#811 MATCHBOX - WORLD CLASS PORSCHE 944 (1993)

I remember I bought this car in a flea market maybe 15 or 20 years ago. I though it was older, and I bought it because I liked the box, and I thought it may be also rare. Apparently it is not so old, because the World Class series debutted in 1993. It consisted of normal “Super Kings” models repackaged in strange looking box (or actually display, since it is open on one side).

The World Class were only saloon cars, like the ones you can see in this promotional picture from 1993, while the World Sports were sports cars. One year later the same series were available, but the box was update accordingly to match the style of the new corporative image with yellow and orange boxes instead of blue, as seen in the following picture.

The Porsche 944 is an old known Super King, nothing has changed except the colour, which I think was not previously available. It has practicable doors and trunk, as indicated in the box. The World Series are somehow the followers of the Super Kings. That previous Porsche 944 (and other models in this size) were available in the kind of box shown in entry #459.

About the rarity of this series, I am not sure. On one side, the cars are often spotted on eBay or similar webs, but on the other side, there is only one site where I could find pictures of these cars boxed. It was here: http://www.shabbir.com/matchbox/picgall/picks.html. The guy who made this web, has three models in their boxes. Not bad!

Matchbox later reused the name “World Class” for another series of highly detailed cars in 3 inches size. Somewhat similar to the “Premiere Collection” series (see #381), but with a different card and a different box.

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: PORSCHE 944 (WORLD CLASS)
• Scale: 1:32
• Year: 1993
• Company: Matchbox (Great Britain)
• Size: approx. 10 cm