When I was a kid, one of the cereal companies offered a special chrome hot wheels car called the Boss Hoss. For a couple of box tops and some money for shipping, they would send one to you. I am now 63 years old, and still have this car sitting on my desk.
I had both growing up. Hot Wheels were used for fun and excitement with their tracks. Matchbox were used for serious playing. Like driving on pretend roads, obeying traffic rules etc. When I think about it, very rarely were they played with together.
This is correct. Hot Wheels was GTA or Forza; and Matchbox was more driving simulator. Micro Machines were for when you *really* needed to sneak a toy car to school.
My story with hotwheels (car guy): my wife and I started trying for a kid, so everytime we went to a store id check out the hot wheels and only buy REAL cars so when they were old enough I could teach them about each model. Unfortunately there were multiple miscarriages and infertility issues, and my wife was just distraught BUT for 3 years I kept buying hotwheels to show her a sign of optimism. My son just graduated from kindergarten and we now have a collection of probably 600 cars.
@@DA_PROYT_LOL maybe, we do have 10 different falken tire cars with the teal/blue livery and my favorite is the purple rwb. Did scoop up a godzilla edition r32 skyline and a yellow and white liberty walk s15 that i havent let him touch yet lol
@@BenjaminWilley-j1oTomica tend to add detail nicely, whereas some Hotwheels or Matchbox cars have misprints or paint chips. But I have all of them and love all of them.
Does that include ChoroQ as well? I don’t know how popular they are in Japan still, but I remember playing a few of the games on the PS2 back in the day.
@@AbandonedRavenChoroQ is still popular in Japan and some are now collectibles. Yes, they are in the same group as Tomica as both are product lineups from the same parent company, Takara Tomy.
They sold Tomica’s in the States under the name Pocket Cars, this was back in the 1970’s, they were my favourites, MatchBox was 2nd, I still buy Tomy N gauge trains as an adult!
same, I never wanted the batmobiles and all that. matchbox also made more average cars that hotwheels never did. you had a good chance at getting a matchbox version of someone you knows car.
I'm 47 and feel the same. I preferred the realism of matchbox cars vs the more fantasy based hot wheels. I feel like matchbox was more popular with our generation and hot wheels became more popular later.
In the late 80's I used to eat Hot Wheels cereal for breakfast in the morning. At the time they had a promotion going on where they included sticker packs in the cereal boxes. The top sticker on the sticker pack gave you a chance to win the new California Customs set. One day I opened the cereal box and found I had won. I mailed it in to redeem my prize but the company couldn't send me a complete set so they ended sending me a big box full of a variety of hot wheels cars worth about $300. That day was better than any Christmas morning I can ever remember.
Born in 92, I always opted for Matchbox for the exact reason of their intention, realism. I always thought that Hot Wheels looked too animated and cartoonish. All a preference, but definitely preferred Matchbox. Today, it seems that Hot Wheels offers a lot of more realistic cars.
Also 92 baby here and yes if you wanted an accurate version of cars on the road you opted for matchbox cars, but I will say Hot Wheels had the better tracks. I also would mix Hot Wheels and Matchbox together as a kid which was considered heresy by some of my friends 😮
Matchbox was the superior choice for me as a kid. I liked the realism. HotWheels were too crazy and I always thought the quality was less than matchbox cars
i had the matchbox fire engine, didn't look fast or cool but it would beat any hot wheels on the track due to its larger metal content/mass--loved that thing
Ha ha nice! I don't remember that, but I remember the episode of Powerpuff Girls when Buttercup made Blossom's hair look like a Hot Wheels racetrack. 😂❤
I have one Matchbox from my 7th birthday. It is stamped “Matchbox Speedfast No3 Porsche Turbo Made in England 1978 Lesney Products & Co.” Fast forward many years, schools, colleges, jobs, 2 grown kids, an ex wife, 22 motorcycles, 30ish cars, and I still have it in pristine condition. Also on my second Porsche 911 probably because of this $0.50 toy I received when I was 7… I’ve picked up some modern Hot Wheels Porsches, but that 1978 Matchbox will always be with me. It started everything.
I’m almost 37 and I’ve been a car enthusiast since I was born. I had tons of toy cars and plenty from each company. I typically preferred Hot Wheels because the cars felt heavier/sturdier and were definitely smoother when rolled. I was also big into custom paint jobs and stuff which hot wheels catered more towards. I also thoroughly enjoyed my Matchbox cars as well though. I’m glad both companies are still around.
when i was a kid, hot wheels were in the Kaybee toys, but matchbox was at the hobby store. hot wheels were all on the pegs on the rack, but the matchbox cars were in a spinning display case and you had to ask the worker to see them; if you wanted to buy one, they would open up a drawer to get one out. it definitely made the matchbox cars seem more prestigious and valuable.
As a poor kid in the 90s, *Matchbox* were my favorite. They were always being sold by the fistful at secondhand shops and garage sales. They had a simplicity that Hot Wheels lacked and added much needed realism to my 6 year old playtime. Regular people didn’t drive around in souped-up sports cars. Plus Matchbox had a better selection of emergency service and work vehicles. And trucks! Most of us had both brands back then, though. Hot Wheels were flashier and fun to race, especially if someone managed to keep all the pieces to their tracks.
I'm also a poor kid who bought bags of Matchbox at thrift stores. Another thing to consider is that a lot of the appeal of Hot Wheels is playing with the big fancy playsets with tracks, which were more expensive and I never had as a kid. I was lucky to get mom to buy me one car for a dollar at the supermarket checkout, I'd never convince her to get me a big playset. And so those cars I got at the checkout were Matchbox which at least for me were more fun to have
Yeah i wound up with a ton of beat up old lesney England matchbox cars going to thrift stores and stuff. The blue land rover was definitely my favorite along with the ford galaxie police car. Still have them today, just with even more paint chipped off than when i first found them lol
I stopped collecting because of them and gave everything to a friend’s kid. Every model you’d want would be sniped by employees or friends of employees in my area. It’s not even speculation like every car culture set comes 2 full sets to a box and there was many times Id stop in while on the road at like opening of target/walmart or wherever and there’d be 2 of every mode but one in the set. The most desirable and scalpable model everytime. They wouldn’t even bother completing the set just grab the one they can screw people with.
As a child I never really knew the difference. I just knew I have multiple of those Hot Wheels briefcases full of cars from both companies somewhere in my parents' garage right now 😂
I was there at the origin of Hot Wheels. I was eight years old. Hot Wheels were designed to race on their own tracks, but Matchbox were not. Matchbox cars were collectable replicas that rolled, but did not race. Neither I nor my friends compared them. They were for different audiences. The competition for Hot Wheels was Johnny Lightening by Topper. I collected both.
@@wellmike I would agree. I grew up in the 70s. Matchbox seemed 'mature' (as the original comment said, they were more about collecting) and Dinky toys seemed to be for really young kids. Having fast cars and plastic tracks that you could build yourself was amazing. Plus, as you said, the bright orange track pieces worked well as swords, spears, etc. haha
I had the Hot Wheels Spiral Speedway as a kid, then I tried running some cheap-s**t toy car I bought at a dollar store through it. I recall having problems getting the car through the revving thing, so I revved it as fast as I could, sent that car through it, and it shot out in pieces and flew across the room. Pretty funny in retrospect. Lol
If you were like me, and your favorite thing to do with your Hot Wheels or Matchbox cars was to smash them to bits with rocks, and then ask mom for more, there were no significant differences between the brands. Those plastic Key Cars didn't last long though. Eventually, my parents figured out that if they bought me plastic model cars instead, I would glue them together, smash them up, and reglue them together for more smashing.
The most interesting fact I learned from this video is where the word 'dinky car' comes from, which is usually used to describe a tiny toy car that is not hotwheels or matchbox and usually of a lower quality.
Born in 66 I remember Hot Wheels more than Matchbox. Now having my son so late in life (55) , I'm hooked again. We have so many cars, we have two Hot wheel Suitcase style car transporter. Al started buying Matchbox city & hot wheel city set's and created a little city.
I love playing both of those brands as a kid. I love the adventure and saving the day aspect of Matchbox and the racing, fast paced action of Hot Wheels.
