1989 saw the release of a highly detailed collectable range of cars based on some of the current miniature series. These models had more detailed tampo along with more realistic rubber tyres.
The range continued for some years although in 1996 the series received a slight name change from the original World Class Series to the Premiere Collection World Class Series. Series I – 1989
1996 saw the series name officially change to Premiere Collection – World Class and the series numbers were started again only this time using Western Arabic (English Language) numbers instead of the roman numeral that had previously been used to indicate the series numbers.
To celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Matchbox a special ”Birthday” collection of 50 vehicles was released, each car came with a small plastic license plate to represent each of the 50 states of America. There were an additional 4 vehicles exclusive (Mail in) models for 4 countries and another 4 models released world wide.