Gonna Need A Bigger Boat

One of the best toy ranges in the late 90's was the Matchbox Mega Rig range. An offshoot of Mattels investment in Matchbox, the series first came to my attention with the Mattel Hot Wheels Construction set, a massive articulated crane vehicle that broke down into several smaller trucks. The line was then marketed via Matchbox and expanded considerably into Space, Jungle, Police and Arctic themes. The basis was a 1 inch figure and a connectable series of accessories. Mega Rig was relaunched in 2006 in a bigger scale with much simpler child-friendly parts.

 I much prefer the earlier release as it could have come straight off the set of Thunderbirds, with giant rescue vehicles and ships. I have managed to collect the entire range as far as I am aware and a factory prototype of the big  Space Mission set. Some of the earlier releases are hard to come by now, especially boxed, so although I had a loose version of the Arctic Ice Breaker, I bought another recently, still in the packet. It was missing a small whale figure, but I have substituted the rather cool mini DSV from a similar Mega Rig set for the photographs.

The series reminds me of the late fifties, early sixties playsets, with loads of action features and great adaptability. The main hull has a small powerboat that can be launched and two outrigger speedboats at the side. Both sides have drop down panels and the tower and crane can be attached in different configurations.