Orange vs Blue: Two Takes on the C7 Corvette, Compared

The Corvette is among the most storied of American nameplates, right up there with Mustang and F-150.  So, it’s not surprising that both Matchbox and Hot Wheels can be reliably counted upon to produce their own take on the Corvette of each generation, as we’ve seen all the way up to the modern C8.  Weirdly, Matchbox decided to make a police version of the C7 Corvette rather than a civilian version, so there was never quite a model to compare to the Hot Wheels version.  Until now…enter: the Moving Parts ‘16 Corvette Stingray. 

While I’m generally not the biggest fan of Moving Parts castings, I find models with opening hoods like this Corvette to be among the best the line has to offer.  Unfortunately, that opening hood does make the Matchbox’s front end look just a little too tall, where the Hot Wheels more accurately recreates the long, wide, low hood the Corvette is famous for.  I appreciate Matchbox’s use of the base to create the grill section, as this provides both a color break and a sense of depth without relying on a tampo application. The Hot Wheels grill, in comparison, looks very plain.  The fidelity of the headlight and logo graphics are clearly subpar on the Hot Wheels as well.  

Both castings utilize the same technique of having the window section also form the roof section, though Hot Wheels goes the extra mile by adding graphics for a carbon fiber look, while the Matchbox just has opaque plastic.  Cleaner body lines and one of the best sets of mirrors I’ve seen on any Mattel model help the Matchbox Corvette make up for its less detailed roof. 

Peeking through the open windows of the Matchbox Corvette, there appears to be a laptop mounted to the right of the center console, suggesting the interior casting was not modified from the mainline police version of the C7.  I’m sure this was a cost saving measure, but it does look a little odd on a civilian Corvette.  

On the back of each model, the same difference in tampo fidelity appears again.  The Matchbox version really looks like red headlights in a black housing, where the Hot Wheels just has a small black triangle to suggest the trim piece surrounding the taillights. The Matchbox also gets a center brake light, but it’s missing the Corvette logo on the rear bumper.  This strikes me as very odd, given that they were already applying graphics to that area of the model, and would not have needed any additional colors – white, black, and red is enough to make the Corvette logo.  With the logo’s omission, the rear of the Matchbox ends up looking slightly too plain. 

The paint colors on these cars are significantly different, which I believe is because they are trying to emulate two different colors.  The Hot Wheels is brighter and likely trying to be Crystal Red, where the matchbox is darker and a bit more metallic, which is likely Long Beach Red.  I find the darker, richer red on the Matchbox to be the better color, as it’s more metallic and catches the light to highlight the casting’s superior detail.  

Every Corvette until the C8 had a chrome wheel option, and since nearly every C7 Corvette on the road has chrome wheels, the Matchbox chrome 5 spokes feel more appropriate to the car than the Hot Wheels’ black split-five spokes.  The black wheels seem more appropriate on one of the more aggressive Corvette trims, like the ZR1.

Since the Matchbox is a Moving Parts model, it gets the added bonus of a nicely detailed engine bay! 

While I like both of these models, and both will be staying in my collection, I’m extremely glad to have this new Matchbox version.  It feels like a more accurate and complete version of the car, and a better display piece overall.  The only trouble is finding it, given the poor distribution of the Moving Parts series!