The 1968 Toyota Land Cruiser has been in the Matchbox lineup since 2009, and I recently reviewed the Lesney Edition version of this casting from the 2011 Lesney Edition range. In this post, I am looking at the regular edition from the 2011 Matchbox line.
The 2011 regular edition is in an appealing dark metallic blue. The white roof which has been seen on all Matchbox Toyota Land Cruisers, is on this version. The paint is uniformly excellent, with no overspray or flaws.
The tampo printing has been generously applied to the grille, the headlights and front indicators. The rear has no tampo printing at all, rear taillights are in the blue body colour.
The casting is a very accurate representation of the short wheelbase Toyota Land Cruiser, and is still a very popular 4WD in Australia. Most Australian versions have a bull bar at the front, but this version is a regular factory version, although the wheels are a bit larger than they would have been in 1968.
The interior is fairly basic, through the slightly tinted window glass you can see distinct front and rear seats and a crude dashboard. This car has a plastic base and it is unremarkable with little detail, apart from leaf springs and two differentials, indicating it is a 4WD vehicle. The front and rear bumpers are part of the plastic base.
The packaging is an attractive but simple blister card, featuring the car on the card itself. This 2011 packaging is about to be replaced with a rather more garish packaging,as Matchbox heads back to a 'Hero City' era.
This car is an attractive little diecast, which at around two dollars is amazingly good value. It has no real flaws, apart from a lack of tampo printing on the rear, but it is quite generous at the front. A quick lick of the paintbrush could quickly add the detail missing, if you so desired.
Coming soon - Lesney Edition and Regular series '68 Toyota Land Cruiser - comparison.
The ratings:
Matchbox 1968 Toyota Land Cruiser
Quality 8
Design 7
Colours 8
X-factor 7
Rating: 30/40
See also:
Lesney Edition v regular series Matchbox Toyota Land Cruiser (soon)
