[REVIEW] Lesney Matchbox Major Pack Interstate Double Freighter

Review time is here, and this week we again look at vintage Matchbox. This installment features something relatively unusual. This is M-9, the Major Pack Hendrickson Cooper-Jarrett semi and trailer set. This entered the range in 1962, and was produced until the Major Pack series was phased out in 1967. Major Pack sets were usually multi piece vehicles often but not always in similar scale to 1-75 series Regular Wheel vehicles. As one can see, this is a set that offered a lot of play value:

Multiple pieces and configurations make for multiple ways to play. I estimate this to have a scale around 1:65-1:70 at smallest - definitely larger than HO, but not too large as to not fit in a smallish boxed set. M-9 consists of a “Relay” tractor unit, two trailers, and a hinged coupling link piece:

As to be expected from this era, detail is significant, and high quality. The tractor unit is pretty superb for this scale, era, and price point:

The trailers are nice too, everything as it should be:

Undercarriage is typical of the era:

The box survived nicely enough:

A place for everything, everything in its place:

This would have cost maybe $2.50-$2.75 or so when new, equivalent of perhaps $20 today. Sounds pricey, but for something that was top quality, made in a first world location, maybe not. I bought this from an antique picker/dealer for $30 last year - I usually don’t collect these, but for the money, I couldn’t say no.

These existed as a real thing, too: