#43A Hillman Minx

This is another of the first Matchbox cars I bought way back when. It dates back to a time before Lesney began putting in interiors and "glass" into the window openings. The Hillman Minx was a British family saloon, which Matchbox put into  production in 1958, while the Rootes Group (Commer, Hillman , Humber, Karrier, Singer, Sunbeam, and Talbot) built the real Minx from 1956-67. In 1967 Chrysler bought the Rootes Group, and then sold it to Peugeot 11 years later. — jc

#27C Cadillac Sixty-Special

When Matchbox decided to add another American car to the lineup in 1960, they went big — with this 1958 Cadillac Sixty-Special. It wasn't the first American car they produced, but it was more posh than the previous two — both Ford station wagons. The #27C Caddy came in a few different color combinations, but the one I remember best (probably because I had one) was this lilac and pink two-tone. The pics below of the real car come courtesy of Facebook friend Jim Jordan of Oklahoma City. — jc

#59A Ford Thames Van

I guess calling this a van here in the States is a bit misleading; we used to call vehicles like this panel deliveries. But then again Lesney, maker of Matchbox, wasn't in the States now were they? The #59A Ford Thames van was introduced in 1958 and came in both light and dark green, both with Singer livery on the sides. The Thames 300E vans, on which #59A was based, were built by Ford from 1954 to 1961, and were themselves based on the Anglia/Prefect sedans (saloons?). Thames was the name given to Ford's commercial vehicles of the era. — jc

#42B Studebaker Lark Wagonaire

I seem to remember this sliding-roofed Matchbox station wagon coming with a white plastic hunter and his dog. When I was a paperboy a customer had one of these wagons. He was a Toro salesman, and traded his 1961 Ford Falcon Ranchero for the Wagonaire. I always thought these cars were a great idea, but I must have been wrong as they never really caught on. The Matchbox Wagonaire was first issued in 1965, replacing the Bedford Evening News Van, and came in various shades of green/turquoise (none of which match the real car in the photos below, which is an actual car used on the old Mr. Ed tv series). — jc

#33B Ford Zephyr 6

Another of those Matchboxes I bought as a twelve-year-old without having any idea that it existed as a real car across the pond. The Zephyr 6 was Ford's family car (the "6" indicated a six-cylinder engine), and was of an era when European cars were starting to show a strong American influence stylewise — note the tail fins (better late than never!), whitewall tyres, and the squared-off design (especially in the roof area). Matchbox introduced #33B in 1963, and all of them were one shade or another of the green in the photo above. Ford came out with the full-zized version the year before, and it lasted until 1966. — jc

#22B - Vauxhall Cresta

This British sedan, which I had never heard of at the time, was the first Matchbox I bought. We won't go into how many years ago it was, other than to say I probably bought it with my 25¢ weekly allowance, and had to save for over two weeks to come up with the cash. The original release year was 1958, and the color scheme was a shade of cream, if you will. Other colors followed, and the one I ended up with was the gold you see in the photo above. — jc