As a car enthusiast. I've spent way too much money on these. I had whole totes filled with them as a kid to play with. And I collect them as an adult. I have probably close to 300 right now. Small numbers in the collectors world. I have to play a game to limit myself. I'm not allowed to dig through the racks, I can only buy from the first row. And I'm personally only interested in models of real cars, so I pass on the fantasy ones. But I do enjoy trying to find all the different color ways as well. I'm working on lining my garage wall with them. My favorite is a red Honda s2000 that perfectly matches my full-sized track prepped s2000.
That's what is great about matchbox, you can get mini versions of the real thing. I also am a modest collector as an adult. The excuse for me is always they are for the boys, but when I buy the boys a couple I buy myself a couple "special" ones as well. Don't know if I have a favorite, but one of my favorites I have had since I was a kid is the "1983" Corvette, which is cool in it's irony in that there was never an actual Corvette made for that model year. My matchbox was made in '82 and was likely in anticipation of a real version that never actually existed.
I used to work at Target, and a guy would come in as we were stocking and loom behind us, waiting to see what we had. It was kind of annoying, but we finally gave in and just let him look through the boxes before we hung them up. I realized eventually that he was trying to start a bonding hobby with his young son, who really didn't seem to care. I'll bet that kid will, some day, remember good times with his well-meaning dad...
Commenting at 00:15... This was a rivalry briefly when they werent both owned by mattel. This hasnt been a true rivalry in a lifetime. BTW Johnny Lightning and AutoWorld are a parallel situation. Hot Wheels vs Johnny Lightning or Greenlight would be more genuine.
Being 80's kid from Europe, I'm a Matchbox guy all the way. There really weren't that much Hot Wheels around in Scandinavia back in the day, and while both have sell some nice models, Matchbox still has a certain flair to it.
I now have 3 Hot Wheels: 2 Ford Falcons, and a Holden Monaro. Waiting decades for them to produce Australian cars. One of the Falcons is the XB series coupe, same as shown at: 00:34. Bit too custom looking, so I'm converting to real riders wheels, and repainting it to look like a GT351.
I was eight when hot wheels were introduced, so was already a Matchbox kid. I fell in love with hot wheels too, but retained a preference for matchbox and continued collecting them into adulthood. I had probably 4,000 at one point though I’ve sold some off. I regret selling my hot wheels as a teenager though, as they would now be worth many thousands of dollars. The collector market for Matchbox is much smaller and the prices are a fraction of those for hot wheels of similar eras. I still have a few rare matchbox items. In the mid-60s they offered a moving van, first in dark blue then in green, with logos for Pickfords moving company. This toy was also used as a promotional item for the Beales Bealsons department store, painted tan with the Beales Bealsons logo. These were only available at the department store, and have long been one of the most desirable Matchbox items. I have two, one in excellent condition and one more played-with. I believe this was Lesney’s first promotional model contract, though other brands like Dinky and the Danish company Tekno had long histories of them.
Thinking back on it, my preference for Matchbox cars as a kid might be one of the first times I developed my own "taste" for things. And I just instinctively liked the more realistic Matchbox cars better than the more fanciful Hot Wheels cars. It's not something I thought through ... it was just automatic. And since then I've pretty consistently preferred detailed and aesthetically pleasing but non-flashy or outrageous things of any kind, or any art.
You're not old, just "seasoned!" And still having those cars after all these years is impressive. I don't have half of my collection of wrestling figures, and I'd give almost anything to have them again.
I still have my match box / corgi /hot wheels from when I was a kid in those match box carry cases a blue 70’s double stack 2x80’s triple tray and a blue hard plastic double tray
Good on you guys! Keep your cars my dad kept his, and trust me he did himself a favour i keep them in my collection as he gifted them to me! Love them, don’t let your love die out for them
I was born in 1974 and Matchbox is what I grew up with. My favorites were the Planetary Explorer from ‘75, the ‘76 VW Golf with removable surf boards, the ‘76 Swamp Rat, and the ‘77 Jeep CJ6 - which began my love of the Jeep brand. Earlier this year I was finally able to afford my very first Jeep, which has become my daily driver. ❤️
My cousin woke up on his 18th b'day and found a b'day card and a matchbox van on his breakfast plate. Outside, on the driveway, was the life size van, same color and everything. Pretty cool.
You need an updated UPS vs FedEx video. I imagine those two companies have changed quite a bit since 2020. UPS sold their freight line, Fred Smith retired, etc.
The other tie in ( in the USA ) is the relationship between these companies and the USPS . Many times the previously mentioned companies do the long haul and the USPS the last mile.
@@bobroberts2371 UPS has some sort of contract with USPS where a percentage of UPS surepost packages are delivered to the post office by UPS, then delivered to residents by USPS. not all surepost, and no ground, or air.
I think LEGO is the largest toy company in the world right now due to overall profits since their products are larger and more expensive, but I wouldn't be surprised if Hot Wheels still sells more units because they're small and affordable. You just make less profit per unit when they're small.
Great video. A big controversy with these toy cars when I was a kid was that the paint used to contain lead. And kids being kids they will put anything in their mouth, including these cars.
As a child growing up in the early 70s I had plenty of "little cars" as we called them. I had both Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars and a few other knock off brands. I was obsessed with them too. We had a pharmacy that had a huge case with rows of these little cars right at the register to leave. I always got whoever brought me there to buy one because they were cheap. I had a great collection that I lost over time but I was always a Hot Wheels guy because of the tracks and cool looking cars. But I liked Matchbox too. They are the more realistic brand. It is cool to see at least one toy from my youth still being popular among kids today. They are the best toy ever. You can play with them for hours and still play with again the next day on a different adventure. But again good to see they are still healthy and popular among kids and are in many kids lives still. Great video as always.
I'm a big diecast fan and collector, myself, so seeing this video come up put a big smile on my face. What's really something is just how vast the diecast car market is and has been for decades. You also had Topper's Johnny Lightning line (later acquired by ERTL, then Playing Mantis, Tomy (more on them further down in this comment), and now the rights are owned by Round2 (more about them below, as well), but still manufactured by Tomy, IIRC), there was also Tomy's Tomica line (in it's earlier years, sold in the US as Pocket Cars), Corgi (including their Hot Wheels competitor, Whizzwheels, a part of the Corgi Juniors line, formerly Husky), Racing Champions (mainly known for their NASCAR diecast, now solely sold in their Mint lineup), France's Majorette, Zee Toys/Zylmex, Welly, MotorMax, etc. Nowadays, you've also got brands like Jada Toys (now owned by Simba Dickie, who also owns Majorette, and Jada distributes Majorettes in the US market), Castline Inc.'s M2 Machines, Greenlight, Mattel's Disney Cars line, as well as the aforementioned Round2... Round2 was founded by former Playing Mantis owner Thomas Lowe, and started with their self-made Auto World line, and over time acquiring the rights to the Johnny Lightning, Racing Champions, as well as the AMT model kit brand (which had previously been bought by Lesney in 1979). To be honest, I think the topics of Johnny Lightning, and in connection, Round2 LLC, as well as Tomy (also known as Takara Tomy, as they were the result of a merger between Takara and Tomy) could be great material for future videos. Maybe a Tomy video could even have a segment on the joint venture between Takara and Mattel on the first generation of Transformers.
This was really interesting. In Singapore, the Japanese brand Tomica is also really popular (more so than matchbox). They do have quite a bit of collaboration with popular kids movies and disney, and they have realistic versions of Japanese and Korean cars.
I'm in the U.S. I had one single Tomica car, a Porsche 959 GT race car. It was the "special" car of my collection that I hardly played with to keep it in good condition. I don't know where it even came from, my dad brought it home to me after a business trip back in the 1980's. I still have it and I looked it up and it is fairly valuable for a single open box diecast. It is very nice and detailed and you can remove the back end of the frame to reveal a detailed engine below. I don't think I ever recalled seeing Tomica cars for sale anywhere, but occasionally you would run into one here in there in a friend's collection. I have a few other oddball ones, but that Tomica Porsche was always my prized pick of the collection.
Tomica make Korean cars? As a diecast collector with an interest in Tomica, that's surprising - as you probably know, Japan does not rate Korean things at all normally, and their range in Japan has no Korean models. Do they have a Singapore-exclusive range?
