title: Supersonic transport

text: Concorde and the TU-144 were both constructed of conventional aluminum: Concorde of Hiduminium and TU-144 of duralumin. However, more modern materials such as carbon fibre and Kevlar are much stronger in tension for their weight (important to deal with pressurization stresses) as well as being more rigid. As the per-seat weight of the structure is much higher in an SST design, any improvements will lead to a greater percentage improvement than the same changes in a subsonic aircraft.


title: Supersonic transport

text: Higher fuel costs and lower passenger capacities due to the aerodynamic requirement for a narrow fuselage make SSTs an expensive form of commercial civil transportation compared with subsonic aircraft. For example, the Boeing 747 can carry more than three times as many passengers as Concorde while using approximately the same amount of fuel.


title: Supersonic transport

text: Nevertheless, fuel costs are not the bulk of the price for most subsonic aircraft passenger tickets. For the transatlantic business market that SST aircraft were utilized for, Concorde was actually very successful, and was able to sustain a higher ticket price. Now that commercial SST aircraft have stopped flying, it has become clearer that Concorde made substantial profit for British Airways.


title: Supersonic transport

text: One of the problems with Concorde and the Tu-144's operation was the high engine noise levels, associated with very high jet velocities used during take-off, and even more importantly flying over communities near the airport. SST engines need a fairly high specific thrust (net thrust/airflow) during supersonic cruise, to minimize engine cross-sectional area and, thereby, nacelle drag. Unfortunately this implies a high jet velocity, which makes the engines noisy, particularly at low speeds/altitudes and at take-off.


title: Supersonic transport

text: Therefore, a future SST might well benefit from a variable cycle engine, where the specific thrust (and therefore jet velocity and noise) is low at take-off, but is forced high during supersonic cruise. Transition between the two modes would occur at some point during the climb and back again during the descent (to minimize jet noise upon approach). The difficulty is devising a variable cycle engine configuration that meets the requirement for a low cross-sectional area during supersonic cruise.


title: Supersonic transport

text: The sonic boom was not thought to be a serious issue due to the high altitudes at which the planes flew, but experiments in the mid-1960s such as the controversial Oklahoma City sonic boom tests and studies of the USAF's North American XB-70 Valkyrie proved otherwise (see Sonic boom § Abatement). By 1964, whether civilian supersonic aircraft would be licensed was unclear, because of the problem.


title: Supersonic transport

text: The annoyance of a sonic boom can be avoided by waiting until the aircraft is at high altitude over water before reaching supersonic speeds; this was the technique used by Concorde. However, it precludes supersonic flight over populated areas. Supersonic aircraft have poor lift/drag ratios at subsonic speeds as compared to subsonic aircraft (unless technologies such as variable-sweep wings are employed), and hence burn more fuel, which results in their use being economically disadvantageous on such flight paths.


title: Supersonic transport

text: Concorde had an overpressure of (133 dBA SPL). Overpressures over (131 dBA SPL) often cause complaints.


title: Supersonic transport

text: If the intensity of the boom can be reduced, then this may make even very large designs of supersonic aircraft acceptable for overland flight. Research suggests that changes to the nose cone and tail can reduce the intensity of the sonic boom below that needed to cause complaints. During the original SST efforts in the 1960s, it was suggested that careful shaping of the fuselage of the aircraft could reduce the intensity of the sonic boom's shock waves that reach the ground. One design caused the shock waves to interfere with each other, greatly reducing the sonic boom. This was difficult to test at the time, but the increasing power of computer-aided design has since made this considerably easier. In 2003, a Shaped Sonic Boom Demonstration aircraft was flown which proved the soundness of the design and demonstrated the capability of reducing the boom by about half. Even lengthening the vehicle (without significantly increasing the weight) would seem to reduce the boom intensity (see Sonic boom § Abatement).


title: Supersonic transport

text: The aerodynamic design of a supersonic aircraft needs to change with its speed for optimal performance. Thus, an SST would ideally change shape during flight to maintain optimal performance at both subsonic and supersonic speeds. Such a design would introduce complexity which increases maintenance needs, operations costs, and safety concerns.


title: Supersonic transport

text: In practice all supersonic transports have used essentially the same shape for subsonic and supersonic flight, and a compromise in performance is chosen, often to the detriment of low speed flight. For example, Concorde had very high drag (a lift to drag ratio of about 4) at slow speed, but it travelled at high speed for most of the flight. Designers of Concorde spent 5000 hours optimizing the vehicle shape in wind tunnel tests to maximize the overall performance over the entire flightplan.


title: Supersonic transport

text: The Boeing 2707 featured swing wings to give higher efficiency at low speeds, but the increased space required for such a feature produced capacity problems that proved ultimately insurmountable.


title: Supersonic transport

text: North American Aviation had an unusual approach to this problem with the XB-70 Valkyrie. By lowering the outer panels of the wings at high Mach numbers, they were able to take advantage of compression lift on the underside of the aircraft. This improved the L/D ratio by about 30%.


title: Supersonic transport

text: At supersonic speeds an aircraft adiabatically compresses the air in front of it. The increased temperature of the air heats the aircraft.


title: Supersonic transport

text: Subsonic aircraft are usually made of aluminium. However aluminium, while being light and strong, is not able to withstand temperatures much over 127 °C; above 127 °C the aluminium gradually loses its properties that were brought about by age hardening. For aircraft that fly at Mach 3, materials such as stainless steel (XB-70 Valkyrie, MiG-25) or titanium (SR-71, Sukhoi T-4) have been used, at considerable increase in expense, as the properties of these materials make the aircraft much more difficult to manufacture.


title: Supersonic transport

text: In 2017 a new carbide ceramic coating material was discovered which could resist temperatures occurring at Mach 5 or above, perhaps as high as 3000 °C.


title: Supersonic transport

text: The high per-passenger takeoff weight makes it difficult to obtain a good fuel fraction. This issue, along with the challenge presented by supersonic lift/drag ratios, greatly limits the range of supersonic transports. Because long distance routes were not a viable option, airlines had little interest in buying the jets.


title: Supersonic transport

text: Airlines buy aircraft as a means of making money, and wish to make as much return on investment as possible from their assets.


title: Supersonic transport

text: Airlines potentially value very fast aircraft, because it enables the aircraft to make more flights per day, providing a higher return on investment. Also, passengers generally prefer faster, shorter-duration trips to slower, longer-duration trips, so operating faster aircraft can give an airline a competitive advantage, even to the extent that many customers will willingly pay higher fares for the benefit of saving time and/or arriving sooner. However, Concorde's high noise levels around airports, time zone issues, and insufficient speed meant that only a single return trip could be made per day, so the extra speed was not an advantage to the airline other than as a selling feature to its customers. The proposed American SSTs were intended to fly at Mach 3, partly for this reason. However, allowing for acceleration and deceleration time, a trans-Atlantic trip on a Mach 3 SST would be less than three times as fast as a Mach 1 trip.


title: Supersonic transport

text: Since SSTs produce sonic booms at supersonic speeds they are rarely permitted to fly supersonic over land, and must fly supersonic over sea instead. Since they are inefficient at subsonic speeds compared to subsonic aircraft, range is deteriorated and the number of routes that the aircraft can fly non-stop is reduced. This also reduces the desirability of such aircraft for most airlines.


title: Supersonic transport

text: Supersonic aircraft have higher per-passenger fuel consumption than subsonic aircraft; this makes the ticket price necessarily higher, all other factors being equal, as well as making that price more sensitive to the price of oil. (It also makes supersonic flights less friendly to the environment and sustainability, two growing concerns of the general public, including air travelers.)


title: Supersonic transport

text: Investing in research and development work to design a new SST can be considered as an effort to push the speed limit of air transport. Generally, other than an urge for new technological achievement, the major driving force for such an effort is competitive pressure from other modes of transport. Competition between different service providers within a mode of transport does not typically lead to such technological investments to increase the speed. Instead, the service providers prefer to compete in service quality and cost. An example of this phenomenon is high-speed rail. The speed limit of rail transport had been pushed so hard to enable it to effectively compete with road and air transport. But this achievement was not done for different rail operating companies to compete among themselves. This phenomenon also reduces the airline desirability of SSTs, because, for very long distance transportation (a couple of thousand kilometers), competition between different modes of transport is rather like a single-horse race: air transport does not have a significant competitor. The only competition is between the airline companies, and they would rather pay moderately to reduce cost and increase service quality than pay much more for a speed increase. Also, for-profit companies generally prefer low risk businesses plans with high probabilities of appreciable profit, but an expensive leading-edge technological research and development program is a high-risk enterprise, as it is possible that the program will fail for unforeseeable technical reasons or will meet cost overruns so great as to force the company, due to financial resource limits, to abandon the effort before it yields any marketable SST technology, causing potentially all investment to be lost.


title: Supersonic transport

text: The International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) estimates a SST would burn 5 to 7 times as much fuel per passenger.


title: Supersonic transport

text: The ICCT shows that a New York to London supersonic flight would consume more than twice as much fuel per passenger than in subsonic business-class, six times as much as for economy class, and three times as much as subsonic business for Los Angeles to Sydney.


title: Supersonic transport

text: Designers can either meet existing environmental standards with advanced technology or lobby policymakers to establish new standards for SSTs.


title: Supersonic transport

text: If there were 2,000 SSTs in 2035, there would be 5,000 flights per day at 160 airports and the SST fleet would emit ~96 million metric tons of CO₂ per year (like American, Delta and Southwest combined in 2017), 1.6 to 2.4 gigatonnes of CO₂ over their 25-year lifetime: one-fifth of the international aviation carbon budget if aviation maintains its emissions share to stay under a 1.5 °C climate trajectory.


title: Supersonic transport

text: Noise exposed area around airports could double compared to existing subsonic aircraft of the same size, with more than 300 operations per day at Dubai and London Heathrow, and over 100 in Los Angeles, Singapore, San Francisco, New York-JFK, Frankfurt, and Bangkok.


