Many of you have reached out to congratulate me on being selected the Matchbox Ambassador for 2012-2013. The nice words have meant a lot. I didn't want to say too much until the outgoing Ambassador, Shabbir Malik, had a chance to post his final report on last weekend's Gathering. Shabbir, like the 6 Ambassadors before him, did what I thought was a great job, and I hope to fill his shoes to the best of my ability.
For those of you not familiar with the Matchbox Ambassador, it is something created by Mattel for Matchbox collectors. A collector is selected by Mattel to serve for one year, and acts as a liaison between the Matchbox marketing and design teams and collectors. The team will disseminate information on upcoming products, models, running changes as well as other details through the Ambassador, and also answer questions gathered from collectors. The last seven Ambassadors have done a fantastic job of this, and I hope I can continue that.
Dave Weise, the Matchbox Die-Cast Design Manager, has assured me that the door is always open, and he will answer all questions to the best of his ability. I plan on compiling questions each month, and sending them to Dave. He has also said that he will send images of the latest incoming product to share with all of you. My hope is that there will be a good, informative report every month.
Speaking of the reports, my plan is to do two things. First, I will email the reports to those on the Ambassador distribution list, which I will get from Shabbir, for them to distribute how they see fit. I will also post the full report here on the blog, and post links to it on Hobbytalk, Swifty's Garage, MCF, MBX Forum, Nick Jones' Forum, and MCCH.
It is no secret that there has been some cracks in the Matchbox collector community the last few months. I have my opinion on all that has happened, but my role is to focus on the enjoyment of the hobby and where the brand is going. The goal of the Lamley Group blog has always been to focus on the models, and I hope that by posting the reports here, everyone who enjoys Matchbox can come over from wherever they frequent and share in the enjoyment of the hobby. That by no means implies that you have to like where the brand is going. I will post the reports, and then enjoy reading the plethora of comments in all the forums, no matter what the opinion.
I hope I can do a good job at this. Mattel appointed me, and my allegiance is to them and what they have asked me to do. At the same time, I will do everything I can to communicate the opinions and feelings of collectors regarding the line. In the few years I have gotten to know Felix, Dave, Ryu, and all the others on the Matchbox team, I can confidently say they listen to what the collectors say, and always take it into account. There are a million other factors that go into the decisions they make, but they treat our opinions seriously. I will make sure they know what the collecting community thinks.
Please feel free to send any questions my way. I will try to put up posts in each forum asking for questions, or you can post them on the Lamley Facebook page, or email me at lamleygroup@gmail.com anytime. The quickest way to get the reports is to Like us on Facebook, and you will be notified as soon as the report is up.
As goofy as it sounds, I will take this job seriously. I hope that at the end of my year both the Mattel team and my fellow collectors will feel I represented them adequately.
Thanks everyone and here is to a great year!!
-jtl