11:03 I was born in 1960. I had matchbox cars before I had any Hot wheels. Viceroy had a line of hard rubber cars they were pretty much indestructible but had a funky smell about them, they kind of smelled like sweet sour milk, I suppose you had to be there. I have seen a few nice collections of Matchbox and Hot wheels toy cars and kind of wish I didn't play so hard with mine when I was a kid as they were all scraped up and the plastic windows would be broken from making them crash hard. My favourite diecast car was the Batmobile from the 1966 TV series, I remember it had a little plastic flame that came out the back when you rolled it on the floor.
I have both i literally never understood taking sides. They both miniature toy cars who had cars that had doors opened and hoods opened. it's not that big of a deal.
@@pp3k3jamail Hot Wheels tends to do modified cars, performance models and race cars, MBX does boring trim levels. Even when both brands do the same car the Hot Wheels one tends to look like a custom modified version.
Ive basically had hot wheels/matchbox cars my entire life, I amassed 100s of cars when I was a child and I continued to buy them into my adult life. Ive had endless amounts of fun with these over the years, from the time my dad covered the xmas tree in them one year to all the endless racing and even just simply rolling them on a desk I have very fond memories of hot wheels. They also nurtured my knowledge of cars from a young age, I taught myself lots of the makes/models by simply reading the bottom of the car. Scalpers tend to ruin it a lot of the time but the cars have impacted me in such a way where Ill just keep coming back to buy more no matter what
As a kid I never knew there were two such makers and pretty much blanket them all under "hot wheels". Now that I shop for my son, I came across both and I have seen my son prefer matchbox over hot wheels because of their realistic models.
As a kid i loved matchbox but as an Adult i collect Hot wheels, They make Adult collectable versions now called (Hot Wheels premium / real riders) These are designed for adults with metal/metal chassis, rubber tires and detailed paint and details. Exact replicas of an original car/ race car. A complete game changer in my eyes, they dont just make crazy fantasy cars anymore guys
If you like adult collectables brands like Inno64 and Tarmac Works make the different Hot Wheels high end lines look like toys. Only the old 100%s line compares to the more serious 1:64 scale model brands.
viewer from the UK here. I was born in 1980 and during my childhood Hot Wheels weren't really a big thing here in the UK. You could get them but only in big toy stores and they were expensive as I recall. You could buy matchbox cars at your local corner shop, and to my mind they were far more popular than hot wheels. Hot wheels were seen as a bit chintzy and a bit showy, whereas matchbox were the real deal, and they were cheap, you could buy them in your local shop and they had great detail and were fun to play with. I'm sad that Hot Wheels won out, although I'm not surprised that their popularity in the US eclipsed that of Matchbox. The same commercial pressures that made the Hot Wheels cars more expensive here probably did the same for Matchbox there, and American taste is often a little different to that of Europeans. I still have a collection of Matchbox cars from my childhood, but my 9 year old Nephew uses the term 'hot wheels' to describe any 1:64 scale die cast car now, which I find rather sad.
I was a Matchbox kid, mostly because my dad had made a sandbox in the backyard to play in. Matchbox trucks had trucks that were Off-Road trucks. Hot-Wheels trucks couldn't mud run haha.
When I was a kid, hot wheels were 97 cent a piece. One birthday my pops was like...pick out 100. I let my brother pick 50 and I 50...on top of the hundreds I already owned
As a kid, I loved hot wheels. As I got older I started liking the more realistic cars that hot wheels made, especially the fast and furious ones back in the early 2000s. Eventually I started appreciating the realistic matchbox ones. Now, I love looking at matchbox cars to see if they have my car in stock. I know I can order it online but the casual hunt at random stores for a mazda 3 hatchback is how I get my excitement now.
I have both toys... Mtchbox is more from my father's time and Hot wheels is more from my time. But I have both and always respected the realism that matchbox had.
The best part of this video is seeing all of the Matchbox fans come out of the woodwork. Like many other middle aged guys here, I had a strong preference for Matchbox over Hot Wheels as a kid due to the realism of the cars. Although I wasn't opposed to ever getting a Hot Wheels and owned plenty, I kind of saw kids that enjoyed all the flames, disproportionate sizing, and shark cars over a realistic car as the types of kids that would eat glue at school.
Your video was very interesting. I'm going to give testimony from someone outside the USA. Hotwhells arrived in my country in 1991, before that we had other brands of diecasts manufactured under license from Europe such as Majorette (France), Corgi (England) and Siku (Germany). Matchbox was considered a premium brand in my country in the 70s and 80s. It was even sold by mail. With the arrival of Hotwheels, I saw a company in my country (Mattel outsourced sales). Today the market is taken over more by adult collectors who buy more matchbox and premium lines that come from Asia (you should make a video of this). Mattel still has logistics and sales volume in its favor, but it is not preferred outside the USA and without meaning to offend, it is a very large market (especially since the Chinese are opening up to this hobby). I believe that in 5 or 10 years it may be necessary to review this video you produced.
At 67, I’ve been collecting for 36 years now. Matchbox, Dinky and Corgi are what I loved to play with before Hot Wheels came along. Where I lived in Canada HWs were not as common yet I had a few cool ones(e.g. Custom Fleetside), Matchbox was still outselling HWs for several years after their launch. As a teen I was more interested in model car kits since they were accurate scale versions of real cars that I loved. Thanks to Mattel, I’m loving Matchbox as much as Hot Wheels!
I'm a big collector of both brands, but Hot Wheels still has the edge for me. One big thing to note about Hot Wheels as a toy line and collector brand is its proloferation into Premium themes that appeal to collectors. movie licensure, car related games, iconic racers, and just an overall showcase of sporty or classy real life vehicles has exploded the industry. In addition, Hot Wheels has been some of the longest running toys that incorporate non-mystery chase pieces into the retail line. Unlike sealed packs from trading cards or unintentionally scarce production variations, Hot Wheels put out the Treasure Hunt themed cars in '95 which has morphed itself over the last 29 years. These marked packages were limited run or specially designed cars that kept adults hunting. All this and the popularity of high detailed online membership collectible cars from the Redline Club has kept Hot Wheels on top of all other brands out there.
Early 70s kid. I wondered even then who was playing with Matchbox as they were so outclassed by Hot Wheels. After a long tour of duty in my mother's fifth grade homeroom, my Hot Wheels collection came back to me in my late 20s when she retired. You were a gem, Mom. RIP.
Corgi was the most desirable cars because they were the most realistic. Matchbox was not as good but still ok. Hotwheels was for kids that didn't play with cars but liked to throw their things at a wall as hard as possible. =)
As a kid I didn't care whether it was Hot Wheels or Matchbox (though I certainly knew the difference between them and loved both), I just loved diecast cars. My mom used to buy them for me every time she had a coupon for Matchbox or Hot Wheels while we were out shopping, so I amassed a collection of likely several hundred over the years. Eventually though, she started looking at the overflowing box of toy cars and asking me occasionally to pick my favorites so we could donate the rest. As a kid it felt awful, but as an adult I don't even remember what we donated so I guess I didn't miss them. Plus we kept getting more cars anyway so the pain quickly faded. Anyway... I definitely preferred Hot Wheels for all its exciting creative designs, and it certainly influenced my taste in cars today (I can't stand the anonymous greyscale blobs that plague the roads, gimme something flashy and colorful!), but I also appreciated Matchbox for being more realistic and making normal cars. I used to play with the cars as if they were characters, so different cars had different roles, and some roles are better suited to normal cars, so the Matchbox cars got played with just as much.
50 yrs old here. Always preferred Matchbox because of the higher detail level. I liked seeing “ real “ cars that I could aspire to owning and I just liked the variety Matchbox offered. Of course I had both brands and enjoyed them all. True story : I had a few favs that I would actually wax with a little bit of Simoniz from my dad.
As a kid growing up in 80's Britain, it was Matchbox all the way. I preferred the realism compared to the fantasy look of some Hot Wheels. However, my favourite brand was Majorette. With their white base and clear lid packaging, working suspension, opening doors and if lucky you'd have a french brand with glazed yellow lights. Quite exotic for an 8 year old in the UK.
