[REVIEW] Lesney Matchbox Jaguar 3.4 Litre

Lesney Matchbox time again. Today we examine a timeless classic, the Jaguar Mk. II. This is Lesney Matchbox 65b, the Jaguar 3.4 Litre. This casting entered the range early in 1962, and was made until 1967 - a long run commensurate with the real car being popular, no doubt. It is what one expects from a Lesney Matchbox of this era:

From all angles, this has plenty of detail. I estimate scale to be around 1:60. This is from an era when Matchbox started including more features - here we have a tow hook, glazing, and opening hood/bonnet - woo hoo! This model also has a special detail that might have already been noticed by observant eyes - more on that later:

Front and rear also have ample detail:

And look at that engine detail, wow - from a pocket money small scale toy car introduced in 1962, remarkable:

Base is typical of the era, and here once can see the unique feature of this specific model. Look at the wheels - this has knobby silver wheels at front, fine grey plastic wheels at rear. This is what is called “mixed wheels”. Matchbox collectors often call something like this a “negative variation” rather than simply an “error”. This is likely from when these silver wheels were being phased out, and the fine grey wheels were phased in - roughly 1964. I saw this on ebay a few years ago, I spotted the odd wheels, but the seller (a train guy) didn’t notice or describe them. I won it at a good price even for a normal example. I didn’t know what I would be receiving, but was pleasantly surprised:

This is lucky enough to live in a nice D box. That’s another funny thing - this box type says “Jaguar 3.8" on the end flaps, where the car is marked 3.4. As the 1:1 Mk II Jaaaaag could be had with either engine, both work:

A nice casting even as usually found, and the mixed wheels are very cool to me, and add interest. I’m glad to have this:

The real thing, from classicandperformancecar.com: