29th M.U.S.A. Convention 2010, Durham

The 29th consecutive collectors convention and toy show organized by Charlie Mack provided a wonderful opportunity for collectors to secure current and vintage Matchbox models and engage in collector camaraderie.
The Convention included:
  • In-room trading
  • A presentation by Bob Porcja on Regular Wheels
  • Convention Diner
  • After dinner speakers:
    1. John Nijhuis, Matchbox Ambassador 2010
    2. Simon Iredale, a former Matchbox employee at Mt. Laurel, NJ
  • An auction composed of 70 items
  • A Sunday toy show.
What a great weekend again!
It started off for some of us by visiting the Lesney and Toy Museum to view Charlies Museum after his final renovation and afterwards to the Holiday Inn and getting part of the in-room trading. Many dealers and collectors did already set up and I think we have seen never such a wide variety of models offered to the 'early birds'. As usual we finished the Friday with a great Barbeque offered, organized and cooked by the one and only Tom Wiczkowicz. Tommy many thanks again for hosting us again at your great place!
The Barbeque by Tom Wiczkowicz
At noon Bob Porcja gave a very informative presentation on Early Lesney's. This presentation was very well attended. Pretty much all of the dinner attendees were present.
The Saturday evening events began around 6 pm with Charlie's traditional spot prizes, with Bruce Cohen acting as Monty Hall, in a Let's Make A Deal type of who had the "right stuff" in their pockets/purses and can get it to me the fastest contest.  Although Charlie and Bruce did a good show most of the attention was given
to the (beautiful) lady who handed out the prices.

John Nijhuis reviewed his experiences as Matchbox Ambassador for the year 2009-2010, starting with his visit to El Segundo in September 2009 and ending with the Line Preview that he did not attend. For the visit to El Segundo, John prepared an elaborate consulting report made on Powerpoint and presented it to the Engineering Team, USA Marketing Department and International Marketing Department. The presentation titled "The World of Matchbox Collecting" included segments on MB100s, Convoys and Buses, 1:43 and 1:18 Scale models, Matchbox Collectibles and Catalogs a comprehensive marketing/sales analysis as well some ideas on increasing sales. He also reminded Mattel of the vast store of photos and information offered by the Matchbox Forum web site and asked questions about Official Club Status, Code 2 and Show models. John also explained the reason he did not attend the Matchbox 2010 Line Preview in El Segundo.

Mattel was offered gratis an elaborate consulting analysis from an experienced auto parts executive who is also a passionate Matchbox collector.

Based on his experience at Mt. Laurel office from 1993 until the unit was relocated to El Segundo in 2004, Simon fielded questions from the 60 dinner guests and offered some intriguing insights on operational decision and procedures at Matchbox. This inside look at production marketing and quality control alone was worth the price of dinner. Here are some of the Questions and Answers.
Question: Why did Matchbox stop making Super King models?
Answer: Super king Models were not a big seller in the USA. Tyco also wanted to put resources
C. Mack and Simon Iredale
under the MBX brand in other directions where they thought growth lay.

Question: When are decisions made about a model year?
Answer: A 14 month lead time is required to get input from Marketing, Production, Legal and large retailers. Market forces and resources can alter the schedule noticeably...especially if a major retailer asks Can you do 'x' for me by this date? Based upon the nature of the request and surrounding circumstances, is tooling necessary or is it purely a paint job or a paint and a re-pack.

Question: What is the cost for producing a new model?
Answer: It depends largely on the type of tool and securing a licensing agreement. A Conventional tool costing about $100,000 for about 4 million shots, if the tool set is well looked after and given refurbishment/overhauls,  opposed to a Unit Die costing roughly $30,000 good for 200,00 strikes before an overhaul.
Licensing is another hurdle. For example, securing the Ferrari logo cost Mattel $1 million and licensing agreements require tough and with German auto firms.

Question: Why did some Yesteryear tools also become Dinky, depending upon the model?
Answer: To preserve the Dinky brand. This was a factor in introducing Matchbox Collectibles.

Simon also did a Trivial Show with about 25 questions about a wide variety of several Matchbox products in the past. The right answer was rewarded with a special model but the winner of the final $100.000 question did

The Simon Iredale Winning Car
win a great preproduction model of a Ford two pack which was never issued by Matchbox! The right answer was an explanation of the difference of a conventional die and a unit-die.
Thanks a lot Simon for your great contribution to make this evening a great succes!
The evening was finished with a lively auction of over 70 lots models. As always done very professional by Bruce Cohen with (again) his lovely assistant.

Sunday morning came way too early, for me at least. The Show room was opened to the dealers at 7:00 am.

This allowed for two full hours of set-up time, as well as some last minute pre-show browsing of other dealers who may or may not have been in attendance earlier in the weekend. There were 60 tables sold for the event.

the $100.000 question reward
The toy show held at the Holiday Inn in North Haven, CT was attended by about 150 guests who had a wide array of models to see and buy from the 60 tables.

It should also be noted that while manning Matchbox Forum's booth at the Show, the Club's entire Executive Board was there to hand out an untold number of free models to the young children who were in attendance at the show. These give away models were from Glen Gaylor's donation to the Club of over 1500 models. And last but not least the Club received several donations in the form of money or models for our Charity Program. Thanks a lot for this great help to make our Program each year to a success. The was a special door model but I forgot to buy one of the models!!!!
The special DEALER model
Much Thanks, and Congratulations, should go out to Charlie Mack specifically, but also to all those other behind-the-scenes people who helped, in so many ways, to make the weekend a great success. Hope to see you all next year again at the 30th Convention!

MBX Forum USA
 
Rook at the Auction Table The Matchbox Forum executives on their way to the Show, stopping for their traditional Hot Dog with Sauerkraut!

Some Pictures of the Toy Shows

Some rare Models and Preproos
Two Ambassador's and their hobby.
Pictures thanks to Charles W. Wiersma


Information of the models you get by sending an e-mail to Charlie Mack at MTCHBOXUSA@aol.com If that doesn't work contact John Nijhuis at info@jnijhuis.com