HOW IT ALL BEGAN...
As a child in the early to mid-50s, I had a number of Matchbox toys which I kept in a biscuit tin. My first Matchbox toy was a 22A Vauxhall, which I received for my seventh birthday. I played with these under the house or in a disused quarry near our house.
In the mid 70s I sold all my childhood Matchbox toys with a train set for $50. In the early 80s, I was waiting for appointment in Sydney, when I saw a model car shop and decided to browse. I saw one of my childhood favourites, the 34A VW Microvan. I puchased this and the bug had bitten.
I've been through all the phases - buying chipped models, upgrading, changing directions, going back to the old directions, wishing I'd stayed there in the first place, etc, etc. Recently I realised that I was trying to collect too much, and have decided to stay with the areas listed below.


WHAT I COLLECT

I collect any miniature toy car with "regular" type wheels, generally pre-1970, body colour and decal variations only. These include:

Matchbox 1-75 Regular Wheels - body casting, body colour, decal and box variations only.
• Matchbox pre- 1970 Major Packs, Accessory Packs, Yesteryear, Roadways, catalogues.
• Lesney Superfast -
major body casting, body colour and decals.

Post-Lesney Superfast - one of each casting.

• O
ther "regular wheel" type miniatures - Ben Bros, Best Box, Britains Lilliputs (including animals), Budgie, Charbens,  Dinky, Dublo Dinky, Fun-Ho, Guisval, Husky, Lone Star Impy, Mercury, Mini Dinky, Penny, Schuco, Streamlux.

• Matchbox mimics -
cheap copy-cat toys based on 50s and 60s Matchbox miniatures.

• Australian -
Mini Biante (one of each casting), Autoart, 1:64 Australian buses.

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Part of my Lesney 1-75 collection

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Service station action

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Two childhood favourites

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A London street

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More childhood favourites

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Some harder to get models