title: Supersonic transport

text: Frequent sonic booms would be heard in Canada, Germany, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Romania, Turkey, and parts of the United States, up to 150–200 per day or one every five minutes.


title: Supersonic transport

text: The desire for a second-generation supersonic aircraft has remained within some elements of the aviation industry, and several concepts have emerged since the retirement of Concorde.


title: Supersonic transport

text: In March 2016, Boom Technology revealed that it is in the development phases of building a 40-passenger supersonic jet capable of flying Mach 1.7, claiming that the design simulation shows that it will be quieter and 30% more efficient than the Concorde and will be able to fly Los Angeles to Sydney in 6 hours. It is planned to go into service in 2029.


title: Supersonic transport

text: For its economic viability, NASA research since 2006 has focused on reducing the sonic boom to allow supersonic flight over land.


title: Supersonic transport

text: NASA should fly a low-boom demonstrator in 2019, reduced from double bangs to soft thumps by airframe shaping, to inquire community response, in support of a prospective FAA and ICAO ban lift in the early 2020s.


title: Supersonic transport

text: The Lockheed Martin X-59 QueSST X-plane will mimic the shockwave signature of a Mach 1.6 to 1.8, 80- to 100-seat airliner for 75 PNLdB compared with 105 PNLdB for Concorde.


title: Supersonic transport

text: The market for supersonic airliners costing $200 million could be 1,300 over a 10-year period, worth $260 billion. Development and certification is probably a $4 billion operation.


title: Supersonic transport

text: The TsAGI exhibited at the 2017 MAKS Air Show in Moscow a scale model of its Supersonic Business Jet / Commercial Jet which should produce a low sonic boom permitting supersonic flight over land, optimised for cruise and range.


title: Supersonic transport

text: The scientific research aims to optimise for both Mach 0.8–0.9 transonic and Mach 1.5–2.0 supersonic speeds, a similar design is tested in a wind tunnel while the engines are conceptualised at the Central Institute for Aviation Motors and designs are studied by Aviadvigatel and NPO Saturn.


title: Supersonic transport

text: At the October 2017 NBAA convention in Las Vegas, with NASA supporting only research, various companies faced engineering challenges to propose aircraft with no engine available, variable top speeds and operating models:


title: Supersonic transport

text: Of the four billion air passengers in 2017, over 650 million flew long-haul between , including 72 million in business and first class, reaching 128 million by 2025; Spike projects 13 million would be interested in supersonic transport then.


title: Supersonic transport

text: In October 2018, the reauthorization of the FAA planned noise standards for supersonic transports, giving developers a regulatory certainty for their designs, mostly their engine choice.


title: Supersonic transport

text: Rules for supersonic flight-testing authorization in the U.S and noise certification will be proposed by the FAA by early 2019. The FAA should make a proposition for landing-and-takeoff noise before March 31, 2020 for a rule after 2022; and for overland sonic boom from the end of 2020, while NASA plans to fly the Lockheed Martin X-59 QueSST low-boom flight demonstrator from 2021 for ICAO standards in 2025.


title: Supersonic transport

text: In June 2019, inspired by the NASA quiet supersonic initiative and X-59 QueSST, Lockheed Martin unveiled the "Quiet Supersonic Technology Airliner", a Mach 1.8, transpacific airliner concept for 40 passenger.


title: Supersonic transport

text: Lower airport noise and sonic boom are allowed by shaped-boom design; integrated low-noise propulsion; swept-wing supersonic natural laminar flow; and the cockpit external vision system (XVS).


title: Supersonic transport

text: The long design is significantly longer than the Concorde, featuring an almost long nose and a cabin.


title: Supersonic transport

text: Design goals are a range and a takeoff field length, a 75-80 PLdB sonic boom and a cruise of Mach 1.6-1.7 over land and Mach 1.7-1.8 over water.


title: Supersonic transport

text: Integrated low-noise propulsion include advanced plug nozzle designs, noise shielding concepts and distortion-tolerant fan blades.


title: Supersonic transport

text: In August 2020, Virgin Galactic with Rolls-Royce unveiled the concept of a Mach 3 capable twinjet delta wing aircraft that can carry up to 19 passengers.


title: Supersonic transport

text: In November 2003, EADS—the parent company of Airbus—announced that it was considering working with Japanese companies to develop a larger, faster replacement for Concorde. In October 2005, JAXA, the Japan Aerospace eXploration Agency, undertook aerodynamic testing of a scale model of an airliner designed to carry 300 passengers at Mach 2 (Next Generation Supersonic Transport, "NEXST", then Zero Emission Hyper Sonic Transport). If pursued to commercial deployment, it would be expected to be in service around 2020–25.


title: Supersonic transport

text: In May 2008, it was reported that Aerion Corporation had $3 billion of pre-order sales on its Aerion SBJ supersonic business jet. In late 2010, the project continued with a testbed flight of a section of the wing. The Aerion AS2 was proposed as a 12-seat trijet, with a range of at Mach 1.4 over water or at Mach 0.95 over land, although "boomless" Mach 1.1 flight was claimed to be possible. Backed by Airbus and with 20 launch orders from Flexjet, first deliveries were pushed back from 2023 by two years when GE Aviation was selected in May 2017 for a joint engine study. In May 2021 the company announced that they would be ceasing operations due to inability to raise capital.


title: Supersonic transport

text: Supersonic Aerospace International's Quiet Supersonic Transport is a 12-passenger design from Lockheed Martin that is to cruise at Mach 1.6, and is to create a sonic boom only 1% as strong as that generated by Concorde.


title: Supersonic transport

text: While conventional turbo and ramjet engines are able to remain reasonably efficient up to Mach 5.5, some ideas for very high-speed flight above Mach 6 are also sometimes discussed, with the aim of reducing travel times down to one or two hours anywhere in the world.


title: Supersonic transport

text: These vehicle proposals very typically either use rocket or scramjet engines; pulse detonation engines have also been proposed.


title: Supersonic transport

text: Rocket-engined vehicles, while technically practical (either as ballistic transports or as semiballistic transports using wings), would use a very large amount of propellant and operate best at speeds between about Mach 8 and orbital speeds. Rockets compete best with air-breathing jet engines on cost at very long range; however, even for antipodal travel, costs would be only somewhat lower than orbital launch costs.


title: Supersonic transport

text: At the June 2011 Paris Air Show, EADS unveiled its ZEHST concept, cruising at at and attracting Japanese interest.


title: Supersonic transport

text: The German SpaceLiner is a suborbital hypersonic winged passenger spaceplane project under preliminary development.


title: Supersonic transport

text: Precooled jet engines are jet engines with a heat exchanger at the inlet that cools the air at very high speeds. These engines may be practical and efficient at up to about Mach 5.5, and this is an area of research in Europe and Japan.


title: Supersonic transport

text: The British company Reaction Engines Limited, with 50% EU money, has been engaged in a research programme called "LAPCAT", which examined a design for a hydrogen-fueled plane carrying 300 passengers called the "A2", potentially capable of flying at Mach 5+ nonstop from Brussels to Sydney in 4.6 hours. The follow-on research effort, "LAPCAT II" began in 2008 and was to last four years.


title: Supersonic transport

text: STRATOFLY MR3 is an EU research program (German Aerospace Center, ONERA and universities) with the goal of developing a cryogenic fuel 300-passenger airliner capable to fly at about 10,000 Km/h (Mach 8) above 30 km of altitude.


title: Supersonic transport

text: Crossing the Atlantic in 2 hours or the Pacific in 3 at would enable same-day return flights, increasing airlines' asset utilization.


title: Supersonic transport

text: Using a titanium airframe, its capacity would be smaller than a Boeing 737 but larger than a long-range business jet.


title: Supersonic transport

text: A reusable demonstrator could be flown as early as 2023 or 2024 for a potential entry into service from the late 2030s.


title: Supersonic transport

text: Aerodynamics would benefit from the Boeing X-51 Waverider experience, riding the leading edge shockwave for lower induced drag.


title: Supersonic transport

text: Flow control would enhance lift at slower speeds, and avoiding afterburners on takeoff would reduce noise.


title: Supersonic transport

text: The Boeing hypersonic airliner would be powered by a turboramjet, a turbofan that transitions to a ramjet at Mach 6 would avoid the need for a ramjet, similar to the SR-71 Blackbird's Pratt & Whitney J58, but shutting off the turbine at higher speeds.


title: Supersonic transport

text: It would be integrated in an axisymmetric annular layout with a single intake and nozzle, and a bypass duct around the turbine engine to a combination afterburner/ramjet at the rear.


title: Supersonic transport

text: It would need advanced cooling technology like the heat exchanger developed by Reaction Engines, maybe using liquid methane and/or jet fuel.


title: Supersonic transport

text: It would have a high capacity utilization, being able to cross the Atlantic four or five times a day, up from a possible twice a day with the Concorde.


title: Come Away with Me

text: Come Away with Me is the debut studio album by American recording artist Norah Jones, released on February 26, 2002, by Blue Note Records. Recording sessions took place at Sorcerer Sound Studio in New York City and Allaire Studios in Shokan, New York.


title: Come Away with Me

text: "Come Away with Me" peaked at number one on the US "Billboard" 200, and received Grammy Awards for Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album. It was later certified Diamond by the RIAA on February 15, 2005, for shipments of over ten million copies in the United States, and has sold over 27 million copies worldwide as of 2016, making it one of the best-selling albums of all time.


title: Come Away with Me

text: In April 2022, Blue Note released a 20th anniversary expanded edition of "Come Away with Me", with demos from the "First Sessions" EP, previously unreleased demos, and outtakes.


