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Posted on May 1, 2022 April 28, 2022 by David Tilley
Matchbox Monday begins its journey through 2022 Moving Parts
Moving Parts. It appears that for 2022, things are really starting to jump forward with this segment of the Matchbox brand. After a few years with a small group over the course of the year, 2022 sees the range jump up to a set of 50 models, and we are going to be getting these over 8 different batches throughout the year. They maybe around twice the cost of a regular basic range model, but these are more like the types of vehicles that we as collectors want to see from Matchbox. Opening features, nice detailing, more metal and more licenses. These are more akin to how Matchbox used to be. Could these eventually overtake the basic range as the dominant part of the Matchbox portfolio? Would anybody mind if it did? The whole $1 price point has been played out for many years, and cost reduction on top of cost reduction has shown how the quality of parts and materials has had to be compromised to keep to this figure. That's not to say the team have not done wonders with the tools given to them. Some models are still being produced similar to how things were back in the Universal era. 1990 was the big year where metal bases were pretty much wiped out, and plastic bases with metal bodies became the standard. The regular road going cars are, for the most part, still the same as they were. A few wagons and SUVs (being larger) have seen an interior wiped out and blacked out windows, but many basic cars are still being made as they were over 30 years ago for the same price point. But Moving Parts? Well, these up the value, up the quality, and up the part count. I am thoroughly enjoying these models, and so wish that they were sold properly in the UK (we have one store (The Entertainer) that sells them, but they have 2 year old models on 1 peg buried in the back). Luckily I had Dirk Schleuer looking after me with these, and he sent this batch over from his MOYShop store in Germany for me to do the latest report with. So let us get stuck in to this little batch of 5 models. As the year progresses you will start to see batches increase a little.
So as I tend to do, I am going to go through these 5 models in number order. Which means I am starting with number 1 of 50. This is the brand new casting of the MB1304 '16 Range Rover Evoque Convertible. Or as the little card in the front of the blister has it, the Land Rover Range Rover Evoque.
In fact, as I am pointing these out, I am going to do my customary base shot of a new casting straight away here, as the base states it is a 2016 model (not mentioned on the package), but also has Land Rover Evoque. No mention of Range Rover. Don't you just love legal stuff. Officially, Land Rover is the company that makes this. So they now need to put it. They didn't when the original was made a few years back, but in recent years, the company has now requested that the proper company name is included going forward, so Mattel oblige. As you saw with the little card across the front of the package, putting Land Rover Range Rover Evoque was quite a mouthful. Try putting '16 Land Rover Range Rover Evoque Convertible on a base (or on the card) and see how much space you get left with for all the other legal details they need to add. So yeah. The packaging couldn't fit '16 or Convertible. The base couldn't fit Range Rover or Convertible. It's just the way it is, but of course we are all going to be calling it the Range Rover Evoque Convertible (the last bit just to differentiate from the basic range issue).
Now this is a 2016 Evoque, so this does mean that the front end is ever so slightly different from the casting we already have. But aside from that, it is a very familiar shape. Of course the Evoque is now on a second generation which launched in 2019, but this has so far not yielded a convertible option. That was only on the first generation vehicle, and I think it was worth giving it a go. I remember when the original debuted, people said they should turn it into a convertible. Well, they have. Better late than never, and this white debut looks great to me.
Of course being a Moving Parts model, in this case means we have these huge opening doors on the side. Is this the first SUV with opening doors in the range? I am trying to think. Does the '62 Jeep Willys Station Wagon classify as an SUV? Well, whether it is or isn't, I do believe these are the chunkiest opening doors I have seen on a Matchbox. Look how deep they are! Massive. Okay 1 day I will get out one of my Porsche 928s as these have really big doors and see which is the biggest. Why? Because I am a nerd, that's why!
It comes with a nicely detailed interior, although I am still not used to this new way of doing steering wheels. I know, this is all about ease of construction, and making things faster at the factory, but it is always the one little area that I am not a fan of. It's not awful, but I do lament how they used to look in years gone by. Not really noticeable in most vehicles, but most prominent in a convertible.
But if that is my only gripe on this lovely little model, then I am still extremely happy. I too was in the chorus of "give us a convertible" when the Evoque was launched, and I am definitely very happy with the look of this one. I look forward to seeing more of these over the years.
Especially when they come with a lovely little spoiler on the back. So, I will have to drag out the older Evoques here to compare.
So obviously I should go with the first one. The original MB896 casting. First released in the 2013 range as MB61…. Wait, no it wasn't. Had a technical hitch and got delayed. Debuting as MB70 in the 2014 basic range…. Err, hold on a sec, bear with us. Still a few issues. No release. Right, first arriving in the 2015 range as…. wait it wasn't ready. We don't even know which number it was due to debut that year as. MB23? MB92? MB100? MB120? It was going to be one of those, but due to a small problem, it hit year 3 of the delays and finally, yes I am double checking, confirmed, it eventually hit the basic range as MB27 in 2016. But due to the various delays, this was not the 2016 facelifted version. This was the original vehicle as Land Rover launched it. Of course they were only minor tweaks to the facelift, so in all honesty there is not much to note.
Of course as part of the facelift, Land Rover slightly changed the look of the radiator grille, and the headlights saw a new look to them. Something which Matchbox are demonstrating extremely well with the tampo print detailing. You will also note the lower spotlight area was altered, and this too has been expertly replicated by Matchbox. These details are all very noticeable, and great job to the Matchbox guys in getting these so good.
The rear too sees the tampo printing take the brunt of the real life changes, although the area around where a rear license plate would be was flattened out. And of course the convertible has the little tiny spoiler on the back.
The way they have been put together, the scale used and the overall size of the 2 vehicles is identical. Great work from the team in ensuring that they used the bare bones of the original to start with the new tooling to keep it consistent. The base itself pretty much looks like it was the same base section, wiped and re-worded with the new details. These 2 models look absolutely fantastic together. They look as if they come from the same vehicle, which when shrinking down to miniature, can sometimes come out quite different. So again, I am very happy with what they have done with this one.
And as I had the originals out, I might as well run them down again. Orange, dark or light? I do love how orange is often so good for shading.
We also had a Walmart exclusive Land Rover set that year too, which was sold in the UK too as Asda stores (Asda being a part of Walmart). For the Land Rover set, it was now in brown.
In 2017 it was now MB100 in the basic range and came in a metallic black style, with simple front and rear print again. Actually, all Evoques have simple front and rear printing. To date, not one has seen a side print.
In 2018 it was no longer in the basic range, but we saw a blue one arrive in the Ice Voyagers 5-pack. Again I was busy spotting those shades.
And then it vanished for 2019. 2020 did see a final new look for the model. It was back in the basic range as MB31 in red.
Although it was not quite it for the casting, as 2021 saw the 5-pack release from 2018 carry forward to a Best of France release. For those who saw my report on that, this blue was basically in the middle of the 2 shades of blue I had before, so I kept it. We have not seen it since, but with the Convertible now in the mix, will we actually see it again? I think so. A random pop up occasionally.
And straight in with the other new casting too. Yes, with around 20 new castings in the series for this year, we will be seeing quite a few of them pop up as the year progresses. They really are putting a lot of effort into this series at the moment. This is the MB1310 Ram Ambulance taking the number 5 slot in the series of 50. According to the package, it is a 2016 Ram Ambulance.
According to the base of the model, it is a 2019 Ram Ambulance. And yes, I did the base shot first again, as for the second time, there was something significant about it. Now me, I have a habit of marking up models by what it says on the base. So as the base is saying this is a 2019, I am calling it a 2019 (partly because the package shot was the last I saw of it, and now I only have a model that says it is a 2019). However, Ram is not a strong point for me, if somebody who is more in tune with the Ram timeline and can pinpoint its year of origin please do let me know.
Now this casting has had quite a lot of positive reaction to it. I can see why. First of all, it looks fantastic. A very good realistic view of the type of vehicle. Nice and modern too.
But this is something we have not had in quite a while. That is a full length metal piece, from the front hood all the way to the rear of the box. Budgetary constraints to the basic range have forced Mattel into cutting models like this in half, with the front section being metal, rear box plastic, and then a step further into a whole plastic body. This is a metal body, and it is quite hefty. As Matchbox models go, this is definitely one towards the upper end of the weight scale.
Also added to that is that the rear opening doors are also made of metal. I wasn't too sure if they would be, as, even as far back as the Lesney made 1977 Ambulance, opening doors were plastic. Heck, Stretcha Fetcha (a futuristic Ambulance from 1972) also had a plastic rear. Okay, granted, those had metal bases, and this is a plastic base, but I am still amazed by what they have done with this.
And you may not have noticed (or even cared) but as I peer in to show off the interior, which is chrome plated due to it also forming the front grille area, do you notice the base slotted in at the back? Yes, this model is not even being made in the current "drop" method, which basic range models have had to start adhering to. There is scope to still create this using the slot method. Slot in at the back and simply rivet the front down. This is proper old school construction for the model. A veritable throwback among what we are used to nowadays. It is no wonder this model has attracted so much attention. I can see this getting a lot of attention and action over the years.
And, as we often see this with Moving Parts, the front end also sports a nice tampo print too. With the sides being done, on a basic range, this usually means job done. No more prints allowed in the budget. Has been for years. That was starting to come in as the 21st century was dawning. But with Moving Parts, we can see how they have a little leeway to add in a proper 3rd pass at times, to highlight even more of a model than we are used to. I can see them getting another real licensed livery for this, setting up a premium release in the Collector series, and that proving to be hugely popular too.
Not that I am complaining with this. Peel Regional Paramedic Services is based in Brampton, in the regional municipality of Peel, in Ontario. So this is a real Canadian livery.
A quick shot of one of their real Ambulances. I don't know if they have a Ram on their books at the moment. But I love that we are seeing real licenses for the liveries on models too.
So, yes, I think this pretty much ticks all the boxes. Yeah I know, separate light bars. Used to be a thing. Not any longer. I am not fussed. I am seriously impressed with this model. Another great new casting. If the other 18 new castings coming for Moving Parts are anything like this, I think we are going to be in for a lot of treats this year. Again, great work by the Matchbox team.
Ooh. A model we have seen before. The MB1135 '65 VW Type 3 Fastback. And yes, they managed to fit that all on the strip at the front. It takes the number 27 slot in the series of 50 and comes in a rather familiar looking purple.
