Matchbox 4c; Triumph Motorcycle and Sidecar
Here we have number 4c, the Triumph motorcycle & sidecar. It is in fact
a Tiger 110 which was a 650cc sports bike developed from the old Triumph
Thunderbird. When I was a student I owned a Tiger 100 which was the
500cc version of this. It was a joy to ride, a joy made more special by
the fact that riding it did not happen as often as one would want as the
damn thing was so spectacularly unreliable, eventually giving up
completely with bust big ends. It was back to the little Honda after
that, reliable starting, no oil leaks and much less fun.
The Lesney version is quite
rare and good boxed examples can fetch up to £100 or so, however the one
to look out for is the copper coloured one which seems to have got mixed
up with the contemporary Harley Davidson on the production line, getting
not only the Harley's copper paint, but also it's wheels. Find one of
these and you can multiply the value by 20 or 30 times.
Have a look at the underneath
picture below, the 'No.4' is on a raised bit of casting. This is because
the original die had No.78 and the No.4 was added later when the model
was renumbered before release. Ones with the number 78 are quite rare
and fetch a premium, but nothing like the copper jobs. |