome show thirty Rock where they have Janis Jorplin
(19:29):
or whatever because j yeah, Jackie, that's the one. Because
they can't afford the rights to Janice Joplin's story. So
these guys are cutting costs by making stuff that's kind
of like but not really a copy of a genuine car.
(19:51):
Oh the collectors hate this, by the way. They are
absolutely agast. Mattel says, oh, no, we hear you. We're
going to make a few special releases. They only make
a few and they only go out to the United States.
So this is not enough for the Matchbox collectors.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
No, but this is certainly probably one of the things
that led to an uptick in the you know, value
of classic Matchbox cars, because I mean, they're you know, obviously,
the original ones are going to retain their value no
matter what. But this is a sea change for match Box,
a dilution of the brand. They essentially bought it for
(20:27):
the label and not for any of the actual you know,
quality or skill that went into making those cars and
sort of the care and attention to detail m M.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
One hundred percent. We also see that the collector said,
this Hot Wheels line, what's happened into Hot Wheels. It's
a crying shame. They're inferior, They're less attractive. And if
you know any serious collectors of anything, you know, they
have profound feelings about this sort of stuff. And they said,
what if Mattel is going to do to match But
(21:00):
they did the Hot Wheels, and Mittel says, look, everybody,
calmed down, We hear you. These lines are going to
produce their stuff independently. Matchbox is going to make more
realistic vehicles, and the fantasy vehicles, the more anime stuff
that's gonna always go to Hot Wheels. Yeah, it makes sense.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
I mean again, like focus on what the brands individually
were known for in the first place. But as you know,
corporations are wont to do. In two thousand and three,
Mattel essentially went back on their word here or you know,
did a little bit of pivoting of their own and
created an entire line of Matchbox fantasy vehicles that did
(21:44):
not go over well once again, and they did not
sell well. There was a backlash and the line was
very quickly canceled and pulled from Shells.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
Oh and the name wasn't that great? We got to
say the name. These fantasy vehicles were called Ultra Heroes. Okay,
sounds kind of like lazy writing, it does it does?
I'm just yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
But then you know, they got the message again again
Mattel and decided to stick to what they had said
and bring match Box back to their heyday of specifically
you know, producing realistic, uh and more highly detailed you know,
recreations of classic cars.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
And as we move on, we see that Mattel has
controlled both brands on the market and they've tried to
you know, differentiate them so that they can still make
money off either consumer preference. And there are people who
are consider themselves specifically Matchbox collectors, some who say I'm
(22:44):
solely a hot wheelers person, and then there are a
lot of people who like both of them, or like
particular cars from both lines. And then because it's collecting
and because there's some kind of rivalry, there are people
who get at each other, you know, sometimes a fan
of Matchbox will look down their nose at a fan
(23:10):
of Hot Wheels and they will have intense conversations about
how one is the superior die Cast toy car. Weird hill.
It's a weird hill, but you know they are passionate,
and I do respect passion. Yeah, for sure. Me.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
Collectors are always gonna, you know, have certain beefs about
these sorts of things. Ben, there is another player in
this game that we kind of haven't talked about that
I think, both of us being late eighty early nineties
kids micro machines.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
Oh yeah, yeah, Maxim, we're talking about this off air.
I love the micromachine guy because the main thing is
how quickly he talks, and it seems off the cuff,
but I know it's carefully scripted. It even faster than
this I do.
Speaker 3 (23:56):
That does kind of bring about what I remember specifically though,
was the way they were featured in Home Alone. In
like I believe, nineteen ninety, he used all of his
his micromachines to create like a trap, one of those
really sadistic traps. Let's be honest that that kid, who
is definitely a little psychopath lays for the.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
Wet Bandits who are bad people. Don't get me wrong,
but that kid is like, you know, Damien from The Omen.
I mean, that is a troubled child. Who knew that
the Kulkin brothers would make such a career out of
portraying troubled children. Shout out to you, Roman Roy. Did
you watch the latest episode? Ben? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, yeah,
(24:39):
I've got it on the background. I tune in and
tune out to my favorite plotlines.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
Well, I mean there's a Roman Roy moment in this
most recent penultimate episode of Succession.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
That got me real good. How are they going to
rapid performance? So that thing?
Speaker 3 (24:56):
That and it really feels like it's heading in a direction.
I mean it's very Shakespearean stuff. Oh yeah, I mean
good Lord. You know, I think McCauley's doing his thing,
playing in the Pizza underground.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
You know, I don't know if he's doing that anymore, but.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
For a while he had a band and played Velvet
Underground kind of parody songs with pizza fide lyrics. Wasn't
very good, but I hope he's happy. He seems like
he's kicking around. But man, Rory's a great actor. And yeah, definitely,
Kieran is absolutely killing it in succession. But micro machines
were in fact the top selling cars during the tail
(25:30):
end of the eighties and into the beginning of the nineties.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
But then they kind of went.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
Away themselves and left the old school players to duke
it out.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
Yeah, they were cheap if you think look at the
per unit cost if you're a parent who wants to
get your kid a toy. But there are also a
lot of them. They're very collectible, and that meant that
kids were asking their parents to buy them a lot
of micro machines, not just one. The manufacturers knew it.
You could fit hundreds of these into a toy box.
(26:01):
And the I want to shout out the ads John Moshita,
he is the he at the time in the late eighties,
very beginning of the nineties. He is the fastest talking
man in the world. Get congratulations to John.
Speaker 3 (26:19):
He could do all those like disclaimers at the end
of like pharmaceutical ads today.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
That's maybe that's very fun.
Speaker 3 (26:24):
Yeah, but before the advent of digital editing where you
could speed everything up. But micro machines were also really
really small. They were smaller than matchbox cars or hot wheels.
Hence the you know, using them as a death trap
for the Wet Bandits.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
They also had playsets. There was even a line. I
never had these, but there was a line of micromachines
that had smaller cars inside of them, like that Decepticon
in the Transformers toys. Who is a boombox and he's
got a little bad guy inside of him. That's a
cassette tape. I always thought that was cool.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
By the way, the company that created micro machines had
the best name in the whole story, Glube.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
I remember Galube, and I remember Glube because of micro
machines and another big Glube. I don't know why this
sounds like weird soprano mobster lives, but another big Galute.
Another another Big Glube was the infamous game Genie and
video game Hacks deserve an episode all their own. Perhaps
(27:27):
that's for future tale.
Speaker 3 (27:29):
I never actually got it, but I always I subscribed
to Nintendo Power for a while when I was a kid,
and I remember that being commercial on TV a lot,
and they always had full page ads in Nintendo Power.
But I never actually messed up. It was like a
cartridge that you'd stick into the system, and then you'd
stick the other cartridge into that cartridge, yes, and it
would hack the game or give you sheets and stuff.
I'm sure that the game companies didn't care for it particularly.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
The coolest part was it was also kind of glitchy,
so sometimes you would find yourself in weird, weird parts
of the game that weren't supposed to happen, and the
malfunctions were one of the most fun parts. Hasbro buys
Glube in nineteen ninety eight, and Glub still exists today,
but it's under the pairing company Hasbro, and like.
Speaker 3 (28:13):
We said, Hot Wheels then kind of regain its place
at the top of the market with Matchbox sort of
just tucked in there, you know, for the collectors. But
I think the modern Matchbox cars don't have nearly the
same cachet as the classic ones to collectors out there.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
So that's kind of a story, man. That is the story.
And if we want a moral, if moral there shall be,
then the moral of this story is the following. I
want everyone to hear this in all caps italics, you know,
comic sans font Save your toys. Save your toys. You
(28:52):
never know how much they're going to be worth or whatever,
and more importantly, save them so that your kids can
play with them in the future. It's a truly cool thing.
