Once upon a time, I was a small boy with an obsession with what the toy industry thought small boys would be obsessed with - namely Custom Cars. For decades, Matchbox made sensible cars that sensible boys wanted to play with because they were the sensible cars that their sensible Fathers drove. 

But then, in May 1968, along came Hot Wheels, with their Specta-Flame Paint finishes and their Red Line Mag wheels, which by the time I was a boy, had been cloned by Lesney - the people who made Matchbox cars in Hackney, East London.

One day, when I was particularly bored (it was probably raining outside) I took these photos of some that I own. I always wanted full sized ones that I could scare old ladies with as they wandered along the High Street, but for now, these will have to do.