SHANGHAI, May 18, 2021—52mbx.com celebrates its fifteenth anniversary. Evolved from its ancestor bulletin board system, the website serves as a recognized Matchbox toys resource in Chinese language, especially when its powerful search engine launched more than a decade ago. More than 1,300 Matchbox toys are covered in the database, with thousands of pictures and detailed analysis. It is now a unique online knowledge base prepared in Chinese language. “It is a tiny but meaningful milestone,” said Lingyun Chen, administrator of 52mbx.com, “I’ll continually develop the Matchbox toys search engine, as long as my hobby collection lasts. It is part of my whole life now.”
In pursuit of Matchbox toys around the world, many fans are simply chasing manufacturing numbers, variations, or hard-to-find pieces of model cars. Maybe no one has ever questioned whether vintage toys made in circa 1960s – 1980s contain lead.
Recently, Dr. Shangshang Mu, a former club member of 52mbx during the forum era, conducted analysis by extremely scientific approaches and has drawn a conclusion that those vintage toys are lead-free and are still safe to children. His research report is published on the EDAX Blog.
Dr. Shangshang Mu’s collection – a vintage railway playset circa 1979 and some Matchbox toy cars ranging from the 1970s to 2010s.
About Dr. Shangshang Mu
Dr. Mu is application engineer at EDAX. Prior to joining the firm, he was the lab manager at the Southeastern North Carolina Regional Microanalytical and Imaging Consortium in Fayetteville, NC. Shangshang holds a BS degree in Materials Science and Engineering from Chengdu University of Technology. He earned an MS degree in Materials Science and Engineering from New Jersey Institute of Technology. Shangshang completed his PhD in Earth Sciences at Boston University.
About EDAX
EDAX is a unit of AMETEK Materials Analysis Division. AMETEK, Inc. is a leading global manufacturer of electronic instruments and electric motors with annualized sales of more than $1.8 billion.
在2019年火柴盒世界车友聚会上，美泰火柴盒团队曾宣布重启两个被封印的系列，那就是我们熟悉的Real Working Rigs（RWR）工程车系列和Convoys（CY）半挂车系列。时至今日，这两个系列的发展并不太顺利。可能由于开发和制造成本以及销售量等因素，2021年火柴盒将舍去CY系列，而继续发展RWR系列，全年计划发行四个批次，仅有两个新模具，分别在Mix A和Mix C批次中，其它则都是刷色。
其中第一张图片里的车就是我们一直认为的MB590的首版涂装，与这次买到的模型非常接近。图片下方的文字注释称其来自2002年的Play Sets（Carry On Garage）。第二张图片则是2005年发行的工程车五件套（Construction）组件。但是点击上图的右下角DOWNLOAD按钮，得到的word文档则显示MB590仅有一个版本，来自2005年的五件套：