title: Come Away with Me

text: "Come Away with Me" is a jazz album, with country and soul influences. Jones is supported by jazz musicians Kevin Breit, Bill Frisell, Adam Levy, Adam Rogers, and Tony Scherr on guitar; Sam Yahel on organ; Jenny Scheinman on violin; Rob Burger on accordion; and Brian Blade, Dan Rieser, and Kenny Wollesen on drums. Jones wrote the title song. Guitarist Jesse Harris wrote the hit "Don't Know Why". The album includes Jones' versions of "The Nearness of You" by Hoagy Carmichael and "Cold, Cold Heart" by Hank Williams.


title: Come Away with Me

text: "Come Away with Me" incorporates blues, jazz, folk, soul, and country. Bobby Dodd of "All About Jazz" writes that although the album features jazz standards, jazz purists and academics "may deny [Jones] jazz credibility for her folk infusion".


title: Come Away with Me

text: In 2003, the album was reissued as a deluxe Edition, including a live DVD recorded in August 2002 at The House of Blues in New Orleans.


title: Come Away with Me

text: "Come Away with Me" debuted at number 139 on the "Billboard" 200 in the US upon its release in February 2002 selling 10,000 copies in its first week. Despite being released at a time when music piracy was high and album sales were declining, the album was certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in August that same year. The album eventually climbed to the top of the "Billboard 200" in January 2003, almost a year after it was released. By the time of the Grammy Awards the following month, "Come Away with Me" had already sold 3 million copies in the country. Jones' success at the award show resulted in the album moving another 600,000 copies the week immediately following the awards. In total, the album appeared on the "Billboard" 200 for 165 weeks and sold 11.1 million copies in the US as of March 2016. The album was certified Diamond by the RIAA in February 2005 for selling over ten million copies in the US. It was also the eleventh best-selling album of the Nielsen SoundScan era as of 2016.


title: Come Away with Me

text: As of October 2016, the album had sold more than 27 million copies worldwide. Polyphonic HMI's "Hit Song Science" software claimed to have predicted the album's success months before its release, contradicting skeptical executives. In Germany, the album debuted at No. 37. It remained on the German Albums Chart for 141 weeks and reached No. 2 in its 37th week on that chart, where it stayed for four weeks. "Come Away with Me" sold 750,000 copies, reaching 5× gold, becoming her most successful album in Germany and one of the longest charting albums on the German Albums Chart.


title: Come Away with Me

text: In celebration of the 20th anniversary of the album's release, Jones released a remastered version of the original album, as well as a collection of previously unreleased tracks and demos. The collection was released on April 29, 2022 in digital format, as well as in a set of three CDs and a set of 4 LP vinyl records. In anticipation of the album release, Jones released an alternate version of “Come Away With Me” on February 24, 2022.


title: Come Away with Me

text: The album won Grammy Awards for Album of the Year, Best Pop Vocal Album, and Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical. The song "Don't Know Why" won Song of the Year, Record of the Year, and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.


title: Come Away with Me

text: "Rolling Stone" ranked "Come Away with Me" at number 54 on its list of the 100 Best Albums of the Decade. "Rhapsody" ranked the album at 16 on its list of 100 Best Albums of the Decade, while "Spinner" listed the album at the 42nd Best Album of the 2000s.


title: Come Away with Me

text: "Come Away with Me" received acclaim from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has an average score of 82 out of 100, which indicates "universal acclaim" based on 9 reviews.


title: Come Away with Me

text: The album received 3.5 out of 4 stars from both the "Chicago Sun-Times" and the "Los Angeles Times" reviews. AllMusic's David R. Adler wrote that "while the mood of this record stagnates after a few songs, it does give a strong indication of Jones' alluring talents." Robert Christgau of "The Village Voice" cited it as "the most unjazz album [Blue Note] has ever released" and criticized that "Jones's voice dominates the record."


title: Come Away with Me

text: "The A.V. Club" gave it a favorable review and called the album "A showcase for Jones' remarkable voice, the disc captures a singer whose rare instinct for interpretation always serves the song, rather than working against it." E! Online gave it an A and stated: "Gorgeous and intimate, the 14 songs on her debut disc ache with romantic maturity and a smart, slow-jam sexiness that belies the fact that, at 22, Jones is hardly older than Britney Spears." "Kludge" included it on their list of best albums of 2002.


title: Come Away with Me

text: In April 2022, a remastered expanded edition of "Come Away with Me" was released, with demos from the promo-only "First Sessions" EP, and including 22 previously unreleased demos, outtakes, and alternative versions.


title: Grant Wood

text: Grant DeVolson Wood (February 13, 1891 February 12, 1942) was an American painter and representative of Regionalism, best known for his paintings depicting the rural American Midwest. He is particularly well known for "American Gothic" (1930), which has become an iconic example of early 20th-century American art.


title: Grant Wood

text: Wood was born in rural Iowa, 4 mi (6 km) east of Anamosa, in 1891, the son of Hattie DeEtte "Weaver" Wood and Francis Maryville Wood. His mother moved the family to Cedar Rapids after his father died in 1901. Soon thereafter, Wood began as an apprentice in a local metal shop. After graduating from Washington High School, Wood enrolled in The Handicraft Guild, an art school run entirely by women in Minneapolis in 1910.


title: Grant Wood

text: In 1913, he enrolled at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and performed some work as a silversmith.


title: Grant Wood

text: Close to the end of World War I, Wood joined the US military, working as an artist designing camouflage scenes as well as other art.


title: Grant Wood

text: From 1919 to 1925, Wood taught art to junior high school students in the Cedar Rapids public school system. This employment provided financial stability and its seasonal nature allowed him summer trips to Europe to study art. In addition, he took a leave of absence for the 1923-1924 school year so he could spend an entire year studying in Europe.


title: Grant Wood

text: From 1922 to 1935, Wood lived with his mother in the loft of a carriage house in Cedar Rapids, which he turned into his personal studio at "5 Turner Alley" (the studio had no address until Wood made one up).


title: Grant Wood

text: From 1922 to 1928, Wood made four trips to Europe, where he studied many styles of painting, especially Impressionism and post-Impressionism. However, it was the work of the 15th-century Flemish artist Jan van Eyck that influenced him to take on the clarity of this technique and to incorporate it in his new works. In addition, his 1928 trip to Munich was to oversee the making of the stained glass windows he had designed for a Veterans Memorial Building in Cedar Rapids.


title: Grant Wood

text: In 1932, Wood helped found the Stone City Art Colony near his hometown to help artists get through the Great Depression. He became a great proponent of regionalism in the arts, lecturing throughout the country on the topic. As his classically American image was solidified, his bohemian days in Paris were expunged from his public persona.


title: Grant Wood

text: From 1934 to 1941 Wood taught painting at the University of Iowa's School of Art. During that time, he supervised mural painting projects, mentored students, produced a variety of his own works, and became a key part of the University's cultural community.


title: Grant Wood

text: From 1935 to 1938, Wood was married to Sara Sherman Maxon. Friends considered the marriage a mistake for Wood.


title: Grant Wood

text: It is thought that Wood was a closeted homosexual, and that there was an attempt on the part of a senior colleague, Lester Longman, to get him fired both on moral grounds and for his advocacy of regionalism. Critic Janet Maslin states that his friends knew him to be "homosexual and a bit facetious in his masquerade as an overall-clad farm boy." University administration dismissed the allegations and Wood would have returned as professor if not for his growing health problems.


title: Grant Wood

text: Wood was an avid Freemason and Member of Mount Hermon Lodge #263 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. After receiving his 3rd Degree of Master Mason he painted The First Three Degrees of Freemasonry in 1921. Freemasonry influenced multiple pieces of work by Grant Wood in his life, and furthered his moral and ethical beliefs.


title: Grant Wood

text: The day before his 51st birthday, Wood died at Iowa City university hospital of pancreatic cancer. He is buried at Riverside Cemetery, Anamosa, Iowa.


title: Grant Wood

text: When Wood died, his estate went to his sister, Nan Wood Graham, the woman portrayed in "American Gothic". When she died in 1990, her estate, along with Wood's personal effects and various works of art, became the property of the Figge Art Museum in Davenport, Iowa.


title: Grant Wood

text: Grant Wood Area Education Agency, one of Iowa's nine regional Area Education Agencies established in 1974, which is serving Eastern Iowa, was named after Grant Wood.


title: Grant Wood

text: Wood was an active painter from an extremely young age until his death, and although he is best known for his paintings, he worked in a large number of media, including lithography, ink, charcoal, ceramics, metal, wood and found objects.


title: Grant Wood

text: Throughout his life, he hired out his talents to many Iowa-based businesses as a steady source of income. This included painting advertisements, sketching rooms of a mortuary house for promotional flyers and, in one case, designing the corn-themed décor (including chandelier) for the dining room of a hotel.


title: Grant Wood

text: Wood is associated with the American movement of Regionalism, which was primarily situated in the Midwest, and advanced figurative painting of rural American themes in an aggressive rejection of European abstraction.


title: Grant Wood

text: Wood was one of three artists most associated with the movement. The others, John Steuart Curry and Thomas Hart Benton, returned to the Midwest in the 1930s due to Wood's encouragement and assistance with locating teaching positions for them at colleges in Wisconsin and Missouri, respectively. Along with Benton, Curry, and other Regionalist artists, Wood's work was marketed through Associated American Artists in New York for many years. Wood is considered the patron artist of Cedar Rapids, and his childhood country school is depicted on the 2004 Iowa State Quarter.


title: Grant Wood

text: Wood's best known work is his 1930 painting "American Gothic", which is also one of the most famous paintings in American art, and one of the few images to reach the status of widely recognized cultural icon, comparable to Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" and Edvard Munch's "The Scream".


title: Grant Wood

text: "American Gothic" was first exhibited in 1930 at the Art Institute of Chicago, where it is still located. It was given a $300 prize and made news stories country-wide, bringing Wood immediate recognition. Since then, it has been borrowed and satirized endlessly for advertisements and cartoons.