I was Matchbox all the way. They had these super realistic highway/city sets you could build and drive on. The roads had real signs and even streetlights. The cars were more detailed and I really got a kick out of finding a car that someone in my family drove. Or a supercar, something like that. Now that I'm older I enjoy the whimsey of Hot Wheels too. I got wild in my old age.
I was born in the early 70s and Matchbox was my preferred toy car. HotWheels always seemed cheap and tacky while Matchbox was far more realistic and they made things other than cars in different scales, like their jet fighters. The cool thing was MB cars were often displayed in rotating, countertop towers with at least 80 cars total on display. You'd spin that thing forever deciding which car you wanted. You'd tell the person at the counter the number of the car you wanted, mom would fork over 50 cents and you got your car. Fast forward to me in my 40s as an HVAC tech. I went to a call at a house where the owner had one of those display cases. I spent several minutes checking out all the cars, pointing out the ones I had as a kid. He had a laugh and told me any time a guy about my age saw the case he'd have to spend several minutes listening to his guest recall all of his favorite toy cars but he really enjoyed seeing the joy on the person's face.
I am 70 and grew up with the Matchbox cars of the 1969's and early 1970s. I liked their realism, attention to detail, and being based on real-life vehicles. To me, Hot Wheels were cartoonish, and even more so today. I understand the appeal of the Hot Wheels cars to the very young kids, but I will always be a Matchbox fan.
I'm 33, and among my favorite toy cars from childhood were Matchbox's 50 states series that included license plates about the same size as the toy cars and the Vipers (and later Hummers) cast with late 90s/early 00s NBA logos. I also think having a Matchbox TV van, fire truck, bus, etc. made my toy car box more complete. That said, I probably chose to buy Hot Wheels 9 times out of 10. There's an aspirational design element to Hot Wheels that I still find appealing.
When I was a kid during the 1970s, the rivalry between Matchbox and Hot Wheels was real. There were kids that strictly collected Matchbox, while others swore by Hot Wheels. Kinda of like Marvel vs DC kids. Hot Wheels just seemed cooler because of the emphasis on souped-up muscle cars. Let's not forget that those orange Hot Wheels tracks made an excellent weapon against your siblings!!
Matchbox being British made more sense after years as a kid (in the USA) wondering why the lights on top of their fire trucks and police cars weee always the “wrong” color. Similarly, Hot Wheels (much) later would make replicas of the Scion FR-S with the steering wheels on the right side of the cars, despite the Scion brand only being marketed in North American countries where cars are all lefthand drive; they were badged as Toyotas everywhere else.
When I was a kid, one of the cereal companies offered a special chrome hot wheels car called the Boss Hoss. For a couple of box tops and some money for shipping, they would send one to you. I am now 63 years old, and still have this car sitting on my desk.
I'm half your age and I actually have a hand-me down of one of those.
My dad got one of those and he handed down his set of cars to me. Thats the top dog of the collection. I’m 27
Yes! I sent for that one too. A very cool H.W. car.
I’m more amazed your 63 and know how to use UA-cam so well.
That’s so cool
I had both growing up. Hot Wheels were used for fun and excitement with their tracks. Matchbox were used for serious playing. Like driving on pretend roads, obeying traffic rules etc.
When I think about it, very rarely were they played with together.
I did the same.🙂 It was fun.
Matchbox was a little goated I think but Hot Wheels was absolutely goated bossman.
I like that!
"Serious playing" 👍
This is correct. Hot Wheels was GTA or Forza; and Matchbox was more driving simulator. Micro Machines were for when you *really* needed to sneak a toy car to school.
@@BasedWarGoose well said. 😀
My story with hotwheels (car guy): my wife and I started trying for a kid, so everytime we went to a store id check out the hot wheels and only buy REAL cars so when they were old enough I could teach them about each model. Unfortunately there were multiple miscarriages and infertility issues, and my wife was just distraught BUT for 3 years I kept buying hotwheels to show her a sign of optimism. My son just graduated from kindergarten and we now have a collection of probably 600 cars.
Lovely story dude… future car guy right there.
My son just turned 3 and have a large collection too. Matchbox City &Hot Wheel city play sets set's is my new vise.
That's HUGE like you have about 20 to 30 of all unique hotwheels (if none of yours are duplicates (
@@DA_PROYT_LOL maybe, we do have 10 different falken tire cars with the teal/blue livery and my favorite is the purple rwb. Did scoop up a godzilla edition r32 skyline and a yellow and white liberty walk s15 that i havent let him touch yet lol
❤❤❤
I'm 49 yrs old and I've been collecting Hot Wheels and Matchbox for 31 years, thanks for this video, brought a smile to my face.
I love that! Never stop collecting!
I grew up in Japan so I played with mainly Tomicas and some Matchbox, Hotwheels, and Majorets.
Tomica cars have suspension and a lot of details on the car and it's cheap as well. So it's the best diecast car. 🙂
@@BenjaminWilley-j1oTomica tend to add detail nicely, whereas some Hotwheels or Matchbox cars have misprints or paint chips. But I have all of them and love all of them.
Does that include ChoroQ as well? I don’t know how popular they are in Japan still, but I remember playing a few of the games on the PS2 back in the day.
@@AbandonedRavenChoroQ is still popular in Japan and some are now collectibles. Yes, they are in the same group as Tomica as both are product lineups from the same parent company, Takara Tomy.
They sold Tomica’s in the States under the name Pocket Cars, this was back in the 1970’s, they were my favourites, MatchBox was 2nd, I still buy Tomy N gauge trains as an adult!
I'm 45, and I much preferred Matchbox as a kid. I only wanted stuff that look like real cars on the road and not some fantasy toy looking thing.
same, I never wanted the batmobiles and all that. matchbox also made more average cars that hotwheels never did. you had a good chance at getting a matchbox version of someone you knows car.
Same here. I'm 48 and only played with Matchbox. Always wanted a van with the tear drop window but never found it 😄
I'm 47 and feel the same. I preferred the realism of matchbox cars vs the more fantasy based hot wheels. I feel like matchbox was more popular with our generation and hot wheels became more popular later.
Yeah kids hate toys and fantasy that makes sense
Yall probably ate corn flakes and watched the saturday morning news too, huh?
In the late 80's I used to eat Hot Wheels cereal for breakfast in the morning. At the time they had a promotion going on where they included sticker packs in the cereal boxes. The top sticker on the sticker pack gave you a chance to win the new California Customs set. One day I opened the cereal box and found I had won. I mailed it in to redeem my prize but the company couldn't send me a complete set so they ended sending me a big box full of a variety of hot wheels cars worth about $300. That day was better than any Christmas morning I can ever remember.
Reading these comments is basically like mainlining 80s nostalgia lol
You mean to tell me they had Hot wheels cereal? And to think all the broken teeth I had from eating actual hot wheels for year 😂
Didn't McDonald's give those out in Happy Meals too? I had a couple of em'.
That’s awesome !
Dude I read the first line and was like ‘wtf’ then I saw the rest lmao
Born in 92, I always opted for Matchbox for the exact reason of their intention, realism.
I always thought that Hot Wheels looked too animated and cartoonish. All a preference, but definitely preferred Matchbox.
Today, it seems that Hot Wheels offers a lot of more realistic cars.
Also 92 baby here and yes if you wanted an accurate version of cars on the road you opted for matchbox cars, but I will say Hot Wheels had the better tracks. I also would mix Hot Wheels and Matchbox together as a kid which was considered heresy by some of my friends 😮
largely because those realistic car is cooler and easier to sell at a premium. A Tokyo Drift Nissan 350z Hotwheel can fetch up to a few hundred bucks.
Its strange i was born in 07 always preferd the realstic cars over the cartooney ones thdy looked werid to me
I preferred Matchbox because their sports cars like Ferrari and Lamborghini did look more realistic
Yeah I feel the same. I just wish they still were more realistic and not just the same car dies used for both
Totally a Hot Wheels fan- LOVED the car case shaped like the wheel
Had that to . Kept my matchboxes in it
Matchbox was the superior choice for me as a kid. I liked the realism. HotWheels were too crazy and I always thought the quality was less than matchbox cars
I agree. I started with Matchbox. Hot Wheels just felt cheaper and more delicate.
i had the matchbox fire engine, didn't look fast or cool but it would beat any hot wheels on the track due to its larger metal content/mass--loved that thing
real
real
Hot Wheels cars were often so crazy looking they broke my immersion during toy roleplaying sessions. >_>
Matchbox did more realistic cars while hot wheels did like shark cars
My car is a shark. It eats all my money.
