MATPK-126 - Matchbox 1/72 Lightning T55 - WWWEB10108336

MATPK-126 - Matchbox 1/72 Lightning T55 - WWWEB10108336

Preowned, Resealed, Mint

The T55 was the export trainer version of the Lightning, a two-seat development of the F.6 sold only to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait as part of the Magic Carpet and related arms deals. It kept the full supersonic performance and combat capability of the single-seaters, and Matchbox chose it precisely because nobody else kitted it: this remains one of the very few mainstream injection kits of a two-seat Lightning.

The tooling combines the 1975 Matchbox Lightning with new two-seat fuselage parts introduced in the early 1980s; this boxing is the 1983 rainbow-stripe issue, made in England by Lesney, with Roy Huxley box art of a Saudi machine.

Box contents:

• 63 parts in three colours of plastic with clear one-piece canopy
• Two ejection seats, twin control columns, and pilot figures
• Choice of Red Top or Firestreak missiles, plus overwing fuel tanks, arrestor hook, and refuelling probe
• Waterslide decals with two options: Royal Saudi Air Force Lightning Conversion Unit, Dhahran 1970, and Kuwait Air Force, Kuwait International Airport 1970, both in natural metal
• Multi-language instructions including Japanese leaflet