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When I was growing up in the 50's, well, let me rephrase that...as I was getting older in the fifties (I never wanted to "grow up."), mint boxed had a different meaning. A box was only a nuisance, in the way of the valuable treasure inside, and most boxes would erupt in mysterious garage fires shortly after arriving home. When I was a kid, we played with our toys, and we played hard, sometimes with a BB gun, firecrackers, or even just plain old fire. The models that made it past the first weekend would sometimes get "customized". Our tools were primitive, usually a file or a belt sander, and soon, one more model sacrifice to the god of fire. Today I am sure a high proportion of current models will survive "mint boxed" and very few of the models of the 50's even survived, let alone unscathed by childhood play. Mint boxed? That is a relatively new concept.

Those models of mine that survived did get treated with care and many from my "getting older years" remain in my collection today. However, mint boxed examples are few. For this column, I'd like to share a few with you.

Here is one of these I did not know existed until I saw this one, a Henry J stock car racer in its original bag. I have the stock version with and without windows, but this race version is surely unusual. Don't really think too many Henry's were raced however.

Another "mint boxed" is this PMC 1956 Chevy, still in its original plastic wrap. These were the good old days with a four-door hardtop, a sedan, a station wagon, and a two-door hardtop to choose from. These came both as dealer models, as shown here with a bank bottom, and toy store versions with friction motors.

My final photos for this column are a 98-cent Product Miniature 1957 Ford Country Sedan shown here in its original half box. In addition to this Ford, PMC produced a number of 1957 Chevrolets including a Cameo Pickup, a Belair station wagon and a four-door hardtop in police, taxi and civilian versions. None had glass or interior, and they were only 98 cents!

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