The months after Christmas are always a bit slow in the diecast world. New releases are few and far between, store shelves are mostly bare, and it feels like the whole hobby goes into hibernation. With little diecast to be found in stores, it’s nice to see some new sneaks of what’s coming soon to get ourselves excited about Matchbox again. Let’s jump right in!
This orange recolor of the Holden VF Commodore SSV was technically shown last week, but I didn’t think it warranted a blog post on its own. Don’t take that as a criticism though, because I love this car and I was so disappointed when it debuted in a police livery. When we first saw those sneaks, I was praying the next release would be a clean, civilian version, and it seems my prayers have been answered! It’s not clear from these pictures whether the brake lights and rear badges are fully detailed, but it seems likely since there’s no visible printing on the sides. This Holden can’t get here soon enough!
Perhaps the most exciting of the models shown in this week’s sneaks was the Infiniti QX80, which garnered a lot of attention when the prototype was shown at The Gathering last year. Certainly an odd car for Matchbox to choose to model, but it looks well executed and the detailing is on-point. I’m a little worried about the fitment on those rear wheels, but we’ll have to see how they sit once this model is actually released.
It’s a pleasant surprise to see the Dodge Charger Pursuit casting wearing a Fire Chief livery instead of the normal police designs. Plus, this is part of the recurring “MBX County Fire” theme, which will no doubt help increase its desirability! While I always prefer licensed models, licensing is expensive. If they needed to save on some models, I can’t fault their decision to pick this one. Hopefully the next time we see this casting it’s wearing a CHP livery!
The Dodge Avenger looks to be getting a recolor in a very pretty teal color. While I suspect many people won’t be completionists with this casting, this color is cool enough to be worthy of a spot in my collection.
Unfortunately, that is something that can’t be said of this Champagne recolor of the Mazda3. I’m not sure whether it’s the excessive amount of metal flake in the paint, or the similarly colored wheels, but this model just doesn’t work for me. Plus, this casting is starting to feel a bit overused, with four outings in the last two years.
Both the Chevy Blazer EV and Fiat 500 are getting nice-looking recolors. I particularly like this shade of dark blue on the Blazer, though the car itself isn’t particularly interesting.
Outside of the official Matchbox sneaks, we also got our first peek at some upcoming models thanks to @pugswheelsdiecastandcars on Instagram! Here we can see a dark red recolor of the excellent Nissan Sentra. While this isn’t a particularly interesting car, it’s so well executed that I just fell in love with the casting, even naming it one of the best models of last year! This red looks good too, though this may be one of the only Matchbox models I’m actually hoping to see in silver or gray. We can also see the retail packaging for the Holden, as well as an Opel Astra in a very eye-catching shade of yellow. I’m not sure how popular the Astra will be overseas, but I expect this model to be a bit of a pegwarmer here in the US, just like the Citroen C4-x, Ami, and Renault Twizy.
This is also our first look at the production version of the Chevy Silverado EV, which looks great in metallic blue! I’m surprised we haven’t seen any official teasers from Matchbox (I was actually beginning to wonder if the casting had been delayed) but it’s good to see that it’s coming soon! It’s hard to tell whether it has rear detailing from this picture, but at the least it has front and side detailing, with nicely scaled wheels as you would expect from Matchbox.
At the end of that gallery, we can see a recolor of the Ford Bronco Sport. Forest green with gold wheels is an interesting color choice, but I like this casting so I’m glad to see it make a return so soon.
Obviously we don’t know exactly when any of these models will be hitting shelves, but based on the rather sparse case assortments in the first few mixes of this year, I suspect the mid-year Matchbox cases will be stacked! Now I just have to find the patience to wait until then…
As always, the list of upcoming Matchbox models has been updated to reflect this new information.
DiecastLeno 
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