Latest GASLANDS Model Car Purchase

Matchbox Adventure Set No. 5 - Off-road  Beasties

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An Unexpected Find - A British Vehicle!

It was a bit of a spooky co-incidence, but while doing some grocery shopping in our local store I spied a Matchbox set of cars that contained  what was very obviously a LAND ROVER DEFENDER (you can’t mistake that profile)!

Just the night before I’d been thinking that all of the Gaslands model cars that I’ve collected so far are all American designs, either classic 1950/60s saloons, or 1970s muscle cars or some random fantasy or hot rod vehicles… But no classic British/European designs. 😒

Now, there’s a couple of reasons for this, first of all - to be fair - there aren’t that many internationally recognisable ‘British’ car designs, perhaps the only ones I can think of that American kids might have heard of are The Mini, Jaguar, Bentley, Lotus and, of course, Land Rover. And even then you might argue that these are ‘British marks’ of cars rather than being truly British (most are own by foreign companies now).

Anyway, from the point of view of being a GASLANDS model collector, and being that many of the car designs featured in the MAX MAX movies (the inspiration for Gaslands) were originally American or Australian designs, it’s perhaps unsurprising that you think of British cars when you think post-apocalyptic road wars. 😆

Frankly, the idea of a Mini featuring in a movie like Mad Max: Fury Road would hardly have been an intimidating sight, though might have been rather comical!

But a Land Rover… That’s a classic macho design that could fit nicely into a Mad Max scenario…So, I snapped up the Matchbox set.

Customising A ‘Landie’ - My Thoughts

As the photo above illustrates, the Defender 110 is quite an imposing vehicle - especially in this modified 6 wheel version - and it is legendary for being tough, which is perhaps unsurprising given it’s long military heritage. But, Gaslands isn’t just about being able to deal with a few ‘dinks’, it’s a road wars game and vehicles need to be able to FIGHT.

So, how might a Gaslands Land Rover look? Well, a quick Google gave me some cracking inspiration…

Now, there’s above example isn’t actually a Land Rover but rather a converted Russian 4x4 - a UAZ 469 I believe - but the principal is identical. 

So, I’m thinking I’d like a sort of mix of an armed SAS Land Rover, a stretch’s 6 wheeler and a caged war wagon like the above!

Above: A classic ‘SAS Land Rover’ war rig.

That’s the basis for my idea for my customised Matchbox model, it should look pretty intimidating. Though for the stretched design I will have to conduct a pretty radical ‘cut and shut’ operation to accommodate the extra pair of wheels at the back. A job for my trusty Dremel me thinks! 😂

But What About The Other Cars In The Set?

Although the primary reason for the purchase of this set was the Land Rover a additional bonus was that the rest of the off-road model cars were also kinda interesting as well, with plenty of potential for Gaslands conversions. (So the £7 cost of the pack was definitely worth it.)

The first is a long wheelbase Jeep, Matchbox calls this the 'Gladiator'. At first I thought it was a Hummer but it's kinda a Hummer look-a-like. I like the open top and rear truck bed which has plenty of room for a top mounted weapon of some kind...

The second is another Jeep or jeep type sports off-roader which Matchbox calls the MBX 4x4. I love the monster truck wheels and the short wheelbase, just seating two crew...

The 'Dune Buggy' is a dead ringer for one of the cars from Mad Max: Fury Road and I can see me having a lot of fun converting this one...

And last of all, a bit of a nice surprise in the set, is this 'Jungle Crawler' which is actually a modified Dodge WC-53 3/4 ton 'Carryall', a WW2 vintage US Army command car!

To be honest, this is one of my favourites from this set as - again - it is very reminiscent of one of the cars from Mad Max: Fury Road. In the movie the original car is actually a 1940 Hillman Minx...

So this gives me plenty of inspiration for how I might modify this particular model.

British Model Cars For Gaslands?

As I mentioned in the beginning, I would really like to make some Gaslands cars based on some classic British vehicles and I did have one idea which was to see if I could buy some old second hand Matchbox originals to convert. My thinking was that it didn't matter if they were old and battered as I would be modifying them anyway. 

Stupidly, I did think I would be able to pick up an old Matchbox vintage car cheaply but it seems like these are very much collectors pieces these days... I saw these examples in a local antique shop and the prices were eye watering...

Eeek! ...I'll have a look on eBay but unfortunately it seems it's something of a hobby for people to buy old tatty Matchbox cars and then to do them up so there aren't many bargains out there. We shall see...

Finally, I joked about how comical it would be to see a classic Mini converted into a Gaslands car, but it looks like someone had already thought of this and THIS car is actually featured in Mad Max:Fury Road!!!