Death's Head
28-08-11, 09:21 AM
When I was a lad, I used to have a sizeable collection of Matchbox cars. This was in the days when Matchbox were still a going concern, fending off competition from the likes of Majorette and even aggressive US marketers, Hot Wheels (whom now own Matchbox and seem to be doing their level best to grind the once proud UK toy maker into the ground. Isn’t capitalism marvellous?). I loved them. Small, detailed vehicles rendered largely in die cast, with plastic interiors for the seats and windows. I even had a nifty carry case to carry them around in. It was blue. Sometimes, if I had a vehicle that was similar to one from some popular television show, that would be my version of that car in my little role plays. They were – and remain – a relatively cheap collectable, even now you can pick them up for £1 or less.
Transformers foray into the world of Matchbox style cars comes at a time when Hasbro are greedily expanding the Transformers brand, churning out a range of products that, ultimately, dilute the brand and cause the shelves of supermarkets and toy shops everywhere to groan under the weight of an ever increasing army of spin off product. A lot of which I don’t think anyone would have felt they were missing out on were they not to have had it in the first place. Like the RPM line here.
There’s nothing wrong with toy cars. I like them. I even bought a few Hot Wheels cars on a whim last year, just because I liked the look of a few of them. I even replaced my beloved Corgi 1960s Batmobile (once my pride and joy, cruelly sold off by my mother when we moved house in 1990 for 50p! 50p!!! Even in those pre- ebay days, a cursory visit to an antiques dealer revealed how much you could get for even a tired looking Batmobile) with a rather splendid 1:64 scale Hot Wheels version. There’s nothing particularly wrong with Transformers spinning off into this area either. We did have a Scalectrix set recently and that marvellous Tyco train set in the 1980s. There is everything wrong with expecting £3.99 for a plastic Matchbox scaled car though, moulded chasis or not.
Whilst an undoubted chunk of the RRP for the Transformers RPMs is no doubt swallowed up in licensing costs and virgin territory for Hasbro, you can’t help but think that Hasbro were deluding themselves expecting the line to shift at that price point. Particularly when just a few bays down, you’ve got Hot Wheels and Matchbox models of the same vehicles available for a fraction of the price and in die cast. Yes, they have balanced axles for super fast racing, but so does every toy car of this size – and they have done since about 1993. More ridiculously, £3.99 is about what a good condition loose Generation 2 Gobot will set you back and they trump the RPMs by being of the same scale and able to transform. It’s no surprise really to find that, in the UK at least, these things have been found cluttering up the likes of Poundstretcher and Home Bargains over the last twelve months or so.
Are they really that bad though? Well, no actually. I picked up these four from Home Bargains for £1.29 each and there does appear to be a similar sort of approach to how Hot Wheels market their toy cars with different lines and themes. Or sub groups, you might say. Deciding that the slightly unimpressive NEST , Weapons Reveal (vehicles with moulded weapon-y like details etched onto the sides which look more like a bird has sh*t on the toy) and Robo-Riders (yeah, how does that sound?) weren’t for me, I opted for four proper, die cast toy cars: Optimus, Bumblebee, Sideswipe and Highway Patrol Barricade (He is silver. With red windows and lights, ‘cos he is like evil maaan).
They are all nicely detailed and finished , with the exception of Optimus who could have used a bit of chrome, and roll freely and are great to look at, but really, why would you pay over the odds for these when you can get something better for a quarter of the price from Hot Wheels or Matchbox?
472473474475
Transformers foray into the world of Matchbox style cars comes at a time when Hasbro are greedily expanding the Transformers brand, churning out a range of products that, ultimately, dilute the brand and cause the shelves of supermarkets and toy shops everywhere to groan under the weight of an ever increasing army of spin off product. A lot of which I don’t think anyone would have felt they were missing out on were they not to have had it in the first place. Like the RPM line here.
There’s nothing wrong with toy cars. I like them. I even bought a few Hot Wheels cars on a whim last year, just because I liked the look of a few of them. I even replaced my beloved Corgi 1960s Batmobile (once my pride and joy, cruelly sold off by my mother when we moved house in 1990 for 50p! 50p!!! Even in those pre- ebay days, a cursory visit to an antiques dealer revealed how much you could get for even a tired looking Batmobile) with a rather splendid 1:64 scale Hot Wheels version. There’s nothing particularly wrong with Transformers spinning off into this area either. We did have a Scalectrix set recently and that marvellous Tyco train set in the 1980s. There is everything wrong with expecting £3.99 for a plastic Matchbox scaled car though, moulded chasis or not.
Whilst an undoubted chunk of the RRP for the Transformers RPMs is no doubt swallowed up in licensing costs and virgin territory for Hasbro, you can’t help but think that Hasbro were deluding themselves expecting the line to shift at that price point. Particularly when just a few bays down, you’ve got Hot Wheels and Matchbox models of the same vehicles available for a fraction of the price and in die cast. Yes, they have balanced axles for super fast racing, but so does every toy car of this size – and they have done since about 1993. More ridiculously, £3.99 is about what a good condition loose Generation 2 Gobot will set you back and they trump the RPMs by being of the same scale and able to transform. It’s no surprise really to find that, in the UK at least, these things have been found cluttering up the likes of Poundstretcher and Home Bargains over the last twelve months or so.
Are they really that bad though? Well, no actually. I picked up these four from Home Bargains for £1.29 each and there does appear to be a similar sort of approach to how Hot Wheels market their toy cars with different lines and themes. Or sub groups, you might say. Deciding that the slightly unimpressive NEST , Weapons Reveal (vehicles with moulded weapon-y like details etched onto the sides which look more like a bird has sh*t on the toy) and Robo-Riders (yeah, how does that sound?) weren’t for me, I opted for four proper, die cast toy cars: Optimus, Bumblebee, Sideswipe and Highway Patrol Barricade (He is silver. With red windows and lights, ‘cos he is like evil maaan).
They are all nicely detailed and finished , with the exception of Optimus who could have used a bit of chrome, and roll freely and are great to look at, but really, why would you pay over the odds for these when you can get something better for a quarter of the price from Hot Wheels or Matchbox?
472473474475