Sam Downs Design: 1960's Matchbox and Hot Wheels

"1968 Smith's Karrier Van"

Hot Wheels and Matchbox toys have always been a huge influence in my childhood. My dad and I have the same interests in toys as children apparently. These are my dad's Matchbox and Hot Wheels cars from the 60's. Most of them are in pretty bad condition, so I picked the ones in the best condition to photograph for the project. They are all made in England. For those of you who don't know, my mom and dad are both british, they moved over to the U.S. 2 years before I was born. My dad had to move for business and they just never ended up moving back. So most of the things I have that are old, are things of british traditions, or things made in the U.K. The best Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars are 3 named "Smith's Karrier Van","68 VW 1500 Saloon" and the Hot Wheels "Splittin Image". Both the Splittin Image and the VW are from 1968 and the Karrier Van did not have a date on it, however I think it is from late 60's. I looked up infomation on Splittin Image and this is what I found, "Splittin Image" 1968 was one of the first 16 cars Hot Wheels released. 1968 was the first year they brought out there own cars as "Hot Wheels". So this is one of probably 100,000's of "Splittin Image" that were made in the U.K. however, this is definitely a primary part of Hot Wheels History. The other two I found on E-Bay or Amazon a couple of times and I listed the lowest to highest prices for the toys.

Smith's Karrier Van

Ebay Pricing ($30.00 to $615.50)

$30 for a beaten up one, and $615.50 for basicly brand new