Remember the camo craze in the 80’s? If you are under 30 you most definitely don’t. If you are over, there is a good chance at some point you were dressed in camouflage, even if you never set foot in the military.
Camo pants, shirts, jackets, and my personal fave, hats. I dreamt of being cool enough to get the camo cap with shade flaps attached to the back. I thought I would hit the fashion peak with that hat, and never have to come back down.
Sadly, the camo phase came and went, and only our friends in the military can come up with new camo fashion options. No flap hat for me.
Well, camo is in again, and Mattel has taken it on. A year or two ago Hot Wheels did a special camo assortment for Walmart. The cards were cool and the castings chosen were decent, but the execution left a little to be desired:
 |
| HW Camo on hobbyDB |
That card art is amazing. Such a cool design. And if the models in the blister looked like the art on the card, these models would have been stunning, and would not have sat in bins for as long as they did. Instead Hot Wheels decided to make the camouflage only part of a side tampo. I don’t know about you, but if I were to do camouflage a car, I would cover up the whole thing, not just the side panels.
Hot Wheels has done it right before. Case in point, the fabulous Pontiac GTO done up like a WWII Warhawk, and it is covered in camo. I have always wanted this one from the Military Rods Series, and finally acquired it.
Enter Matchbox.
Later this year Matchbox will release their own Camouflage assortment. Like Hot Wheels, six cars. Not like Hot Wheels, the entire model will be covered in camo.
And they look fantastic. When I learned about a Camouflage set coming to Matchbox, I expressed some skepticism because A) Hot Wheels already did it, and B) they didn’t do a particularly good job.
But now looking at this set that Matchbox provided for this preview, I have changed my mind. There are some castings I could do without, but with the set headlined by the Toyota Land Cruiser and Ford Raptor, and with the entire body of each in different camo styles, it is a completely different approach. Dare I say realistic?
It appears Matchbox divided the six models into three types. Forest, Arctic, and Desert.
I think it is safe to say the Raptor and Land Cruiser take the cake. But it is nice to see the return of the seldom used Jeep Compass and Yamaha Rhino castings, and they fit in great. The Arctic models are the two I could pass on. Cool deco, pretty lame models.
But all in all a great set. I could see that Raptor down and dirty in a misty, quiet forest, transporting hunters to and from the mountain. I could see the Rhino doing Rhino things through twisty, bumpy roads in Arizona. I could see the Land Cruiser parked outside the Moab Brewery after a long day conquering the surrounding terrain.
So will I add all of these to my collection? Nope. But most are going in. Maybe next to my flap hat.
Look for these later this year/early next.
I'll pick these up for sure.
As an FJ owner, I'm obligated to grab the Cruiser. However, I am still miffed by the casting change, front fenders should not have been changed to plastic
Camo cool in the 80s? Ridding a Vespa to catch the Specials live – that was cool. Camo – not really.
Aw c'mon Stephen. I watched longingly at the Vespa gangs that would whip by my house. But I was 11. They were too cool. When I was 16 my first concert was Galaxie 500/Cocteau Twins at the Warfield in SF. I felt like I made it. I was so proud. Just needed to give me time to catch up. But it was 1990 by then. But camo mid-80's for an 11-year-old was freakin awesome.
If I can find them I will take 5 of them and leave the dozerthing melting the polarpegs.
This unique put up is extremely instructive not to mention will make an awfully decent look at the content with my spirit. It does not take beginner I just explore your website, and yet I just was basically tremendously floored. Have post as i morning visiting get to read through it again regular! To know more click here innovate car.
Que?
Not a bad first concert!
Matter of fact, I was in won of my local WM's and saw an end display of HW's Camo cars… it was like if they were out for the first time.. but what the heck?
Anyhow, the MBX Camo version is flat out WAY BETTER than HW's!!!!!!
like the camo but no fan of the modells as a mostly Hot Wheels and old US Cars collector so will pass on them.. but that GTO… I also have and it is a superb modell
SOOOOO, I FINALLY found ONE peg today, 8/8/17 with these on there, is that something MATCHBOX can answer or did they delay it at my Walmart????? I mean, the other idea I had either forgotten about or was missed COMPLETELY on this blog( I HIGHLY DOUBT THAT FACT) was the COLOR CHANGER Matchbox cars that were spotted first by my brother in FLA late last month and by myself here in HOUSTON TX early this month, last week in fact at TARGET, but spotting a couple peg tags in Walmart, I can see there is room for them, but don’t expect to see them as they either don’t order enough to make the pegs full since MB does such a small count per case vs HW or if the scalpers will be out in full force. I picked up one of the VW Transport color changers and I could leave it after watching the “magic” color change due to temp change, of course in Houston, it will almost always be the HOT color without the Jackson Pollack style flung paint/mud/ whatever the heck they were thinking. I think there was a ROLE REVERSAL going on here, the MB team got CAMO dead on much better than HW and HW has had and might continue to dominate the COLOR CHANGERS side with BETTER/BEST castings and execution of the actual color CHANGING to something a bit opposite the color wheel versus one shade of green to another shade of green with a bunch of clods of crap on the side to emulate???? dirt, mud???? I can’t figure it out, NOT worth the extra money to me on the COLOR CHANGER, almost worth the extra quarter to pay for the CAMO FJ40, but it is the NEW more plastic casting, but since they put such a good WRAP of CAMO on it, helps hide the fact and the flaws.
I’d like to see these in a 5 pack. I’d drop the snow crawler as this is possibly the weakest. Chris