Matchbox 39d; Clipper

The Clipper, 39d, was introduced in 1973 as one of the fantasy cars Lesney was flogging in the early seventies to try and stem the haemorrhage of business they were losing to Hot Wheels and Mattel. It stayed in the range until 1979. It is a Rollamatic, one of those cars that did something, not usually that exciting, as you pushed them along. In this case we had exhausts that bounced up and down.

The cars are always magenta metallic with either green or unpainted base, clear or yellow glass, plated or white exhausts. It is no surprise, given Lesney's penchant for lurid colours at the time, that the most common version has a green base and yellow windows. Unpainted bases are the ones to look for.