Tomica, Matchbox, And Hot Wheels Yellow Bees

Hot Wheels Dodge Mirada Stocker

Hot Wheels Olds Flat Out 442

Matchbox Superfast Datsun 128X

Matchbox Rolamatics Wild Life Truck

Hot Wheels Airport Rescue Fire Engine

Hot Wheels VW Hare Splitter

Tomica Lamborghini Countach LP500S

Tomica And Matchbox Silver Bullets

Matchbox Ford Sierra XR4i

Tomica Mercedes Benz 450SEL

Matchbox Superfast VW Bug Hi Ho Silver

Tomica DeTomaso Pantera GTS

My Diecast Collection Travels Around the World

All the backgrounds are from Lonely Planet's big, glossy, and wonderful The Travel Book.

Matchbox Air France Airbus A300B flying over Peru.

Matchbox Ferrari 308 GTB at Venice's Piazza San Marco.

Hot Wheels VW Sunagon at Yosemite.

Tomica VW Microbus in Botswana.

Matchbox Audi Quattro in Liechtenstein.

Matchbox Tow Trucks

In my make-belief town, cars broke down. Fortunately, everyone had AAA tow coverage and I had three tow trucks on-call.

My favorite of the three was this Matchbox Freightliner.

Here it is towing a temperamental Matchbox Citroen CX.

This Matchbox Foden tilt cab was an odd duck. As its name states, the blue cab tilts forward 90 degrees.

Foden carrying a Tomica Fix It Again Tony X 1/9.

This Matchbox Leyland truck was a mystery to me. I never knew what the two holes on the bed were for. I used to get those toothpicks from club sandwiches with the colorful plastic on one end and stick them in the holes. Kids.

Going back to the unreliable French theme, here is a Matchbox Renault 5 getting a ride to the shop. I understand the scales are way out of proportion, but hey, I was eight!

Matchbox Superfast No. 60 Holden Pick-Up

I was inspired recently to look in my closet, dig deep, and unearth my childhood toy collection. In one of the boxes, I found my diecast car collection. They consist mostly of cars made by Tomica, Matchbox, Hot Wheels, and Majorette. Vintage-wise, they range from early 1970s to early 1980s.

As a child, I prided myself in how I took care of my cars. But as I look at them today, they are in varying states of decay. My other surprise-- the eclectic nature of my collection. I've got everything from Chevy Citations to double decker buses to dune buggy cop cars. What was I thinking?

I encourage all of you to look for your childhood toys. The rush of memories is incredible.

Over the next few weeks, I will post pictures of interesting cars from my private collection. I've never taken pictures of small objects close-up before so the quality should improve.

The "500" sticker held up nicely.

Classic Holden lines.

Note the plastic tow hook.

The motorbikes come off!

Matchbox Transporter

For the collector with discriminating taste. From top left, clockwise: Austin 1800 Pininfarina, Lamborghini Marzal, Citroen SM, DAF truck, Lotus Europa, Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow.

Photo credit