MBX Adventure City | Heavy Railer

Matchbox as a brand is known for licenced cars, trucks, and sometimes aircrafts (Sky Busters), but there’s a handful of castings that were produced based on locomotives and trains. The earliest castings ever produced were the American 4-4-0 Locomotive (Y-13) and Duke of Connaught 4-2-2 (Y-14). Both were produced from 1959 to 1965 until there were interest to revive such range with "Railways" with the 0-4-0 Steam Loco (1979-1997) and Shunter (1978-1982) with add-ons like the Passenger Coach and Flat Car with Container...

By 2016 Matchbox tried it again with the Heavy Railer. There’s not much interest in locomotives nowadays when everyone collects anything in two, three, or four wheels. The heydays if Lesney was the height of Matchbox’s golden era was reduced to second fiddle after Mattel acquired Tyco Toys that owned the Matchbox brand in the mid-1990s.

With the Heavy Railer it’s more like Matchbox was testing the market for interest in locomotive, but to no avail this was not widely received that made this casting an afterthought producing something to just add in the roster between 2016 and 2017. There was so much potential in this casting if it was produced in a separate range than part of the mainline and here’s the breakdown why it was a missed opportunity.

Key Features of the Heavy Railer below:

Year Release: 2016 | New Casting
Base Color: Yellow | Plastic
Wheels: Roller Type
Tampo: MBX
Interior: None





MBX Adventure City

The casting presented in the blister or Power Grab edition bring featuring the Heavy Railer or as stamped underneath as the “Heavy Freighter” gives nostalgia to the days of the golden era of the brand. It harken back to the randomness of how Matchbox produced their main line to the yesteryears of its greatness.

Now with Mattel owning the brand beside its flagship Hot Wheels brand it’s like they’re tiptoeing and does a little bit teasing the consumer of their take on Matchbox. Even though Mattel owns Matchbox presently they try to make this brand separate from its original product like this brand is separate from its toymaker.

But you can’t changes the perspective like comparing to Disney own Marvel and think it is a separate entity. These days when you think about Matchbox it is overshadowed by the Hot Wheels brand. Although around 2016 the brand was in its stage that it needs to be something more than just the name and the Heavy Railer along with the Chevy `95 Custom Van was sort of an experiment.





Loco-Motivatedly Short Lived

The concept idea of casting trains nowadays are not as spectacular during the Lesney Era that even produced a train set complete with cardboard pieces to fold and assemble into a train station was simply impressive. It would be great to go back to that nostalgia that made the brand popular.

But with cost cutting to meet the price point is understandable since the Heavy Railer was part of the mainline to test the market and did not fly off being a peg warmer in most countries shows the interest is not as close to the way it was back in the day. The Heavy Railer mostly a modern takes on the Shunter, but is entirely made of plastic and it is a narrow diesel engine type of locomotive.

There are not even interior parts as most of the casting you’ll see is grey window and underneath a rectangular shaped hole to reveal that only the top part of it is diecast. It would be interesting if Matchbox reissued the trains along with a new casting. But that’s a bit of a wishful thinking unless there’s a huge demand not only for the North American market but internationally



Overall the Heavy Railer had so much potential if not a separate line of locomotive range for Matchbox, but that might be pushing it as trains don’t get much attention as how cars, trikes, and event aircrafts gets most collectors’ interest. Not event boats or hovercrafts have any interesting going on in that department.

This was certainly a teaser if there would be interested down the line, but short lived due to the quality that was presented during its introduction year. It was well-detailed casting, but the price point to meet had it reduced the quality for what it was. It was good design and aesthetics that was lasted enough to remind that Matchbox was also known to have produced a similar concept back in the day.

“Heavy Railer” is numbered 1/125 die-cast train part of the mainline released for Matchbox in 2016 and it was acquired at TRU Express in Robinsons Galleria Cebu for PhP 120.00 Pesos ($3.42 AUD **) for the October 2019 Sale. Matchbox is distributed and sold in the Philippines by Richprime Global Inc originally retailed at PhP 149.75 Pesos ($4.28 AUD **)!

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