[REVIEW] Lesney Matchbox Aston Martin DB 2/4

It’s Lesney Matchbox time again. I am far from home, but have a few spare minutes while doing laundry, so this installment will continue on time. Today we examine Matchbox 53a, the Aston Martin DB 2/4. This casting entered the range in 1958, and remained in production until early 1963, covering a few variants, I assume it was popular. As one might expect, it is a nice looking model:

Detail is nice from all angles. Hard to estimate scale, maybe 1:60. This casting was one of the last introduced with metal wheels - this plastic wheel variant probably dates from 1959-60 due to the box type. As it is a 1958 casting, there is no glazing and nothing opens, those luxuries were a couple years off. Only a couple castings come to mind that were introduced without glazing and actually received it later (33a, 45a). Jack Odell, one of the founders of Matchbox, bought a car similar to this once the toys became successful, it is said this casting exists via his real car:

Front and rear are also nice, in that kind of soothing mellow way this car is modeled:

Base is typical of the era, showing the transition to glossy base paint, where many earlier models had matte paint:

The model is lucky enough to live in a nice B box. However, I was negligent, and when pulling the model out of the pile to take the pics, I tore off an end flap. It tore at the crease, and I hope was partially due to paper weakness, but I felt like a clumsy oaf for a couple weeks. Damaging a box isn’t cool, even if you can’t see it in the pic:

Still, I am more than happy to have it in my collection, it’s a classic casting of a classic car:

And the real thing from wikipedia, pic chosen because the color is nice:

Next week at this time I will be in Italy, we’ll see if I get a chance for another review.