The World of Diecast Cars

[Aragorn243]

Picking up some Dinky diecasts got me wondering this morning about these little cars.

One of my favorite toys as a kid were Matchbox vehicles. I had a hundred or so probably, mostly hand me downs from an uncle near my age, 6 years.

So, most of the good ones came from the UK, and I didn't know about most until I was an adult.

Matchbox, Corgi, Dinky, Budgie, Ledo.

What did we have in the US? Tootsietoy, Midge Toy which are crap in comparison. Johnny Lightning and Hot Wheels later but I never cared for them much because they were mostly fantasy cars, not the real ones people drove.

Today, in horror, I discover the Soviet Union had better diecast cars than we did.

I know France had a company also but don't recall the name.

I wonder why this is. We had BIG toys, Tonka's, Buddy L's, Structo's and maybe that's why the little ones were neglected. Matchbox obviously filled the void. I expect the vast bulk of their sales was to the US market.

Is this a situation of the US having to be big with everything? Did kids in Europe have large toy trucks to play with?

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