MOUNT LAUREL, N.J. — In the world of Matchbox, tour buses and Volkswagen Beetles alike are 3 inches long and cost less than a dollar, meaning any kid with an allowance can have a garage full.

Matchbox cars appeal to plenty of adults, including Vincent Smart, director of marketing for the line made by Mattel. (Associated Press photo) | ZOOM |

        Indeed, company officials say the average 4- or 5-year-old boy who plays with Matchbox cars has about 30 of them. Some more avid — and older — collectors have thousands.

        The brand is celebrating its 50th birthday this year by touring a truck full of Matchbox stuff across the country, rolling out a line of vehicles to represent each state and auctioning off a jewel-studded, solid gold Matchbox fire truck appraised at $50,000.

        The popular cars have remained a constant in children's toy chests as tastes have changed from Hula Hoops to computer games.

        Though the size, construction and low price of the toy stayed about the same, not much else about the company has.

        Matchbox was founded in Britain in 1952. After a series of sales and mergers, it was acquired by Mattel Inc., which also produces longtime archrival Hot Wheels. Matchbox is now headquartered in the Philadelphia suburb of Mount Laurel, where its former owner Tyco Toys Inc. was located.

        Mattel has marketed wisely to both the collectors and kids since taking over the brand in 1997, said Margaret B. Whitfield, an analyst with Bream Murray & Co.

        Instead of pitting them against Hot Wheels, which are modeled in the image of souped-up hot rods, the toy conglomerate has targeted Matchbox cars to very young children.

        Since Tyco's merger with Mattel, Matchbox has peddled a more detailed and more expensive line to its grown-up buyers who collect the cars. While the kid-oriented versions are often fantasy machines not modeled after and licensed by real-world carmakers, the collectors' series includes precise replicas.

        Matchbox specializes in police cars, fire trucks and construction equipment, with a few boats and planes as well.

        “When they are driving down the roads, kids' heads turn and the kids watch them go by,” Mattel's director of Matchbox marketing, Vincent Smart, said of the emergency vehicles and bigger trucks.

        About 40 matchbox designers, engineers and model makers roll out about 75 kid-oriented cars a year. Three-quarters of them are older models that are given new and often elaborate paint jobs; the remaining quarter need new casts.

        Mr. Smart said the company sells 40 to 50 million cars per year, about three times as many as the auto industry sells.

        A Gloucester County man has bought his share of the tiny cars — and then some. Everett Marshall, the mayor of Newfield, has about 27,000, many on display in his garage-based Matchbox museum.

        On a recent visit, two children came in and appreciated the cars the old fashioned way — by pushing them around the floor.

        Mr. Marshall was pleased to let them play. “Kids play video games,” he said. “They don't play with toys.”

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