| Ford had a long heritage building its identity not only with iconic cars like Mustang or modern day cars like the Fiesta or even Focus, but also introducing their take on trucks big or small. It is in their tradition to bring in something new to the brand and with that during the early 2000s it introduced the Ford Explorer Sport Trac.
This midsize pick-up truck was introduced for the North American market and this also was produced into a 1:64 scale diecast for the Matchbox brand that mirrors what the real life truck was, which is the middle sibling of the Ranger and F-150. |
In the early 2000s the Matchbox brand was trying to find its footing and identity after being acquired by Mattel, which owned Hot Wheels, its main competitor from Tyco in 1997. The packaging in 2000 is in its window-type packaging revealing the diecast car’s appearance on both sides.
The box colors are entirely orange with the new “Matchbox” word housed inside rounded logo that is a change from its traditional and yet familiar logo that would see its return in the mid-2010s. But back in the early years under Mattel the Matchbox became its second brand next to Hot Wheels that became more popular than the later.
In keeping with the “Matchbox” identity Mattel made sure that it is different from tis Hot Wheels product, but at the same time the changes rendered the identity of this brand being second fiddle to its former competitor. It is understandable how Mattel still kept the iconic brand at the same time making it different from its traditional aesthetics that made it known during its golden years.
Tyco used to produce the Matchbox brand packaged in blisters cards, but kept it simple with the colors and product image was unavailable to save cost. After acquiring Tyco they continued that with the window-box type packaging.
Sun Chasing Sport Trac
The Ford Explorer Sport Trac was one of the new castings released in 2001 under the Sun Chaser subline. You can find the other cars at the back of the box packaging cross sell. In the same year Ford released new variations of the real life Sport Trac, but for its ‘new release’ the pick-up truck was introduced in red.
Mattel kept the tradition having the Matchbox brand of diecast cars in real life colors so this one is painted in deep red. It used a different type of wheels and maintained the quality of details for this casting having more weight compared to the current ones released in today’s standards.
Moving Parts to Explore
Traditionally Matchbox cars don’t separate their cars or trucks if they have moving parts to another range of licensed vehicles. The Ford Explorer Sport Trac has a moving part with the tailgate folds down and a bed extender flips out. This was kept as part of the truck from 2001 to 2002.
They modified this by 2003 where the tailgate is now permanently closed and they have removed the bed extender. But they slightly retooled the casting and main difference is this version has see-through rear side-windows, while previous casting has solid metal windows as part of body. The trade-off for this improvement is that there’s no longer lowering rear tail-gate with plastic extension.
Comparison | Then & Now
Just like its real life counterpart the Ford Explorer Sport Tract was discontinued by 2012 and was last included in the Beach Rescue 5-Pack. The Sport Trac if you look at it now comparing it to most recent Matchbox pick-up trucks is outdated when it comes to aesthetics and design.
Although it is still have that quality that most pick-up trucks no longer have that Matchbox slowly phase out like the interiors. In the most current releases if the Sport Trac going to be reissued it might be part of the Moving Parts range if the brand plans to bring it back complete its folding tailgate and bed extender.
Overall the ford Explorer Sport Trac might not be appealing to some collectors. But if you’re into Ford trucks this is one of the rare castings that you may not find anywhere and only through specialty shops. It is unique for the folding tailgate that you’ll never find in current diecast pick-up trucks that is being released by Matchbox.
Ford Explorer Sports Trac was released under the Sun Chasers series in 2001 and was acquired during the Manila Auto Salon 2019 in one of the hobby retailers that participated in the said event. Matchbox is distributed and sold in the Philippines by Richprime Global Inc!
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