Which I guess saw a tweak to the tampo print after the artwork was done. It is small, but subtle. The artwork shows the license plate saying MB1135 (its MAN number) with the model sporting FST BK VW as the license plate. I can't help it. I enjoy checking the license plates. It's the whole nerd thing (see talk of Evoque vs 928 doors above).Now I have to admit, I was waiting for this to appear ever since the model debuted. I am surprised it took so long.
Purple is almost synonymous with this casting as a Matchbox model. Of course I am referring to the classic Lesney casting, and how it looked after turning into a Superfast issue. I can't fault it. I don't know if purple was a common colour in real life. Maybe VW needed convincing as to why purple was a great choice for the model, hence the delay. Or perhaps Mattel just wanted to not throw all the retro looks out too fast.
So yes, I am very happy with this one. I love the little details at the rear. So let's remind ourselves of how this looked so far.
It debuted in the 2019 Moving Parts range in red. This was reminiscent of the original Lesney look from before (and as a transitional) Superfast. I was expecting purple to follow it but instead….
Later in the 2019 year we saw a light blue one instead. Very nice, and again a nice simple front and rear. But newbie is the first Moving Parts issue to see a chrome base.
The model also appeared as number 10 in the 2019 Superfast series as well, in an off-white look, which I was able to obtain a nice shade variation to. This was the only other chrome based issue. Because, well, until this one now, we had not seen the model at all after 2019. It had a stellar debut year with 3 variants and then nothing for 2 years. Glad to see it was not forgotten.
And me being me, I was checking the bases of them all. MB1135 for the debut, and the blue seeing VW 1600. The Superfast release had MB SUPERFST 50 as its plate, which means that all 4 have got different license plates. I do like to see what they come up with for them.
But of course. Purple. I currently have 8 different shades of purple on my classic Lesney MB67-A VW 1600TL casting. This was from when it first arrived in 1969 as one of the original 10 Superfast models and continued through 1970 before turning pink in 1971. However, although you have that instant Lesney vibe when you see the new release, it turns out, it is nothing like anything released during the Lesney era. It is a massively different type of purple altogether.
Not that it is a problem. It is giving you the vibe without being a duplicate. I love it.
Which does mean we now have the first 2 colours for the classic Lesney model replicated by the modern Mattel casting. The only question is, will we get to see a pink one down the line? We had a pink Beetle recently
They do exist, but I don't believe as original factory releases. But I think it would work as a model. Keeping my fingers crossed for the future.
Next up is the MB1165 '65 Land Rover Gen II Pickup making its core range debut. Moving Parts is officially classified as a core range series, with the Collector series being the only premium series that they have. It is in the number 38 slot of the 50 due.
And comes in a very nice burgundy with a simple front end tampo detail. Honestly, you can't go wrong with this look on a classic Land Rover, although I am surprised we haven't seen a solid green one yet. That is because the first 2 Land Rovers that Matchbox ever made (12-a (1955-58) and 12-b (1959-65)) were only ever sold in solid green, which is sort of a signature classic Land Rover colour. So I am half expecting one at some point. But this is a very nice colour for this release.
And again at the rear we get a simple tampo design. However, I can see what they were trying to do here. Real Land Rovers of the time had a thin metal strip down the edge of the rears, and they have tried to replicate it here. In real life, it was just an edge, I assume to help with bumps and knocks, but when shrunk down to miniature size, well it looks like somebody dribbled a bit of silver down the edge on my example. It didn't really take very well, and I think might have been better left off. However, that could have just been a mis-alignment to mine. But that was the only downside to this lovely model, which is still getting a chrome base.
It comes with a lovely opening door (like the Evoque shown earlier) but this one has a much better steering wheel. It might be down to the fact the interior also forms the spare wheel on the front and as such, the plastic section is crafted differently allowing a better and more realistic steering wheels. Sure many years ago a steering wheel was a very thin piece, actually made to look exactly like a real one with all the gaps in, and this is still essentially a bit of a blob, but I still prefer this to the Evoque's way of doing it, as a pillar with a shape of a wheel on top of it. That's just me. I think the old way from years gone by was too fragile to keep doing in this modern mass-production age.
And of course there was the one issue before this. Last year it was number 1 in the Collector series, so was debuted as a premium issue with 2-part rubber wheels (or real riders as some call them) and well, just a little extra tampoing. The front end simply saw an additional logo above the bumper on the right.
And the model saw a simple "Cool Vintage" and pin stripe down the side (as well as fuel cap and door handles detailed). Which to me was a lovely little debut too. I like how this is still in very simple looks, which back then were pretty much how most would appear.
Finally, the Camaro. Ooh I love Camaros, and the latest MB1139 '16 Chevy Camaro is an instant favourite of mine. I love this generation look and the hardtop looks cooler to me than the convertible (although if somebody offered me a convertible I would not turn them down). Seriously…. Anybody…. For 2022, this model is in black as number 41 of 50.
And it looks fantastic, with the golden wheels finishing it off. Oh could this be its best colour yet?
Again as we have seen in recent times, they have the engine fully detailed when you open the hood up too. Along with the front end and rear end detailing, I don't think they really needed anything else. Had this been a premium I think a set of rubber wheels would have been the only difference. Unless they want to add stripes. I am still waiting on a release of this casting with stripes! It would look fantastic with stripes. Just imagine a set of dual white stripes shooting down the top of the model. But again I think that could be something that would like be more for the premium issues, as they could really get it going from front to back, and with the hood being printed separately I think stripes would be too much for a core release.
Something to think about as a future issue. In the meantime, I am still loving this black model. I don't know why, but to me, black cars just look so cool. Especially the more sporty ones. As I said, this is my new favourite of the bunch. Talking of which.
Let us remind ourselves of what the bunch were. For this we go back to 2019 and the first year of Moving Parts where we got 2 releases. At first we saw it in brown. Well I say we, this batch was very short run and many people did not see it. Mine came to me from Australia.
After that we had a second issue later on in blue, which was more widely available.
And in 2019, we also saw the one and only premium issue released to date. It was green with a matte black hood, and yes I did manage to obtain 2 shades of green to it.
After a trio of releases for 2019, 2020 saw this. A carry forward of the second Moving Parts 2019 release in blue, which was a slightly darker shade (hence me having 2).
2021 was a little better though. We had a new look. Moving Parts, now being numbered, saw it in the number 4 slot in red.
But that was not all. Just like in the debut year, we had a second one later. This time the number 15 release was in white, which is a good pair to the new black one.
So we have managed to get, over the space of 4 years, 6 different looks for the Camaro. And yes, I am here again checking license plates. Left to right – CAMARO, MATCHBOX, SPR FST, CHEVY, CAMARO (2nd time that was used) and now LT1 DRVR. LT1 being the base version of the Camaro portfolio. So it is a correct plate for the model. I love the attention to details. I hope when Chevy stop production of the Camaro in 2024 that they still will come up with a 7th generation in the future. It's such a cool car.
Still I am building an army of models of them, so I am happy enough. I look forward to seeing more of these in the future.
And with that, I believe my journey through the first batch of 2022 Moving Parts is done. I hope you enjoyed the "new" part of the report, and still continue on as I delve back into my collection for some older goodies.
Which this week begins with the MB50-A Ford Kennel Truck. This casting arrived initially in early 1969 along with the number MB6-A Ford Pick-up, as 2 different takes on a 5th generation Ford F-series. I don't know if a real vehicle was ever constructed like this with a canopy in the back and 4 dogs inside, but as a kid, these were really cool to eat. I mean play with. Hmm! I wonder why laws changed on small parts in kids toys? Those early 1969 issues had a new system in place that Lesney had developed called Autosteer. You pushed down on one side of the mode and the wheels would turn in that direction. Let go and the wheels straightened up. It was genius. However, as they transitioned to Superfast, they were unable to replicate that with the new construction methods, and so Autosteer faded away. However, what we also tend to miss with this model is that when they changed to Superfast, they changed the colour. This is the Superfast colour. Dark green. But the original from 1969 was an extremely dull, dark green. There is a transitional. It is rare and I don't have it. But it is darker than this is.
Now the thing is, when you originally got the model, the 4 dogs would be on a sprue, and you would have to unclick them from the sprue to add them to the back of the truck. I did have one where the dogs were still on the sprue many years ago. I then immediately popped those dogs off and threw away the sprue. So I can't show you it now.
But the attention to detail on these was amazing. All 4 dogs were completely unique. I am sure there was a definite dog lover who created this casting. For the first 2 Superfast years, the model was metallic green (shades do exist, and again I am still looking), but after 1970 was found with black bases, in 1971, Lesney started using up paints they had received that they didn't like to paint bases, as these were largely unseen. As such charcoal, grey, light or dark yellow bases can all be found in 1971 releases on a metallic green body. Why do we know they are 1971s? The wheels were widened up that year (mine has narrow wheels) and the funky base colours were only found with wide wheels. It was a quick change to wide wheels, as this was actually a casting that needed no modification to accommodate them. The wheel arches stayed the same.
The model ran until 1972, but for the final year, it changed even more drastically with the green in use. It can be known as lime green or apple green, depending on where you live, and this non-metallic look was the style for the final year. You can also see the difference in wheel thickness with these 2. At first the little clip on plastic chrome grille was still being chromed.
But as the year went on, they gave up and left it plain white. They obviously used up all the yellow paint as none of these were found with them, but greys and charcoals were still being found alongside the usual black. And if you are really lucky, you might find an unpainted base. After 1972, they retooled the casting into the Wildlife Truck and it was never seen again. Although early modification possibilities did include a mock-up of a hot rod milk van. Yes, they were contemplating turning it into a hot rod.
So next on my list, from the 1980s, comes a late Lesney issue from 1982. Bandag Bandit. Lesney created this casting as MB066 and launched it worldwide as MB66 in the basic range in white as a Tyrone Malone Super Boss. But in the US range only, they added another of the Kenworth drag trucks too as MB65-C. This was the listed as MB084 Bandag Bandit, although it is actually the exact same casting but simply in an alternate colour. This was the beginning of the MAN number era, and as such they were literally listing anything and everything even remotely different as a new number. So a different colour at the same time? Sure, new MAN number.
Production was in England for the first year and you know what this means? Variations. Yeah, they couldn't keep anything consistent.
Let's see, wheels. The usual configuration for these was crown wheels on the front and dot-dash wheels on the back. But sometimes the front wheels ended up being dot-dash too. Fairly common. There is a rare crown wheel rear issue (I am yet to find).