Thanks pay for their college or pay for their college.
Thanks as always to super producer mister Max Williams. Thanks
to Alex Williams who composed this bang in track. Thanks
to our research associate, doctor Zach can't wait to see
(29:15):
what is toy car collection looks like, and you know
I've been thanks to you as well.
Speaker 3 (29:20):
This has been an interesting ride on the loop d
loop course of the ridiculous history life.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
And thanks to you know, we'll see you next time, folks.
Speaker 3 (29:37):
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Ridiculous Histories the production of iHeartRadio Skirt Skirt. Welcome back
(00:28):
to the show Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so
much for tuning in. This is part two of our
continuing series on toy cars, which we promise is uh
is it much more interesting and involved than a lot
of people might assume. Let's give it up for the
referee of our race, super producer, mister Max Williams.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
What so can't we argue that this is actually part
four because you know we did two parts about the
toy cars in Japan, so yes, this is of thing.
I kind of think it's more than Zach got really
into toy cars for a little bit.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Our research associate, doctor Ze Well not think.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
If not complete us here in Ridiculous History. We do
our best, and the spirit moves us. Yes, and your
nol and I am Ben. And today we are picking
up on the rivalry we discussed on Tuesday, which we
kind of teased in part one. Here's what you need
to know. So there's Hot Wheels and their big rival
(01:30):
is the Lesnie Corporation, which is responsible for matchbox cars.
This really interesting story about how they came to be
called matchbox cars tune in for Part one. We should
also mention at the top another company that we we
didn't we didn't give airtime to earlier this week, and
that is Johnny Lightning, which might be familiar to some
(01:52):
of our toy car enthusiasts, but it's a bit of
a deep cut nowadays. I'd say, yeah, I looked them
up a little bit, and it does seem like they
had to tie in with speed Racer, which was a
really obviously popular cartoon I believe in the sixties. So
the early version or was called Clutch Cargo or that
whole other speed Racer and Clutch Cargo, where they had
very similar animation styles. But it seems like we were
(02:12):
starting to get into the realm of like TV and
film tie ins with these cars. But yeah, Johnny Lightning
and Hot Wheels were kind of eating match Boxes lunch,
match Box being sort of the legacy, first to market
toy car company that was really focused more on accuracy
in their you know, tiny recreations of classic cars, and then,
(02:36):
as we talked about in Part one, Hot Wheels kind
of entered the chat and was less concerned with that
more into like little decals and creating cars that didn't exist,
which proved to be the secret sauce, because you know,
kids are a lot less interested as time goes on
in period accurate recreations of Rolls, Royces or Porsche's or
(02:58):
what have you, and a little more interested in and
like things that sort of test the boundaries of the imagination.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
You know, it reminds me of the evolution that Lego
is undergone. And I'm a huge, huge Lego fan, as
I believe you are as well, And a lot of
Lego sets now are marketed toward adults, and I would
argue that a lot of die cast models are also
marketed toward adult nostalgia. But right now in our story,
(03:26):
it's let's say it's kind of like the late sixties
or so, and Lesnie is in trouble. They're in kind
of a tough spot because their sales are plummeting. They've
got more competition in the market, you know, hot Wheels,
Johnny Lightning, et cetera. And then also over across the
pond in the United Kingdom there are more competitors coming
(03:50):
into the phrase. So Lesnie responds pretty quickly. They release
a new kind of line of cars they call the
super Fast line. They're called super Fast because they have
these very low friction wheels. They have some new vivid colors,
and initially collectors say it was kind of weird because
the wheels were really narrow. They had to rework their
(04:14):
dye their manufacturing processes to accommodate why tires. Remember they
got into the game entirely because entirely because no, keep
it entirely because they were already a manufacturing force for sure.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
And as we also mentioned in part one, Hot Wheels
whole claim to fame or those Hot Wheels, Baby, they
moved really quickly. They used this leftover what was it
wires from the failed never Goes out of tune guitar
experiment that went awry, and it allowed them to just
have incredibly low friction for the wheels to turn incredibly fast.
