For over 50 years, kids have spent their summer afternoons playing with toy cars sporting the Matchbox or Hot Wheels logos. As these kids grow up and are looking to recapture some of that childhood bliss, they wind up paying a pretty penny for cars that once went for small change. Here are five examples.

Matchbox

Started in 1953 by the British company Lesney Products, the Matchbox line of toy cars lived up to their name, as they were designed to fit inside a matchbox so kids could take them to school. Due to their longevity in the market, there are plenty of devoted fans who still collect these small-scale vehicles today. And some of these fans are willing to pay as much for a car that fits in a matchbox as they are for one that fits in a garage.

1. 1961 Magirus Deutz Crane, AKA “Matchbox No. 30”

When Matchbox released their “No. 30” car in 1961, a crane truck whose full-sized counterpart was built by German manufacturer Magirus Deutz, it came with a silver body and an orange crane. Before it was discontinued in 1965, there were as many as 27 variations of the truck, ranging from the type of rivets used to a smooth or bumpy cover on the bottom. Depending on the variation, the value can fall anywhere between $30 – $100. But unless you’re a collector, you’d probably never know the difference from one car to the next.

There is one variant that just about anyone would notice, but trucks with that variant are nearly impossible to find. Instead of the standard silver body and orange crane, a handful of pre-production models were light brown and had either a red or an orange crane. Because this color scheme is extremely rare, it demands a high price from collectors. In the 1980s, collector Charlie Mack purchased a brown No. 30 at a neighbor’s garage sale for $10. Three years later, he sold it at auction for $10,000. In 2004, Jim Gallegos, whose 35,000 car collection is worth over $1.4 million, purchased a brown No. 30 crane for $13,000. Considering the original price for the toy would have been less than 50 cents, that’s quite a nice return on investment.

2. The Matchbox Quarry Truck

Before Lesney Products’ Matchbox line really took off, the company considered manufacturing larger model cars and trucks called the “Major Scale” collection. While a normal Matchbox car is around 2” long, the Major Scale models would have been closer to 10 or 11”. As a proof of concept in 1954, a handful of Major Scale prototype dump trucks were personally made by chief model maker Ken Wetton. However, right about that time is when the smaller vehicles started to become popular, so the idea for larger versions was abandoned.

Over the years, the other prototype trucks were lost, but one remained in the Lesney offices as a souvenir. That truck is believed to be the only prototype left, as well as the only surviving example of work that can be directly attributed to Ken Wetton. Because of the sentimental value to the company, it was thought the truck would never be sold, making it truly the Holy Grail of Matchbox enthusiasts. Therefore, it came as quite a surprise when, in the mid-1980s, word spread that the truck had been purchased by a relatively unknown collector out of Japan, Takuo Yoshise.

In March of 2010, Takuo Yoshise decided it was time to pass on his coveted treasure to someone else. The truck was put up for auction at a collector convention in England and wound up going for $15,000, making it the largest sum ever paid for a Matchbox car.

Hot Wheels

In 1968, toy company Mattel released a line of miniature cars that took their inspiration from the “Kustom Kar Kulture” that was popular in California. The initial line, now known as the “Sweet 16,” offered muscle cars and forward-thinking concept cars, decked out in “Spectraflame” paint jobs that were far removed from the colors you’d see on the real-life showroom floor. To highlight their roots, the little vehicles sported miniature red-rimmed tires, called “Redlines”, modeled after the kind that were popular on the real Kustom Kars of the time. Thanks to their novel approach to the toy line, Hot Wheels were an instant success and are still incredibly popular with collectors today.

3. The Beatnik Bandit

One of the original Sweet 16 cars was based on the 1963 show car, The Beatnik Bandit. The car, a futuristic, fiberglass two-seater with a see-through Plexiglass bubble top, was designed and built by none other than Ed “Big Daddy” Roth, one of the most famous car customizers, best-known for creating the counter-culture cartoon character Rat Fink.

The toy Bandit, like all Sweet 16 cars, was produced in a variety of bright, metallic colors. Some, like red, blue, green, and orange, were more common than others. But the rarest of all was hot pink. The hot pink was introduced to the Hot Wheels line shortly after they were first released, in an effort to get girls interested in toy cars. It didn’t work, so the color was discontinued, making these cars very rare today. So rare that a “loose” (meaning it was not in its original package) hot pink Bandit sold for $7,070 in 2004. Four years later, a MIB (Mint In Box) hot pink Bandit sold on eBay for $15,250.

4. 1969 VW “Beach Bomb”

Hot Wheels fans will always remember the orange, snap-together racetracks used to create their own racecourse through the kitchen. Making sure that every car runs smoothly on the tracks has always been a concern for Mattel, even today. In 1969, Mattel had to go back to the drawing board more than once to get a newly-designed Volkswagen van called “The Beach Bomb” to fit properly on the tracks. The van, featuring two surfboards that stuck out the back window, was too narrow to run down the track without bumping off the sides, nor could it fit inside a motorized propulsion unit that was sold separately.

After 16 prototypes had been created, the engineers came up with a radical redesign that placed the surfboards on each side of the vehicle, in special stowaway compartments. Not only was this a more off-the-wall car, but it also made the vehicle wider so it would fit on the racetrack. The new design might have fixed the problem, but that has only made the too-skinny Beach Bomb prototypes all the more desirable to Hot Wheels collectors.

People go crazy whenever a new rear-loading Beach Bomb comes on the market, regardless of color or condition. Top of the line examples routinely selling for $15,000 or more. But there is one Beach Bomb out there that could be considered the holiest of Holy Grails – a hot pink, rear-loading Beach Bomb. Collector Chris Marshall bought the only known copy of the car from a former Mattel engineer in 1998, as part of a $9,000 purchase of 250 cars, including 25 prototypes. He turned around and sold the hot pink Bomb a year later to big-time collector Bruce Pascal for a cool $72,000. Marshall sold his little car and bought a big one – a brand-new Dodge Viper. Pascal took his pink prototype on the road, visiting Hot Wheels conventions and lending it to automobile museums for the world to see.

5. 40th Anniversary Hot Wheels Car

While there’s always a chance another hot pink Beach Bomb prototype could appear, there is one Hot Wheels car that is guaranteed to be the one and only model ever produced. It was customized by “jeweler to the stars” Jason of Beverly Hills in 2008 to commemorate Hot Wheels’ 40th Anniversary and the production of car number 4,000,000,000 (yes, four billion) in the Hot Wheels line.

The special-edition car was cast in 18-karat white gold, then covered in 1,388 blue diamonds, 988 black diamonds, 319 white diamonds, and 8 rubies, for a total of nearly 23 carats of precious gems worth $140,000. The showpiece came in a custom display case embedded with an additional 40 white diamonds – one for each year of the toy line’s history. The diamond-studded car and display case were put up as part of a charity auction for Big Brothers Big Sisters. While the gems might have been worth $140,000, the car only sold for $60,000. Quite a bargain.
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What was your favorite Hot Wheels or Matchbox car when you were a kid? What’s the highest price you’ve ever paid to get back a piece of your childhood? Tell us about it in the comments below!

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