Still lots of Gathering coverage to come, but first, sleep is most definitely the priority.
I had a long drive home yesterday, and today the Albuquerque airport staff will be busy loading all kinds of diecast goodies on planes destined for locations all over the world. The Matchbox Team is romping and rolling the brush truck back to LA, and I am sure Jim and Vicki Gallegos are getting some well-deserved zzzzzzzz’s.
So once everything settles, look for some more coverage. The Team granted me permission to photograph all the 2017 New Models in their various states of development, so that is coming soon. Dirk will have his final Ambassador Report to post, and there is other stuff to get to as well.
Hopefully many of you watched the presentation live on the mc_gathering Periscope feed or on the Lamley Facebook Page on Saturday night. There were a ton of comments, many of which Gerry from Matchbox read after the presentation. The live feed was definitely a success so look for that to happen again next year.
In the meantime, if you did miss it, the video is posted below. It is 50 minutes long, so give yourself some time, or fast forward through to what you want to see. No one will be offended. New Model presentation starts at 9:05 in, Licensed models at 19.00, and the Skyline Custom Contest winners at 40.00.
The video below that is a quick run through the EP and SLA examples of the 2017 New Models the Team brought to share. Photos of these coming soon.
Enjoy.
Pretty cool, thanks for sharing!
I also have one offtopic question (probably for German collectors). I'm visiting Hamburg and would like to search for some diecast models as well. Maybe someone could recommend any stores in Germany that I could find Matchbox? Thanks!
Hey, German collector here 😉 We have Matchbox in the following stores: Spielemax, Müller, Karstadt, EuroShop (they basically cost 1€ there, HW as well), Real, Kaufland. These are the ones I know.
You can't find Matchbox at toysrus or mytoys stores.
Hope I could help
Well, at least there's some cars to look forward to. However, I was hoping for a lot more passenger vehicles, such as some sporty coupes, family sedans/crossovers, or maybe a new S.U.V.: pretty much the way Matchbox used to be all about. Instead, there's still a lot of off-road and utility vehicles just like in the previous years.
However, I do appreciate some of the classics and sprinkle of passenger cars here and there such as the '52 Hudson Hornet Police, late 60's Nissan Pickup, Datsun 510 Rally, 1990 VW Golf, '16 Camaro Convertible, BMW I3, and Fiat 500X. Not to mention the GMC Van, '59 Chevy Station Wagon, and the new Toyota Tacoma with the removable tent. So, it's not like there aren't any cars at all to look forward to.
For me, I was just hoping for a little more. I remember all last year of the wishlists that collectors were making for possible candidates for 2017. A lot were awesome and would've made great Matchboxes. The beauty is Matchbox had licensing agreements with many of those companies. So, it's not like they couldn't make them at all.
Instead, hardly any to none of those candidates were chosen. Matchbox decided to make lesser known cars or cars that have already been made by other companies, especially from its blue brand counterpart. Variety has slimmed down a little lately.
But, on the whole, there is some stuff to look forward to. I will still pay a little attention to the brand that I absolutely adored when I was a kid and at one point wiped the blue brand out of the park!
Thank you, Tim, really helpful!
I watched it live. Thanks for doing that. The licensed models are OK. I would like to see more contemporary models. I think the vintage is OK but will not draw in the kids.
As for the originals, it seems like many of them have been done already in the line and recent years. Another snow vehicle, boat, etc.
congrats to the winners of the contest! How will the winners be notified? I'm surprised mangagarage's and @tippityplop's works didn't make the top 10 or even top 15.
Be patient…..2017 was well under way by the time of the 2015 Gathering and my top 20 list. And getting permission to make licensed models takes more than just a phone call or an e-mail. There are so many factors that come into play that delays many different models for various reasons. The Evoque was a classic example. 2017 has some fantastic models coming out and 2018 will not disappoint from what I am told. Just thought I would let you know…..
So many cool things, unfortunately they don't sell here 🙁 come on Mattel bring back matchbox to Portugal!
After watching the video, I'm impressed with some of the choices but I would love them go back with the diversity in their castings which is seen before.