@@KernelFault😂
I have that one
To this day that's the formula
or a toilet, or a hotdog. Hotwheels can get pretty far out there. Matchbox if I'm making a train set, hotwheels for fun!
The jingle I remember the most was, “Hot Wheels! Beat That!”
Ha ha nice!
I don't remember that, but I remember the episode of Powerpuff Girls when Buttercup made Blossom's hair look like a Hot Wheels racetrack. 😂❤
Just compare a 80's Matchbox and Hot Wheels to see the difference. Quality of the cast details and paint.
o yeah the time hot wheels was cool
That was from the ps2 game, right?
@@AccountFromGoogle nope that was the jingle of hotwheels during the early 2000's
I have one Matchbox from my 7th birthday. It is stamped “Matchbox Speedfast No3 Porsche Turbo Made in England 1978 Lesney Products & Co.” Fast forward many years, schools, colleges, jobs, 2 grown kids, an ex wife, 22 motorcycles, 30ish cars, and I still have it in pristine condition. Also on my second Porsche 911 probably because of this $0.50 toy I received when I was 7…
I’ve picked up some modern Hot Wheels Porsches, but that 1978 Matchbox will always be with me.
It started everything.
I’m almost 37 and I’ve been a car enthusiast since I was born. I had tons of toy cars and plenty from each company. I typically preferred Hot Wheels because the cars felt heavier/sturdier and were definitely smoother when rolled. I was also big into custom paint jobs and stuff which hot wheels catered more towards. I also thoroughly enjoyed my Matchbox cars as well though. I’m glad both companies are still around.
I am also 37 and a cat enthusiast.
when i was a kid, hot wheels were in the Kaybee toys, but matchbox was at the hobby store. hot wheels were all on the pegs on the rack, but the matchbox cars were in a spinning display case and you had to ask the worker to see them; if you wanted to buy one, they would open up a drawer to get one out.
it definitely made the matchbox cars seem more prestigious and valuable.
And they literally came in a box. No bubble cards. The seller had to open the box and show it to you.
ye thats basically greenlight and inno64 today lmao
😂😂Ignorant
As a poor kid in the 90s, *Matchbox* were my favorite. They were always being sold by the fistful at secondhand shops and garage sales. They had a simplicity that Hot Wheels lacked and added much needed realism to my 6 year old playtime. Regular people didn’t drive around in souped-up sports cars. Plus Matchbox had a better selection of emergency service and work vehicles. And trucks! Most of us had both brands back then, though. Hot Wheels were flashier and fun to race, especially if someone managed to keep all the pieces to their tracks.
I just sold a bunch of mine at a yard sale, and now I've seen this video and wish I'd kept them. :(
I'm also a poor kid who bought bags of Matchbox at thrift stores. Another thing to consider is that a lot of the appeal of Hot Wheels is playing with the big fancy playsets with tracks, which were more expensive and I never had as a kid. I was lucky to get mom to buy me one car for a dollar at the supermarket checkout, I'd never convince her to get me a big playset.
And so those cars I got at the checkout were Matchbox which at least for me were more fun to have
Yeah i wound up with a ton of beat up old lesney England matchbox cars going to thrift stores and stuff. The blue land rover was definitely my favorite along with the ford galaxie police car. Still have them today, just with even more paint chipped off than when i first found them lol
Scalpers, the bane of Hot wheel collectors
I stopped collecting because of them and gave everything to a friend’s kid. Every model you’d want would be sniped by employees or friends of employees in my area. It’s not even speculation like every car culture set comes 2 full sets to a box and there was many times Id stop in while on the road at like opening of target/walmart or wherever and there’d be 2 of every mode but one in the set. The most desirable and scalpable model everytime. They wouldn’t even bother completing the set just grab the one they can screw people with.
Scalpers used to tip Toys R Us workers to go back and bring out full boxes before the shelves needed to be restocked.
And any popular toy brand *cough cough* lego
My dad felt this comment on a spiritual level
Man, don't mention, them. They're the bane of everything, collectible.
as a collector of both, i appreciate the way matchbox consistently has better proportions to their cars than hot wheels
I remember both companies made a red RR Silver Shadow. I had the classic MB version and was shocked when the HW suddenly arrived.
As a child I never really knew the difference. I just knew I have multiple of those Hot Wheels briefcases full of cars from both companies somewhere in my parents' garage right now 😂
Man, the older kid down the block once pulled out one of those 100 car suitcases and my brain pretty much imploded.
same i have a couple cases of matchbox hotwheels tomica realtoy etc to me they were all the same
I was there at the origin of Hot Wheels. I was eight years old. Hot Wheels were designed to race on their own tracks, but Matchbox were not. Matchbox cars were collectable replicas that rolled, but did not race. Neither I nor my friends compared them. They were for different audiences. The competition for Hot Wheels was Johnny Lightening by Topper. I collected both.
The tracks are what made Hot Wheels dominate the market.
Lots of fun until my brother discovered the tracks were perfect for slapping my legs.
@@wellmike I would agree. I grew up in the 70s. Matchbox seemed 'mature' (as the original comment said, they were more about collecting) and Dinky toys seemed to be for really young kids. Having fast cars and plastic tracks that you could build yourself was amazing. Plus, as you said, the bright orange track pieces worked well as swords, spears, etc. haha
I had the Hot Wheels Spiral Speedway as a kid, then I tried running some cheap-s**t toy car I bought at a dollar store through it. I recall having problems getting the car through the revving thing, so I revved it as fast as I could, sent that car through it, and it shot out in pieces and flew across the room. Pretty funny in retrospect. Lol
If you were like me, and your favorite thing to do with your Hot Wheels or Matchbox cars was to smash them to bits with rocks, and then ask mom for more, there were no significant differences between the brands. Those plastic Key Cars didn't last long though. Eventually, my parents figured out that if they bought me plastic model cars instead, I would glue them together, smash them up, and reglue them together for more smashing.
@@perfectallycromulent I used to smash them with my father's work bench clamp. He hated when I did that.
I hope you do Lego vs Mega Blocks next.
More like, "The superiority of Lego and the piddling challenger Mega Blocks"
It'd have to be Mega Blocks vs Duplo
Also, I have not heard the name Mega Blocks in years
@@RemnazuoThe Halo line is actually good from megablock. its a shame Lego refuses to partner with violent videogames.
@@abelruiz1996 I'll be honest, I was surprised to see all the licenses that Mega Blocks has when I read the wikipedia page.
@@TheInkPitOx mega bloks is now owned my Mattel...surprise.
The most interesting fact I learned from this video is where the word 'dinky car' comes from, which is usually used to describe a tiny toy car that is not hotwheels or matchbox and usually of a lower quality.
Born in 66 I remember Hot Wheels more than Matchbox. Now having my son so late in life (55) , I'm hooked again. We have so many cars, we have two Hot wheel Suitcase style car transporter. Al started buying Matchbox city & hot wheel city set's and created a little city.
my dad was born in same year as you
I love playing both of those brands as a kid. I love the adventure and saving the day aspect of Matchbox and the racing, fast paced action of Hot Wheels.
When mcdonald's had hotwheels in their happy meals 👌
and Ronald McDonald as a mascot
I liked when they had that happy meal box that had cutouts that could be folded into a track tunnel through the box
I see other 80's kids here
@@Matt-re3or- kids nowadays will never know the magic of the toys that came with Happy Meals.
@@corpsie666 I think I might still have some of the Stompers from the Happy Meal
As a Matchbox fan, I've been waiting for this for a long time
Plastic crap
Diecast isn't plastic
😭🤣😂😭🤣😂😭😭🤣
As a lifelong die cast collector so have I
I always loved Matchbox, all the way back when they had metal chassis
Hot Wheels is flash while Matchbox is class.
As a kid I had a bucket full of hot wheels with a few matchbox slipped in. I still at the time referred to any model car as a 'hot wheels'
1:23 This might blow some minds; did you ever notice that the 'OT' in the Hot Wheels logo is in the shape of a wheel?
my family has always called hotwheels and small car toys "dinky cars" or "dinkies", super cool to find out about the origin!
