[Kiwi78]

I know there are about 700 variations around. I got my first one this morning and in another thread the question came up if it's a code 2 or 3 (http://www.fcarnahan.com/pg/code.html). What do you think?

And the main reason for this question: epoxy instead of rivets.

 

[Guntownal]

My guess is it probably was made by the club and given to its members. We did the same thing in a HWs club I was in years ago.

 

[Kiwi78]

I see. I was asking because this used to be a popular promo car where you could pay so much and Matchbox authorized tampos of whatever event or shop you wanted to advertise if you bought a certain amount of vehicles. I thought this was one of them but maybe it isn't. Looks quite genuine though if you don't check the rivets so someone did a good job.

 

[slythorne]

Yeah, if it was a legitimate Matchbox promo car the rivets wouldn't be glued on, they would be normal rivets as they would be painted in the normal assembly line like the rest of the cars. Sometimes Matchbox would just send out a blank canvas such as an all white car where the recipient would apply their own tampos to the side.

(but I forgot what the differences between code 2, 3, 4,... 9 are)

 

[Kiwi78]

Well, I'm just a little upset because I got it thinking it was a legitimate MB authorized promo but then again it looks good and it's still an unusual version so I'll get over it.

 

[matchboxtom]

I assume yours is a model made by the club either repainting or placing decals on other models and these are called code 3 models.

Code 1 - Fully assembled by Matchbox
Code 2 - Authorized by Matchbox
Code 3 - made without permission of Matchbox


I don't know if there is a full list anymore. There are so many of them. There are also promotionals made with Matchbox permission by a company call ASAP or Color Comp. Color Comp lost their blanket Code 2 permissions a few years ago. So some Color Comp models are Code 2 authorized and the newer ones must be considered Code 3. I have even had some Model A vans created by Color Comp.

My Color Comp model

Several Baseball, and Football sets were also made by White Rose in the USA