title: Grant Wood

text: Art critics who had favorable opinions about the painting, such as Gertrude Stein and Christopher Morley, assumed the painting was meant to be a satire of repression and narrow-mindedness of rural small-town life. It was seen as part of the trend toward increasingly critical depictions of rural America, along the lines of such novels as Sherwood Anderson's "1919 Winesburg, Ohio", Sinclair Lewis's 1920 "Main Street", and Carl Van Vechten's "The Tattooed Countess". Wood rejected this reading of it. With the onset of the Great Depression, it came to be seen as a depiction of steadfast American pioneer spirit. Another reading is that it is an ambiguous fusion of reverence and parody.


title: Grant Wood

text: Wood's inspiration came from Eldon, southern Iowa, where a cottage designed in the Gothic Revival style with an upper window in the shape of a medieval pointed arch provided the background and also the painting's title. Wood decided to paint the house along with "the kind of people I fancied should live in that house." The painting shows a farmer standing beside his spinster daughter, figures modeled by the artist's sister, Nan (1900–1990), and his dentist. Wood's sister insisted that the painting depicts the farmer's daughter and not wife, disliking suggestions it was the farmer's wife, since that would mean that she looks older than Wood's sister preferred to think of herself. The dentist, Dr. Byron McKeeby (1867–1950), was from Cedar Rapids. The woman is dressed in a dark print apron mimicking 19th-century Americana with a cameo brooch. The couple are in the traditional roles of men and women, the man's pitchfork symbolizing hard labor.


title: Grant Wood

text: The compositional severity and detailed technique derive from Northern Renaissance paintings, which Grant had looked at during three visits to Europe; after this he became increasingly aware of the Midwest's own legacy, which also informs the work. It is a key image of Regionalism.


title: Grant Wood

text: Wood was hired in 1940, along with eight other prominent American artists, to document and interpret dramatic scenes and characters during the production of the film "The Long Voyage Home", a cinematic adaptation of Eugene O'Neill's plays.


The 1808 United States presidential election was the sixth quadrennial presidential election, held from Friday, November 4, to Wednesday, December 7, 1808. The Democratic-Republican candidate James Madison defeated Federalist candidate Charles Cotesworth Pinckney decisively.


title: 1808 United States presidential election

text: Madison had served as Secretary of State since President Thomas Jefferson took office in 1801. Jefferson, who had declined to run for a third term, threw his strong support behind Madison, a fellow Virginian. Sitting Vice President George Clinton and former Ambassador James Monroe both challenged Madison for leadership of the party, but Madison won his party's nomination and Clinton was re-nominated as vice president. The Federalists chose to re-nominate Pinckney, a former ambassador who had served as the party's 1804 nominee.


text: Despite the unpopularity of the Embargo Act of 1807, Madison won the vast majority of electoral votes outside of the Federalist stronghold of New England. Clinton received six electoral votes for president from his home state of New York. This election was the first of two instances in American history in which a new president was selected but the incumbent vice president won re-election, the other being in 1828.


text: Senator Stephen R. Bradley, who had chaired the congressional nominating caucus during the 1804 presidential election, made a call for the 1808 caucus to the 146 Democratic-Republican members of the United States Congress and Federalist allies. The caucus was attended by 89 to 94 members of Congress.


text: The caucus was held in January 1808, and Secretary of State James Madison won the presidential nomination with the support of President Thomas Jefferson against James Monroe and Vice President George Clinton. The caucus voted to give the vice-presidential nomination to Clinton against his main opponent John Langdon although Clinton's supporters believed that he would receive the Federalist's presidential nomination, but it instead went to Charles Cotesworth Pinckney. A committee of fifteen members was selected to manage Madison's campaign.


text: Seventeen Democratic-Republicans in Congress opposed Madison's selection and the caucus system whose authority to select presidential and vice-presidential candidates was disputed. Clinton also opposed the caucus system. Monroe was nominated by a group of Virginia Democratic-Republicans, and although he did not actively try to defeat Madison, he also refused to withdraw from the race. Clinton was also supported by a group of New York Democratic-Republicans for president even as he remained the party's official vice presidential candidate.


text: The Federalist caucus met in September 1808 and re-nominated the party's 1804 ticket, which consisted of General Charles Cotesworth Pinckney of South Carolina and former Senator Rufus King of New York.


text: The election was marked by opposition to Jefferson's Embargo Act of 1807, a halt to trade with Europe that disproportionately hurt New England merchants and was perceived as favoring France over Britain. Nonetheless, Jefferson was still very popular with Americans generally and Pinckney was soundly defeated by Madison, though not as badly as in 1804. Pinckney received few electoral votes outside of New England.


text: Pinckney retained the electoral votes of the two states that he carried in 1804 (Connecticut and Delaware), and he also picked up New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and three electoral districts in North Carolina besides the two electoral districts in Maryland that he carried earlier. Except for the North Carolina districts, all of the improvement was in New England.


text: Monroe won a portion of the popular vote in Virginia and North Carolina, while the New York legislature split its electoral votes between Madison and Clinton.


text: Source (Popular Vote): "United States Presidential Elections, 1788-1860: The Official Results by County and State"<br>


text: The popular vote totals used are the elector from each party with the highest total of votes. The vote totals of North Carolina and Tennessee appear to be incomplete.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: Matchbox is a popular toy brand which was introduced by Lesney Products in 1953, and is now owned by Mattel, Inc, which purchased the brand in 1997. The brand was given its name because the original die-cast "Matchbox" toys were sold in boxes similar to those in which matches were sold. The brand grew to encompass a broad range of toys, including larger scale die-cast models, plastic model kits, slot car racing, and action figures.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: During the 1980s, Matchbox began to switch to the more conventional plastic and cardboard "blister packs" that were used by other die-cast toy brands such as Hot Wheels. By the 2000s, the box style packaging was re-introduced for the collectors' market, such as the 35th Anniversary of Superfast series in 2004 and the 50th Anniversary of Superfast in 2019.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: Products currently marketed under the Matchbox name include scale model plastic and die-cast vehicles, and toy garages.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: The Matchbox name originated in 1953 as a brand name of the British die-casting company Lesney Products, whose reputation was moulded by John W. "Jack" Odell (1920–2007), Leslie Charles Smith (1918–2005), and Rodney Smith. The name Lesney was a portmanteau of Leslie and Rodney Smith's first names. Their first major sales success was the popular model of Queen Elizabeth II's coronation coach, which sold more than a million models. Lesney co-owner Jack Odell then created a toy that paved the way for the company's future success which was designed for his daughter. Her school only allowed children to bring toys that could fit inside a matchbox, so Odell crafted a scaled-down version of the Lesney green and red road roller. This toy ultimately became the first of the "1-75" miniature range. A dump truck and a cement mixer completed the original three-model release that marked the starting point for the mass-market success of the Matchbox series. The company decided to sell the models in replica matchboxes, thus yielding the name of the series.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: Additional models continued to be added to the line throughout the decade, including cars such as an MG Midget TD, a Vauxhall Cresta, a Ford Zodiac, and many others. As the collection grew, it also gradually became more international, including models of Volkswagens, a Citroën, and American makes. To make such miniatures, the designers took detailed photographs of the real models, even obtaining some original blueprints. This enabled them to make models with surprisingly high levels of detail, despite the small scale. The size of the models allowed Matchbox to occupy a market niche barely touched by the competition; the associated price advantage made the toys affordable and helped establish "Matchbox" as a generic word for small toy cars, whatever the brand.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: In the earliest years of the regular, or "1-75" series – well before the series actually numbered 75 models – Lesney was marketed/distributed by Moko (itself named after its founder, Moses Kohnstam). Boxes in that era mentioned this, with the text "A Moko Lesney" appearing on each. Lesney gained its independence from Moko in 1959 by buying out Moko's share in the joint enterprise, leading to a period of growth, both in sales and in size. Early models did not feature windows or interiors, were made entirely of metal, and were often about 2" (5 cm) in length. By 1968, Matchbox was the biggest-selling brand of small die-cast model cars worldwide. By this time, the average model in their collection featured plastic windows, interiors, tyres (often with separate disc wheels), and occasional accessories; spring suspensions; opening parts; and was about 3" (7 cm) long. Some even featured steering, including the pressure-based AutoSteer system debuting in 1969. The line was very diverse, including lorries, buses, tractors, motorcycles, and trailers as well as standard passenger cars.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: The three dominant brands in the world at the time, all British-made (Dinky, Matchbox and Corgi), were very successful. Each had its own market niche and its own strong reputation, while innovations and advances by one were adopted by the others within a matter of a few years. Each also expanded to some extent into the others' territory, though this never seemed to seriously affect the sales of any brand's core series.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: As part of Lesney's expansion activities, four further die-cast model ranges were introduced during the 1950s and 60s. The "Models of Yesteryear", introduced in 1956, were renditions of classic vehicles from the steam and early automotive eras. These were often about 3½-4" in length. "Accessories Packs" were also introduced in 1956 and included petrol pumps, garages, and the like. "Major Packs", which were larger-scale models, often of construction vehicles, were added in 1957. The "King Size" series of larger-scale trucks and tractors was added in 1960 and was diversified from 1967 onwards to include passenger car models in a scale similar to that used by Corgi and Dinky. Major Packs had been absorbed into the King Size range by 1968.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: The main focus at Matchbox continued to be their smaller cars. Other brands, including Husky/Corgi Junior, Budgie, and Cigar Box, attempted to compete with Matchbox, but none were particularly successful until American toy giant Mattel introduced the revolutionary low-friction "racing" wheels on its Hot Wheels line of cars. These models, although less true to scale and often featuring fantasy vehicles, were attractive, painted in bright metallic colours and fitted with racing-style "mag" wheels and slick tires, and were marketed aggressively and with numerous accessory products, such as race track sets and the like. The Hot Wheels line often featured models that were decidedly American. In 1969, a second competitor based in the US, Johnny Lightning, entered the market, and the bottom effectively fell out of Lesney's US sales. At the same time, the other major market (the UK) was also under attack by competitors.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: Lesney's response to this was relatively quick – but not quick enough to avoid major financial worries – by creating the "Superfast" line. This was effectively a transformation of the 1969 line to include low-friction wheels (at first narrow, since the company needed time to retool the series to accommodate wide tires), often accompanied with new colours. The result was, at first, a strange but interesting line of fast-wheeling cars, trucks, and trailers, basically complete in 1970. Racing track sets and the like were also released to allow children to race their cars. Starting in 1970 and particularly in 1971, new models appeared with wider tyres, and older models (including trucks still in the line) were retooled to fit slicks. The "King Size" range was similarly updated, including a division into "Super Kings" (mostly trucks, but also with mag wheels) and "Speed Kings" (cars). A short-lived series of rechargeable electric cars, called "Scorpions", was released as well, to compete with similar products from Hot Wheels (Sizzlers) and Corgi (ElectroRockets).


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: By the mid-1970s, Matchbox was again a force on the world market, having completed the transition and having even updated its line to include some fantasy vehicles. The "1-75" series was also amended to include the Rola-Matics (featuring mechanical parts that moved when the vehicle was moved) and Streakers, the latter an attempt to compete with Hot Wheels' newest innovation, tampo-printing on the vehicle itself.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: In an attempt to reap more benefits from the regained popularity of the Matchbox brand, a last period of great expansion started with the introduction of multiple new lines, including the "Sky Busters" range of aircraft (including current and historical private, commercial, and military planes), "Battle Kings" military models, "Sea Kings" naval models, "Adventure 2000" science fiction models, and the "Two Packs" series, which revisited the traditional Matchbox idea of a model and an associated trailer.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: Unfortunately, early marketing concepts of metallic-painted tanks and bright-coloured ships were not consistent with market demands, and the models, many of which were quite well made for the money, were generally not successful. Second editions of the "Battle Kings" and "Sky Busters" series were painted in more realistic colours and were well-received but, by this time, general economic factors were seriously affecting the ability of the company to make a profit on toys manufactured in England.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: Of these series, only the "Sky Busters" and, to some extent, the "Two Packs" survived over time. The "Convoy" series of articulated truck-trailers (mostly American) was an offshoot of the "Two Packs" line and continues under various guises to this day.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: A rather simple development in this period ― as much philosophical in nature as product-related ― initiated a revolutionary change in the marketplace. The Matchbox brand had become the most widely collected of all die-cast toy lines (see below, "Matchbox collectors"). In the '70s, Lesney began to seek contact with collectors, sending representatives to collectors' meets, providing information to the various collectors' clubs, and informally surveying collectors' interests. This resulted at first in the creation of several models for collectors, such as a "Yesteryear" model, the black Y1 Ford Model T.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: The success of this decision led the company to place models of commercial vehicles in the "Yesteryear" line (two vans at first, a Talbot and another Model T) which were tampo-printed with period advertising for brand-name items such as Lipton's Tea, Coca-Cola, or . These models were the first commercial vehicles in the series since the 1950s. The concept was quickly expanded to include limited editions of models made for specific countries (Arnott's Biscuits [Australia], Sunlight Seife [Germany]) or at the specific request of companies such as Nestlé's Milk, Taystee Bread, and Harrod's department store. This aspect of the business ― so-called "promotionals" ― had existed since the '60s, but had established itself firmly in the company's culture in the '70s with numerous models, particularly of a "1-75" model, the no. 17 London bus.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: It immediately became evident that special, low-volume models of this nature were highly desirable from both the sponsor and the collectors' perspective, as well as being profitable for Matchbox. The market expanded rapidly, leading to increased licensing as well as the development of models no longer aimed at all at the children's toy market, but rather at the higher-margin "premium" segment.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: Due more to the economic climate in the United Kingdom at the time than to the lack of success of the Matchbox brand, even though all of the core ranges continued to sell strongly, the company was in difficult financial straits by the end of the 1970s. Matchbox suffered in the same way as its British competitors. Following in the footsteps of Meccano (Dinky), and just a year before Mettoy (Corgi), Lesney became bankrupt in June 1982, and went into receivership. The "Matchbox" brand name, some tooling, moulds and other assets were then sold to Universal Toys and David Yeh. Some of the Matchbox tooling became property of Jack Odell, who continued to market Matchbox "Yesteryear"-like products under the Lledo (Odell's last name in reverse) brand name, but essentially Lesney and Matchbox had been sold to Yeh and his group. Yeh reorganized Lesney and renamed the group "Matchbox International Ltd.", with Yeh as Chairman and Jack Forcelledo as President. Yeh took the group public on the NYSE in 1986, with a successful IPO.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: Although the company was no longer British-owned, limited production continued in England until the mid-1980s, re-using many of the old Lesney castings, but most production and tooling was moved to Macau. It was during this period that Matchbox acquired the rights to the venerated Dinky brand, perhaps the "mother of all toy car collectibles", and united two of the most important names in die-cast under one roof. New models were created (sometimes dies were also bought from competing companies), and the "Dinky Collection" was born. "Dinky" models tended to be of more recent classics (particularly the 1950s), while "Yesteryears" tended to concentrate on older vintages. It was also during the Universal era that the "Matchbox Collectibles" concept was developed (see below, "Matchbox Collectibles").


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: Because of high labour costs, and the lack of enough skilled workers in Hong Kong and Macau, Universal decided to outsource its die casting to mainland China. In April 1984, the first Hong Kong-Shanghai joint venture toy company, called Shanghai Universal Toys Co., Ltd. (usually abbreviated as SUTC/上海环球玩具有限公司), was established in Minhang, Shanghai. Yeh was the Hong Kong party, while the Shanghai Toys Import & Export Company, the Shanghai Shang Shi Investment Company (the Shanghai Government owned investment vehicle), the Bank of China, and Aijian Holdings, were the Chinese shareholders. The CJV contract was signed off with 20-year period of validity.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: 1985 saw the first batch of Matchbox toys which had "China" cast on the base. Dies were imported to Shanghai from Macau until the early 1990s, when Macau finally ceased producing Matchbox toys. No dies were designed by SUTC, which confined itself to decal painting, assembling and packing. Accompanying its metal casting, SUTC also had a plastic kits and components factory, called Shanghai Universal Plastic Toys Company (usually abbreviated as SUPT/上海环球塑胶玩具有限公司). The Motor City series, Matchbox PK series, and many plastic components, were produced there between the late 1980s and mid 1990s. Meanwhile, Universal also outsourced its die casting capabilities in Southern China. The Yongtai Toys Company (永泰玩具有限公司) produced Matchbox toys under license from Universal, but without fixed assets investment.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: By 1992, Universal was also seeking a buyer. In May 1992, it sold the brand to Tyco Toys, the toy division of which was bought out in turn by Mattel in 1997, uniting Matchbox with its longtime rival Hot Wheels under the same corporate banner. Under Mattel, the name "Matchbox International Ltd." was terminated.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: The buyout by Mattel was greeted with considerable trepidation by the Matchbox collectors' community. The rivalry between the Hot Wheels and Matchbox brands was not only a battle fought by the companies; collectors of each of the brands felt strongly about the qualities of their brand of choice. For the typical Matchbox collector, Hot Wheels were inferior in scaling and model choice, making them less desirable. There were fears that Mattel would either impose a Hot Wheels-style philosophy on the Matchbox line, or actually fold the Matchbox line into the Hot Wheels series. Early concerns of this nature by collectors were countered by assurances from Mattel that Matchbox would continue to develop its own product line independently from Hot Wheels, and that it was intended that Matchbox represent more realistic and traditional vehicles, while fantasy ones would be placed firmly in Hot Wheels territory. To demonstrate the latter commitment, some very realistic Hot Wheels Caterpillar models were actually re-branded to Matchbox, although that did not assuage concerns about the strength of the former assurance.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: In 2002, to celebrate its 50th anniversary, "Sky Busters" made a comeback, but with Continental Airlines as the only major airline to sponsor the product. In 2003, Matchbox came out with a line of special-edition cars.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: Breaking with its commitment of the 1990s, Mattel revamped the Matchbox line almost completely in 2003, introducing "Ultra Heroes", a series of fantasy vehicles, as part of a "Hero City" theme. Matchbox collectors were appalled, and the market didn't respond. The toys proved to be unpopular, and the line was soon discontinued. Next year, Matchbox, with a new team in charge based in El Segundo, California, started a return to the company's roots by selling realistic, well-detailed models, most of which were based on real prototypes, although mostly of American cars, or brands well known on the American market. The reappearance of the pre-2001 Matchbox logo, albeit without its classic quotation marks, signalled the return to the original philosophy.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: To signal the seriousness of the venture, and its commitment to the brand, Mattel introduced a new, second "1-75" series, parallel to the standard range, celebrating the "35th Anniversary of Superfast". Models were packaged in model-specific blister packs containing not only the model, but also individual, traditional-style "retro" boxes, harking back to the Superfast boxes from about 1970. All castings were of realistic vehicles, and some 1969 castings were re-activated for inclusion in the range. The series was strictly limited in production volume, sold at a premium price, and was a great success. Further Superfast series were released in 2005 and 2006, and continued again in 2019 and 2020. The "Superfast" series was later discontinued for 2021 and was replaced by the similar "Matchbox Collector" line, which are collector-focused vehicles in 1950s-style retro packing. These vehicles have features which are not present on standard cars, such as opening parts and two-piece wheels with rubber tires, and increased detailing and decorations on the cars.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: Also in 2005, certain "Yesteryear" castings, which had been released during the Tyco/early Mattel era as part of the "Muscle Car" series of Matchbox Collectibles, were re-released in 1971-style retro packaging and retro wheels as "Super Kings" – considered by many to be a strange name choice, since models of that nature had been called "Speed Kings" in the 1970s.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: Following the "Hero City" fiasco (the name being dropped in late 2005 in favor of "MBX Metal"), Mattel showed interest in reviving the Matchbox brand. However, since Matchbox Collectibles Inc. was shut down, Mattel's interests have always been concentrated on very few series of the Matchbox legacy: "1-75", "Sky Busters", "Convoys", and to some extent the "Two Packs" concept, although now sold under a different name, "Hitch 'n Haul". Although small numbers of "Super Kings" and "Yesteryears" were released at times, no new castings were created. "Battle Kings" reappeared on the market in 2006, not as King Size models, but rather as a name of military-oriented "Two Pack"-style sets of regular-size models. The "Dinky" name has effectively been reduced to a few "re-branded" Matchbox "1-75" cars on the international market (normal models with "Dinky" tampo-printed onto the baseplate). No further investment in dies or tooling was made. It appeared that the classic brand, once saved by Matchbox, would be allowed by Mattel to languish or die once again.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: In 2019, Matchbox launched the "Moving Parts" line, which are vehicles that incorporate opening features such as hoods and doors. Some vehicles in the series harken back to older Lesney castings, such as the Volkswagen Type 3 and Pontiac Grand Prix. These vehicles usually retail for twice the amount of a standard Matchbox car.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: On Thursday, April 15, 2021 Matchbox announced that they will make a 1:64 scale Tesla Roadster in 2022, made out of 99% recycled materials (62.1% recycled zinc, 1.0% stainless steel and 36.9% recycled plastic) and classified as a carbon neutral product. This move was made as part of a plan for the brand to become more environmentally sustainable, and Matchbox pledged to make all of their cars and packaging out of 100% recycled materials by the year 2030. The first Matchbox cars to feature recycled packaging will be the "Power Grabs" assortment. In addition, Matchbox launched an EV-themed pack with a Nissan Leaf, Toyota Prius, BMW i3, BMW i8, and an International eStar, and also announced that EV charging stations will be featured in two playsets, to encourage environmental consciousness among children.""