Hi
Brodyanimates in this comment section is crazy! Love your videos man!
As a car enthusiast. I've spent way too much money on these. I had whole totes filled with them as a kid to play with. And I collect them as an adult. I have probably close to 300 right now. Small numbers in the collectors world. I have to play a game to limit myself. I'm not allowed to dig through the racks, I can only buy from the first row. And I'm personally only interested in models of real cars, so I pass on the fantasy ones. But I do enjoy trying to find all the different color ways as well. I'm working on lining my garage wall with them.
My favorite is a red Honda s2000 that perfectly matches my full-sized track prepped s2000.
That's what is great about matchbox, you can get mini versions of the real thing. I also am a modest collector as an adult. The excuse for me is always they are for the boys, but when I buy the boys a couple I buy myself a couple "special" ones as well. Don't know if I have a favorite, but one of my favorites I have had since I was a kid is the "1983" Corvette, which is cool in it's irony in that there was never an actual Corvette made for that model year. My matchbox was made in '82 and was likely in anticipation of a real version that never actually existed.
@@100percentSNAFU Is the 1983 Corvette a C4? If so they were assuming GM would get the car to market on time.
@@skaldlouiscyphre2453Yes, it is a C4
I used to work at Target, and a guy would come in as we were stocking and loom behind us, waiting to see what we had. It was kind of annoying, but we finally gave in and just let him look through the boxes before we hung them up. I realized eventually that he was trying to start a bonding hobby with his young son, who really didn't seem to care. I'll bet that kid will, some day, remember good times with his well-meaning dad...
That's sad. I wish my dad had tried things like that with me. He just gave up when I didn't care about sports
A wholesome story that for a second I thought it was going to be another scalper horror tale.
He is one of those annoying collectors that also hang out at Walmart.
That dude definitely lied to you lmao
Probably, but seeing his kid next to him made it seem legit... Thanks for the reply!
Commenting at 00:15... This was a rivalry briefly when they werent both owned by mattel. This hasnt been a true rivalry in a lifetime. BTW Johnny Lightning and AutoWorld are a parallel situation. Hot Wheels vs Johnny Lightning or Greenlight would be more genuine.
Being 80's kid from Europe, I'm a Matchbox guy all the way. There really weren't that much Hot Wheels around in Scandinavia back in the day, and while both have sell some nice models, Matchbox still has a certain flair to it.
I'm 57 from the Philippines. So I grew up on Matchbox and Dinky Toys. My favorite Dinky was the Eagle Spaceship from Space:1999
Kind of fascinated with the dinky cars now because I’ve never heard of them before this video
Company Man just does not miss. Another banger
Absolutely love this channel
yes😊
I loved both growing up. Hot wheels sets were for “speed” and Matchbox sets were for “adventures”.
I’ve always referred to both of them as Hot wheels but I didn’t know Matchbox existed for at least half of my childhood.
I now have 3 Hot Wheels: 2 Ford Falcons, and a Holden Monaro. Waiting decades for them to produce Australian cars. One of the Falcons is the XB series coupe, same as shown at: 00:34. Bit too custom looking, so I'm converting to real riders wheels, and repainting it to look like a GT351.
I was eight when hot wheels were introduced, so was already a Matchbox kid. I fell in love with hot wheels too, but retained a preference for matchbox and continued collecting them into adulthood. I had probably 4,000 at one point though I’ve sold some off. I regret selling my hot wheels as a teenager though, as they would now be worth many thousands of dollars. The collector market for Matchbox is much smaller and the prices are a fraction of those for hot wheels of similar eras.
I still have a few rare matchbox items. In the mid-60s they offered a moving van, first in dark blue then in green, with logos for Pickfords moving company. This toy was also used as a promotional item for the Beales Bealsons department store, painted tan with the Beales Bealsons logo. These were only available at the department store, and have long been one of the most desirable Matchbox items. I have two, one in excellent condition and one more played-with. I believe this was Lesney’s first promotional model contract, though other brands like Dinky and the Danish company Tekno had long histories of them.
Thinking back on it, my preference for Matchbox cars as a kid might be one of the first times I developed my own "taste" for things. And I just instinctively liked the more realistic Matchbox cars better than the more fanciful Hot Wheels cars. It's not something I thought through ... it was just automatic. And since then I've pretty consistently preferred detailed and aesthetically pleasing but non-flashy or outrageous things of any kind, or any art.
I’m old. Just turned 55 and I still have a of my Matchbox cars from when I was a kid.
Not as old as I am. I'm over 65 and still have many of my Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars. 😊
You're not old, just "seasoned!" And still having those cars after all these years is impressive. I don't have half of my collection of wrestling figures, and I'd give almost anything to have them again.
I still have my match box / corgi /hot wheels from when I was a kid in those match box carry cases a blue 70’s double stack 2x80’s triple tray and a blue hard plastic double tray
@@agatemaster1998The old carry cases and trays were so much better than the cases they have now.
Good on you guys! Keep your cars my dad kept his, and trust me he did himself a favour i keep them in my collection as he gifted them to me! Love them, don’t let your love die out for them
I'm from the UK and collected Lesney Matchbox vehicles for nearly 50 years.
I've never owned a Hot Wheels vehicle...
I was born in 1974 and Matchbox is what I grew up with. My favorites were the Planetary Explorer from ‘75, the ‘76 VW Golf with removable surf boards, the ‘76 Swamp Rat, and the ‘77 Jeep CJ6 - which began my love of the Jeep brand. Earlier this year I was finally able to afford my very first Jeep, which has become my daily driver. ❤️
Rob Thomas loved Matchbox cars as a kid, which is why he named the band Matchbox Twenty.
Taika Waititi's dad loved Tyco when he was a child.
He wanted to push them around, and he did, and he did
@@pensivepenguin3000 He used to be up until 3AM playing with them.
He’s also Sinbad’s bitch
🎉🎉
I always mixed the 2 together when I was a kid. I remember having the Criss Cross Crash playset. So much fun! Miss those days.
I remember having some kind of "tornado" set back in 1999, had those battery charged hot wheels cars with it. good times.
Criss Cross Crash was an excellent set. i was lucky to have it
I was a huge Matchbox fan as a child. I am 48 now.
You and me both... If you wanted a car with 4engines out front, you got a hotwheels, if you wanted authentic, ya had matchbox.
And Matchbox seemed to be better made. Hot Wheels always seemed cheap to me with flimsy axles.
....and? You want a medal? Maybe Company man will notice you, huh? 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄
@@BleachDemon707 Wow what is wrong with you? I feel sorry for you. You must really hate yourself.
@@BleachDemon707I want a medal. A solid gold one preferably. Mail to : Turd Ferguson, PO box 69, Intercourse, PA. Thanks.
Matchbox: to collect
Hot wheels: to play with
“Democrats vs republicans”
“Coke vs Pepsi”
“Lionel vs MTH”
This is the only question.
My cousin woke up on his 18th b'day and found a b'day card and a matchbox van on his breakfast plate. Outside, on the driveway, was the life size van, same color and everything. Pretty cool.
You need an updated UPS vs FedEx video. I imagine those two companies have changed quite a bit since 2020. UPS sold their freight line, Fred Smith retired, etc.
UPS vs Fedex vs DHL.
@@runrafarunthebestintheworldthat’s an even better idea, he should’ve talked about DHL to begin with.
The other tie in ( in the USA ) is the relationship between these companies and the USPS . Many times the previously mentioned companies do the long haul and the USPS the last mile.
@@bobroberts2371 UPS has some sort of contract with USPS where a percentage of UPS surepost packages are delivered to the post office by UPS, then delivered to residents by USPS. not all surepost, and no ground, or air.
@@runrafarunthebestintheworld and the effect Amazon has had on all three
2:03 "The company claims that Hot Wheels is the best selling toy in the world based on units"
LEGO: 👀
I don't think the bricks get counted separately
Lego mainly comes in kits, so maybe thats why its less.
At least LEGO is the biggest tire producer in the world :)
Unlike Legos, Hot Wheels aren't ridiculously priced.
I think LEGO is the largest toy company in the world right now due to overall profits since their products are larger and more expensive, but I wouldn't be surprised if Hot Wheels still sells more units because they're small and affordable. You just make less profit per unit when they're small.