(04:55):
Not to mention, their other hallmark was bright colors. So
it seems that Matchbox definitely trying to become a little
bit more like Hot Wheels to keep up with the competition.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
Absolutely, yeah, yeah, that's a good observation. Matchbox continues expanding
their line. They have the King Size and Speed King models.
Those are cars and trucks in a larger scale, and
then they tapped into the nostalgia that we foreshadowed mirror
minutes ago. They came out with the matchbox models of Yesteryear.
(05:28):
This eventually All Told became a series of sixty six
historic vehicles that were considered significant in some way, and
it ended with that coronation coach that kicked off their
biggest I guess they're like biggest era of Glory days
and we're getting a lot of this from best Ride
dot com by Craig Fitzgerald. I think Craig would be
(05:51):
a pal of ours. We haven't met, but a great article, Craig.
I mean it makes sense, you know, stick with what
you're good at. This is kind of what their whole
deal was, was making the classic cars and having them
look really accurate and having all the little parts die
cast correctly to appeal to more of a collector's market.
So while maybe kids might not have been snatching these up,
(06:11):
they were pricier. They were much more designed, like you said,
with Lego for adults. So from around seventy two to
seventy three, Hot Wheels kind of entered into a little
bit of a sales decline of their own. In seventy three.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
Specifically, Battel switched from their kind of brighter house style
called Spectra Flame trademark, which sounds awesome, to something a
little bit maybe more realistic, a little bit more of
like a solid kind of matte enamel color. Because these
were not very popular, the ones that were designed from
(06:48):
seventeen to seventy three, and they weren't reused. These cars
from this era are particularly collectible.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
And in the nineteen seventies, mid nineteen seventy, let's say,
Johnny Lightning is already on the way out they go bust.
In seventy one, match Box is once again becoming a
force in the world market because it's modernizing its line.
And I want to pause here, by the way, Noel
and give a big shout out to all three of
(07:16):
us ridiculous historians. You know you're part of the family too.
You deserve to be backstage. Both myself and NOL have
continually struggled not to say, but what was it? Match book?
Is that book? Match book? It's tough, it's tough. Well,
they're both things.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
There's a match book and there's a match box, right,
they are real things. And I feel like the match
book is more common right.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
It's more common in the in the usage of matches
to this day.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Yeah, match boxes for the discriminating voluminist. Voluminist is the
fancy word for someone who collects matchboxes and match books,
So big shout out to my girlfriend Brandy, who taught
me that word and knows way more about matches than
I dare say either any of us.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
Can I also point out something maybe we didn't quite
discuss the original match box cars, you know, in their
first you know, kind of mass marketed line, which, as
we mentioned before, they weren't making them insane numbers at first.
They're packaging actually resembled match boxes. You can even see, like,
you know, the side where you would strike a match.
(08:27):
It's sort of like a brown, kind of brownish black
color what it looks like to have some sort of
fake grit on it. So they really were leaning into
that whole match box thing.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Yeah, and they were leaning into it pretty well, you know. Okay,
So match box is amid a lot of different kind
of corporate wars and initiatives. Right around the nineteen seventies,
(08:57):
Leslie begins to con tact different collectors and they send
Lesnie reps to these meetings and events. They're doing market research,
which is very smart because now they have people who
have bought in to the idea of these die cast cars,
and they want to figure out what their audience desires.
(09:18):
And this leads them to introduce commercial vehicles in their
models of yesteryear series. Obviously a Model T you got
to start with that. They also have a talbot. They
also put these period accurate advertisements on these lippt in
tea Coca Cola. You're transported back in time when you're
(09:39):
playing with one of these vehicles. It's pretty smart move,
I think. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
And there's a really cool article on a website that
is devoted to the history of die cast miniature cars
called Tutomini dot com dot br and in the article
Matchbox History by Alison Barrows, there's some excellent images of
what we're talking talking about, you know, including the original
designs that really do look a little bit kind of
(10:04):
you know, like old timey and antiquated. And they sort
of leaned back into their history with these Model TS,
kind of sporting the classic Coca Cola logo and Liptin's
and all of that. So this whole product tie in
thing was really starting to kind of hit the zeitgeist
and they were leaning into that pretty hard and it
was it proved to be successful for.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Them one hundred percent did and they didn't stop there.
