Matchbox carry case catalogue
Matchbox models laid out across a case

Matchbox cars, trucks and playsets — the whole carry case

Every Matchbox car we can find in stock, sorted into trays the way a collector sorts a case. Die-cast singles, multipacks, Action Drivers playsets, working rigs, Sky Busters aircraft and the Collectors line — with the price the store is asking today.

A Matchbox car exists because of a box. In 1953 a man at a British die-casting firm needed a toy small enough for his daughter to carry into school, where the rule was that a toy had to fit inside a matchbox. The model he made fit, the size stuck, and the manufacturer has been building to that ratio ever since. Seventy years on, a 1:64 scale car still closes inside a fist, and that one constraint is the reason a collection from 1960 and a collection bought this year line up on the same shelf.

We keep this catalogue the way we keep our own case — everything in a tray, nothing loose. There are eight trays. Die-cast cars holds the singles. Multipacks holds the five-packs and the big boxes. Action Drivers holds the garages and the track sets. Working rigs holds everything with a job: tractors, tippers, fire engines, ambulances, police cars. Sky busters holds the aircraft. Licensed holds the film cars. Large-scale holds the fifteen-inch trucks. Collectors holds the numbered premium releases.

What we do not do is guess. Each model on this site is checked against the manufacturer field before it gets a card, so a look-alike from another maker never ends up in a Matchbox tray. Prices and stock come from the listing, not from memory, and when a car is sold out we would rather show you the box it comes in than pretend otherwise.

Ten models the case opens on

Die-Cast Cars

Single 1:64 scale Matchbox cars — the small metal models that started everything in 1953.

Open the die-cast cars tray — 231 models

Multipacks and Gift Sets

Five, nine, twelve or twenty cars in one box — the fastest way to expand a collection at once.

Open the multipacks and gift sets tray — 24 models

Action Drivers Playsets

Garages, fuel stations, car washes and transport centres — the track sets a car drives into.

Open the action drivers playsets tray — 11 models

Working Rigs and Utility

Tractors, excavators, fire engines, ambulances and police cars — the vehicles with a job.

Open the working rigs and utility tray — 62 models

Sky Busters

Aircraft, helicopters and spacecraft — the part of the catalogue that leaves the road.

Open the sky busters tray — 31 models

Licensed and Movie Cars

Jurassic World, Indiana Jones and the delivery liveries — models that came from somewhere else first.

Open the licensed and movie cars tray — 15 models

Large-Scale Trucks

Fifteen inches of truck — the big castings, plus the remote-control models.

Open the large-scale trucks tray — 4 models

Collector Series

Numbered releases, anniversary sets and the premium castings aimed at adults.

Open the collector series tray — 27 models

What 1:64 actually means

One to sixty-four is a ratio, not a size. It says that sixty-four of something on the model adds up to one of the same thing on the real car — sixty-four inches of real Ford becomes one inch of die-cast Ford. Because real cars are not all the same length, 1:64 models are not either. A Mini at this scale is close to two inches. A long American saloon from the seventies runs past three. Both are correct.

The ratio came out of the box, not out of a drawing office. The original models were sized to close inside a matchbox, and 1:64 is roughly what that constraint produces for an ordinary car. The manufacturer has held the ratio for seventy years, which is the single most useful fact about the brand if you are buying for a shelf: a model released this year will stand beside one released decades ago and look like it belongs there.

Aircraft are the exception. A Boeing at 1:64 would not fit in a room, so Sky Busters models are built to fit the hand instead and the ratio floats. Large-scale trucks break the rule deliberately in the other direction, at fifteen inches and up.

Why we sort the catalogue into trays

A Matchbox collection is not a list, it is a case. Nobody keeps a tipper next to an airliner because the alphabet says so. These are the rules we sort by.

  • One tray per kind of model, so a collector looking for trucks never scrolls past forty saloons to find one.
  • Scale stays visible. Where a model is not 1:64 we say so on the card rather than leave you to find out from the box.
  • Multipacks sit together because the decision to buy five cars at once is a different decision from buying one.
  • Playsets are separated from the vehicles that come inside them — you are buying the layout, not the car.
  • The Collectors line is kept apart because the price, the finish and the buyer are all different.
  • Anything we cannot confirm as Matchbox does not get a tray at all.

What you are looking at on every card

The same information, in the same place, on every model in the case. No card is written from a template — each one is built from what that particular listing says about itself.

  • The price the store is asking right now, not a price we wrote down last year.
  • The scale, where the packaging or the manufacturer states one.
  • What is in the box: how many cars, which accessories, whether a figure or a playmat is included.
  • Real buyer reviews copied word for word from the listing, never rewritten and never invented.
  • A rating and a review count where the listing has collected enough of them to mean anything.
  • A photograph of the actual model rather than a render of what it might look like.

Recycled metal and the boxes it comes in

The manufacturer has been moving the line onto recycled zinc and recycled plastic, and reworking the packaging to cut what gets thrown away. Some models now carry a note on the box about the material they are cast from; others ship in card that folds flat rather than plastic that does not.

We mention it because it changes what a car feels like to buy for a child, not because it changes how it drives across a floor. The castings are the same weight and the same finish they have always been.

Matchbox recycled material panel

Questions the case gets asked

What scale are Matchbox cars?

Most Matchbox cars are 1:64 scale, the ratio that came from fitting a model inside a matchbox in 1953. Because real vehicles differ in length, 1:64 models differ too — a small hatchback is around two inches, a long saloon closer to three and a half. Aircraft in the Sky Busters line are sized to the hand rather than to a fixed ratio, and the large-scale trucks are deliberately much bigger.

What types of vehicles does Matchbox offer?

The catalogue covers far more than cars. Alongside saloons, coupes and off-roaders there are construction vehicles, farm tractors, fire engines, ambulances, police cars, delivery vans, buses, airliners, helicopters and spacecraft. The brand started with a road roller and a cement mixer, and working vehicles have stayed roughly half of what it makes.

Is Matchbox owned by Mattel?

Yes. The brand began in Britain in 1953 under Lesney Products, passed through Universal Toys and Tyco, and has been part of Mattel since 1997. The manufacturer has kept the line separate from its other die-cast range — Matchbox stays with realistic, licensed and working vehicles rather than fantasy castings.

Are Matchbox cars still sold today?

They are, and in volume. New models arrive every year across the mainline, the Collectors line, Sky Busters and the Action Drivers playsets. The whole of this catalogue is current production or current stock — if a model is listed here it was available and priced when we last checked.

What are Matchbox playsets?

Playsets are the track and building sets the cars drive into: garages with lifts, fuel stations, car washes, airports and multi-level transport centres. Most are sold under the Action Drivers name, most include at least one 1:64 scale vehicle, and the connectors are designed so separate sets join into a single layout.

Does Matchbox make collector vehicles?

Yes — the Matchbox Collectors line is aimed at adults, with rubber tyres, metal bases and heavier printing than the mainline. Releases are numbered inside their series, and anniversary and legacy sets reissue models from earlier decades. Production runs are shorter, so prices sit above the standard cars.

What age are Matchbox toys designed for?

The mainline die-cast cars are generally marked for ages three and up, as are most playsets, because small parts and small cars are a choking risk for younger children. The large-scale trucks are built for the same age bracket but survive heavier handling. Collectors releases are adult display models rather than toys.

How do I start a Matchbox collection?

Start with singles or one themed multipack rather than a shelf of boxes. Pick a line you actually like — rescue vehicles, farm machinery, one manufacturer's cars — and collect across it, because an open-ended collection never feels finished. Keep the packaging if resale matters to you, and give the cars a tray so they stop rolling into a drawer.