Matchbox Monday: Rarest Models of the Mattel Era, Part 7…

Matchbox Monday today is going to be all about the Porsche 911 Turbo casting.  No, not the Porsche Turbo that debuted in 1978 (and continues to be David Tilley’s obsession), but the Porsche 911 Turbo casting that debuted in the early 2000’s.

This casting has been used twice this year, which is rare for a sports car in the Matchbox lineup these days.  And this after the casting took some time off.  But it remains one of my favorites, and in my opinion one of the best sports car castings Matchbox has ever done.  It still looks great 10 years into the game.

It just hit stores as part of the latest batch of Matchbox, and we will be featuring that model shortly.  But there is also a version of this casting that easily qualifies as a rare Matchbox, and makes a great subject for Part 7 of our ongoing series on rare Matchbox models of the Mattel era.

If you missed Parts 1-6, I would check them out.

The version of the Porsche 911 Turbo I am talking about is a variation of the 2006 mainline version.  Those of you collecting Matchbox back then will remember it.   A beautiful metalflake sky blue version, with full front and rear tampos.

Although I cannot remember if one came before the other, this model came with either the old flower wheels or lace wheels.  I am sure there was less of one than the other, but it was not by much.  Both wheel variations were easy to find.  Until the third wheel variation came out.

All during the 2006 range and into 2007, Matchbox was fading out the use of the less-realistic flower and lace wheels, and replacing them with the much better-looking trispoke, 6-spoke, and 10-spoke wheels.  The wheels looked more realistic, and the 10-spokes especially looked fantastic on current sports cars.  The 911 Turbo of 2006, however, was released early in 2006 and the new wheels had not been put into production at that point.

However, late in 2006, a batch of 3-packs started appearing in Australia, and one of the models found was the 2006 sky blue 911, this time sporting the new 10-spoke wheels.  When the variation was first reported, many collectors decided to wait and see if it would show up elsewhere, instead of the paying the expensive shipping rates from Australia.  But that proved fruitless.  Not only did the 10-spoke Porsche only show up in Australian 3-packs, but even the 3-packs ended up being hard to find there as well.  Porsche Nut David Tilley had the foresight to ask for one, and I followed suit and bought one from a fellow MCCH member from Down Under.  I am glad I did, as that collector never found anymore.

I don’t know what the numbers ended up being, but there are not a lot of these.  And yes, I realize a lot of collectors don’t care for wheel variations, especially when you have to pay 20 times the price of a model to acquire it.  But as a wheel nut, the 10-spoke version was a must have because it looks so much better.

Why not just do a custom you ask?  Well, if Mattel can do an official version for me, I want that one.  Yes, collectors are weird…

Matchbox Porsche 911 Turbo (2006 Mainline version with 10-spokes, only found in Australian 3-packs):

The three wheel variations:

Be sure to check out the store of our Matchbox Monday partner, MVE Collectibles, for both the latest and classic Matchbox, M2, Greenlight, and Johnny Lightning.  Also be sure to inquire about their subscription and “One of Each” program…