Hungarian Diecast: május 2010

2010. május 20., csütörtök

Diecast Toys - Made in Hungary: Metchy

Due to the three big diecast manufacturer (Siku, Corgi, Matchbox) the Hungarian diecasts was the biggest part of the domestic toy market in Hungary at the end of 80's with 12-18 billion HUF (without exports) (HUF = Hungarian Forint - approximately 1$ = 100HUF in 1988).

The early 80's the spending power of the toy market was in big increase. The main reason was very clear - lot of children - who born the end of the 70's - grow up and reach the "car age". This tendency was quite a good turnout at the diecast toy market at this time.

After all the toy commerce was in trouble in Hungary because the manufacturer don"t able to produce enough diecast toy and usually these goods was very expensive even so the build quality wasn't very good at all. In this situation a lot on unofficial or illegal factory, dealer and stores established as expected.

Some small factory had no enough resources to develop and built a new model so they had just copy the biggest diecast makers cars as well. Sometimes they buy up the old and remaining Hungarian made Siku, Matchbox, Corgi diecast parts and after the assembly they sell their modell under the well-known company logo (for example: Matchbox – Metalbox, Siku - Rexi).

The other way was to built a "brand new" production line with the remaining (or stolen, "lost") mold and machinery. It was very common at this time because the political situation wasn't very clear in Hungary at late 80's - early 90's. (The socialist era is collapsed a few months later.) These factories put on the market their diecast cars very quickly but sometimes a poor quality.

Sometimes we got a lot of misinformation or a halfinformation for these products, because these diecast toys production wasn't fully documented. I try to fill my list as correct as possible but it should be exist another variaton of Hungarian diecast copys as well. That is why I can't indicate the cars color in my list because these models should be exist several color variations as well.

Diecast toys Made in Hungary - Metchy:

Porsche 928 (illegal copy of Matchbox Porsche 928 SF-59) usuallay has got a varied sticker on hood and doors
Jeep CJ-5 (illegal copy of Majorette Jeep CJ-5)

Porsche 928 (photo: Breki Finnland)

(photo: Breki Finnland)

Jeep CJ-5 (photo: http://zh1968.hp.infoseek.co.jp)

2010. május 17., hétfő

Diecast Toys - Made in Hungary: Matchbox

After the Corgi get a deal the Matchbox - the other biggest diecast company - wanted to get a contract with one of the socialist era country too. In first step the Matchbox choose the small firm - Metalbox GMK who already produce a diecast and plastic toy before (see also: Corgi) - because they already had a basic knowledge, tooling practices for the requested operation.

The Metalbox GMK and Matchbox get a contract according with the authorization of the Hungarian Ministry of Trading - (in Hungarian = KERMI - Kereskedelmi Minisztérium) to produce diacast car 100pc pre-production and 10.000pc standardized-production per type. (We have no information about the exact final product number).

The Matchbox transfered all required manufacturing machine in Hungary according their contract than the production is started of october in 1986 till working the official 1988 ending.

The finishing of the production was an economical and strategic decision because the Matchbox gave an authorisation to Metalbox to sell their products only the socialist and domestic market and the Matchbox had no garantee the economical interoperability and the producing quality after the socialist era was collapsed. Their prognosis came true with the Bulgarian made Matchbox, and the company left the socialist era in end of 1988 / early of 1989.

Matchbox / Metalbox diecast toys Made in Hungary:

MB17-D/9-E AMX Prostocker (Silver, Gold, Yellow, Red Metal)
MB20-B Range Rover Police Patrol (Cream, Green) – w chess-board tampo
MB23-A Volkswagen Camper Dormobile (Emerald, Orange, White – w Pizza tampo)
MB25-A Ford Cortina (White, Silver, Red)
MB27-A Mercedes 230SL (Silver, Red Metal)
MB39-B Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow (Red, Red Metal)
MB41-A Ford GT 40 (Yellow, Silver, White, Red, Blue) – w stripe on the hood
MB45-B BMW 3.0 CSL (Blue, Narancs, Silver Metal) – every second car has a BMW sign on their hood
MB51-B Citroen SM (Green, Blue, Red, White)
MB53-C Jeep CJ6 (Red, Blue, White)

The Hungarian made Matchbox's officially had no any difference than the "normal" Matchbox ones but sometimes the Metalbox use a different wheel, paint color, and packing type. Especially with the CJ6, AMX Prostocker, VW Camper, Ford GT.