They also started doing something that was fairly prescient. They
would make bespoke limited addition models for different markets or
in collaboration with different companies like Nestle or the famous
department store Herod's. And these items were again because they
(10:48):
were exclusive and they were limited, they were super desirable
for both the companies that sponsored it and for you know,
civilian collectors. So imagine it's a cool flex, right. If
you go to meet the corporate heads over at Herod's
and one of the things in the swag bag is
the custom Herod's car toy, that's a flex and I
(11:10):
think it's pretty cool. They also Matchbox makes a lot
of money from this, which that's like a department store. Right.
He's still the famous to this day, and I've been
it's huge, the one in London that I went to. Huge.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
I've heard I've heard tell I've never step foot of
one of my stuff.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
I was, oh, oh, let me tell you this is funny,
though you'll like this. The only reason I was there
is because my suitcase broke in London and I had
to buy I had to buy a suitcase, and I
just asked someone, Hey, do you know where I could
buy a suitcase? And this guy literally pointed in the
direction of Herod's and said, if they don't have it,
(11:45):
London doesn't have it.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
That should be their tag line. Another prescient thing that
LESNIE did was they, you know, they really were trying
to modernize their whole operation. So a guy named David
Ya came in and he renamed the company you got
rid of Lesnie, renamed it match Box International Limited, and
(12:07):
they actually decided to send their manufacturing overseas. You know
that we always think of made in China, and like,
you know, outsourcing manufacturing for stuff like this and toys
in particular places like China and Japan. They actually started
with Hong Kong and Macau. But because there wasn't enough
you know, this was still stuff that required some amount
(12:28):
of machining skill, you know, or fabricating skill, they could
not find a pool of skilled enough workers in those countries,
so they decided to outsource their foundry operations to China,
and this created the very first toy company joint venture
between Hong Kong and Shanghai. It was called Shanghai Universal
(12:52):
Toys Co.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Limited. So let's get back to match Box. They expand
further and now they're all about merchandizing. They realize that
they have become what you would call nimble, right, they
can expand across different platforms. They've made their deals with companies,
they've heard what the audience wants, so now they're getting
(13:14):
into other kinds of toys, dolls, games, action figures. The
cars also get increasingly complex as manufacturing processes improve. You know,
you see cars that have have mechanisms that the older
cars didn't, like a lug on one of the wheels
that can move parts like spinning fans or things like
(13:36):
moving engines. Pretty cool stuff. They also have military vehicles
that was the Battle King's Line. They have model ships
and I've seen some of those, and those are pretty cool.
If you want to look at those, go over to
the Autopian th g A U T O Pia in
the Autopian dot com and check out the article Matchbox
(13:58):
celebrates seventy years of making tidy cars with these special
zinc models by Mercedes Streeter. They're really well done and
if you are remotely into toy cars or know someone
who is, this would be the fun part for you.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
And I got a little ahead of myself earlier when
I was talking about shipping the operations overseas, because that
came as a result of some financial trouble that Matchbox
or the Lesnie, the Lesnie corporation was having because the
UK economically speaking, was not doing well in the mid
to late seventies. The Matchbox cars were selling just fine,
but Lesnie as a company was not doing well, and
(14:32):
they ultimately went bankrupt. And this is in the early
eighties and nineteen eighty two, so they actually sold their
whole operation, or most of their production line, some of
their molds, other properties. They had two universal toys and
that gentleman David Ya. And that's when things start getting
shipped overseas, and that whole Shanghai operation starts kicking.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
And I want to stay on two to many for
a bit because I re like this source. It's it's comprehensive,
it's a really cool website. They also explore how hot
wheels had their own kind of ups and downs during
the nineteen eighties. The hot ones wheels were introduced in
(15:16):
nineteen eighty one, they had painted hubs and they had
thinner axles all to the thinner axles primarily to give
them more speed. In nineteen eighty three they released another line,
the Real Riders, and I love how dramatic their toy
line names are. These were the first Hot Wheels toys
with rubber tires, and people liked them. People really liked them.
