[REVIEW] Lesney Matchbox Berkeley Cavalier Caravan

Lesney Matchbox time has returned. Today we examine Lesney Matchbox 23b, the Berkeley Cavalier caravan. This model entered the range in 1958, remaining until 1960, and is something not yet seen in these reviews:

That being a camping trailer or caravan. Matchbox started adding tow hooks to vehicles early on, no doubt as both a means to increase play value and to sell models meant to be towed. This casting replaced 22a, a nearly identical caravan. This model contains ample fine line casting detail, and has proportions that look realistic - add that to this lime green color, and there's a certain charm to this casting. I suspect scale is in the 1:60s, probably close to standard small scale, and made to work with most 1-75 series vehicles. This is a model that features just a little playwear to high spots, I remember finding this in a small collection where the young original owner obviously cared for these models, and stored them in the boxes when not in use. From all angles, one can imagine this cheerful little traveler out in the campground on a holiday weekend:

Front and rear have ample detail, with the "On Tow" decal plate (also used on a couple other caravans) having weathered the past 60+ years in fine style:

The base identifies the maker and model, and shows off the grey plastic wheels:

This model is fortunate to live its clean original Type B4 box, indicating production around 1959-60:

One can see how this scales well with a period tow vehicle:

I'm quite happy to have this model in my collection - as mentioned before, these are sought-after, and I mostly lucked into the examples in my collection. Pictured with an old dime for scale:

A couple of period ads from thenostalgiashop.co.uk - I couldn't find an image of an identical caravan nor any mention of present-day survivors, from what I can find survival rates for period caravans are close to zero: