FinaFinal call
Mike Pigott looks at the very last British-made Matchbox toy, a promotional phone-on-wheels, made for a car insurance company.
In 1982, Matchbox was acquired by Universal Toys of Hong Kong and, within a few years, the production of diecast models moved to the Far East - first to Macau and later to mainland China. The British factories were wound down and only a few offices remained in the UK, including the design office. However, in 1992, a British-made promotional model in Matchbox packaging was produced for Direct Line Insurance, based on the company's ‘telephone on wheels' mascot.
At the time, Direct Line Insurance was a relatively new company, having been founded in 1985. Based in South London, it was the first insurance company to sell its services direct to clients by phone, rather than through a broker. It advertised extensively on TV and radio. A series of TV ads involved people wondering where they could find affordable car cover, when a red phone on wheels burst onto the scene playing Direct Line's musical fanfare.
MATCHBOX PHONE
These adverts became quite successful and the little phone was a widely recognised trademark. To further promote the company, Direct Line contracted Matchbox to produce a miniature model of the red phone. However, unlike the other Matchbox toys produced in 1992, this model was made in the UK rather than Macau or China.
Why this was the case is unsure, but Direct Line was a British company and claimed to use only UK-based call centres, so possibly it insisted that its promotional products were also sourced in the UK. Perhaps the firm approached Matchbox believing it to still be a British company, and stipulated that to get the contract the toy phone would have to be produced in the UK.
The phone was plastic rather than diecast, and did not have the ‘feel' of a Matchbox toy. It's likely it was designed by Matchbox, then sub-contracted out to a plastics firm somewhere in the UK. It was a good representation of the phone seen on the TV adverts, and of the push-button landline phones common at the time. It was made of hard red plastic, and had a removable handset - the two parts were connected by a spiral cord made of soft, stretchy plastic. The push buttons were made of a single piece of white plastic fitted to the inside, with clear numbers tampo-printed. There was a Direct Line Insurance sticker applied to the front edge. The phone rolled on four chunky black wheels with chrome hubs.
However, there was a surprise. The phone had an electronic device fitted inside so that, when the dialling buttons were pressed. it played the Direct Line fanfare from the advertisements - twice. The rather tinny jingle played through a speaker in the base. The mechanism was powered by three 1.5 volt button batteries that could be changed by unscrewing the base.
PACKAGING
The phone was packaged in a window box typical of Matchbox toys of the era, but without a header card. It was dark blue with light blue checks, plus red and yellow stripes around the window. There were photos of the TV phone on the end flaps. The phone sat on a blue vac-formed insert, and the box was about 10cm square.
I believe that the model phone was given to customers who took out motor insurance with Direct Line. However, I recall buying my example from the London Motor Show, where the company had a stand, and paying a pound or two for it. As it was branded Matchbox, it attracted considerable interest from Matchbox collectors. Admittedly, a toy phone is of marginal interest, but it is a landmark model given that it is the last Matchbox product to be manufactured in the UK. And it is quite well made; with a set of new batteries installed, my phone still plays its little jingle after nearly 30 years.