How about the airfoil on the back? It had Tyrone Malone written on the top strip. But the lower strip? Well, 4 stripes? 2 stripes? You might find it without as well (I haven't, again still looking).
However, in 1983 production moved to Macau. This time, there was a no-stripe variation easy to find. However, this is actually because they were not printing it at all. If you look carefully, you might actually notice that Tyrone Malone was actually a transfer label. Not tampo printed. It took them a while to start tampo printing that. You might also notice that the yellow stripes on Macau made models are, well, yellow. English ones were almost lime.
Although of course if you flip over, you can see the Macau detailing on the base.
Another angle showing the transfer label for the rear spoiler. You might be able to see the edging for the label.
But later on they did learn how to tampo print the spoiler, and as such, they were consistent with a 4-striped front section to it. In fact, they were pretty consistent non-stop. It ran for 2 years from Macau, and these are the only 2 variants known to exist for this. After 1984 they decided to drop this model from the US range, leaving just the Tyrone Malone Super Boss going. Although that had already been dropped from the US range too, and was now an ROW exclusive until 1986. I will have to dig those out for a photo shoot soon too. They have a few more variations. But there was an addendum.
1991. A new factory in China was taking over from Macau and had set up some test runs of models no longer in production using designs already seen in the past. They sold these in 6-vehicle multipacks in USA known as Super Value Packs. This casting had been shipped over from Macau as the factory had closed there and was given a new run. The most obvious thing to look for is the maltese cross front wheels.
Unless you flip the base again to see Made in China on it.
Of course China also had no clue as to how to do airfoil printing, but they just left it blank. After this little run for the multipack the casting was never seen again.
So now I am jumping right to the end of the 20th century. I don't often show premiums, but I felt this was the first run of this casting, and thought I would include it. the MB358 '55 Chevy Bel Air. This was in the early days of Mattel, and they created a dual casting, with a hardtop here, and also a convertible as MB359. To make this a hardtop, they simply extended the window section over to the rear and added a clip in plastic roof section to the model. It was initially launched as a First Edition with 5,000 unpainted examples and 5,000 in dark green and cream paired together, all in a premium guise with 2-part rubber wheels.
After this the model then debuted in the basic range. As MB73, exclusively in the US market. After that it was retired from basic range use. Seriously, it had one outing, and just in the US range. There was another 1999 issue. A coke premium model, which I am yet to add to my collection.
However, the model was given quite an outing as a code 2 model. A plain red with white roof model produced by Matchbox and given to ASAP/ColorComp to prepare a wide range of code 2 issues with.
2000 did see one regular outing of sorts. An Avon Coke twin pack issue was made, which obviously you could only order through Avon outlets. This was yellow with a roof design on it and the Coke doors.
Aside from 1 more premium (a Barrett Jackson issue in 2002 in blue) this model barely saw any action at all. 2004 did see a Superfast released as number 49 in the series in red and cream.
And that was pretty much it. 4 years later, we had 1 more outing. Again in the Superfast series, this orange and white model proved to be a swansong for a really underused casting. I don't know why Chevy Bel Airs fell out of favour with Mattel, but we had 5 castings (2 each of the '55 and '57, as well as a police offshoot of this), and none really saw a lot of use. Which I think is a huge shame. Especially the '55s. They were such lovely castings of iconic USA vehicles.
And yes, I am barely moving on here. I go from a 1999 debut to a 2000 debut. Because this was another model that was not exactly used much. The MB470 GMC Bucket Truck. And just like the Chevy I showed just now, this was a US exclusive debut. In the year 2000, it arrived as MB99 in the US range, and of course that meant that the first 10,000 of them sported a Matchbox 2000 logo on the front window. It was such a cool model with the extending and rotating boom. So, MB470 debuted in 2000. It retired, in 2000. Yeah, this was it. This is the entire production history of MB470. Officially….
The model wasn't completely forgotten. We saw nothing at all in 2001 or 2002, but in 2003 they had plans to include it in the final batch of the Coca-Cola singles. Sadly, the final batch of 6 models was running late, and the specific license they had meant that they could not actually release anything within a certain window of the license lapsing. It was all highly specific legal mumbo jumbo that meant that at the last minute, they had to drop the batch, and along with it, a second outing for this model. But at least it reminded them that it existed. But plans were afoot.
In 2004 it was announced that the ROW range was going to get MB470 as an exclusive. It was MB26 in the basic range, and well, we got a GMC Bucket Truck for the ROW market. This is where things get a little bit confusing.
You see, they decided to make some changes to the casting. Cost reductions have been going since the Lesney era. It happens. It happens a lot. A model is created, then after a while, they see how they could make it more efficiently. So they re-tooled this with a new single axle at the rear.
Plus for some reason, they also switched the bucket's position on the back of the boom, so that now in resting mode it points down, not backwards (it is also a little shallower). I don't know why. They re-assigned the model as MB604. One small blip. They forgot to re-detail the base with the new number. It still stated MB470 on its. Oops! Then this is where things get even more mixed up. In 2004 they closed Mt Laurel in New Jersey and moved the Matchbox brand in-house to El Segundo California. With it came almost an entirely new team. A team that did not know about this particular blip. This team also decided to switch production from China to Thailand, and so during 2005 all the tooling started getting shipped over to Thailand. The factory did not know about this blip. Why would they? They are in an entirely different country. They receive a Bucket Truck that says MB470 on the base, they shove it in a slot for MB470. The new team get information that MB470 is good to go and create a new look for it.
It arrives in the final 5-pack of the 2005 year. It was called Construction, and even used the 470 MAN number in the design for the model. Yes, this had ended up back as MB470. These things happen. So from hereon in, we are seeing this listed as MB470 again. Even though technically, it should have been MB604. For those keeping track, the 2004 ROW exclusive release was officially released as MB604 with the wrong MAN number on the base. But with all the changes, that was the only MB604 release. It is one of the more convoluted MAN number scenarios in the list. Oh look, this was a Michael Heralda design. One of his earlier Matchbox ones (as he still does them now).
So MB…. whatever had a little more usage in 2006. Again it was in a Construction 5-pack, this time in white.
but they also gave it a premium outing in the 2006 Superfast series too, which meant it sported tampos all around.
And in 2007, it was given a basic range outing. Worldwide! Yes, for the first time in this model's history, it was sold as a single issue in all markets. MB75 was in teal. That was too much. It was never seen in the basic range again.
In fact, it was only ever seen once more, when it popped up in the 2009 licensed 5-pack, which was sold excusively at Disneyworld/Disneyland theme parks. This was the one year that they had 3 items from Matchbox at their theme parks. We used to get a bus and a plane, but in 2009 they had an exclusive 5-pack as well. But sadly the Disney parks stuff has all faded away now. the bus held on until 2021, but that finally went this year too.
Which brings us to the final model in my dive back. As we know, in the early part of the '10s, the powers that be, seeing how Matchbox was being really successful with the return to realism, decided to throw it all out the window and come up with a new plan. As such, they wanted to really differentiate what the Matchbox guys were doing from the alternate team. A 3-way split with 100 models for the US range, and both ROW and LAAM markets getting an assortment of 75 of those 100 was over, and the new plan was to release a series of 100 models worldwide, with no street cars. It would all be construction themed, utility themed, and so on. The Matchbox team at the time pushed as hard as they could, and a small allowance was made, to increase the series to 120 models, and add in some cars too. But they wanted things brighter too, so many models started seeing a few more vivid designs.
But aside from that, they wanted to give as wide a selection of different styles of vehicles to the Matchbox range as they could, and one way of doing that was by inserting a range of tracked vehicles. They were different. They were all Matchbox originals designs too, as the percentage of licensed vehicles in the range was reduced. Of course, by inserting an additional 20 "cars" which would all be licensed, the budget for licenses for the rest of the range would be reduced in accordance too. This is why we had an influx of their own creations at the time. Obviously sales got affected, and as we know they have course corrected again to what Matchbox is well known for, realistic interpretations of vehicles you see on the roads. And of course modern "tracked" vehicles are nothing like we had in years gone by.
These were plastic pieces, with small wheels slotted in underneath to allow the vehicles to roll. Many years ago they actually added rubber tracks to the models. One such vehicle was the MB852 Trail Tipper which launched as MB113 in the basic range in orange with a tilting grey dump on the rear.
For 2013, it was now MB43 in blue, with a grey dump on the rear.
For 2014, it moved to the MB28 slot in golden yellow, and now with a white dump. I did see a shade to this, and yes I still happily picked it up. Granted, it is not the best of vehicles, but I always felt this had somewhat of a charm to it. Especially the front end. It's what you get if a Stormtrooper and a Cyberman had a baby, with a few Borg implants. Have we ever had a Star Wars, Doctor Who and Star trek crossover before? Do you see the face? Or is it just me?
In 2015 we had another blue model, but now with a black dump on the back. It was MB34 in the basic range.
The model finished a 5-year stint in the basic range in 2016, which happened to also be it's final year of action. Its final release was MB49 in silver with a blue dump, and for the first time, white tracks.
Which also got additional use in a Monster Week 5-pack too in orange, with a grey dump and white base again. It had a Yeti design on the model. But this proved to be just like the Yeti after this. Not seen again.
5 basic range issues, and 1 Monster Week release. 2 oranges, 2 blues, and a gold and silver look. I doubt we will see this again, but you never can say no.
I believe that is me done for another week. I hope you enjoyed my review of the first 5 Moving Parts models of 2022. 2 brand new castings included.
As well as 3 returnees in the batch. Next week I will have a look at some more new for 2022 releases.
Until then, have a safe and happy week and catch you next Monday for more Matchbox goodies.
CategoriesMatchbox Tagsdavidtilley, Matchbox
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7 Replies to "Matchbox Monday begins its journey through 2022 Moving Parts"
Pedro P Coniconde says:
Okay will there be other colors release for the 1979 Chevy Nova and not the Orange one with ostentatious but grotesque decals where the front end is just unplated black and no longer in chrome?
David Tilley says:
Not a fan of the orange then? There will be more coming, although unsure if we will see one this year or not. Next year though I bet.
Kyle Jentzsch says:
Your write ups are amazing. Thank you so much for all your hard work, I love seeing your collection of older models too. Keep it up.
Thanks Kyle. I am happy you are enjoying them. I write this stuff up but never know if people are enjoying them or if I am waffling on too much.
jay8393 says:
David, the black Camaro's "LT1 DRVR" number plate represents the engine code. The trim level is 1LT or 2LT. It's confusing, I know. Hahaha!
Great write-up. The ambulance and the Land Rover look really good – my only gripe (again) is that the LR needs a central division moulded into the windscreen which would cost nothing; LR's of any older vintage never had one-piece screens. Do it on the cheap without any tampo on the frame if you must, but that's a needless error which could be easily corrected. Next step: sell Moving Parts in the UK!!


text:
Q: Sort alphabetically a list with strings and lists of strings in Python I have an assignment on logic and its relations, and at a certain step of an algorithm I have to be able to sort alphabetically a list with strings and lists of strings.
For example, something like
[['not', 'D'], ['not', 'C'], 'B', 'A']

should become
['A', 'B', ['not', 'C'], ['not', 'D']]

so that the unit strings (propositions) get sorted together with the strings on the second element of the lists (the not symbolizes the negation of a proposition and is constant).
So far, I was able to use sorted(List, key=itemgetter(0,1)), but this is only a trick for this very particular case and doesn't even work when the strings are literals, like the example above. Note that a string could be 'B' or 'Banana', the latter for which my quick fix works.
I appreciate your help, as I wasn't able to find a solution within all the questions placed here.
EDIT:
Another example is that
[['not', 'Pours'], ['not', 'Outside'], 'Rusty', 'Rains']

should become
['Rains', 'Rusty', ['not', 'Outside'], ['not', 'Pours']]

But I actually tried to go from the generic case I presented and create bigger words, and it indeed worked. So I guess the 'not' is having some influence here.
That is,
[['not', 'Dinossaur'], ['not', 'Carriage'], 'Banana', 'Apocalypse']

actually gets the correct form with the suggestion kindly provided by @inspectorG4dget.

A: >>> L = [['not', 'D'], ['not', 'C'], 'B', 'A']
>>> L.sort(key=lambda x:(isinstance(x,str) and x) or x[1])
>>> L
['A', 'B', ['not', 'C'], ['not', 'D']]

Edit:
In [30]: L = [['not', 'D'], ['not', 'C'], 'B', 'A']

In [31]: L.sort(key=lambda x:(not isinstance(x,str), x if isinstance(x,str) else x[1]))

In [32]: L
Out[32]: ['A', 'B', ['not', 'C'], ['not', 'D']]

In [33]: L = [['not', 'Pours'], ['not', 'Outside'], 'Rusty', 'Rains']

In [34]: L.sort(key=lambda x:(not isinstance(x,str), x if isinstance(x,str) else x[1]))

In [35]: L
Out[35]: ['Rains', 'Rusty', ['not', 'Outside'], ['not', 'Pours']]

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


For over 50 years USAID has been providing technical leadership and strategic support in promoting sustainable democracy. Our goals include: Strengthening the Rule of Law and Respect for Human Rights; Promoting More Genuine and Competitive Elections & Political Processes; Increased Development of a Politically Active Civil Society; More Transparent and Accountable Governance.
The Elections & Political Processes Division (EPP) provides leadership on political competition and consensus building issues to USAID field missions and bureaus, other U.S. Government entities, and the broader democracy and governance community. We do this through promoting ten elements that are essential to fair elections and political processes: Impartial electoral frameworks; Credible electoral administration; Effective oversight of electoral processes; Informed and active citizenries; Representative and competitive multiparty systems; Effective governance by elected leaders and bodies; Inclusion of women and disadvantaged groups; Effective transfer of political power; Consensus-building for democratic reform; Sustainable local engagement.
USAID's objective in governance is to promote effectiveness as well as transparency, accountability, and participation in government institutions and public policy reform processes at all levels. The Governance Division provides technical leadership through research, training, and dissemination of best practices; management of centrally funded mechanisms designed to support country-level governance programs; and direct field support of USAID programs abroad.


