We all like to hearken back to the old days of Matchbox, whether that was 2010, 1997, 1979, 1965, or any time in between. I am an early 80's guy myself, and I still remember my sky blue Porsche 928. We like to think that whatever we consider our golden age, it was when Matchbox was producing the best stuff. Maybe so.
But to me, at least aesthetically, the golden age has been the last few years. Now I agree the specific direction of Matchbox currently may not totally be to my liking, but to me the castings today (not counting good or bad deco) just look better, and are better proportioned. In fact, to me the models of old were just too wide. The bodies, the wheels, no matter what the model they had the width of the a stingray skimming the bottom of the ocean. That is why I like Matchbox's recent crop of cars in the last 5-6 years.
No model illustrates that better than the 1954 Jaguar XK120SE Coupe. The model was released in 2009, and essentially replaced the Jaguar XK120 Convertible. And that was a good thing. The convertible had some nice lines (because it was a 50's era Jag), but looked terrible out of proportion width-wise, especially with the current crop of Matchbox wheels.
So the Matchbox designers went back to the drawing board and came up with a new version. A leaner, meaner coupe, and it could not be better looking. I wish I had comparison pics of the two together. But I don't have even one example of the convertible. Too ugly for my tastes.
But I do have every version of the "not-used-enough" coupe. We have seen it three times in the mainline, once in a 10-pack, and once as a Lesney Edition. Maybe one day we see it reemerge in some sort of classic racing livery. Until then, we have these five beautiful versions, so let's have a look...
(Find the Matchbox Jaguar XK120
for sale here...)Matchbox 1954 Jaguar XK120SE Coupe:
2009 New Model
2009 10-pack exclusive (my favorite of the group)
2010 Mainline
2010 Lesney Edition
2011 Mainline
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