(15:42):
But the problem was this is a business and they
weren't making enough money. So the line was halted in
nineteen eighty seven because it just costs so much to
make those toys.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
And here we see kind of some drama in the
big car industry, you know, the regular size ones, kind
of bleeding into problems with the miniature car world. General
Motors is about to release their new Corvette, but are
experiencing some technical issues on the production line, so the
(16:13):
release of the Corvette is actually delayed. But Hot Wheels
at this point was already designing the miniature version of it,
and it actually ended up getting released before the GM
car was officially released. This did not sit well with
General Motors. You think they would have discussed this, but
it maybe was an issue of production and they needed
(16:34):
to get it out to recoup on you know, the
production costs. They were ready to go so General Motors actually,
But then again how they canceled their whole contract with
Mattel for them to license, you know, because these are
these kinds of recreations are licensed, if they're having official
branding and all of that. You think that somebody at
the toy company would have realized this was a bad move,
big picture, right.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
Yeah, exactly. And let's go back to Matchbox is Exodus
from the UK. The first batch of Matchbox vehicles made
in China comes out in nineteen eighty five. They're created
in Macau, which is also famous for gambling. You could
say Matchbox took a gamble, I suppose. And they do
this for five years until nineteen ninety and then between
(17:19):
nineteen ninety and nineteen ninety two they're produced under license
by different company, Yong Thai Toys Company, and then they
get bought by Tycho. And might date myself a bit here, folks,
but I remember Tycho Toys growing up as the less
expensive also ran toys in the Lego aisle. They made
(17:40):
told a lot of stuff, but they also had the
not quite Lego a lot of dump trucks and things, right,
a lot of military stuff as well. Maybe we talked
about Tycho for a little bit. Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
Ticho was based in New Jersey, in a little city
called Mount Laurel. They were originally focused on electric model trains,
but as a lot of these companies ended up having
to do, decided to pivot to other offerings, which was
really crucial. And they're finding them finding success, you know, diversifying,
(18:14):
which included their purchase of the Matchbox brand. But in
nineteen ninety seven, Tycho Toys itself was acquired by guess who, Mattel.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
Ah Web, Yeah, well at time. And this means that
Matchbox and Hot Wheels, who are once bitter rivals, are
now in the same family together and strange bedfellows, right.
It happens all the time at the heights of the
corporate world, which is why so many things that appear
(18:45):
to be different brands in your local grocery store are
in fact owned by the same parent company. Mattel does
something pretty brutal, pretty shark like. They start to strip
the brand of assets, they sell off the kit division,
and then they start downgrading the quality of the toys.
(19:06):
These are known for being die cast metal vehicles, and
now they're being replaced by plastic models, and they're making
these non realistic vehicles that are generic brands so that
they don't have to pay any kind of fee to
a producer of a car. So they it's like in
that awesome show thirty Rock where they have Janis Jorplin
(19:29):
or whatever because j yeah, Jackie, that's the one. Because
they can't afford the rights to Janice Joplin's story. So
these guys are cutting costs by making stuff that's kind
of like but not really a copy of a genuine car.
(19:51):
Oh the collectors hate this, by the way. They are
absolutely agast. Mattel says, oh, no, we hear you. We're
going to make a few special releases. They only make
a few and they only go out to the United States.