Amgen's cholesterol drug Repatha has been given the green light in Europe, making it the first in the new PCSK9 inhibitor class approved anywhere in the world.
Repatha (evolocumab) is a human monoclonal antibody that inhibits PCSK9, a protein that reduces the liver's ability to remove LDL-C, or 'bad' cholesterol, from the blood. The approval confirms Repatha's lead over its rival, Sanofi and Regeneron's Praluent (alirocumab), and puts it on track to be a leader in a new multi-billion dollar therapy area.
Analysts believe Repatha can achieve peak annual sales in excess of $2 billion, but overall sales will depend on the price the drug can fetch. Following the resistance to high prices seen in cancer and in hepatitis C in the US, many market experts are anticipating a similar battle over the price of the PCSK9 inhibitors.
Also significant is the fact that Amgen has not yet generated data proving Repatha's benefits in cardiovascular morbidity and mortality.
Repatha has been approved by the European Commission for patients with hard-to-treat high cholesterol. This includes patients with hypercholesterolemia (heterozygous familial and non-familial [HeFH]), patients whose condition is not responding adequately to statins or other lipid-lowering drugs, are statin-intolerant or for whom a statin is contraindicated.
Amgen must convince European doctors that there is an unmet need in these groups beyond statin therapy, which has a very large evidence base and is now largely off-patent and low cost.
The company says more than 60 per cent of high-risk patients in Europe are still unable to adequately lower their LDL-C levels with statins or other lipid-lowering agents. It also cites US government research which says among very high-risk patients, the figure is above 80 per cent.
"We are proud that our cholesterol-lowering medication, Repatha, is the first PCSK9 inhibitor to be approved by any regulatory agency in the world," said Sean E Harper, MD, executive vice president of Research and Development at Amgen.
The drug is given in the form of a subcutaneous injection, either 140 mg every two weeks or 420mg once a month. Before starting treatment, secondary causes of excess cholesterol and abnormal fat levels should be excluded.
Sanofi's Praluent could gain final European approval as early as next week. This would narrow Amgen's lead, creating competition which could allow Europe's health systems to exert downward pressure on prices for both drugs.


Can great design solve the problems of the developing world? Krista Donaldson, CEO of D-Rev, believes that by combining emerging technology with designs that meet real demands, we can improve the health and prosperity of people living on less than $4 a day. In this Creative Spark, Krista talks about the evolution of her company's most successful products—from LED phototherapy devices that cure jaundice in newborns to affordable, cutting-edge prosthetics. She explains how D-Rev identifies real-world needs, prototypes designs, refines them with user feedback, and solves problems from distribution to ongoing service repair.
(MUSIC). Krista Donaldson: I believe in being user-obsessed. To create social impact, you have to design for more than the product. If you don't understand distribution, if you don't understand manufacturing, if you do't understand marketing and how the product basically leaves, manufacturing then gets to the end user. This whole system approach, then there's going to be no impact. If you look at the field of design and particularly with medical devices, products are really truly designed for people who have the capacity to pay.
My design philosophy and D-Rev's design philosophy is really that no matter what your income level is, you deserve world class products. Products that are highly functional, that are at high performance. That regardless of what economy your living in, it would be valued. Our hope is that we will impact the industry. That industries will produce higher quality products out of more affordable cost for most of the world who doesn't have access to the great technology and products that can solve these problems. (MUSIC).


text:
Brickfilms where viewer discretion is advised, Brickfilms, 2001 brickfilms,
Brickfilms directed by 4 Guys, 1 Brain
English-language brickfilms
Festival-winning brickfilms
Brickfilms with director's cuts
Brickfilms in the first Brickfilms.com directory
Brickfilms in the second Brickfilms.com directory
Brickfilms filmed in America
Archived brickfilms
Comedy brickfilms
Spy brickfilms
LEGOs Are Not Enough
This film contains content that may be considered not safe for work. Viewer discretion is advised.
Bond receives a wallet from Q
Watch now ➤
Directors' cut
Tom Kuljurgis and Joel Haas
2001 (Original)
2002 (Director's cut)
Nick Moretti
Steven Haas
Amy Tenebaum
Gay Haynie
Jamie Luria
Spy film
17:19 (Original)
14:32 (Directors' cut)
LEGOs Are Not Enough is a 2001 comedy spy brickfilm by 4 Guys, 1 Brain, directed by Tom Kuljurgis and Joel Haas. It is a spoof of the James Bond series (with its title being derived from the 1999 Bond film The World is Not Enough) and follows Bond as he is sent on a mission to stop a madman producing nuclear weapons at the University of Michigan. A directors' cut of the film was released in 2002,[1] as well as a sequel, You Only LEGO Twice.
A group of pirates have stolen all of Europe's soap and are planning to hold it for ransom, when James Bond climbs aboard their ship and shoots all of the crew before defeating the captain in a swordfight.
Back at headquarters, Bond is chastised by M for turning a minor situation into a near-crisis. She decides to put him on a special, less expensive mission in Michigan, explaining that a madman known only as X is loose at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and may be syphoning fuel from a reactor to create nuclear weapons. She instructs Bond to rendezvous with an operative posing as a religion professor who will help him to blend into college life, and he then heads to Q's lab to receive a wallet with a credit card that can be converted into a bomb.
Bond visits the rock on campus
Bond meets the professor on the plane and is instructed to visit landmarks in Ann Arbor to familiarise himself with the area, and to try to find the location of the reactor during his travels. After some sightseeing, Bond stops to grab a burger, when a woman puts a gun to his head. She is working for X and is about to shoot Bond when he manages to change her mind with a kiss. She apologises and suddenly asks for Bond to make love to her, and after she introduces herself as Leg O'Galore, they go to the university's library for some privacy. Afterwards, Leg O'Galore agrees to help Bond defeat X and tells him she knows how to get to the nuclear reactor.
The pair head under the university's College of Engineering where they find X. He tells them his master plan is already complete and asks that they do not call his X but rather Coach, as he is the football coach of the Ohio State Buckeyes. He is preparing to obliterate Michigan with a nuclear missile to get on the good side of the OSU fans, who hate him for not being able to beat the University of Michigan football team. He enters a gunfight with Bond and Leg O'Galore before getting into a bionic cyborg suit and shooting Leg O'Galore. Bond gets into another cyborg suit and, when he eventually gets it to work, manages to defeat Coach in a battle. The missile is already preparing to launch from inside a bell tower on campus, which opens up. Bond takes the suit outside and throws the missile into space, where it explodes.
M and Q patch through to Bond's wristwatch communicator in an attempt to congratulate him, but find that he is otherwise engaged at a frat party.
Nick Moretti as James Bond 007
Steven Haas as X/OSU football coach
Amy Tenebaum as Leg O'Galore
Gay Haynie as M
Jamie Luria as Q
George Kuljurgis as Professor (original version only)
Morton Raban as Pirate captain
Rachel Luria as Cyborg computer voice
Christian Saratoga as First mate
Paul Springwater as Pierre
David Kingsfield as Jacques
Benjamin Terrybrook as Burger employee
Watson McTurtleton as Astronaut (directors' cut only)
Crew Edit
Tom Kuljurgis - Writer, Director, Producer, Animator, Art director[2]
Joel Haas - Writer, Director, Producer, Animator
Robert Peters - Producer, Animator, Visual effects supervisor
Michael Zapf - Producer, Sound effects editor
Phil Kuljurgis - Constructive criticism
Bill Peters - Unconstructive criticism
LEGOs Are Not Enough started production in 2000, initially by Haas, Kuljurgis and Peters, with Zapf joining the group later.[3] It contains many references to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where the four creators were studying.[4]
The film was completed on January 21, 2001 and was screened at two festivals in Ann Arbor as well as on local television station WOLV-TV before receiving a wide internet release on April 7, 2001.[5] A directors' cut was released on iFilm.com in 2002,[6] which removed the scene with the professor on the plane, added a line spoken by an astronaut following the missile exploding, and shortened certain scenes and the credits.[1]
Awards Edit
2001 Festival of Student Works Best Art Design Won
Film Farm V Best of Show Won
Most Original Won
↑ 1.0 1.1 LEGOs Are Not Enough Directors' Cut on YouTube
↑ Detailed credits on iFilm
↑ History of the film
↑ Reference guide
↑ Website archive with online release date
↑ LEGOs Are Not Enough Directors' Cut on iFilm
Retrieved from "https://brickfilms.fandom.com/wiki/LEGOs_Are_Not_Enough?oldid=35238"
Brickfilms where viewer discretion is advised
Brickfilms
2001 brickfilms

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Who is the Forest Bear ?
My real name is Thomas J. Schmal.
I was born in 1970 and live in Vienna (Austria).
What describes me best is "FBI" - fast, broad, irregular.
That's why my lovely lady gave me the nickname forest bear.
I am not a full-time photographer, i am an ENT-surgeon and phoniatrician (specialist for voice and swallowing disorders), but i love taking pictures.
When i was 5 years old, my grandpa taught me how to use his old camera and since then i am addicted to photography.
So, look around and enjoy !
How can i get a picture ?
I don't sell my photos, but you can contact me and i will send you the file per email.
You can use it free of charge, as long as you give me credit and don't use it for commercial purposes.
If you publish it on the internet, please link to my site.