Great video. A big controversy with these toy cars when I was a kid was that the paint used to contain lead. And kids being kids they will put anything in their mouth, including these cars.
As a child growing up in the early 70s I had plenty of "little cars" as we called them. I had both Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars and a few other knock off brands. I was obsessed with them too. We had a pharmacy that had a huge case with rows of these little cars right at the register to leave. I always got whoever brought me there to buy one because they were cheap. I had a great collection that I lost over time but I was always a Hot Wheels guy because of the tracks and cool looking cars. But I liked Matchbox too. They are the more realistic brand. It is cool to see at least one toy from my youth still being popular among kids today. They are the best toy ever. You can play with them for hours and still play with again the next day on a different adventure. But again good to see they are still healthy and popular among kids and are in many kids lives still. Great video as always.
I'm a big diecast fan and collector, myself, so seeing this video come up put a big smile on my face.
What's really something is just how vast the diecast car market is and has been for decades.
You also had Topper's Johnny Lightning line (later acquired by ERTL, then Playing Mantis, Tomy (more on them further down in this comment), and now the rights are owned by Round2 (more about them below, as well), but still manufactured by Tomy, IIRC), there was also Tomy's Tomica line (in it's earlier years, sold in the US as Pocket Cars), Corgi (including their Hot Wheels competitor, Whizzwheels, a part of the Corgi Juniors line, formerly Husky), Racing Champions (mainly known for their NASCAR diecast, now solely sold in their Mint lineup), France's Majorette, Zee Toys/Zylmex, Welly, MotorMax, etc.
Nowadays, you've also got brands like Jada Toys (now owned by Simba Dickie, who also owns Majorette, and Jada distributes Majorettes in the US market), Castline Inc.'s M2 Machines, Greenlight, Mattel's Disney Cars line, as well as the aforementioned Round2...
Round2 was founded by former Playing Mantis owner Thomas Lowe, and started with their self-made Auto World line, and over time acquiring the rights to the Johnny Lightning, Racing Champions, as well as the AMT model kit brand (which had previously been bought by Lesney in 1979).
To be honest, I think the topics of Johnny Lightning, and in connection, Round2 LLC, as well as Tomy (also known as Takara Tomy, as they were the result of a merger between Takara and Tomy) could be great material for future videos. Maybe a Tomy video could even have a segment on the joint venture between Takara and Mattel on the first generation of Transformers.
Tomica mishandled JL so badly, which is disappointing because it could have gone so much better.
This was really interesting. In Singapore, the Japanese brand Tomica is also really popular (more so than matchbox). They do have quite a bit of collaboration with popular kids movies and disney, and they have realistic versions of Japanese and Korean cars.
I'm in the U.S. I had one single Tomica car, a Porsche 959 GT race car. It was the "special" car of my collection that I hardly played with to keep it in good condition. I don't know where it even came from, my dad brought it home to me after a business trip back in the 1980's. I still have it and I looked it up and it is fairly valuable for a single open box diecast. It is very nice and detailed and you can remove the back end of the frame to reveal a detailed engine below. I don't think I ever recalled seeing Tomica cars for sale anywhere, but occasionally you would run into one here in there in a friend's collection. I have a few other oddball ones, but that Tomica Porsche was always my prized pick of the collection.
I have one Tomica car, and it’s the Ford Continental Mark IV
Tomica make Korean cars? As a diecast collector with an interest in Tomica, that's surprising - as you probably know, Japan does not rate Korean things at all normally, and their range in Japan has no Korean models. Do they have a Singapore-exclusive range?
Tomica cars are awesome. Now, if only the can replace those thin wheels, with the wide wheels!
Was really surprised when Tomica did a collab with Oshi no Ko. Seemed really out of left field compared to the other collabs they did.
These vs videos are great. Because you get a better view of what companies did right and wrong
11:03 I was born in 1960. I had matchbox cars before I had any Hot wheels. Viceroy had a line of hard rubber cars they were pretty much indestructible but had a funky smell about them, they kind of smelled like sweet sour milk, I suppose you had to be there. I have seen a few nice collections of Matchbox and Hot wheels toy cars and kind of wish I didn't play so hard with mine when I was a kid as they were all scraped up and the plastic windows would be broken from making them crash hard. My favourite diecast car was the Batmobile from the 1966 TV series, I remember it had a little plastic flame that came out the back when you rolled it on the floor.
I like Hot Wheels but I do appreciate the realism of Matchbox
As someone with extensive experience of running these on tracks, Johnny Lightning made the fastest die cast cars.
Have you put them up against the og redlines?
I was a matchbox kid - I loved the realism , I had a few hotwheels too but my matchbox cars were my favourites
same here!
I have both i literally never understood taking sides. They both miniature toy cars who had cars that had doors opened and hoods opened. it's not that big of a deal.
@@pp3k3jamail If its not that big of a deal - Why are you commenting????? People have different tastes in things - Get over it
@@pp3k3jamail Hot Wheels tends to do modified cars, performance models and race cars, MBX does boring trim levels. Even when both brands do the same car the Hot Wheels one tends to look like a custom modified version.
@@shanelynch7757 I'm commenting because it's a free country and I can comment if I want to b+tch
My grandson has about 25 Hot Wheels at my house and many, many more at his house.
Ive basically had hot wheels/matchbox cars my entire life, I amassed 100s of cars when I was a child and I continued to buy them into my adult life. Ive had endless amounts of fun with these over the years, from the time my dad covered the xmas tree in them one year to all the endless racing and even just simply rolling them on a desk I have very fond memories of hot wheels. They also nurtured my knowledge of cars from a young age, I taught myself lots of the makes/models by simply reading the bottom of the car. Scalpers tend to ruin it a lot of the time but the cars have impacted me in such a way where Ill just keep coming back to buy more no matter what
As a kid I never knew there were two such makers and pretty much blanket them all under "hot wheels". Now that I shop for my son, I came across both and I have seen my son prefer matchbox over hot wheels because of their realistic models.
As a kid i loved matchbox but as an Adult i collect Hot wheels, They make Adult collectable versions now called (Hot Wheels premium / real riders) These are designed for adults with metal/metal chassis, rubber tires and detailed paint and details. Exact replicas of an original car/ race car. A complete game changer in my eyes, they dont just make crazy fantasy cars anymore guys
If you like adult collectables brands like Inno64 and Tarmac Works make the different Hot Wheels high end lines look like toys. Only the old 100%s line compares to the more serious 1:64 scale model brands.
I had lots of both growing up, loved them both!
viewer from the UK here. I was born in 1980 and during my childhood Hot Wheels weren't really a big thing here in the UK. You could get them but only in big toy stores and they were expensive as I recall. You could buy matchbox cars at your local corner shop, and to my mind they were far more popular than hot wheels. Hot wheels were seen as a bit chintzy and a bit showy, whereas matchbox were the real deal, and they were cheap, you could buy them in your local shop and they had great detail and were fun to play with. I'm sad that Hot Wheels won out, although I'm not surprised that their popularity in the US eclipsed that of Matchbox. The same commercial pressures that made the Hot Wheels cars more expensive here probably did the same for Matchbox there, and American taste is often a little different to that of Europeans. I still have a collection of Matchbox cars from my childhood, but my 9 year old Nephew uses the term 'hot wheels' to describe any 1:64 scale die cast car now, which I find rather sad.
I was a Matchbox kid, mostly because my dad had made a sandbox in the backyard to play in. Matchbox trucks had trucks that were Off-Road trucks. Hot-Wheels trucks couldn't mud run haha.
When I was a kid, hot wheels were 97 cent a piece. One birthday my pops was like...pick out 100. I let my brother pick 50 and I 50...on top of the hundreds I already owned
Meanwhile, Majorette semi-trucks were my favorite growing up
My mom’s an elementary school teacher, and hot wheels are still some of the most popular toys students request for the reward box
When I was little, my parents bought me a loop figure 8 hot wheels track set and I loved playing with it!
Even as a kid, I appreciated the greater detail, realism, and heft of Matchbox cars.
