Toys from the Past: #877 MATCHBOX – MERCEDES C.111 (K-30) and BERTONE RUNABOUT (K-31) (1971)

Sunday, November 19, 2017

#877 MATCHBOX – MERCEDES C.111 (K-30) and BERTONE RUNABOUT (K-31) (1971)

Here are two Speed Kings! And pretty cool models.

The Speed Kings is a splitted series from the Super Kings serie. Starting in 1971, the Super Kings which were cars (no trucks, machines or whatever) were equipped with new fast wheels and sold under a slightly different name, although the numbering was respected (K-xx). Some of the first models were previously available as Super Kings, maybe in different colours, for example the Lamborghini Miura. Those models had wheels with metal hubcaps and rubber tyres and some of them even had “True Guide Steering”, a feature that in the Speed Kings completely disappears.

In the catalogue of 1971, all references between K-1 and K-20 remained Super Kings, while K-21 to K-29 were the new Speed Kings (8 in total). The line would continuously grow until 1978, year in which the catalogue showed the maximum number of references… up to K-69/1 and K-69/2. The references, of course changed over the course of the years, and one single reference number may have had more than one models and/or several decorations. As in the 1-75 series or any other, each model was kept available for an indefinited number of years.

The copyright year in the base of each car usually means that the car was released the following year, so these cars with coyright 1971 appear in 1972's catalogue.

Read the text in this picture from 1971's catalogue

From the catalogue from 1979/80 on, the Speed Kings series is renamed Super Kings again, and merged with the rest of the vehicles, as it originally was.

Some of the earlier references are truly amazing and colourful models: dragsters, sport protos, sci-fi models… despite the size, they are very attractive to collectors. All of them had practicable parts and mind-blowing features, like those Mercedes C.111 headlights!