Monday, 6 June 2016

Favorite Matchbox Part 3: 2014 Chevy Silverado 1500

It's another Monday morning which is not usually a fun thing, but the silver(ado) (Okay I'll stop) lining is that it's a good excuse to do a Matchbox post. I'm continuing to show a different Matchbox casting every Monday that ranks in my personal favorites. Today, it's the 2014 Chevy Silverado 1500.

There are only 3 releases of this casting to date: the 2014 Mainline in Blue, the 2015 Mainline in Red and the 2016 Mainline in Charcoal. It's kind of cool how Matchbox consistently releases models year after year but avoids doing re-colors during that year. Hot Wheels will sometimes give us 3-4 recolors in one year and then we'll twiddle our thumbs for the next 2-3 years until the casting makes another appearance. The other fun thing about how Matchbox releases stuff is that there's more anticipation. I'm already wondering what color Silverado we'll get next year. Maybe white? Silver? Who knows.

This casting is about as good as it gets for a buck. The front license plate is great and if you look closely, you'll see that each version has a different license plate. The Chevy badging and taillights are nice touches and the proportions and stance seem pretty well scaled for a $1 Matchbox. Greenlight makes a perfect version of this Silverado, but at around 6-7x the price. Consider this Greenlight-lite, or realism on a budget.

I'll be happy to see Matchbox continue with castings like this, the recent Ford F-150 work truck and the previewed Dodge Ram 1500 coming in the National Parks livery. Realistic, stock vehicles with the best scaling and detailing $1 will buy. The more realistic, clean, licensed models Matchbox releases, the better, and this is a good start...