Loved the Matchbox kits when I was a kid.

I love the small diarama matchbox gave you

Ooh that takes me back, I remember Matchbox coming on the scene and people at the model club were raving about them, thanks for sharing

I remember buying that kit back in late 1981.

Can confirm that the 2006 release included the diorama.

Great vid, lots of references about these lesser known AFV's. Matchbox produced many types that were overlooked by the major manufacturers, and saved a lot of work back in the day (and still does) converting or building from scratch. Thanks.

Lesney Products!! These are the kits I made starting in 1979. Even as a kid, I preferred them over Airfix kits (the other brand which every sweet shop sold). They were good kits which still appear in the Revell catalogue. I didn’t make this one but for their day, they were low cost kits costing the equivalent of €1 today. I still have the old Matchbox catalogues which I flick through from time to time.

That's a very nice Set, I build those as a teenager and the tanks still sitting in my display shelf. The Kit is not difficult to build if you take your time. The only drawback are the hollow diorama parts. From whatever angle you look on these, you allways see the open back or even parts of it. Otherwise you have a little diorama scene wich is beautiful to look at. I loed these kits, they wheren't expensive and easy to build. Perfect beginner kits.

Thanks for mentioning the 1 man turret as a major failure of this tank in real life. Everyone seems to gloss over that fact and say what a wonderful tank it was...yes! but only on paper. German tanks could get off 4 or 5 shots before the poor Commander/Loader/Gunner/Radio guy in the turret could get off 1 shot.

Thanks! I absolutely loved this kit. Matchbox gave us so much with these armor offerings. The diorama bases were a nice touch --- though much like a movie set, only "one sided". They also kitted the SdKfz II, PaK-40 and BMW motorbike in PK-171 as well as a Panzer II and Panzer II - Battle of France diorama or what? … and is it just me or is braille scale AFV what dreams are made of… SdKfz 234/2 Puma (PK-76) was my favorite. Sure, not a 1:35 Tamigawa of the day, but pure fun. The soft tracks ala Airfix... well, it was the late 70s/early 80s...

I've built a few old Matchbox kits in the past, airplanes not tanks, and they were generally pretty good models. Details were soft, but they were fun to make.

i have this kit in a revell box, bought about 20 years ago.

Yes I purchased and built several of these for the FT-17s to go with my Airfix French WWI infantry. No! I never received the diorama part. Just the 2 tanks. I always traded away the Char to a buddy for his FT-17 but neither of us ever saw the diorama sprue. This would be late 80s USA

Never actually built a Matchbox armoured vehicle kit, I can still remember the first Matchbox kit I built, the Armstrong Whitworth Siskin III biplane fighter.

Matchbox did a lot of nice kits, before Esci's ones, they were a good alternative to Airfix. Only objection of including a FT17 in this box would be that it didn't saw a lot of fighting in France, perhaps they could've made an H35's model instead, it was extensively used (modified with radio & commander's hatch) by the Wermacht in the Balkans, so it could be made with alternate parts for this version.

Nice kit! It would be a shame if the latest release omits the diorama parts. It was weird when you opened the box and all the parts were on sprues...lol... When I was little, I figured 1/72 and HO were close enough that I'd use the HO scale airfix figures with my 1/72nd scale kits..I remember trying to paint those vinyl figures...pactra and testors didn't really adhere...