Matchbox magic at toy fair

On 23 June thousands will gather at Thorndon's St Mary's College sharing a passion for miniature model cars. Over 10,000 models will be on sale with prices from under a dollar to well into the hundreds. Organsier Steve Brown was, “blown away by the turn out last year”. “Word about the toy fair has spread with one seller coming from Australia” he said.

Details

Wellington Toy and Diecast Fair

When: Sunday 23 June 11am -3pm

Where: St Mary's College gym, Hawkestone Street, Thorndon

Entry: $3 adult, $2 children, $7 Family

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Additional information

60 years of Matchbox

The most famous name in diecast models is Matchbox and 2013 marks the 60th anniversary of the brand. Lesney Products, the makers of Matchbox rapidly grew to dominate the model car market. The name Matchbox was came about when Lesney co-owner Jack Odell designed a road roll for his daughter who was only allowed to take toys to her school that fitted into a matchbox.

New Zealand’s own miniatures

Many companies went on to copy the idea of small scale models that kids it afford to buy with their pocket money. New Zealand was part of this trend with Fun Ho and Lincoln Industries producing matchbox size models. Over 8 million Fun Ho miniature models were made by Underwood Engineering Co. There were also many larger scale models that you might remember playing with in a sandpit. “Today Fun Ho! toys are collector items and some are very valuable”, according to Richard Jordan of the Fun Ho museum in Inglewood.

Collector Matt Roberts said, "I especially love the Lincoln Toys models because they represent a unique part of model making in New Zealand”.

The history of Lincoln Industries is an interesting one. Lincoln Laidlaw's family owned a department store and soon became aware that the demand for Matchbox far out striped the stock they could get. Importing Matchbox models and many other products was difficult in the 1950’s and 60’s.

Lincoln Laidlow sourced some moulds from Australia and started making his own models in about 1958. He used the Matchbox name. Legal threats from the English producers of Matchbox soon followed and the name and matchbox style packaging was dropped. The same models were then produced under the name Motorway Miniature Series continued into the 1960's. However, the early models can be told apart because they have treaded, rather than smooth wheels.

Collector Steve Brown has a keen interest in the New Zealand Matchbox models. He said, “they are a special part of the Matchbox story”.

Lincoln Industries is well known to a generation for their slogan, ' "Boy! Oh! Boy! --A Lincoln Toy!" The company under the name Lincoln International went on to become a major toys distributor in New Zealand and Australia until ownership changes in the 1980's. The also produced the larger Micro Models and Brentware diecast ranges.

New Zealand models today

Today Siku, a German company, are producing models especially for New Zealand. Jason Curry, Brand Manager for the New Zealand importer of Siku, Elephanta Marketing Ltd said, “We decided to create our own range of NZ livery Siku models for two reasons. After bringing in German livery emergency vehicles for many years we were finding that they were very slow sellers. Not many kids can relate to "Feuerwehr" on the sides of their fire engines! There was also concern at having models out there that had the European emergency telephone number on them - 112 - instead of our 111”.

“Looking to the future the NZ range is likely to expand to include more of the big corporate names, perhaps a milk tanker, a long range bus, or a supermarket truck” Jason hinted. “It takes a long time to develop and negotiate with the respective parties. Watch this space...”.

Make sure you come to the Toy and Diecast Fair on 23 June to for classic Matchbox right through to new Siku models.

ENDS

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