September 9, 2017March 16, 2020 by marcboz

1979 Zylmex MAS*H Playsets

Childhood Collection, Zee Toys
1979 M*A*S*H Playsets, Childhood Collection, collectible, die-cast, diecast, Field Hospital Set, Helicopter Landing Pad Set, Latrine Set, Monogram Piper Tri-Pacer, Rescue Helicopter, T431 Armored Half Track, T432 Jeep Car and Trailer, T439 Ambulance Van, Zylmex
1 Comment

I rediscovered a box of military toys from my childhood a few years ago. At the time, I was really excited to have found three super-clean, old Matchbox models. Recently, I was reminded by an online post of the series of M*A*S*H vehicles that I had in that box. The long-running TV show was – and still is – a favorite of mine. So I found the box again and this time I photographed everything in it.

I couldn’t remember how the pieces were packaged. Fortunately I found a Zylmex fan site of which the following text and photo of the 1979 toy catalog page are courtesy:

First a celebrated movie, then and still a wildly popular TV show, and now, a best-selling toy model series. All vehicles of die-cast metal with plastic parts. Super play value features include folding blades on Supply Helicopter, removable plastic canopy on Ambulance Truck, folding windshield and detachable trailer on jeep. Detailed, durable, injection molded plastic Playsets are based on actual settings found in the M*A*S*H TV Series. Combination of Vehicles and Playsets create a toy model series in constant demand. Blister pack assortment, plus a Floor Display of distinctive design.

As you can see by the following photos, I have most of the series except for the Ambulance Truck and the Supply Helicopter.

T439 Ambulance Van with opening door

Rescue Copter and Helicopter Landing Pad Set.

T432 Jeep Car and Trailer

T431 Armored Half Track

Latrine Set

Field Hospital Set

I also had to photograph the box that all of these items have been stored in for years. The plastic model is long gone, but the box has survived in surprisingly good shape.

January 7, 2017March 17, 2020 by marcboz

New Year’s Inventory

Someone asked me recently how many cars I had in my collection. The best guess I could come up with was “in the hundreds” but I wasn’t really sure. So I decided to spend part of New Year’s Day counting everything up. I keep updated lists, so it was mostly just a matter of counting and totaling the numbers. Or so I thought, until I realized how many items were not on my supposedly updated lists. After a few more days of inventorying, I came up with a total of 951 items.

I generally think of my collection as having three categories: Vintage, Novas and Impalas. But occasionally I can’t resist something that doesn’t really fit into any of these. I counted multi-car packs as single items and I did not include several buckets of cars that I have acquired over the years that I have deemed not worthy of my collection. These are the cars that my son and I use whenever we break out the Hot Wheels tracks.

397 Vintage
In my collection, “vintage” is very loosely defined. These 395 items include my childhood collection and a bunch of almost entirely loose cars with a focus on blackwall-era Hot Wheels. The oldest items would be a few late-1950s Lesney-era Matchbox cars, and I cheat the “blackwall era” with a few cars into the early 1990s.

I have 45 cars that I’ve managed to hold onto from my childhood. They include 18 Matchbox, 9 Hot Wheels, 7 Tomica Pocket Cars, 6 Husky, 4 Playart and a single Majorette.

The remaining 350 Vintage cars break down as follows:

Hot Wheels – 219
Matchbox – 53
Corgi – 14
Zylmex – 11
Yatming – 9
Racing Champions – 8
Majorette – 7
Road Champs – 4
Ertl – 4
Tomica – 4
Siku – 2
Summer – 2
Barclay – 1
Husky – 1
Kidco – 1
Playart – 1
Pit Row – 1
Tin Toys – 1
Unknown – 9

262 Impalas
When I first started picking up Impalas, I would take them out of the package and display them on a bookcase I had in my bachelor pad. Series like Jada’s Homie Rollerz and the Revell Lowrider Magazine cars encouraged me to start keeping them in the packages. Since Hot Wheels rolled out the ’59 Chevy Impala in 1997, there has been a steady stream of new Impala castings and variations, which puts the brand at the top of this list with 85 items.

Hot Wheels – 85
Johnny Lightning – 59
Revell – 22
Jada – 21
M2 Machines – 15
Greenlight – 14
Maisto – 11
Ertl – 6
Racing Champions – 6
Malibu International – 5
Motor Max – 4
Muscle Machines – 3
Auto World – 3
Disney – 3
Classic Metal Works – 1
Craft House – 1
Geospace – 1
Route 66 – 1
Unknown – 1

188 Novas
The 2004 release of the Hot Wheels 1968 Nova was an exciting moment for me as a collector. Hot Wheels now has a variety of Nova castings going back to the first-generation body style, so the brand is at the top of my Nova list with 85 items.