text:
A mobile is constructed from a thin rod of mass 50 g and length 50 cm. Two hanging masses are positioned at each end of the rod. The mass of one of the hanging masses is 100 g. What must be the mass of the other hanging mass so that the mobile is in static equilibrium with the rod horizontal? The whole assembly hang from a ceiling support with a cord attached at the rod's center. What is the tension in the suspension cord?
asked by Qay
A mobile is constructed from a thin rod of mass 50 g and length 50 cm. Two hanging masses are positioned at each end of the rod. The mass of one of the hanging masses is 100 g. What must be the mass of the other hanging mass so
asked by Qay on December 4, 2010
A thin, rigid, uniform rod has a mass of 2.60 kg and a length of 1.69 m. (a) Find the moment of inertia of the rod relative to an axis that is perpendicular to the rod at one end.A thin, rigid, uniform rod has a mass of 2.60 kg
asked by reghuir on April 12, 2016
A grandfather clock has a pendulum that consists of a thin brass disk of radius r = 17.61 cm and mass 1.177 kg that is attached to a long thin rod of negligible mass. The pendulum swings freely about an axis perpendicular to the
asked by Vix on November 9, 2019
A thin rod of mass M and length L is lying on a frictionless table. It is given an impulse of 4.5 N*s by a force of magnitude F on one end at an angle of 35 degrees to the rod. How far will the center of mass of the rod travel
asked by Marychan on November 2, 2014
rotational mechanics
a thin rod of length 2R and mass M is standing vertically on a perfectly smooth floor. the state of equilibrium in which the rod at rest is unstable and the rod falls. FInd the trajectories that the various points of rod describe
asked by pramod on March 31, 2010
A thin non-uniform rod of length L=2.00 m and mass M=9.00 kg is free to pivot about an axis at one end. The CM of the rod is at a distance d=1.30 m from that end as illustrated below. The rod's moment of inertia about an axis
asked by sharkman on October 31, 2012
A long thin rod lies along the x-axis from the origin to x=L, with L= 0.890 m. The mass per unit length, λ (in kg/m) varies according to the equation λ = λ0 (1+1.410x2). The value of λ0 is 0.700 kg/m and x is in meters. 1.
asked by Molly on February 11, 2014
Physics - please help!!..
A long thin rod lies along the x-axis from the origin to x=L, with L= 0.750 m. The mass per unit length, λ (in kg/m) varies according to the equation λ = λ0 (1+1.410x3). The value of λ0 is 0.600 kg/m and x is in meters. 1)
asked by David on January 9, 2016


by James B. Twitchell, Ph.D.
Chronicling America's increasing absorption in materialism, "the most shallow of the twentieth-century's various isms," Twitchell examines the cycle of conspicuous consumption.
Comparing the influence of contemporary marketing and advertising to that of the Renaissance-era Catholic church, he contends that both "sell peace of mind either in this world or the next."
He finds celebrity spokespersons to be "priests" of marketing, the subject of "hagiography" in television commercials that are "an almost perfect mimic of religious parables" which pay for sitcoms that instruct Americans in "how branded objects are dovetailed together to form a coherent pattern of self-hood, a lifestyle."
Shopping has become integral to the construction of the modern self. Infomercials and home shopping networks are the ultimate conspiracy, with their one-sided, two-dimensional falsely "interactive" setup.


This material has been prepared by Hauke Hillebrandt ("Hauke Hillebrandt"). This material is subject to change without notice. This document is for information and illustrative purposes only. It is not, and should not be regarded as "investment advice" or as a "recommendation" regarding a course of action, including without limitation as those terms are used in any applicable law or regulation. This information is provided with the understanding that with respect to the material provided herein (i) Hauke Hillebrandt is not acting in a fiduciary or advisory capacity under any contract with you, or any applicable law or regulation, (ii) that you will make your own independent decision with respect to any course of action in connection herewith, as to whether such course of action is appropriate or proper based on your own judgment and your specific circumstances and objectives, (iii) that you are capable of understanding and assessing the merits of a course of action and evaluating investment risks independently. Hauke Hillebrandt does not purport to and does not, in any fashion, provide tax, accounting, actuarial, recordkeeping, legal, broker/dealer or any related services. You should consult your advisors with respect to these areas and the material presented herein. You may not rely on the material contained herein. Hauke Hillebrandt shall not have any liability for any damages of any kind whatsoever relating to this material. This material is being provided to you at no cost and any fees paid by you to Hauke Hillebrandt are solely for the provision of investment management services pursuant to a written agreement. All of the foregoing statements apply regardless of (i) whether you now currently or may in the future become a client of Hauke Hillebrandt and (ii) the terms contained in any applicable investment management agreement or similar contract between you and Hauke Hillebrandt.
Thanks to Ben Todd, Kit Harris, Alexander Gordon Brown, and James Snowden for helpful discussion on this manuscript. Any mistakes are my own.
How should a foundation whose only mission is to prevent dangerous climate change invest their endowment? Surprisingly, in order to maximize expected utility, it might use 'mission hedging' investment principles and invest in fossil fuel stocks. This way it has more money to give to organisations that combat climate change when more fossil fuels are burned, fossil fuel stocks go up and climate change will get particularly bad. When fewer fossil fuels are burnt and fossil fuels stocks go down - the foundation will have less money, but it does not need the money as much. Under certain conditions the mission hedging investment strategy maximizes expected utility.
So generally, if you want to do more good, should you invest in 'evil' corporations with negative externalities? Corporations that cause harm such as those that sell arms, tobacco, factory farmed meat, fossil fuels, or advance potentially dangerous new technology? Here I argue that, though perhaps counterintuitively, that this might be the optimal investment strategy.
In this note, I extend the special case of an investment strategy for foundation endowments called 'Mission hedging', originally introduced by Brigitte Roth Tran. The generalized strategy proposed here suggests that, under certain conditions, agents should invest resources in entities that cause activity they want to prevent. I will focus only on the conceptual extension of mission hedging here, but more technical details, caveating and mathematical formalism can be found in Roth Trans original paper, all of which are also relevant to the more generalized theory.
In other words, the basic idea is that, surprisingly, it might be optimal for an altruist whose mission is to combat global poverty, factory farming, mass unemployment, or existential risks from artificial intelligence, to invest in stocks of corporations that might make the problem worse and then give the profits to organisations that will counteract the problem.
For example, it might be a good strategy for donors or even other entities such as governmental organisations that are concerned with global health to invest in tobacco corporations and then give the profits to tobacco control lobbying efforts. Another example might be that animal welfare advocates should invest in companies engaged in factory farming such as those in meat packing industry, and then use the profits to invest in organisations that work to create lab grown meat. A final example: it might be optimal for donors who think that emerging risks from artificial intelligence is a pressing cause to invest in the technology companies that might speed up such dangerous technologies, and then donate the profits to organisations that work on guarding against such risks.
The basic mechanics of the mission hedging investment strategy are the following: when a bad industry does well, you as an investor can use your increased profits or dividends to counteract this trend. In other words, the more harm the industry does, e.g. increases CO2 emissions, sells more meat, or is on more on track to create technology that destroys jobs or is otherwise dangerous, the more you will profit and you can then use these profits to prevent the industry from doing bad things (potentially through donations or grants). If the bad industry is not doing well, then you will not profit as much, but you don't need to donate as much anyway because there is less bad activity. So either way, you will always donate a more optimal amount of money in proportion to the bad activity level.
Here is a simple toy model that illustrates the climate change case.
As you can see a $1 million endowment will reap different profits if mission hedging investment principles are used under two different warming scenarios. If warming is relatively mild, at e.g. 1 degrees celsius above preindustrial levels, that means that fewer fossil fuels were burned, and fossil fuel stock didn't do as well: the resulting profits are below market rate returns at a meager $10,000. However, in the second scenario with 4 degrees of warming above preindustrial levels, it's likely that more fossil fuel were burned than expected and fossil fuel stocks did very well. The dividends in this case might be above market rate returns at $60,000. Note that the average return with mission hedging ($35,000) of these equally probable scenarios (p=0.5), is lower than the average financial returns if no mission hedging is used ($50,000) because the portfolio is optimally diversified (historically average rate of return is about 5% ).
Now note how the cost-effectiveness of climate change interventions (e.g. saving the rainforest, geoengineering,lobbying for more renewable energy R&D is different in the two warming scenarios): if warming is relatively mild then the cost-effectiveness of the average climate change intervention won't be as high (here I assign 10 QALYs per $1000 spent). However, if warming gets really severe as in the 4 degrees warming scenario, then the cost-effectiveness of climate change interventions might be much higher at 100 QALYs per $1000 spent. In this case the average number of QALYs gained under mission hedging is higher (3,050 QALYs gained) than the number of QALYs gained without mission hedging (2,750).
However, mission hedging is not necessarily limited to investing endowments on the stock market. Someone interested in career choice, political campaign contributions, or budget allocation amongst different parts of government might also be advised to use mission hedging. For instance, someone worried about the risks associated with a, say, authoritarian leaning political party coming into power or a corporation having large negative externalities and outsized regulatory capture, might invest career capital into that said political party or company and later use it prevent the bad activity.
I list more examples in the table 1 below.
When should one invest to tackle a certain problem? Now or later?
How much should a government agency or international organisation tasked with a certain mission spend within a given time frame?
How should you allocate your resources between different mission objectives or causes due to uncertainty of whether some objectives or causes are more important than others?
There are some obvious objections to this strategy. Intuitively, you might think it's better to divest from companies that do things that you think are making the problem worse, because you increase the capital supply to a company that will then create more supply of the socially harmful good. In contradistinction to divestment, the 'mission hedging' strategy explicitly asks you to actually double down on investments in companies you believe to be harmful. However, divestment is unlikely to affect the stock price or the cash flow of the targeted companies at all.
This argument has been made elsewhere in much detail 2,. In brief, if you divest from say, fossil fuel for ethical reasons, then an investor who doesn't care about climate change will happily buy the now undervalued fossil fuel stocks. She might do so by selling her stocks of socially neutral companies (e.g. medical technology corporations) that you now need to buy because you don't want to invest in fossil fuels. The end result is no difference in the allocation in capital or stock price.
Thus, in efficient markets, such as the stock market, no matter how you invest, the companies and their share prices will likely not be affected substantially. Interestingly, the divestment strategy, which has become popular in the context climate change advocacy, is now also adopted in other areas such as open science, where socially responsible investment managers divest from pharma corporations which do not publish all their findings . Thus, it might be increasingly important to prevent attention and resources to be diverted to ineffective divestment strategies.
In any case, the first condition that is crucially important for any area where mission hedging is successfully applied: the market, construed in the broadest sense, that you are investing in must be efficient or else a mission hedging investor risks doing harm instead of good.
So crucially, mission hedging will backfire if markets are inefficient and resources such as time, money and effort would counterfactually enable bad activity. For example, outside of the stock market where markets are less efficient it is easier to cause actually cause bad activity, by, for instance, providing seed funding for a startup to create a new harmful tobacco product . Unlike on the stock market, in this example, the seed investment might not have occurred otherwise and harm is caused by the investor through the invention of technology that might otherwise not have been invented.
The second condition is that, ideally, your investment should not just covary with the bad activity but actually be causing the bad activity. For example, one might have the intuition that an organisation tasked with ensuring global health such as the WHO, should invest their endowment in the medical device industry: as global health gets worse, more medical devices will be sold and so the WHO will profit, which gives them more resources to improve global health. As global health gets better, fewer medical devices are sold and so the WHO does not need as many resources to fulfill its mission of ensuring good global health. However, medical devices do not cause global ill-health. Even though medical device sales and the stock prices of corporations selling these devices should often covary, they are merely correlated. One can imagine cases where medical devices sell poorly, and yet global health is poor, or cases where medical devices sell very well, but global health is good. This is why it's better to invest in corporations that directly cause the bad activity, in this case tobacco. However, a portfolio that strongly covaries with the bad activity level might still be good and have fewer reputational risks.
Corporations often hedge against their own mission risks by investing in things that could hurt their profits and they need to report the use of derivatives in their financial statements, including their purpose and its hedging effectiveness . For instance, PHW — a billion-dollar German poultry company — recently invested in a lab grown meat startup and Tyson, a big meat packing corporation invests in plant-based burgers. Similarly, oil companies often invest in solar. If these companies hedge to the extent that an investment in them just represents investing in a diversified portfolio of the whole industry (e.g. the food industry or the energy industry), then mission hedging will not work. However, it seems that in the cases above, the utility maximizing effect will simply be diluted.
The mission hedging investment principle might also work for risks from emerging technology such artificial intelligence, especially in a slow takeoff scenario . However, note that the case has been made that hedging against extreme risks might be difficult ("You cannot short the apocalypse").
Also, the relationship between the stock price of the objectionable asset class and the cost-effectiveness of the intervention might be nonlinear. For instance, it might have an inverted U shape, in climate change scenario where at first mission hedging applies, the stock price of fossil fuel goes up, and the cost-effectiveness of interventions goes up, but then the stock price might go up even further, yet the cost-effectiveness of doing something against climate change might decrease, because it is too late to do something against climate change.
More complicated financial products might be used to hedge against a risk such as strangles, which are option derivatives that allows the holder to profit based on how much the price of the underlying security moves, with relatively minimal exposure to the direction of price movement.
It might be difficult to find the right corporations to invest in practise. Hedging is a research field within finance that is extensively studied: for instance, there is still active research around what the best hedge against inflation is . It might be non-trivial to figure out how to properly hedge against mission risks.
Interestingly, unlike with divestment strategies where potentially a large majority of total global capital would be needed to divest from companies, collective action of a much smaller percentage of the market using the mission hedging strategy could in some cases actually hurt harmful industries in terms of their stock price.
A big investor or a like-minded, value aligned investor collective could use mission hedging instead of divestment to damage industries that cause bad activity. Recall that if a harmful industry does well the investor collective (or large foundation endowment) will profit relatively more and can ramp up their anti-industry activities (such as lobbying against it). If an investor collective and their activity became widely known, such that the market would anticipate its actions, stock prices would go down inevitably. Stock prices would not even go up in the face of 'positive shocks' in that industry. Why is that? Imagine a new oil reservoir being discovered. Normally, the market would respond by buying more shares in the company that has discovered this reservoir and the price of shares would go up. However, if the market knows that there's an investor collective that will profit from this and actually use these profits to fight the industry from making further profits of fossil fuels, they might not invest despite the positive shock. There would be nowhere for the stock price to go but down. The rest of the market might divest from industries that are known to be under 'attack' of such a collective.
However, it is important to carefully consider whether the combined capital of such a collective is really large enough to affect the industry and are not dwarfed by counter lobbying activities of the harmful corporations that are trying to maximize shareholder value of socially neutral investors.