So this is not enough for the Matchbox collectors.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
No, but this is certainly probably one of the things
that led to an uptick in the you know, value
of classic Matchbox cars, because I mean, they're you know, obviously,
the original ones are going to retain their value no
matter what. But this is a sea change for match Box,
a dilution of the brand. They essentially bought it for
(20:27):
the label and not for any of the actual you know,
quality or skill that went into making those cars and
sort of the care and attention to detail m M.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
One hundred percent. We also see that the collector said,
this Hot Wheels line, what's happened into Hot Wheels. It's
a crying shame. They're inferior, They're less attractive. And if
you know any serious collectors of anything, you know, they
have profound feelings about this sort of stuff. And they said,
what if Mattel is going to do to match But
(21:00):
they did the Hot Wheels, and Mittel says, look, everybody,
calmed down, We hear you. These lines are going to
produce their stuff independently. Matchbox is going to make more
realistic vehicles, and the fantasy vehicles, the more anime stuff
that's gonna always go to Hot Wheels. Yeah, it makes sense.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
I mean again, like focus on what the brands individually
were known for in the first place. But as you know,
corporations are wont to do. In two thousand and three,
Mattel essentially went back on their word here or you know,
did a little bit of pivoting of their own and
created an entire line of Matchbox fantasy vehicles that did
(21:44):
not go over well once again, and they did not
sell well. There was a backlash and the line was
very quickly canceled and pulled from Shells.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
Oh and the name wasn't that great? We got to
say the name. These fantasy vehicles were called Ultra Heroes. Okay,
sounds kind of like lazy writing, it does it does?
I'm just yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
But then you know, they got the message again again
Mattel and decided to stick to what they had said
and bring match Box back to their heyday of specifically
you know, producing realistic, uh and more highly detailed you know,
recreations of classic cars.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
And as we move on, we see that Mattel has
controlled both brands on the market and they've tried to
you know, differentiate them so that they can still make
money off either consumer preference. And there are people who
are consider themselves specifically Matchbox collectors, some who say I'm
(22:44):
solely a hot wheelers person, and then there are a
lot of people who like both of them, or like
particular cars from both lines. And then because it's collecting
and because there's some kind of rivalry, there are people
who get at each other, you know, sometimes a fan
of Matchbox will look down their nose at a fan
(23:10):
of Hot Wheels and they will have intense conversations about
how one is the superior die Cast toy car. Weird hill.
It's a weird hill, but you know they are passionate,
and I do respect passion. Yeah, for sure. Me.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
Collectors are always gonna, you know, have certain beefs about
these sorts of things. Ben, there is another player in
this game that we kind of haven't talked about that
I think, both of us being late eighty early nineties
kids micro machines.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
Oh yeah, yeah, Maxim, we're talking about this off air.
I love the micromachine guy because the main thing is
how quickly he talks, and it seems off the cuff,
but I know it's carefully scripted. It even faster than
this I do.
Speaker 3 (23:56):
That does kind of bring about what I remember specifically though,
was the way they were featured in Home Alone. In
like I believe, nineteen ninety, he used all of his
his micromachines to create like a trap, one of those
really sadistic traps. Let's be honest that that kid, who
is definitely a little psychopath lays for the.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
Wet Bandits who are bad people. Don't get me wrong,
but that kid is like, you know, Damien from The Omen.
I mean, that is a troubled child. Who knew that
the Kulkin brothers would make such a career out of
portraying troubled children. Shout out to you, Roman Roy. Did
you watch the latest episode? Ben? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, yeah,
(24:39):
I've got it on the background. I tune in and
tune out to my favorite plotlines.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
Well, I mean there's a Roman Roy moment in this
most recent penultimate episode of Succession.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
That got me real good. How are they going to
rapid performance? So that thing?
Speaker 3 (24:56):
That and it really feels like it's heading in a direction.