Hot Wheels – 85
Johnny Lightning – 38
M2 Machines – 27
Maisto – 10
Muscle Machines – 9
Jada – 7
Ertl – 5
Racing Champions – 3
Playing Mantis – 2
GMP – 1
Universal Hobbies – 1

104 Miscellaneous
The 90 items here include 10 Hot Wheels 30th Anniversary models from 1998, lots of Batmobiles, NASA-themed items including 3 Hot Wheels Action Packs, some 2005-2006 Hot Wheels Classics and a bunch of other odds and ends.

Hot Wheels – 78
Johnny Lightning – 5
Jada – 4
Matchbox – 4
Lledo – 2
Quartzo – 2
Revell – 2
Bauer – 1
Hormel Promo – 1
Maisto – 1
Upper Deck Collectibles – 1
Unknown – 2

My Collection by Brand
My collection is made up of at least 41 different brands. Being well-represented in all of my categories, the Hot Wheels brand dominates with 476 items. Johnny Lightning comes in second with 102, mostly due to the many Nova and Impala releases during the RC2 era. It’s interesting to note that Matchbox has never made a Nova and the only Impalas made in recent years are the eight-generation version which I have no interest in, yet the brand takes third place with 75 items in my vintage collection.

Hot Wheels – 476
Johnny Lightning – 102
Matchbox – 75
M2 Machines – 42
Jada – 31
Revell – 24
Maisto – 22
Quartzo – 2
Racing Champions – 18
Greenlight – 14
Corgi – 13
Tomica – 11
Zylmex – 11
Yatming – 9
Husky – 7
Majorette – 7
Ertl – 6
Malibu International – 5
Motor Max – 5
Playart – 5
Road Champs – 4
Disney – 3
Auto World – 3
Lledo – 2
Playing Mantis – 2
Siku – 2
Summer – 2
Barclay – 1
Bauer – 1
Classic Metal Works – 1
Craft House – 1
Geospace – 1
GMP – 1
Hormel Promo – 1
Kidco – 1
Pit Row – 1
Route 66 – 1
Tin Toys – 1
Upper Deck Collectibles – 1
Universal Hobbies – 1
Unknown – 12

December 15, 2011January 15, 2021 by marcboz

1972 Majorette Dodge Camper

This Dodge Camper is the only Majorette that I had in my childhood collection, which is fitting because my dad took us on many camping trips in a yellow pickup with a white camper shell (although it was a Chevy). At some point I cut open the back door to the camper.

A really nice feature of this model is that you can remove the camper shell and it becomes a maintenance truck!

Majorette | 1972-1980 | 209 | Dodge Camper | yellow with white camper shell, light orange windows | France | 3s | 1:80

December 5, 2011 by marcboz

Playart Cars

My childhood collection includes this selection of Playart cars. I believe I used to get these at Woolworth, where they were sold under the Peelers brand. They also retailed for about half the cost of a Hot Wheels model, so that would have appealed to my thrifty parents.

For me, there is only one Batmobile, and it’s the 1966 version that was built by George Barris based on the Lincoln Futura concept car. This one used to have little red figures inside, but they’re long gone from mine.

7100 | Batman Batmobile | black

The Playart fire truck is kind of a sad rip-off of the Hot Wheels Heavyweight series of trucks. I think the back of mine is held on by a generous application of Elmer’s glue, which you can even see in the photos.

7130 | Fire Truck | red with white ladder, chrome hoses

I need a couple of “hubcaps” for my Toyota 2000 GT.

7117 | Toyota 2000 GT | metallic green

1965 Ford Mustang convertible | orange with black convertible top

November 25, 2011January 19, 2022 by marcboz

Tomica Pocket Cars

Childhood Collection, Tomica
1974, 1975, 1976, 1978, Childhood Collection, collectible, die-cast, diecast
5 Comments

When I was a kid, Tomica die-cast models were sold in the U.S. as Pocket Cars, on a blister card made to look like the pocket of the denim jacket. Back then, I liked the Tomica cars for their realistic details and their opening doors. But these days I have to say they seem to lack a little bit of the soul of the Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars of the same time period. Still, I have some really nice examples from my childhood collection.

November 22, 2011November 15, 2020 by marcboz

Husky Cars From My Childhood

Husky models were made by Mettoy – they same company that made Corgi toys – from 1964 until 1969 exclusively for the Woolworth store chain. After the exclusive deal with Woolworth ended, many of the same castings were transitioned into a new line which was called Corgi Juniors. Huskys were less expensive than Matchbox cars, which would probably explain why there were several of them in my family’s communal collection of cars.

This Citroen used to have a little blue plastic rowboat that snapped on top.