Ordinary cars 2

I recently bought three more “ordinary-looking” Matchbox scale models.

1979 Chevy Nova

This seems to be the first time Matchbox has issued a 1979 Chevy Nova. The metalflake light blue color is really beautiful. (The card shows light blue; the actual color on the model is closer to cerulean, which I like more.)

1976 Honda CVCC

This 1976 Honda CVCC in white is very nice. There is a metal column in the rear seats to provide structural support for the scale model. As a child, scale models that had this column bothered me a lot, as I tried and failed to invent an in-universe reason for the column’s existence.

1957 Dodge Sweptside Pickup

I initially didn’t plan on buying this 1957 Dodge Sweptside Pickup because it didn’t look “ordinary.” (It would have looked more “ordinary” if it was in only one color.) But the matte ivory paint and the glossy “red” (more of a reddish-brown, actually) paint was so beautiful that I convinced myself to buy it. I never had a pickup truck scale model when I was a child, and that made me a little sad because I had lots of stories that involved transporting objects and a pickup truck would have been perfect for them. I now have a few pickup trucks, and they’re 1950’s (’56 Ford Pickup, 1956 Powell Sport Pickup) and 1960’s (1961 Ford Ranchero) American makes.

As a child, I only had a few scale models (perhaps less than 20) and one of the “stories” I wanted to play was “traffic jam.” But some of my models didn’t belong to that story (a forklift, a tank, etc.), so I didn’t have enough models to create a realistic traffic jam. I now have enough models to create a traffic jam in theory. (But I would need to remove the models from their packaging for that to happen.)

Ordinary cars

When I started collecting scale models of cars in the late 1990’s, I was attracted to fantasy vehicles. But lately, I’ve been more attracted to very ordinary-looking cars. Among the scale models I recently bought are these three Matchbox models.

1961 Ford Ranchero

I love the sky blue color of this 1961 Ford Ranchero. (That’s the name on the card. But the base has the name “1961 Ford Falcon Ranchero.”) The plastic base is white, which is fine, but I think gray would have been a better color.

1970 Ford Capri

This seems to be the first time Matchbox has released this 1970 Ford Capri. While the Matchbox Cars Wiki lists its color as “silver,” my image above doesn’t truly capture the beautiful metal flake paint. The plastic base is gray, which is a perfect match. It reminds me of my ’71 Nissan Skyline 2000 GTX. I should get an extra copy of this car so I can take it out of the packaging and play with it.

Chevy Caprice Classic

I saved the best for last. This is the first Chevrolet Caprice scale model that I have seen in person. While I would have preferred a 1991 Chevrolet Caprice, I’m fine with this ’94 Chevy Caprice Classic Police (the name on the base) because it has the pointed rear quarter windows and skirted rear wheel wells that I really like. In 1995, the pointed rear quarter windows were replaced with ones that had a Hofmeister kink. But Wikipedia states that the skirted rear wheel wells were replaced with open wheel wells in 1993, so the car shown above is most likely a 1991 or 1992 model.