Well, actually a lot more than these pictures show, but if you are a hardened variation collector, keep an eye out for some of these ones.


The MB71 Dodge Magnum Police can be found with either black or tinted windows.


The MB7 1965 Austin Mini Van can be found in either a deep orange or mustard orange.


The MB43 Volvo XC90 can be found in various shades from a medium to dark blue.

And not all are from the basic range.

The Superfast SF1 Bentley Continental GT can be found in shades of green.



The TV Licence Nickelodeon pack can find the VW Golf in gold or mustard gold, and the Chevy SSR in medium or dark gray.


The Mountain Attack Battle Kings set can be found in purplish blue or pale blue.

If people are interested I can post a few more at a later date.

I enjoy looking for shade variations, as well as others too.

Are you sure these aren't inconsistencies in the paint mixes?

Oh yes definitely. They only produce a certain amount of models with one batch of paint. When they mix up the next batch of paint for the next run of models it doesn't come out quite the same. These all come from different batches of models (as Matchbox date the back of packages).

So you're saying that they are caused by inconsistencies in the paint mixes, I think. I'm confused.

It's like when you get paint for your house.
You go one week end and you have a certain shade of, let's say, green. You start painting but you realise that you need more paint. You go 2 or 3 days later but when you apply this new batch, it's not exactly the same color.
That's what he means.

Color mixing is really difficult. My parents own a company that makes the plastic spirals to bind books and sometime it's really hard to get consistency with the color despite using the same measures.

But returning to the cars themselves, I'm just hoping to find one of each. That will be enough for me.

I know that they can't always get the colors right, I'm just wondering if these are "intentional variations" or simply not being to mix them perfectly every time.

I don't think it is intentional, but at the same time, not likely worth spending a lot of time on (quality control wise) being that it is for a 99 cent car.

I find them all the time in HW's but I never really thought to look at the MB cars.I like the paint variations.thanks for the info David