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: Lesney gradually increased the number of models in its standard Matchbox Series range from three in 1953 to 75 in 1960. The "1-75" range would then remain at 75 models for almost 40 years. When a new model was released, an existing model was discontinued, its number being re-allocated. This meant that dealer display stands only had to accommodate 75 models. New owners Mattel expanded the regular US market Matchbox series to 100 models for 1999 but changed it back to 75 models for 2001. The US range was again increased from 75 to 100 models for 2008, and then further expanded to 120 models for 2012 and then to 125 in 2016. These changes were not applied in all markets.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: The actual numbering of the "1-75" series number "on" the individual models (starting in the mid-'50s, numbers were cast onto the baseplates) was discontinued in the Universal era. This was in part due to the new concept of offering country-specific lines of models for many of the key markets, which led to the same castings being used under different numbers in different markets. In recent years (Mattel), a sequential casting no. (e.g. MB687) – unrelated to any "1-75" number used in any market – is cast onto each baseplate. The relevant "1-75" series number is printed on the blister pack or box.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: In addition to these, a series of Gift Sets (numbered G-#) was sold by Lesney, each comprising models from the die-cast ranges (sometimes from different ranges within a single set). The sets were updated/changed regularly for various reasons, but mainly to ensure that the models contained therein were current. Set numbers were often reallocated in the same fashion as for "normal" series. Some sets included model variations officially released only in the sets (generally, these were variant colours), while others contained additional, non-die-cast items not available without the set.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: Not unlike other "classical" collectible items such as stamps, coins, or real cars, the value and collectibility of model cars such as Matchbox is driven primarily by three factors:


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: Some models are produced in very limited quantities. Prior to the evolution of "purpose-made" collectibles (cf. "Matchbox Collectibles", below) – i.e. models made in intentionally limited quantities to allow a high initial sales price and/or force the value to remain high on the collectors market – rarity was based on the simple criterion that the production numbers of a model were low. This was not generally due to any specific intent by the manufacturer. For example, this could occur if the mold (die) broke, or if the model proved to be unpopular and was replaced very quickly, creating a situation in which "normal" numbers of the model never reached the market.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: Variations are changes in production models. The most common three types are changes in the materials used, in the dies, or in the colour scheme. For instance, early Matchbox models were entirely made of metal, including the tyres/wheels. However, within the first few years of production, Lesney switched to plastic wheels. These were silver at first; later, grey wheels were fitted, followed finally by black wheels. Thus it was entirely possible that models introduced in the '50s could be fitted with four different wheel types during the span of their inclusion in the series – or even more, since there were further variations (e.g. knobby or smooth) besides the colour or material. Depending on the particular model, a given wheel type might be much rarer than the others.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: Moulds or dies are changed at times. This is commonly due to weaknesses in the final die-cast product, or to difficulties in production caused by the die. Often, the changes are very minor, even minute, and may occur in places that are not clearly visible at first glance. Especially in cases where e.g. a weakness was detected early in the production run, the numbers of early versions reaching the market are often quite low.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: Colour changes – now commonplace, a planned marketing tool – were rarer earlier, with most models being produced over the span of their inclusion in the series in just one or two major colour schemes. However, not only the colour of the model's body must be regarded, but rather the entire model— including baseplate, interior, windows – and thus changes in different components can lead to a factorial increase in variation possibilities.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: Age also plays an important part in making a model rare. A model produced in standard quantities in the 1950s will likely be much rarer today than one produced in similar quantities the 1980s.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: The better the condition of the model, the higher its value. Model conditions are usually expressed in a simple, somewhat subjective manner, in categories such as: mint, excellent, very good, good, fair, poor. Simply put, a "mint" model, i.e. one in factory-fresh condition, is worth far more than a sandbox-quality model with chipped paint, rusty axles, and broken parts. However, to be valuable, the condition must be original; repainting or repairing a model reduces its value greatly, even if the final result can be impressive.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: The presence or lack of packaging affects the value of a model. A "mint boxed" model can in some cases be worth 50-100% more than the mint model without the box, depending on the age of the model, the condition of the box, and even the variations of the box.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: As box designs were changed regularly, some boxes or even model/box combinations were produced in lower quantities, and thus became quite difficult to find. As an example, the first seven "1-75" models were packaged in "A Moko Lesney" boxes (cf. above, "History", Moko) on which the word "Moko" was written in script. Today, these boxes are extremely valuable. Later '50s boxes – including the 2nd editions of those for model numbers 1 to 7 – had "Moko" in the same capital letters as the words surrounding it.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: Even in the era of blister packs, the role of packaging has not really diminished. However, as the "box" concept is tremendously important for the brand Matchbox, the presence of a box usually affects the value of a model significantly more than does a blister pack. The exception to this is blister packs from the box era, particularly those in which the box was also included.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: The popularity of the model affects its value both directly and indirectly. For example, if two models were produced in similar quantities in the '50s, one an interesting sports car, the other a rather dull military vehicle, then the former probably disappeared from store shelves much faster. Its value, then in non-monetary terms, was higher.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: Though the former model may therefore be found relatively ubiquitously in British or American households, often it was either played with (i.e. the condition is poor) or it has a particular "treasure"-like sentimental value (often the case with, for example, horse-drawn models), so that the model will be kept "forever", even by those who do not collect. Thus it becomes harder to find in good condition on the collectors market, while the less popular model can still be found mint-boxed in large quantities. And as it is likely that the sports car's initial popularity remains


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: Since the advent of organized Matchbox collectors' clubs (see below, "Matchbox collectors"), models and their variations have been coded and catalogued, and values have been roughly established. The major collectors' organizations (NAMC, AIM, Matchbox USA, MICA, MBXForum etc.) as well as individual authors have published numerous works describing the various Matchbox ranges including the models and their variations. Whereas the best of these were formerly available mainly through the clubs themselves, it is now possible to buy books on Matchbox from various publishing houses. These are available not only in English, but in several other languages (particularly German) as well.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: As there have been multiple reference catalogs over the years, there is no complete consensus on the coding of a model. However, a standard code might read as such: Y-15 A 6. This would mean the 6th variation of the first ("A") release of model no. Y-15.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: Many books now include a price guide, but there is no real consensus on the actual monetary value of a model. The numbers in any of the publications give relative information, but not more. It remains a collectors market, and, accordingly, prices fluctuate greatly.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: By the 1960s, it was clear to Lesney that sales in certain already profitable markets might be increased by providing the markets with models "of their own". Since the regular series was primarily aimed at the UK and the US, models for the Commonwealth and North America could easily be integrated into it. But early on, Germany established itself as a major market for Matchbox models, not however one large enough to warrant numerous castings of German cars in the line. Certainly, the major internationally known German brands (Volkswagen and Mercedes, as well as Magirus-Deutz) were represented in the range, but in order to cater to that market using the dies at hand, it was decided to develop a model "version" just for Germany. The model chosen was the #25 Bedford Tanker, which, for the German market, was changed from its usual yellow-and-white colours and BP livery to a blue and white model with Aral decals. This first regional issue was followed by a second, when the Bedford was retired from the series and replaced, effectively, by the #32 Leyland Tanker. This model, too, was produced in a blue and white Aral version for Germany.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: This proved to be a successful strategy, which was then expanded in the late 1970s and the 1980s. At first, it was again Germany for which models were produced, as many as 6 at a time (Polizei cars were developed, trucks offered with German logos, etc.), some even in specially constructed boxes. Later, the idea was expanded to larger models ("Yesteryears" such as the previously mentioned Y12 Ford Model T Van, or numerous "Super Kings" models), and to other countries (Australia, Denmark, etc.), even including regional issues for the UK or the US.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: For a short period in the 1970s/1980s, Lesney also produced or licensed Matchbox production in other countries. Having started by developing several model variants in England specifically for the Japanese market, they later produced four Superfast models in Japan, based on Japanese prototypes. Dies and tooling were later also licensed to groups in Hungary and Bulgaria (Mikro'67), in an attempt to gain a foothold in the Communist bloc countries. Although only standard models were produced there, there were numerous colour variations, some of which are very rare today.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: Beginning in the Matchbox International era, it was decided that the line should be regionalised more generally, which led to multiple versions of the "1-75" series being available; depending on where in the world the customer was, almost the entire range might be different from in the rest of the world. Although this philosophy is still followed today to some extent, it has been largely scaled back. Usually, there are ranges for the US and the rest of the world, with some "local" mini-series still being offered in certain countries (e.g. an annual 12-car release in Germany called "Stars of Cars", or a similar set of models in the UK called "Best of British").


