We didn’t all miss it. But if I had to guess, there are far more diecast Porsche lovers that don’t have the Matchbox 911 GT1 than do.
I don’t need to talk about the plethora of Porsche in the diecast world these days. Not too long ago Hot Wheels essentially ignored Porsche while Matchbox was putting out a few. I have no idea why that was, but it seems hard to fathom that there was a time Hot Wheels wasn’t doing Porsche replicas.
Maybe it is because Hot Wheels was doing so many Ferraris. That is no longer an option, so there had to be a replacement. And considering vintage Porsches are the epitome of cool these days, there are a million directions to go.
I have loved seeing all the Porsches coming from Hot Wheels. It seems all eras are being represented, and most of the replicas are really well-done. I guess the downside is that Matchbox has pulled back. Fearing a Porsche overexposure, Team Orange seems to be going in a different direction.
That would frustrate me more if the Hot Wheels releases weren’t so nice, and if there wasn’t already a few older Matchbox Porsches I wanted to pursue.
One of those models that has long been on my want-list is the Matchbox Porsche 911 GT1. In particular the Stars of Germany version released in Europe only. There has been several releases of this casting over the years, but the plain – and I mean plain – version is silver from the SoC series was always number one on my list.
There are a few reasons. One, it has the lace wheels. Most of the GT1’s were released before the lace wheels, and I don’t collect models with those early wheels. Don’t ask me why, I just don’t like those older wheels.
Second, the GT1 was used mostly during the time that Matchbox felt it was important to plaster the name of the car somewhere on the body. Therefore most released had large identifying marks or other ugly tampos on them. The Stars of Cars version is by far the best-looking, with the best wheels, even with no other details whatsoever. It’s clean, and it’s cool.
This model would fit in very nicely these days with the current Porsche obsession. Too bad it is most likely long gone. At least it will make it fun to pursue the older versions. You won’t be disappointed…
(Matchbox Porsche 911 GT1 on eBay…)
The eBay prices on these must be unreal…
I have the plain white Superfast version. It is a pretty nice casting.
Porsche castings were not ignored in the 90s. There are plenty of Hot Wheels Porsches released during this decade – 996 GT3, 996 GT1, 930 Targa (Corgi), recolors of Classic Carrera, 930 Turbo Slantnose, 930 Carrera, 928 and 959. On the other hand even today Matchbox has only 15 different Porsche castings and most of them are released after year 2000.
The Hot Wheels 911 GT1-98 is really awkwardly proportioned compared to this Matchbox version of the ’96 version of the GT1.
Are those Hot Wheels shoes on that Matchbox?
Once again John gets it wrong Hot Wheels has been doing Porsche since 1970 with the P917 way longer than Matchbox has been doing Porsche they started in the mid to late 80's.
While HW hasn't pumped out a lot Porsches it's not like they have as large of a catalog of vehicles like Ferrari has and a lot of the Porsche don't change over the years with slight detail changes that would cost Mattel a lot of money to basically build a new tool just to change something so small.
Also Porsche is very selective on what gets produced and how the cars look they don't want goofy tampos or crazy glass colors something Ferrari didn't mind till recently.
Think I'm full of shit just talk to hasbro/takara or other 3rd party transformers and how Porsche has put the brakes on allowing them to use the Porsche likeness to make a Masterpiece Jazz just due to them not wanting the car to be shown as a robot fighting in war (took several years for VW to let them do the bug as bumble bee)
Do your research and maybe you'll actually get the correct answers and not half ass it with ” well I guess HW was too busy with making Ferraris to make Porsche so Matchbox took up the slack”
I prefer the 1998 version that Hot Wheels did, though the ride height of the front end is a little off.
There are two of those on ebay right now, one is still in the box.
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This needs to come back. Don't care what or how Matchbox does it.
The boxed one already sold today.
“Hot Wheels has been doing Porsche since 1970 with the P917 way longer than Matchbox has been doing Porsche they started in the mid to late 80's.”
Yeah, let's forget about the Matchbox Porsche 910 (1969), 911 turbo (1978) or the 928 (1980), shall we?
Besides, that has nothing to do with the era John is referring to in his article (clue: “Not too long ago”), which is more likely to be the late '90s – early 2000s.
Unfortunately, this is from before I started collecting in earnest. Only one I have is the all-white version with “GT1” in blue on the bottom of the doors. This gray one is nicer…the wheels are better than the split 5-spokes on my version. I'm not sure the quality of the casting is up to current Matchbox standards…I'd be all for doing a new version though.
Have two: in yellow and un white