[REVIEW] Lesney Matchbox Foden Sugar Container

Lesney Matchbox time is here again. Maybe this is Sugar Sunday? Today we examine an unusual type of truck. This is Lesney Matchbox 10c, the Foden Sugar Container. This casting entered the range in 1960, and remained until 1966. It is a good representation of Lesney Matchbox commercial vehicles of this time:

This is a casting of a Foden F21, nicknamed the “Spaceship” or “Sputnik” due to its futuristic styling compared to most period British trucks (would be accentuated more with glazing). One may notice my recent Lesney Matchbox reviews have all been trucks - this is because I chose from a batch of models numbers 1-15, and most castings in this range are trucks. Being a sugar hauler, this is an unusual type of truck. The casting shown has grey plastic wheels, and was also offered with black wheels, and attractive silver wheels, which are scarce. There’s a scarce version with a crown on the rear decal, which I don’t have. I’d like to have the silver wheeled version. Scale is not easy to estimate, maybe around 1:75-1:80. No glazing, as this was just getting started in 1960, and seemed delayed for trucks. However, the decals are of significant size (small inconsistent color spots are common on these decals), and it still has detail and presence from all angles:

Front and rear have similar detail, with mask sprayed silver at front:

Underside detail is basic, as usual for the time period:

This example is lucky enough to live in its original Type C box. This dates it to around 1961:

This is another casting I am happy to have in my collection. I like the contrast of the dark blue with the grey wheels, and the decals are cool:

Pics of a 1:1 of an identical truck from flickr:

One can see how the curves and huge glass area would have been shocking to those used to traditional British trucks:

This truck isn’t a tribute to the Matchbox model - it’s actually a survivor. Here it is appearing in the 1963 movie “A Stitch in Time” (from imcdb):