By definition, 'big X- industries', i.e. Big Oil, Big Pharma, Big Tobacco etc., that have negative externalities make billions in profits. However, one can use a bit of game theory in order to not need to take on the entire industry: a mission hedging investor (collective) could publically commit to always take on the current market leader with investment and lobbying and thus threaten a larger share of the market at once. This is similar to the strategies employed by some animal advocacy groups, which declare that they will not stop putting public pressure on a fast food chain until they only use cage free eggs in their products.
In any case, the size of the mission hedging collective would have to be much smaller to drive down stock prices than the size of a divestment collective. This is because a small percentage of socially neutral investors with access to capital could always buy up sin stocks by using leverage, even if trillions of dollars of assets under management have already been divested from fossil fuel stocks. They can do so with because they have the prospect of slightly higher than market rate returns due the exploitation of investors who use the divestment strategy and they can borrow for less than the market rate returns, thus clearing the market.
Another example: governments could use a fixed percentage of their tobacco tax revenue to counteract smoking (e.g. by running public health campaigns). This would make the industry less lucrative for investors, because the industry is working against itself - the better the companies do in terms of selling tobacco, the higher the tax receipts the government can use to educate smokers to quit.
One last example, one could buy life insurance for political dissidents in authoritarian regimes that receive death threats and announce that one would donate the proceeds to efforts to fight the regime.
One way to implement this mechanism would be using self-executing smart contracts on the blockchain, that would pay out in these cases.
When investing in a company that causes bad activity one can also use shareholder activism and try to reduce bad activity from within the industry. This is another advantage as compared to divestment.
Some foundations have trying to reduce some uncertainty on how to allocate resources amongst different causes to different buckets . Investment using mission hedging might also be a way to optimize resource allocation between different missions or causes that an altruist thinks are likely to be important.
Imagine you want to make your donations or decide on your foundations strategy on how much you're going to spend on different causes. Let's say you decide based on moral and cost-effectiveness grounds that you will allocate 60% of your resources to animal welfare causes, 30% to try to prevent risks from advanced technology and 10% to global health at the end of the year.
You might not want to simply allocate the profits of your endowment by allocating, 60% to animal welfare causes, 30% to technological risks and 10% global health, based on how pressing and important each of the causes you think are. Rather, you could use the wisdom of the crowds (here the crowd is the market) to finesse those estimates and decide at the beginning of the year to invest 60% in meat industry stocks, 30% in technology stock, and 10% in tobacco stock. At the end of the year you allocate the profits or dividends to organisations in the respective cause areas. Then, relative to how well the different industries do that year, you will assign relatively more or less money to each cause (e.g. because tobacco stocks did very well and you have relatively more money in the global health portfolio, you end up with 15% of your overall donations going to tobacco control and because technology profits were poor this year, you only donate 20% of your overall donation to nonprofits working on technological risk prevention).
There are also diminishing marginal returns to investing into a problem that becomes smaller and thus the cost-effectiveness of one's efforts to tackle a problem becomes less favourable. Take the global health example from above: as global health becomes better and there are fewer smokers, tobacco control efforts will be less effective at trying to get the last smokers to quit (e.g mass media interventions will not be as effective). Fewer resources should be invested relative to other causes or mission objective an investor might have.
This strategy can be added on top off other prioritization considerations (e.g. scenario analyses as described in).
Mission hedging might not only work for endowments of foundations, but also for budgets of big international organisations or government departments with multiple mandates, or even with government budgets. As a foundation one could also offer this as a 'banking service' where one pays the grant into an account that is invested according to mission hedging principles and the charity can spend based on this.
It might be good to convince not only foundation to skew their endowments, but also convince international institutions or governments to use mission hedging for their 'endowments' or accounts.
Consider for instance the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The IMFs stated mission is "to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world." .
The IMF has billions in assets. However, even though the IMF diversifies its assets by geography and asset classes against market risks, and hedges against foreign exchange volatility etc., it seems to to not hedge against mission risks.
The IMF could consider skewing their portfolio towards technology companies which have been suggested to create technological unemployment, in order to have more money so that it has more resources to ensure its mission of promoting high employment in case technology companies do well.
There appear to be many such international funds which might want to invest their endowments using mission hedging principles (e.g. another is the Strategic Climate Fund ).
Mission hedging might also be a strategy for career choice, where time is invested to hedge against risks that threaten one's mission or cause. For instance, one might believe that tobacco companies are particularly harmful, but choose to work at a tobacco corporation. After investing career capital one can use this to work against the harmful corporation in case it becomes particularly harmful. This might occur in the form lobbying for more socially responsible behaviour within the company, whistleblowing, industrial sabotage or earning to give with higher wages or equity in a harmful industry. Potentially this behaviour might be particularly effective if the company is on the verge of performing a particularly harmful action that other competitors would likely not perform. Note that this related, but slightly different and extended argument from the classical 'earning to give in socially harmful industries' and not simply an argument for high replaceability.
As mentioned above, whether mission hedging will work when it comes to careers will crucially depend on whether the job market is efficient in the sector. Big publicly traded company or big bank has many job applicants and when one takes a job with them, one only replaces a competitor who is only marginally less capable worker from working at the company by taking a job in a harmful industry (this is of course not say that all work at big corporations or in finance is socially harmful). However, joining a smaller, socially harmful business that has a harder time finding competent workers and less efficient hiring, might actively cause harm because there is a better chance that contributing to the success of the business will cause counterfactual harm over and above what the next candidate in line would have caused.
Finally, this strategy might be particularly effective when dealing with extreme, high stakes, low probability risks. For instance, someone might have the highest impact in terms of expected value by having a career in the military or the secret service. Even though the modal outcome of this career might not be very impactful, in the unlikely event of a war, military government etc., one's impact might be very high. Thus joining the military might have the highest counterfactual impact in terms of expected value. Historical analysis suggests that soldiers have sometimes single handedly prevented nuclear war. Another example would be working at a leading artificial intelligence company that could create dangerous technology and using whistleblowing when they are on the verge of a breakthrough.
One could argue that political donations occur in 'efficient markets' as well. In the past US elections, there have been cases in which billionaires donated a few millions, i.e. a tiny fraction of their networth (0.1% percent) to other billionaires campaigns (for instance, Peter Thiel donated to Donald Trump). These billionaires might have funded their campaigns themselves if it had not been for the donation. In exchange these billionaires might have gained political influence due to their contribution, which can be used to further their mission and to counteract bad activity from a bad politician, even though counterfactually the donation didn't have any influence as the politician would have been funded anyway.
Someone who does 'earning to give' might want to skew their personal retirement fund towards technology companies, if they feel their job is at risk due to technological unemployment. They might also want to invest outside of the economy they work in , in case it does poorly and the person doing earning to give is unable to relocate. They might also want to buy disability insurance.
It would be interesting to know whether big sovereign wealth fund / pension funds such as the Norwegian pension fund already do this (hedge against risks to their economy, technological unemployment, shifting demographics to a population with fewer people in working age). Much thought goes into how to invest $25 trillion in private pensions funds in OECD countries in a way that is best for their investors. The answer to this question might elucidate whether this mission hedging strategy has flaws, is difficult to implement in practise, etc.
Interestingly, mission hedging decidedly skews the portfolio away from diversification and thus does not maximize risk-adjusted financial returns. Most endowments are trying to maximize financial returns, but with mission hedging one moves away from an optimally diversified, (passively invested) global market portfolio. Thus, one will likely sacrifice financial returns. For a 'cause neutral' agent, who doesn't have a mission, favourite cause, or mandate, it might be best to not sacrifice the flexibility of switching causes and rather invest purely as to maximize financial returns. This is similar to the strategy of building up career capital in the face of uncertainty about what the most important cause is.
Also, because mission hedging is somewhat counterintuitive and people might be repulsed by being associated as profiting from e.g. evil corporations, there might be reputational risks associated with it that need to be factored in. If this is a decisive factor, then it might be better to buy stocks that are merely correlate with bad activity - such as buying stock in the pharmaceutical industry rather than the tobacco industry. One could also buy derivatives that merely track the stock price, and which would be de facto stocks for all intents and purposes, but an investor would not 'own' part the company.
However, there might be a way of using some upsides of mission hedging without investing in what might be seen as morally reprehensible companies. Say your foundation focuses on two rather than one focus areas (which in itself might be suboptimal). Say area 1 is animal welfare and area 2 is global poverty. Your prior intuition is that these areas are equally important and you assign a 50-50 split of your annual disbursements to these two cause areas. Now, you could invest your entire endowment in stock in the developing world countries where your foundation supports say cash-transfer program. We will assume that corporations in those country doing well causes poverty reduction and they are not seen as morally reprehensible. Now, relative to how the developing world stock portfolio does you decide to invest excess profits (over the standard stock market return) to the other area (here animal welfare). If the developing world stock does well, you might not need to invest as much in poverty reduction, and have more funds for the more neglected animal welfare area. If the stock doesn't do as well, and there are no excess profits, it is better to stick closer to the original 50-50 split.
The process of hedging might also help to put clarify one's mission itself. If there would be a lot of resistance for the IMF to skew their portfolio towards technology companies because they state their mission is to keep unemployment low, and the hedge is accepted to work, then maybe the IMF is not really pursuing its mission or mandate. Mission hedging might clarify the mission of an organisation or agent, because one 'puts their money where their mouth is'.
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text:
Republican Party (United States)
The Mayor of New York has said that there is "no place" for migrants in his city
The spectacle of the House Speaker provides a lift to C-SPAN and television news outlets
David Faber - January 7, 2023
The Vatican Has Removed an Anti-Abortion Activist From His Position as a Priest
Jonathan James - December 19, 2022
In connection with the investigation into Trump's campaign, Mark Meadows has been subpoenaed to testify
The Governor of Virginia, a Rising Star in the Republican Party, Treads a Fine Line
Jonathan James - November 1, 2022
Pennsylvania, a battleground state, will host Biden for discussions on crime and gun control
Jonathan James - August 30, 2022
The philosophy of Donald Trump has been compared to "semi-fascism" by Joe Biden
Chris Matthews - August 26, 2022
After the search at Mar-a-Lago, Vice President Pence urges Republicans to stop criticising the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Adam Laxalt was victorious in the Republican primary for Nevada's Senate seat, setting the stage for an intense battle in November
Chris Matthews - June 15, 2022
The effort to get Marjorie Taylor Greene removed off the ballot will be allowed to proceed, according to a judge
Chris Matthews - April 19, 2022


Some of the major events in Uganda's history.
500 B.C. – 1300 A.D. Bantu-speaking people migrate to the region. They establish the state of Buganda.
1862 British explorer John Speke is the first European to visit Buganda.
1894-1900 Britain takes control of the area, calling it Uganda. Britain recognizes the kabaka, or Buganda tribal king, as ruler, but maintains its authority.
1962 Uganda gains independence. The Buganda king, Mutesa II, becomes president, with Milton Obote as prime minister.
1967 Obote imposes a new constitution, which makes him president and abolishes all of Uganda's tribal kingdoms.
1971 Military leader Idi Amin overthrows Obote. During Amin's cruel 8 year rule, an estimated 300,000 people are killed.
1978 Amin attacks Tanzania. Ugandan exiles and Tanzanian troops invade Uganda. Amin is forced out of the country in 1979.
1986 Yoweri Museveni takes power. He brings stability and improved human rights protection.
1993 A constitutional amendment restores the kingdom of Buganda and other kingdoms.
2000 Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya join to form the East African Community and pledge cooperation.
2008 After years of fighting, a cease-fire agreement is signed with the Lords Resistance Army rebel group.
Highly recommended is also the Bwindi National Park.