As a kid, I loved hot wheels. As I got older I started liking the more realistic cars that hot wheels made, especially the fast and furious ones back in the early 2000s. Eventually I started appreciating the realistic matchbox ones. Now, I love looking at matchbox cars to see if they have my car in stock. I know I can order it online but the casual hunt at random stores for a mazda 3 hatchback is how I get my excitement now.
That orange track was legendary
And hurts also!🤣
I have both toys... Mtchbox is more from my father's time and Hot wheels is more from my time. But I have both and always respected the realism that matchbox had.
No way?! You have BOTH toys?! Wow...🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄
Mattel needs to revive the Acceleracers franchise, give us Acceleracers 5, and put the existing films on streaming services.
The best part of this video is seeing all of the Matchbox fans come out of the woodwork. Like many other middle aged guys here, I had a strong preference for Matchbox over Hot Wheels as a kid due to the realism of the cars. Although I wasn't opposed to ever getting a Hot Wheels and owned plenty, I kind of saw kids that enjoyed all the flames, disproportionate sizing, and shark cars over a realistic car as the types of kids that would eat glue at school.
Your video was very interesting.
I'm going to give testimony from someone outside the USA. Hotwhells arrived in my country in 1991, before that we had other brands of diecasts manufactured under license from Europe such as Majorette (France), Corgi (England) and Siku (Germany). Matchbox was considered a premium brand in my country in the 70s and 80s. It was even sold by mail. With the arrival of Hotwheels, I saw a company in my country (Mattel outsourced sales). Today the market is taken over more by adult collectors who buy more matchbox and premium lines that come from Asia (you should make a video of this). Mattel still has logistics and sales volume in its favor, but it is not preferred outside the USA and without meaning to offend, it is a very large market (especially since the Chinese are opening up to this hobby). I believe that in 5 or 10 years it may be necessary to review this video you produced.
Johnny Lightning die cast cars were amazing .
Yeah but they were too expensive 😭
Hot wheels > Matchbox 11:26
A video I've been waiting for a while has finally come out.
Sure, im SURE you've waited for this EXACT video with this EXACT title🙄🙄🙄🙄
@@BleachDemon707 I don't care, I've seen your comments, stop being so pessimistic.
@SmartGuy248 ...and?
What if I am? What's it too you? You could always block and ignore me 😉
At 67, I’ve been collecting for 36 years now. Matchbox, Dinky and Corgi are what I loved to play with before Hot Wheels came along.
Where I lived in Canada HWs were not as common yet I had a few cool ones(e.g. Custom Fleetside), Matchbox was still outselling HWs for several years after their launch.
As a teen I was more interested in model car kits since they were accurate scale versions of real cars that I loved.
Thanks to Mattel, I’m loving Matchbox as much as Hot Wheels!
I'm a big collector of both brands, but Hot Wheels still has the edge for me. One big thing to note about Hot Wheels as a toy line and collector brand is its proloferation into Premium themes that appeal to collectors. movie licensure, car related games, iconic racers, and just an overall showcase of sporty or classy real life vehicles has exploded the industry. In addition, Hot Wheels has been some of the longest running toys that incorporate non-mystery chase pieces into the retail line. Unlike sealed packs from trading cards or unintentionally scarce production variations, Hot Wheels put out the Treasure Hunt themed cars in '95 which has morphed itself over the last 29 years. These marked packages were limited run or specially designed cars that kept adults hunting. All this and the popularity of high detailed online membership collectible cars from the Redline Club has kept Hot Wheels on top of all other brands out there.
Early 70s kid. I wondered even then who was playing with Matchbox as they were so outclassed by Hot Wheels.
After a long tour of duty in my mother's fifth grade homeroom, my Hot Wheels collection came back to me in my late 20s when she retired. You were a gem, Mom. RIP.
Corgi was the most desirable cars because they were the most realistic. Matchbox was not as good but still ok. Hotwheels was for kids that didn't play with cars but liked to throw their things at a wall as hard as possible. =)
Diecast cars, WOOO❗️
Billet cars are better IMO.
As a kid I didn't care whether it was Hot Wheels or Matchbox (though I certainly knew the difference between them and loved both), I just loved diecast cars. My mom used to buy them for me every time she had a coupon for Matchbox or Hot Wheels while we were out shopping, so I amassed a collection of likely several hundred over the years. Eventually though, she started looking at the overflowing box of toy cars and asking me occasionally to pick my favorites so we could donate the rest. As a kid it felt awful, but as an adult I don't even remember what we donated so I guess I didn't miss them. Plus we kept getting more cars anyway so the pain quickly faded.
Anyway... I definitely preferred Hot Wheels for all its exciting creative designs, and it certainly influenced my taste in cars today (I can't stand the anonymous greyscale blobs that plague the roads, gimme something flashy and colorful!), but I also appreciated Matchbox for being more realistic and making normal cars. I used to play with the cars as if they were characters, so different cars had different roles, and some roles are better suited to normal cars, so the Matchbox cars got played with just as much.
I grew up in England with Matchbox and Corgi. Now I live in Georgia and collect both Matchbox and Hot Wheels I have around 500 of each.
Matchbox 20 fans who aren't sure how they got here 👇
50 yrs old here. Always preferred Matchbox because of the higher detail level. I liked seeing “ real “ cars that I could aspire to owning and I just liked the variety Matchbox offered. Of course I had both brands and enjoyed them all. True story : I had a few favs that I would actually wax with a little bit of Simoniz from my dad.
As a kid growing up in 80's Britain, it was Matchbox all the way. I preferred the realism compared to the fantasy look of some Hot Wheels. However, my favourite brand was Majorette. With their white base and clear lid packaging, working suspension, opening doors and if lucky you'd have a french brand with glazed yellow lights. Quite exotic for an 8 year old in the UK.
I was Matchbox all the way. They had these super realistic highway/city sets you could build and drive on. The roads had real signs and even streetlights. The cars were more detailed and I really got a kick out of finding a car that someone in my family drove. Or a supercar, something like that.
Now that I'm older I enjoy the whimsey of Hot Wheels too. I got wild in my old age.
I was born in the early 70s and Matchbox was my preferred toy car. HotWheels always seemed cheap and tacky while Matchbox was far more realistic and they made things other than cars in different scales, like their jet fighters. The cool thing was MB cars were often displayed in rotating, countertop towers with at least 80 cars total on display. You'd spin that thing forever deciding which car you wanted. You'd tell the person at the counter the number of the car you wanted, mom would fork over 50 cents and you got your car.
Fast forward to me in my 40s as an HVAC tech. I went to a call at a house where the owner had one of those display cases. I spent several minutes checking out all the cars, pointing out the ones I had as a kid. He had a laugh and told me any time a guy about my age saw the case he'd have to spend several minutes listening to his guest recall all of his favorite toy cars but he really enjoyed seeing the joy on the person's face.
I am 70 and grew up with the Matchbox cars of the 1969's and early 1970s. I liked their realism, attention to detail, and being based on real-life vehicles. To me, Hot Wheels were cartoonish, and even more so today. I understand the appeal of the Hot Wheels cars to the very young kids, but I will always be a Matchbox fan.
As a kid, I didn't care if it was Maisto, Hot Wheels, or Matchbox if it had 4 wheels and looked like a car I was into it.
I'm 33, and among my favorite toy cars from childhood were Matchbox's 50 states series that included license plates about the same size as the toy cars and the Vipers (and later Hummers) cast with late 90s/early 00s NBA logos. I also think having a Matchbox TV van, fire truck, bus, etc. made my toy car box more complete. That said, I probably chose to buy Hot Wheels 9 times out of 10. There's an aspirational design element to Hot Wheels that I still find appealing.
When I was a kid during the 1970s, the rivalry between Matchbox and Hot Wheels was real. There were kids that strictly collected Matchbox, while others swore by Hot Wheels. Kinda of like Marvel vs DC kids. Hot Wheels just seemed cooler because of the emphasis on souped-up muscle cars.
Let's not forget that those orange Hot Wheels tracks made an excellent weapon against your siblings!!
Matchbox being British made more sense after years as a kid (in the USA) wondering why the lights on top of their fire trucks and police cars weee always the “wrong” color.
Similarly, Hot Wheels (much) later would make replicas of the Scion FR-S with the steering wheels on the right side of the cars, despite the Scion brand only being marketed in North American countries where cars are all lefthand drive; they were badged as Toyotas everywhere else.