Despite the lack of any new models appearing at retail stores in the US, we just got our first look at what I believe is the 8th mainline Matchbox mix of the year thanks to @ada_3l3 on Instagram. Let’s dive right in!
There’s no better place to start than one of my most anticipated models of the year – the 2025 Aston Martin Vanquish. After nearly a decade of making rather unattractive cars, Aston Martin seems to finally have found their design mojo again, and I’m glad to see them getting the diecast recognition they deserve! We’ve already seen a DB12 from Matchbox, which was decent but let down by its subpar premium wheels. When we got to see the prototype of this Vanquish at the Gathering last year, my hopes were high! The Vanquish is a gorgeous car, so a diecast version feels like an obvious winner. However, as soon as I saw this picture, my heart sank.
If you’ve been collecting for a while, your eye will have immediately gone to those vents on the side of the model. Mainline Matchbox models typically only have the budget for printing on 2-3 sides, which means if there’s side detailing, the Vanquish is missing details somewhere else..and I couldn’t help but notice that the grille looks suspiciously light.
Somehow, there was already an eBay listing for this model with more pictures, which immediately confirmed my suspicions. This model doesn’t have detailing on its grille – a decision I find utterly baffling. Sure, there’s a fair amount of texture from the casting, so it still looks like a grille, but that texture is supposed to be black! Aston Martin’s grille design is the defining feature of their styling. How did Matchbox come to the decision to detail the sides over the grille? The Vanquish is also missing the contrasting-color trunk that dominates its appearance from the rear…
It’s made all the more disappointing by the debut color combo. It’s the same green and gold wheels combo we saw on Matchbox’s DB12 last year. While it is technically a way you could spec your Vanquish, I would much rather have seen a red, white or even a silver version (maybe next time). On the plus side, it does feature headlights and detailing on the hood vents, so that’s better than nothing. I’ll give this model another chance once I actually get it in hand, but this first look is disappointing.
While we’re on the subject of disappointment, it feels like the perfect time to address the new Mustang police car. Unlike the Vanquish, I can’t fault the casting’s design – it honestly looks great! However, I find myself feeling a bit disappointed by this debut deco. I was hoping for a CHP deco on this casting, or failing that, the Virginia State Patrol deco that was shown during the slideshow at the Gathering. I’m never as big of a fan of generic decos, and doubly so when they don’t match any of Matchbox’s existing police vehicles. If they were going to go generic, why not at least use the recent “Matchbox County” emergency vehicle livery?
A perfect case in point: the new Ford Police Interceptor. This airport security livery isn’t my favorite, but I’ll give Matchbox credit for reusing this deco from a recent five pack. It’s a cool way to get some use out of this aging casting!
Despite only dating back to 2020, the 2019 Ford Mustang Coupe casting has seen an impressive amount of use. When I saw this Mustang, I immediately thought “I’ve seen this before.” After a quick sanity check, my memory proved correct. We’ve already seen a light blue Mustang, albeit with silver wheels instead of these smoked gray five spokes. It’s a little disappointing to see a reused color like this, when there are so many castings we haven’t seen enough of. Still, it should be a good way for newer collectors to pick up a great looking model.
The same is true of this ‘71 Porsche 914, which we’ve already seen in red with a black base (which I personally think looks better than this light gray).
The debut red version of the BMW 7-Series completely skipped my region, so I’m stoked to have another chance to acquire one. If anything, I think I prefer this new dark blue color anyway! It looks to have plenty of metal flake, and it retains all the front and rear detailing from the original.
I’ll confess that the Freightliner M2 106 Plus isn’t the kind of casting I’d usually be excited about, but I can’t help but find this little dump truck incredibly charming! It features a moving dump bed just like the models from my childhood, which should give it lots of play value for kids that love construction vehicles. Add in a licensed cab design with printed detailing, and you have about the best case scenario for a Matchbox construction vehicle!
The Morgan Plus Four is returning in a very-British green-on-green color combo. Not my cup of tea, but cool nonetheless!
This incredibly deco-heavy school bus is a pretty mediocre casting, but that’s fine since it’s clearly aimed at kids. Mainline Matchbox buses are so comically subscale that I can’t bring myself to care about them as an older collector, but I don’t expect that to bother this model’s target audience. I just hope this bus’s crazy side prints aren’t to blame for the lack of deco on the Vanquish!
Thanks to an eBay seller, we also got a look at a forest green recolor of the 5th Gen Toyota 4Runner. Every year, Toyota makes a special paint color for their TRD Pro models, and this is an excellent rendition of 2020’s Army Green color! I’m starting to feel like I have more 4Runners than I need in my collection, but I don’t know that I can pass this one up!
Finally, we saw 4 of the 5 models in the upcoming Walmart-exclusive BMW set thanks to @ada_3l3 once again. For 2026, these exclusive themed sets are getting the full detailing treatment, which is cool but unfortunately I feel like Matchbox went a bit too far with the side detailing on these BMWs. They’re all decked out in M colors, when I would rather have seen clean decos with a bit of added badging and marker lights on the sides. This set reminds me of the BMW M boxed set from Hot Wheels premium a few years ago, which had the same problem. At least it lets the excellent BMW M2 casting get some more use!
That’s it for this news roundup! As always, the list of upcoming models has been updated to reflect this new information. Be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss any upcoming Matchbox news!
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