The season after Christmas is always slow in the world of diecast, with minimal inventory at retail stores and new mixes being slow to release. It’s easy to get a bit bored during this time, so I’m glad Matchbox dropped some heat for us to get excited over!
The most exciting car in these sneaks is the Mk8 VW Golf GTE. I was shocked and extremely excited when a prototype of this casting was shown at The Gathering last year, and I’m glad to see it finally making its way into the lineup! Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined this metallic purple as the debut color for the GTE – I would have bet all my money on white or flat gray. I don’t even think this purple is an available color of the GTE, though I wish it was. The detailing on the front end looks perfect, and the brake lights look to be printed as well. It’s hard to judge scale from these sneaks, but hopefully this Mk8 Golf is similar in scale to the Mk5 GTI casting. My only complaint is the wheels, which seem a bit too small for the car, but I still can’t wait to get this one in hand. Expect a full feature on it!
The Jaguar I-PACE is a perfect fit for the current direction of the Matchbox brand, as it’s British, an EV, and a bit of an oddball. This casting is a Moving Parts model with opening doors which means we get some ugly panel gaps between the doors, but at least the casting looks very well detailed. This Jag looks to have printed detailing on five sides, and the casting appears nicely sized if perhaps a bit long. I suspect this is not its most favorable angle, so I’ll have to wait until I have it in hand to make my final judgments.
I certainly don’t need to reserve judgment on this Aston Martin V8 Vantage, though. The 1977 V8 Vantage is far from the most interesting or desirable Aston Martin – I would have preferred to see a DB12 – but this is unquestionably an excellent model. Proportions look perfect, wheel fitment is great, dare I say these wheels even look good on the Vantage? Hopefully Matchbox resists the urge to put an ugly deco on this Aston.
The Mercedes CLA wagon is an awesome model that I’ve been hoping we would see more often, and it seems my wish is coming true! This bright red recolor is a lovely change of pace from the boring black, white, and gray colors of most of the other modern German cars in the Matchbox lineup. This is also the first time we’re seeing these new basic wheels on a model other than the Mercedes SL 63, though sadly the fitment doesn’t look perfect with these wheels.
I have no idea where this BMW came from. As far as I can remember, we didn’t see it during the line preview, and I’ve seen no mention of it until now. It appears to be an E30 BMW M3 (admittedly, I’m not great with my BMW generations) wearing a Shell livery that looks to be straight off a touring car. It looks to have an opening hood, large spoiler, and the new premium five spoke wheels that look absolutely awful in white.
Forest Ranger/National Parks collectors will undoubtedly be excited about this new livery on the Ford Taurus police car. Personally, I’m not crazy about the red windows, though the car is otherwise very cool.
The Bizzarrini 5300 is not a car I was particularly looking forward to in the 2024 lineup, but the final product looks so well done. The deep red paint is gorgeous, the deco is simple but clearly race-inspired, and this is one of the few models where I actually like the gold wheels!
I can’t say that I’m particularly excited about this Nissan Pathfinder, but it looks well proportioned and I’m sure there’s plenty of JDM collectors who will love it.
I certainly am excited about this Radical SR8 though! It still boggles my mind that Matchbox is making a model of a racecar that isn’t even street-legal! This prototype looks far better than the 3D printed one Matchbox showed off during the line preview, and it now looks far more likely to stand up to rough play from a child.
The Mercedes Unimog is a cool but oddball casting that seems to consistently be forgotten for several years between uses, then get reissued with a ton of collector hype. I suspect this orange camo version will be one of the most hyped, given its all-around deco and distinctive look. I also don’t recognize these wheels, but they certainly look far better than the existing Matchbox off road/truck wheels, so I hope we see them on more models!
That’s it for this week’s sneaks – there’s definitely a lot to be excited about! It’s shaping up to be another amazing year for the Matchbox brand. As usual, the list of upcoming Matchbox models has been updated to reflect this new information, and you can check out my other news articles here.
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