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: Almost from the beginning of the Matchbox series, commerce recognized the possibilities offered by providing a model of a "relevant" vehicle to their customers as a method of advertising. In the mid-1950s, for example, it was not rare for dairy companies to provide the Matchbox #7 Horse-Drawn Milk Float to customers as a token of appreciation for their business.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: The first issue to be purposely made for a particular customer is the now famous "Beales Bealesons" #46 Guy "Pickfords" Removal Van. The promotional issue, made for a shop in southern England, differed drastically in colours, decals and box from the standard model (in Pickfords livery). Besides fulfilling its original purpose, it also became highly sought after by collectors.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: A few further models were made in the late 1960s or early 1970s, amongst them several bus models and the famous "NAMC" promotional version of the #32 Leyland Tanker (the first model made exclusively for collectors; see below, "Matchbox collectors"). However, the major shift in the number and value of promotionals began with the use of London Bus models in the 1970s, particularly the Superfast #17 Londoner Bus. With this model, what had been a trickle turned into a flood, as it was used by countless companies as advertising material for their business customers. The success of this concept – and its value to the Matchbox brand – was huge, leading to a rapid expansion of the idea, both in the numbers of models used (and the introduction of models offering good "advertising space", such as the #38 Ford Model A Van, into the series), and, again, in the size of the models ("Yesteryears", and often "Super Kings" as well).


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: Eventually, almost any model could be and indeed was used for promotional purposes. Some companies only allow extremely limited numbers of their models to be made (e.g. the K-16 Quaker State model), while others have them produced in large quantities to serve as on-pack offers, for example, or even put them on general but limited release, such as the set of models commemorating the 100th Anniversary of the Ford Motor Company. As one of the most difficult aspects of collecting, promotionals' values can skyrocket within months of their being issued. Today, promotionals remain an important part of Matchbox's business.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: As mentioned above (cf. "History", expansion in the Superfast era), the popularity of both regional issues and promotionals were recognized by the company and played a role in the development of models designed not specifically as toys, but with the collector in mind. The realisation of the market potential of catering to collectors led to a major shift in the entire die-cast industry, as other brands followed while Matchbox continued to refine the idea into what later became Matchbox Collectables (q.v.).


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: Starting in the Universal era and continuing until after Mattel purchased the brand, a growing awareness of the adult collector led to multiple series being produced specifically for that market. The idea was not new; in the 1960s, Lesney had first realized the potential for adult buyers of its products and had marketed gold and silver-plated versions of its "Yesteryear" series mounted on pen stands, ashtrays, and similar items. Also (as mentioned above, cf. "History"), in the 1970s and particularly the 1980s, contact by the company to collectors and sponsors led to the release of a small number of highly collectible models designed for a limited, but more profitable market base. Most often, these models were "Yesteryears", though the "1-75" series was also used for this purpose.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: Matchbox introduced the "Matchbox Collectibles" name to designate purpose-made collectible items. Initially, the Matchbox Collectibles range revolved mainly around "1-75" or "Convoy" models, usually produced with a high level of tampo or mask-spray detailing and with rubber tyres and "chrome" wheels. The models were manufactured in limited quantities and sold at better-stocked retail stores as "Premiere Collectibles", "World Class", "First Editions", "Barrett-Jackson", etc., for a premium price. This concept of making intentionally collectible versions of toy cars was widely copied by the competition, including Hot Wheels and Johnny Lightning. Later, the "Models of Yesteryear", "Dinky" and "Convoy" series were used as a basis for creating themed collectable "mini-series" of models, while the "Super Kings" range often yielded large-scale truck "specials", all of which were generally offered only by mail order. At that time, Matchbox Collectibles Inc. essentially became a semi-independent sub-unit of Matchbox International Ltd. The idea was quite successful, leading to the creation of many new, high-quality castings over a relatively short time span. Tie-ins with major brands (Texaco, Campbell's Soup, Coca-Cola, Hershey's Chocolate, Jack Daniel's, etc.) increased the attractiveness of the range. However, to finance the new castings, prices continually increased, while castings were re-used for multiple purposes, sometimes rather far from realistic.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: Although the main scales tended to hover around 1:43 (1:50 or 1:100 for truck models), eventually there were even 1:24 automobiles. Airplanes and tanks (in appropriate scales) made their returns as well. However, the timing of these latter series was almost as poor as in the 1970s, as about 3 years after Mattel bought the Matchbox brand, development of the Collectibles range was effectively halted, and Matchbox Collectibles Inc. was mothballed. Some models continue to be marketed via major retailers such as Target in the US.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: Matchbox set up its own plastic kit division in the UK around 1972/73. Concentrating on 1:72 scale military aircraft and 1:76 military vehicles, it competed with the then-dominant Airfix company. The Matchbox kits had a distinctive appearance, the parts in each kit were produced in two or three colours compared to the single colour plastic of Airfix. The boxes were also more colourful and included clear windows so the contents could be seen. In addition, unlike Airfix's military vehicle kits, the Matchbox military vehicle kits all came with a small diorama base.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: At the end of the decade Matchbox bought the AMT Corporation, an American plastic model kit manufacturer. AMT's line of 1:25 scale cars and trucks was continued.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: The Matchbox kits were well made, with modern tooling and techniques, but critics felt that the kits were too coarsely detailed in comparison with other models on the market, and too "toy-like". Yet they were still just as complex and time consuming to construct as any other kit, which limited their appeal to more casual model builders. The company was unable to fully satisfy either the casual or serious model building market, and was one of the first companies to abandon model kits when the hobby started its decline, selling AMT to the Ertl Company and shutting down its own kit division less than twenty years after starting it.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: The Matchbox model kit moulds were acquired in the early 1990s by Revell Germany, which continues to sporadically re-issue the old Matchbox kits, now under the Revell label. Recently, a number of the most desirable Matchbox kits have made re-appearances, to the delight of modelers: In 1:72 scale, The Handley Page Victor, the Supermarine Walrus, Handley Page Halifax and PB4Y Privateer, and in 1:48 scale the A1-E four-seat Skyraider. Many modellers are also looking forward to a re-release of the Mk II/Mk VI Hawker Tempest, the English Electric Canberra, RR Spey Phantom.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: Revell has confirmed that it will be re-releasing the much sought after 1:32 scale Spitfire Mk. 22 with Griffon, and the 1:32 scale de Havilland Venom.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: Numerous additional product lines have been produced and/or sold by Matchbox over the years, particularly in the Lesney era. Collectors catalogues were published in various languages by the company each year starting in 1957, continuing well into the 1980s. Collectors cases were designed for children to carry/store their "1-75" vehicles. From 1957 until the 1970s, a range of garages/service stations was offered in either Esso or BP logos (under the series no. MG-1).


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: There were also jigsaw puzzles of photographs depicting Matchbox vehicles in realistic-looking situations, race track sets (Superfast track was yellow, as opposed to Hot Wheels' orange, and of a slightly wider gauge), a particularly clever plastic snap-together wall-display system, roadways, and even a slot-car system for standard (non-powered) car models, the Matchbox Motorways.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: At several points, in an attempt to move into Mattel and Hasbro territory, Matchbox produced dolls, first a line of pirate dolls for younger school-age boys, and later baby dolls for pre-school girls. Numerous other non-die-cast items have been marketed, as well as a number of shorter-lived die-cast series (Historic Inn Signs, Disney cars, "Thunderbirds" models, etc.).


