3inchDiecastBliss: Larry Scaduto's First Ambassador Report

Thursday, July 24, 2014

Larry Scaduto's First Ambassador Report

Ambassador Report July 23^rd,2014

Larry Scaduto (Ambassador #10)

Introduction:

Firstly, I would like to thank Dave Weise & everyone else involved in selecting me as the next ambassador to Matchbox. As a collector of JUST Matchbox for over 50 years it is my honor to represent the collecting community and of course, the brand of which I so dearly love! I started out as a 7 year old kid who “borrowed permanently” his first 7 models from a friend back in 1964. At present my collection sits somewhere over 16,000 cars, gift sets and other Matchbox related items. So with that said, let’s talk about our last ambassador….

Nigel has been a friend of mine for at least 25 years. We’ve done a lot of trading over the years, but we haven’t touched base in quite some time. It was nice this year to sit down with him and catch up. All I can say to him is that “you set the bar pretty high for the next ambassador….little did I know I was to follow you! Thank you for a wonderful job this past year. Your knowledge of this great hobby is phenomenal and it made for some good reading”. I have a good idea of how I’m going to do the reports. It will be a work in progress but you will get the very best effort I can give, along with ensuring that I am always available and approachable.

Thank you once again to Mattel, The Matchbox Team and everyone involved in my selection. It’s time to move forward and bring on 2015….Thank you!

Vantastic PrePro

The Ambassador Reports:

Starting out, I will be setting the reports up similar to Nigel’s. The first thing you will see in every report will be the new products from Matchbox. I will also be keeping the question & answer section going. I discussed this with the team and they said keep them coming. I will say up front if questions summited are repeats from earlier reports, they will not be answered. I will edit them so they are simple and right to the point. If for any reason Mattel cannot answer the question, that will have to be the answer. There are some things that must remain confidential!!!

My next part will include something different….A show & tell section. Nigel was showing us his wonderful collection and the history behind certain models. I will say upfront, I don’t have that kind of background knowledge and insight into Lesney Products, so I won’t pretend to be an expert there. The majority of what I collect is SuperFast. I will start the ball rolling by showing you some interesting pieces from my collection. If you have a rare Matchbox item to show the collectors, please feel free to submit pictures and a little story about the item. I will try and include as many stories as possible. Let me know what you all think of this idea, as I do welcome your feedback!

As for the final part, so far it will be a “What’s in your area” section. Send me pictures from stores in your area or what you have brought home that is new and/or different. If you have found any items from the latest batch or a variation that we should see….we want to know (or at least Tilley wants to know). That means tell us where you found the models as well!! There is nothing more frustrating than someone posting that they found the latest releases and not telling you where. This information will be really helpful for us collectors, and it will let the Matchbox Team know how the models are being distributed throughout the world.