I mean it's very Shakespearean stuff. Oh yeah, I mean
good Lord. You know, I think McCauley's doing his thing,
playing in the Pizza underground.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
You know, I don't know if he's doing that anymore, but.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
For a while he had a band and played Velvet
Underground kind of parody songs with pizza fide lyrics. Wasn't
very good, but I hope he's happy. He seems like
he's kicking around. But man, Rory's a great actor. And yeah, definitely,
Kieran is absolutely killing it in succession. But micro machines
were in fact the top selling cars during the tail
(25:30):
end of the eighties and into the beginning of the nineties.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
But then they kind of went.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
Away themselves and left the old school players to duke
it out.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
Yeah, they were cheap if you think look at the
per unit cost if you're a parent who wants to
get your kid a toy. But there are also a
lot of them. They're very collectible, and that meant that
kids were asking their parents to buy them a lot
of micro machines, not just one. The manufacturers knew it.
You could fit hundreds of these into a toy box.
(26:01):
And the I want to shout out the ads John Moshita,
he is the he at the time in the late eighties,
very beginning of the nineties. He is the fastest talking
man in the world. Get congratulations to John.
Speaker 3 (26:19):
He could do all those like disclaimers at the end
of like pharmaceutical ads today.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
That's maybe that's very fun.
Speaker 3 (26:24):
Yeah, but before the advent of digital editing where you
could speed everything up. But micro machines were also really
really small. They were smaller than matchbox cars or hot wheels.
Hence the you know, using them as a death trap
for the Wet Bandits.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
They also had playsets. There was even a line. I
never had these, but there was a line of micromachines
that had smaller cars inside of them, like that Decepticon
in the Transformers toys. Who is a boombox and he's
got a little bad guy inside of him. That's a
cassette tape. I always thought that was cool.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
By the way, the company that created micro machines had
the best name in the whole story, Glube.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
I remember Galube, and I remember Glube because of micro
machines and another big Glube. I don't know why this
sounds like weird soprano mobster lives, but another big Galute.
Another another Big Glube was the infamous game Genie and
video game Hacks deserve an episode all their own. Perhaps
(27:27):
that's for future tale.
Speaker 3 (27:29):
I never actually got it, but I always I subscribed
to Nintendo Power for a while when I was a kid,
and I remember that being commercial on TV a lot,
and they always had full page ads in Nintendo Power.
But I never actually messed up. It was like a
cartridge that you'd stick into the system, and then you'd
stick the other cartridge into that cartridge, yes, and it
would hack the game or give you sheets and stuff.
I'm sure that the game companies didn't care for it particularly.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
The coolest part was it was also kind of glitchy,
so sometimes you would find yourself in weird, weird parts
of the game that weren't supposed to happen, and the
malfunctions were one of the most fun parts. Hasbro buys
Glube in nineteen ninety eight, and Glub still exists today,
but it's under the pairing company Hasbro, and like.
Speaker 3 (28:13):
We said, Hot Wheels then kind of regain its place
at the top of the market with Matchbox sort of
just tucked in there, you know, for the collectors. But
I think the modern Matchbox cars don't have nearly the
same cachet as the classic ones to collectors out there.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
So that's kind of a story, man. That is the story.
And if we want a moral, if moral there shall be,
then the moral of this story is the following. I
want everyone to hear this in all caps italics, you know,
comic sans font Save your toys. Save your toys. You
(28:52):
never know how much they're going to be worth or whatever,
and more importantly, save them so that your kids can
play with them in the future. It's a truly cool thing.
Thanks pay for their college or pay for their college.
Thanks as always to super producer mister Max Williams. Thanks
to Alex Williams who composed this bang in track. Thanks
to our research associate, doctor Zach can't wait to see
(29:15):
what is toy car collection looks like, and you know
I've been thanks to you as well.
Speaker 3 (29:20):
This has been an interesting ride on the loop d
loop course of the ridiculous history life.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
And thanks to you know, we'll see you next time, folks.
Speaker 3 (29:37):
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Ridiculous History News
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Ben Bowlin
Noel Brown
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