The Last Year

Dodge Viper GTS, made by Matchbox.
1:59 scale.
_{Also seen in here: [link]}

This Viper was the #1 model of 75 miniatures Matchbox sold in 1997.
By those years, I was about to get into the automotive world, thanks to the release of the Gran Turismo games in 1998.
And because of that, I was also about to end up liking diecast miniatures of cars.

I was a mere kid, but I already knew the biggest companies were Hot Wheels and Matchbox.
But what me and my friends never understood was "Why is Matchbox a rival company of Hot Wheels, if both are owned by Mattel?"

Matchbox always seemed to be a rival of Hot Wheels.
That didn't make any sense to us. It was clearly visible that Matchbox miniatures were different from Hot Wheels toys. The pricetag was the same, but still... it was nonsense to us. Why Mattel didn't sold everything as Hot Wheels or Matchbox? Why keep different companies that sold the same products (miniatures), with the same pricetag, but with different brands?

We thought Matchbox was a rival of Hot Wheels, because Matchbox was a rival of Hot Wheels... until Mattel bought the british company in 1997. The same time period when I started to pay more attention to miniatures and so on.
We missed the last years of Matchbox being a company of its own.

This Dodge Viper was made in 1997. The last year before Mattel bought the Matchbox brand, and messed up some kids minds.


... I always prefered Matchbox models than Hot Wheels. And I hate the fact that Mattel doesn't sell Matchbox miniatures in Brazil since 2008.