#992 MATCHBOX – BURNIN’ KEY CARS – DODGE CHARGER DAYTONA and KENWORTH MAGIC TRUCK (1983)

As early as in entry #25, I already wrote an extensive text about Kidco, the company that was producing the Burnin’ Key Cars before Matchbox, so please visit it again to find information about Kidco and the relation between Kidco and Matchbox.

 

This time I will just present this two excellent blisterpacks containing no less than a Dodge Charger Daytona and a Kenworth Magic Truck “Blue Chief”, unopened, but with some wear on the card and the blister. There were several of these cards made, but all of them included, of course, the key to activate the car (in an orange keyring with a sticker that passed to the car decoration). Later reissues of the cars (in new decorations) changed the key design and came without the keyring. In the pictures, behind the key there is a piece of cardboard that could be mistaken for a box for the card, but it is not.

 

 

Interestingly, one of the cardbacks still has an original price tag from Morawa, marking 49 Austrian Schillings, which is around 3,50 Euro…. Extremely expensive for the early-mid 80s, at least in my opinion. Maybe this is the reason why they are rare to find nowadays… they didn’t sold well at the time. The price tag at the front is obviously newer and has no interest for collector.

 

The backcard shows the complete series of cars (14 models) and trucks (8 models), I think these were the first series available, but it would later be expanded with new decorations for this original models, new models and even sub-series such as the Demolition Cars.

 

I guess many collectors despise them because they are not die-cast. The base is metallic, but the body is made of plastic, which is good, since it is a toy that suffers a lot of rough play, and the front part is made of a softer plastic, as if it was an oversized bumper. As a toy it is great, and the mechanism was copied by many other manufacturers inmediatly. Anybody can recognize this kind of toy and surely recalls having or playing with one of them, if not Kidco or Matchbox, from another toymaker.

 

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: DODGE CHARGER DAYTONA and KENWORTH MAGIC TRUCK (BURNIN’ KEY CARS)
• Scale: 1:64 (approx.)
• Year: 1983
• Company: Matchbox (United Kingdom) / Kidco (Macau)
• Size: Around 7 cm long