#16 please

We see here a once great Matchbox store display, like the one found in the D&C Store in Milford, MI. A once proud marketing tool reduced to whatever basement in which it now resides. For those not in the know this case would sit on the counter full of cars and trucks waiting for you to simply request the vehicle you wanted by the number positioned next to it. At the time nobody could have known that on the occasion you were able to get a Matchbox, you would be exercising a level of control you would almost never have again. Selecting the diecast toy was ultimate power, at that point most of your decisions were being made for you. Now your decisions are still being made for you just not exclusively by your parents, the only difference, there's no longer the occasion when you get to pick out a Matchbox. For whatever reason there was a greater reward in choosing the car by number from the case, as opposed to grabbing one that was hanging in the isle at K-Mart (taking nothing away from the feeling of getting any toy at anytime). The Matchbox enjoyed a multiple year boom period in my home that inevitably ended with the age old male right of passage that resulted in them being unceremoniously burned or blown up with firecrackers. The Matchbox meant you had enough loot to not have to suffer through another balsa wood plane, but that you weren't rolling deep enough for an action figure. The small metal toy car is such a perfect amusement, and when they started to make them with hoods and doors that opened, I knew they were fucking with us. It's the equivalent of you being served your greatest meal, but the next thing you know they say not only are you getting this incredible meal, but the Swedish Bikini Team is going to feed it to you. To this day if you need a modification on your car, truck, or Matchbox Van, look no further than my brother who is/was a virtual Wizard. He has a pension for Fire Department related vehicles so he can even change a Corvette into a Chief's car or something for you. He even worked at the D&C in its declining years, probably in some attempt to be closer to that display case.