Matchbox Prius

[JasonA]

I did a search, and couldn't find anything, so I figured I'd post. You guys are aware that Matchbox has a 2nd gen Prius out, right? The card pack shows it as a 2008 Prius, the bottom of the car lists it as a "Toyota Prius-2009".

I was strolling through Walmart and saw a few of these on the hanger in the toy section. They had three total, two in the beige color, and one in the aquamarine color. I bought one of each color, just because I've never seen a small Toyota in Matchbox before. I looked for a Corolla, but didn't see one.

Here's a page with photos of it:

http://matchbox.zsebehazy.com/mb700/mb774.html

[toyotaholic]

nice find, gonna go look for one today

[Tideland Prius]

<sigh> what happened to Matchbox? they used to make good toy cars. Now their quality is rather appalling.

I'll stick to my Tomy/Tomica Prius.

http://www.winternet.com/~mr_n64/prius/pages/tomica.htm

[JasonA]

I thought it was quite good, compared to the Matchbox cars I had as a kid in the '80s. These even have "realistic" looking 6-spoke wheels, just like the 15" alloys on the 2nd gen Prius, rather than the generic wheels that all the cars get (like the Tomica ones).

The Matchbox ones have a "PRIUS" rear license plate (in the correct logo font) and small "Toyota" and "Prius" and "HSD" logos painted on the back. It's even got the roofline antenna bump.

For a paltry 99 cents, the Matchbox models are very good if you've seen them in person.

[Tideland Prius]

I dunno but my '90s Matchbox ones are a lot better (But then again they also cost more than 99¢). I just bought two Matchbox cars the other day for Cdn$1.19 (JDM Civic Type R and Lotus Evora). I don't really like the way the lights are painted.