I love the old FJ40 Land Cruiser and have one from Tomica and a few from JL. When Matchbox came out with their own, I can’t wait to own the first release. And Matchbox did not disappoint as the first release did not include any tampos and the front has individually detailed paint.
Other colors were release and of course fully detailed on the front as well. Then tampos started appearing and the detailed front paint started disappearing. The Toyota name does not appear on the front anymore. Since then the last one I got was only available in a 5 pack.
One day a co worker had a birthday and she indicated that when she has enough money her dream car will either be a Land Cruiser or Range Rover. I had an idea and decided to get her a Matchbox 60th anniversary Land cruiser as a gift and told her it may not be real but she is one step closer to her dream.
The day she got it she hanged it on her cubicle and was always visible ever since. That was around 2013.
Forward to the present. As I indicated on my first blog in LALD I thought I was done with the mainline Matchbox and Hot Wheels but some nice looking models were popping up so I decided to hunt for them again. I then heard that the front of the Land Cruiser released for the Jurassic World series is now made of plastic. I’ve research and read articles wanting to know if Mattel will be using this new mold on all future Land Cruiser release or only for the Jurassic World. My answer came when another Land Cruiser was recently released and the front is now part of the plastic chassis mold (Correction: I just DLM it and it is part of the interior). I wasn’t too happy about it but decided to acquire it as it was the only one hanging there and would not want to regret it later. That’s when I realized that I should have gotten those previous releases. I then remembered my co worker’s FJ40 and realized I never had that color scheme and it still has the full metal body. I then hunted for another one hoping to trade it for that. It took a few Walmarts for me to find it. I then came up to her and asked if she would like to swap my gift with another FJ40. She agreed and this Land Cruiser is now part of the happy family.
The End