How Hot Wheels left Matchbox in the dust: A toy car tragedy

[Doctor_Faustus]

Siku for life!

siku und Toddys: Hochwertige, detaillierte und lustige Spielzeugfahrzeuge

We still called them “Matchboxautos”, because that is genericised, apparently.

Hot Wheels never appealed to me as a kid. They weren’t realistic, after all. I wanted to playact the real world.

@jaded

Matchbox’s main problem in the USA was that they used 1950s era British marketing strategies to sell them. “I say, put them in a red box on the shelf in the toy store and children will covet them.” Mattel’s marketing division came along and pushed them into the dirt on the playground, took their lunch money, and made them cry.

I say, clearly the British approach resonated more with me.

ETA:
Is there anything more German than these two images being the first on their website?

Ja, ja, jetzt wird wieder in die Hände gespuckt. Wir steigern das Bruttosozialprodukt!