The Rise and Fall of Matchbox's Toy-Car Empire

Those things were pretty popular in East Germany as present from your relatives across the border or bought at the 'Intershop' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intershop).

I still have a shoebox or two full of Matchbox cars in the attic.

Also I remember that during my job education as (industrial) tool maker in East Germany our master used to rave about Matchbox cars (and specifically Matchbox, not other brands) and how surprisingly hard it is to build the precision tools needed for creating such fine detail, and how baffled he was that western companies could afford to build such production lines "just for toys" - in that sense, Matchbox was even an effective Cold War propaganda weapon ;)