# Matchbox Panzer II out of box



## Faust (Dec 1, 2012)

I’ve always had an interest in armour, but I only ever built a couple of tanks when I was much younger, and I didn’t think that much of the experience. However, with time, I’ve thought that maybe building another tank is something I could try, since I have improved my modelling quite a bit in the intervening decades. The thing is, I really don’t like having to buy all kinds of photoetch and resin stuff, and that seems to be a big part of the tank models I see.

I just wanted something simple. Something like a Matchbox plane, but as a tank. Well, that’s exactly what I found! I came across a guy selling a bunch of old Matchbox 1/76 armour kits at a flea market a while ago and bought a big lot of little tanks! 

I decided to bust one out and see what it was like. It looks like a blast! I think I might be getting dragged over to the dark side! Check out my out of box review for the old Matchbox Panzer II Ausf. F: I figured I might as well start small…

* https://adamrehorn.wordpress.com/176-matchbox-panzer-ii-ausf-f/*


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## StarCruiser (Sep 28, 1999)

People often give Matchbox kits a hard time - I always thought they were pretty good for the era. 1970's Airfix kits were definitely more crude than a contemporary Matchbox kit.

Some of their later aircraft kits were also pretty decent by the standards of the day...


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

The thing with Airfix is that even by the mid 70s, many of their armor kits were 10-20 years old already. The first ones came out in the 1950s.

Matchbox was funny - really hit or miss. Most of their armor kits are half way decent, though. The planes varied wildly with some like the P-12 being excellent, and some like the P-40 being horrible.


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## StarCruiser (Sep 28, 1999)

Yep - Airfix tried to "rest on their laurels" for a while (didn't work well).

I have a P-12E somewhere and yea, it's pretty nice, so is the Hawker Fury...


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

StarCruiser said:


> Yep - Airfix tried to "rest on their laurels" for a while (didn't work well).
> 
> I have a P-12E somewhere and yea, it's pretty nice, so is the Hawker Fury...


Not really... Airfix continued to put out new kits and Airfix kits of the same time period of the Matchbox kits are generally superior. By the mid-late 70s Airfix was doing some really good kits. 

While Airfix improved over time, Matchbox, ultimately, was rather stagnant. Although they had some decent kits in most years, their style and overall quality remained unchanged when they did their final models. Compare, say, the 1970s Airfix B-26 to the Matchbox kit from the same time period - night and day. The Airfix kit is still excellent today and the Matchbox kit is best forgotten.


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## Cro-Magnon Man (Jun 11, 2001)

I built that kit in the late 70's along with most of the Matchbox 1/76 tanks, Faust, and your link just reminded me what good box art those Matchbox kits had. I also liked them for having scenic bases and a couple of figures, which to my simple mind was greatly superior to an Airfix kit that didn't! They also produced tanks that Airfix has still never got round to. I believe some or all of those Matchbox vehicles are now available as Revell kits, identifiable by the 1/76 scale in a stack of Revell when others are 1/72.


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

Yes Revell bought the Matchbox molds when they went bankrupt a couple decades ago. It seems some of the kits have been run in Revell produced Matchbox boxes from China. I came across a couple "new" Matchbox kits in the old packing but a more recent date and a "made in China" sticker on the box.


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## Faust (Dec 1, 2012)

Whoa, what? 

So, they're in "Matchbox" packaging, but they're Revell Germany repops, made in China? 

Is this some kind of weird bootleg thing?

Does anyone have any pics of this?

I did just find out that all the "Orange" series armour has been repopped by Revell of Germany; I don't know if it's super-recently or not, though.


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

Faust said:


> Whoa, what?
> 
> So, they're in "Matchbox" packaging, but they're Revell Germany repops, made in China?
> 
> ...


No they aren't bootlegs. I think that at some point after Revell bought Matchbox, they reissued some of the kits under the Matchbox name not Revell. For example, Revell also packaged some Italeri and Renwal armor in Matchbox boxes, although those were not even Matchbox kits to start with.

I think two of the Revell Chicom kits were the Char B1/Renault and the Krupp Protze truck. I forget now. I had bought a bunch of Matchbox kits some years back but boxed them up. THey weren't as nice as I had remembered them being. I may have thrown them out. I can't remember if they had the multi color plastic or not. Somehow I think they came in one color like grey or sand, but I forget. They were mainstream kits though. I bought them from one of my wholesalers. Probably Stevens or Great Planes.


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## Cro-Magnon Man (Jun 11, 2001)

It's interesting to see Matchbox kits having the same sort of after-life under different packaging as happens to, say, Aurora kits - same mold, different box and instructions, different colour plastic and so on. 

I've just been looking at which old Matchbox kits are up for sale on ebay, and a few came up - Chafee, Panzer II, Churchill (or Cromwell, can't remember) Bridge Layer, Jagdpanther, Puma, T34, Char B set, LRDG set, Comet, and one or two others. For 'entry-level' kits they weren't too bad compared to what else was available in my local model shops at the time, and I wish I'd kept all their boxes for the box art!


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

Matcbox had some gobbed up kits too like the Wespe self propelled howitzer that came with Afrika Korps markings, a desert base and a Rommel figure - yet the Wespe was never used in North Africa at all.


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## Cro-Magnon Man (Jun 11, 2001)

I'd forgotten the Wespe, but I had that kit - I remember thinking that the standing commander looked like Rommel. Didn't they make the same mistake with the Panther tank, showing it in a desert setting when it was never deployed there?


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

Cro-Magnon Man said:


> I'd forgotten the Wespe, but I had that kit - I remember thinking that the standing commander looked like Rommel. Didn't they make the same mistake with the Panther tank, showing it in a desert setting when it was never deployed there?


I think so... I know Airfix did. I think the British kit companies put everything in desert markings because that was their main WW2 claim to fame as far as any offensive capacity on their own.


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## Faust (Dec 1, 2012)

I have the Panther, and it's hard to say what kind of diorama base it's on. It could be desert, but it's a bit rockier and it does has an anemic tree with it. The box art looks desert-y at first, but the little description says the fighting is in Salerno. Could be that, too.

I don't know for sure; did the Panther serve against the Allied landings in Salerno?


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

No Panthers were used at Salerno, although they did fight in Italy. The Matchbox kit is more or less a late Ausf. G, but the D or A were the tanks used in Italy. If the G was used there it would be an early G. Of course historical accuracy was not very important with Matchbox's armor kits


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