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: As mentioned above, Matchbox also tried its hand in the die cast aeroplanes area, under the name "Sky Busters". The models were not only produced for children; "Sky Busters" produced plane models for such airlines as Aeroméxico, Air France, British Airways, Iberia, Lufthansa and Saudi Arabian Airlines. However, they were and are designed more for the inexpensive toy market. Promotional models sold by the airlines themselves more often tend to be models of higher quality, exactness, and price.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: In the late 1960s, the Arnold Minimobil system (Germany) was marketed as the Matchbox Motorway (UK). These consisted of easily assembled hard plastic track, designed to look like concrete roads, rather than the soft plastic of Hotwheels and Superfast track. The system worked by means of trackside electric motors driving continuous spring loops which would run in channels. Small plastic pins could be attached to the underside of Matchbox vehicles which would pass through the slot in the track and engage with the spring, allowing the vehicles to be pulled along. There were three main sets: M1, M2 and M3.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: Set M1 consisted of a simple oval of track. Small huts, on each side of the main straight track section, contained the individual motors which powered each lane, allowing the vehicles in adjacent lanes vehicles to be raced, although all vehicles in the same lane would travel at the same speed. As the drive spring for the outer slot would be longer than that of the inner slot, the springs were stored in colour-coded bags in the box.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: Set M2 consisted of a simple figure-of-eight track, with both drive springs being of the same length. the springs were driven in a similar method to those in the M1 set.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: Set M3, known as 'Switch-A-Track', instead of separate motors, had a single motor hidden in a dummy roundhouse in the centre of a roundabout. Whereas set M2 had a simple figure-of-eight layout, set M3 had a track layout consisting of two extended loops, connected by means of the central roundabout. Each of the 4 exits from the roundabout had a rocker switch which, through a mechanical linkage, moved small turnouts which would allow the vehicles to change path.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: In addition, there was a set E2, an extension pack which could be added to set M2, which allowed for a greater variety of track layouts.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: In the late '70s, Matchbox also produced slot cars called "Powertrack" or Speedtrack, which featured working headlights. (Some Powertrack models had parallel issues in the "normal" Matchbox "1-75" line.) Other slot car sets from Matchbox included a lane changer (which allowed cars to switch lanes) and a Race and Chase set which featured a police car and chased car which could jump and u-turn.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: Also in the late 1970s, Matchbox produced a small range of 1:32 and 1:76 Second World War toy soldiers in direct competition to Airfix. These sets included British, German and American infantry, the British 8th Army and the German Afrika Korps and British Commandos. Though Matchbox's sets featured fewer figures than comparable Airfix sets (15 vs. 29 in 1:32), they included weapons that Airfix did not model (flame-throwers, heavy machine guns), and Montgomery and Rommel figures in the Desert War sets. The figures were popular for their high-quality molding and their different extra weapons and poses as compared to the more common Airfix sets.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: During the 1970s Matchbox created its own lines of action figures including "Matchbox Fighting Furies" - pirate and cowboy figures with separate costumes - in 1974 and "Mobile Action Command", plastic figures with accessories and rescue-themed vehicles. From the 1980s onwards its action figure lines tied in with television and animations such as "Ring Raiders", "Robotech", "Voltron", "Parasites", "Monster in My Pocket" and "Pee-Wee's Playhouse". They ceased developing most of such lines when Matchbox was absorbed into Tyco; some of the "Robotech" toys were later re-released by Playmates Toys under the "Exosquad" line.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: In the 1990s and early 2000s, Matchbox also published several video games that tied into the Matchbox line of model vehicles. These games featured construction and emergency services (fire, police, ambulance, rescue), with game play involving vehicle-appropriate action sequences (for example, intercepting a robbery with a squad car in "Motor City Patrol"). These games were developed by other companies for a variety of platforms, including Game Boy handheld gamers, the NES video gaming system, and PC.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: There were plans to release more Matchbox games on the NES system; however, they only released "Motor City Patrol". Matchbox games not released to North America included "Sir Eric the Bold" (which never got past prototype stage), "Matchbox Racers" and "Noah's Ark", only the latter being eventually released in Europe by Konami. However, due to Nintendo's strict policies against any forms of religion in their games, it is likely that they would have faced internal controversy.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: A live-action film adaptation produced by Mattel Films was announced in January 2022. Later this year, Skydance Media joins in making the film with Mattel Films.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: As with any other item dealing with transport, sport or similar themes, it did not take long before Matchbox models became collectable items, with rabid followings, collectors' meets, etc. The Fred Bronner Corp., American importer of Lesney toys, took a first step towards organising this movement to a small extent by creating the "Matchbox Collectors Club", which produced a polished, quarterly, 4-6-page newsletter for a small membership fee, starting in the late 1960s. The MCC was primarily aimed at younger collectors.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: In the 1970s, adult collectors began to form semi-official clubs to discuss collecting at a higher level of sophistication. Variations were discussed and catalogued, swap meets organized, and new journals or bulletins began to appear, written by and for the serious collector. Not unlike stamps or coins, prices for older and/or more collectable models began to spiral upwards in a trend that continues. Collecting is, however, not limited to the models themselves. Anything related to Matchbox ― catalogues, dealer display cases, promotional literature, etc. ― is also collected. In the US, two competing clubs were both established in Massachusetts (NAMC, the National Association of Matchbox Collectors, run by Bob Brennan, and AIM, the American-International Matchbox club, run by Harold Colpitts). These clubs were the central force of Matchbox collecting in US during the 1970s and 1980s (though both have since ceased to exist), and from them, further spin-offs were formed, including UK Matchbox (run by Ray Bush), MICA (Matchbox International Collectors Association) and Matchbox USA (run by Charlie Mack), the latter of which are still in operation. Charlies Mack, as well as others, have also published books for collectors showing models, their variations and giving value/price guidance. The Route 66 Die cast collectors gathering of friends is also in existence, and happens annually in July and is located in Albuquerque, New Mexico. This is the only existing die cast show to feature the Matchbox Team making an appearance, and having exclusive models made just for the advent.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: Dinky collecting is centred around the UK and France, Corgi collecting in the UK, and Hot Wheels collecting in North America. Only Matchbox collecting is popular in the UK, Commonwealth countries and in North America.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: Like many high value collectable items Matchbox models are now prone to faking. Rare variations can be quite easily made up using genuine parts, and then sold as a "rare" variation.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: Matchbox Sky Busters is a range of die-cast model aircraft produced under the Matchbox brand, initially by Lesney Products and later by Mattel.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: The earlier Sky Busters were produced in 1973 from London, England. During the 1970s, Skybusters competed against Dyna-Flytes, produced by San Diego based Zee Toys and the Ertl Company distributed-Hong Kong manufactured Lintoy.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: Skybusters combined military and commercial aircraft models at their earlier stage. The United States Air Force, Air France, Federal Express, Lufthansa and QX Express were among the first brands to advertise with Skybusters. Some of the first Skybusters released were Learjet, Airbus A300, Boeing 747 and Corsair AD7 airplanes.


title: Matchbox (brand)

text: In 1976, the Skybusters line returned, at a time when the die cast airplanes market was largely dominated by Dyna-Flytes. The brand kept coming on and off the market until the 2000s, when Mattel decided to release the models each year. Currently no airlines are under contract with Matchbox to produce Skybusters models, the most recent ones being American Airlines, UPS, British Airways, Alaska Airlines, Lufthansa and DHL (Delta Air Lines and United Airlines did not have a contract with Matchbox since the takeover of Northwest Airlines and Continental Airlines, respectively), but jetliners are released under fictional airline names, such as Matchbox Airlines (also called MBX Airways).


title: Tonicity

text: In chemical biology, tonicity is a measure of the effective osmotic pressure gradient; the water potential of two solutions separated by a partially-permeable cell membrane. Tonicity depends on the relative concentration of selective membrane-impermeable solutes across a cell membrane which determine the direction and extent of osmotic flux. It is commonly used when describing the swelling-versus-shrinking response of cells immersed in an external solution.


title: Tonicity

text: Unlike osmotic pressure, tonicity is influenced only by solutes that cannot cross the membrane, as only these exert an effective osmotic pressure. Solutes able to freely cross the membrane do not affect tonicity because they will always equilibrate with equal concentrations on both sides of the membrane without net solvent movement. It is also a factor affecting imbibition.


title: Tonicity

text: There are three classifications of tonicity that one solution can have relative to another: "hypertonic", "hypotonic", and "isotonic".A hypotonic solution example is distilled water.


title: Tonicity

text: A hypertonic is when the concentration inside the cell is high and the environment is dilute. In biology, the tonicity of a solution usually refers to its solute concentration relative to that of another solution on the opposite side of a cell membrane; a solution inside of a cell is called hypertonic if it has a greater concentration of solutes than the cytosol inside the cell and its environment is dilute. So when the cell is hypertonic(concentrated) the cell needs more water, so water is forced to enter inside the cell and the cell will swell up and eventually burst.


title: Tonicity

text: When plant cells lose water they are hypotonic, because their inside is diluted(with more water) and the environment is concentrated so it needs water then the flexible cell membrane pulls away from the rigid cell wall, but remains joined to the cell wall at points called plasmodesmata. The cells often take on the appearance of a pincushion. In plant cells the terms isotonic, hypotonic and hypertonic cannot strictly be used accurately because the pressure exerted by the cell wall significantly affects the osmotic equilibrium point.


title: Tonicity

text: A hypotonic is when the concentration inside of the cell is lower than a solution outside of a cell is called hypotonic. If it has a lower concentration of solutes inside a cell then water is forced to move out. Due to this, water is removed out of the cell causing shrinking of the cell membrane.


title: Tonicity

text: When plant cells are in a hypotonic solution, the central vacuole loses water and the cell membrane sticks against the cell wall.


title: Tonicity

text: A solution is isotonic when its effective osmole concentration is the same as that of another solution. In biology, the solutions on either side of a cell membrane are isotonic if the concentration of solutes outside the cell is equal to the concentration of solutes inside the cell. In this case the cell neither swells nor shrinks because there is no concentration gradient to induce the diffusion of large amounts of water across the cell membrane. Water molecules freely diffuse through the plasma membrane in both directions, and as the rate of water diffusion is the same in each direction, the cell will neither gain nor lose water.


title: Yolk

text: Among animals which produce eggs, the yolk (; also known as the vitellus) is the nutrient-bearing portion of the egg whose primary function is to supply food for the development of the embryo. Some types of egg contain no yolk, for example because they are laid in situations where the food supply is sufficient (such as in the body of the host of a parasitoid) or because the embryo develops in the parent's body, which supplies the food, usually through a placenta. Reproductive systems in which the mother's body supplies the embryo directly are said to be matrotrophic; those in which the embryo is supplied by yolk are said to be lecithotrophic. In many species, such as all birds, and most reptiles and insects, the yolk takes the form of a special storage organ constructed in the reproductive tract of the mother. In many other animals, especially very small species such as some fish and invertebrates, the yolk material is not in a special organ, but inside the egg cell.


title: Yolk

text: As stored food, yolks are often rich in vitamins, minerals, lipids and proteins. The proteins function partly as food in their own right, and partly in regulating the storage and supply of the other nutrients. For example, in some species the amount of yolk in an egg cell affects the developmental processes that follow fertilization.


title: Yolk

text: The yolk is not living cell material like protoplasm, but largely passive material, that is to say deutoplasm. The food material and associated control structures are supplied during oogenesis. Some of the material is stored more or less in the form in which the maternal body supplied it, partly as processed by dedicated non-germ tissues in the egg, while part of the biosynthetic processing into its final form happens in the oocyte itself.


title: Yolk

text: Apart from animals, other organisms, like algae, especially in the oogamous, can also accumulate resources in their female gametes. In gymnosperms, the remains of the female gametophyte serve also as food supply, and in flowering plants, the endosperm.


title: Yolk

text: In avian eggs, the yolk usually is a hue of yellow in color. It is spherical and is suspended in the egg white (known alternatively as albumen or glair/glaire) by one or two spiral bands of tissue called the chalazae.