MB1200 : 1976 Volkswagen Golf Mk1

1976 Volkswagen Golf Mk1

Debuting in 1974 as a replacement to Volkswagens ever popular Beetle the Golf Mark 1 was the first in a continuing line of Golfs, a marque that still runs today (2021).  Avehicles such as this has been covered many time by Matchbox over the years begining with MB007 which was released over 45 years ago by Lesney way back in 1977.

Matchbox MB007 : Volkswagen Golf

After that initial release which ran in various guises in to the 1980s was followed up with another variation; MB152 in 1985 which saw the Golf GTi make its appearance to carry on the Golf name in the Matchbox range into the 1990s.

In 2006 after a gap of a few years the Golf GTi returned to the Matchbox line up in the form of the MB684 2006 Golf GTi; this variant ran for about 4 years before retiring form the lineup, will it return at some point; who knows? In 2017 we get to see another variant of the Golf lineup with the release of the MB1038 casting of the 1990 Golf Country and now since 2020 we see the latest Golf to join the Matchbox range but is in fact the first of the Golf models, the Mark 1.

Matchbox MB152 : Volkswagen Golf GTi

Matchbox MB684 : 2006 Volkswagen Golf GTi

Its first outing was last year (2020) in the basic range but so far this year we have seen it twice, first in a gorgeous red colour in the Germany Collection, a country specific collection of cars released on special packaging in Germany, its rumored to be available later elsewhere but for now its only available in Germany.  The basic range release is a great representation of a German police vehicle from the 70s but sadly does lack some deco like the green bonnet; this is because of the limit the Mattel accountants put on the design team so maybe we will see this one in a premium lineup with full deco at a later date.

Matchbox MB1038 : 1990 Volkswagen Golf Country

Matchbox MB1200 : 1976 Volkswagen Golf Mk1