Matchbox Badlander and Honda Ridgeline

Matchbox has a way of giving us some interesting surprises that require a bit of close looking to really admire, called easter eggs by many.  Then there are times when the team becomes very lazy and just uses old parts to a new casting, such as the 1990 Ford Transit interior used for the 2006 Transit or the Honda Ridgeline base used for the Mitsubishi L200 pickup.  Here's a group of vehicles that at first look completely different, yet they share an unlikely similar bond.

The Badlander was one of two Matchbox generic pickups introduced in 2007-2008 timespan.  The other was Swamp Raider that has that Land Rover Defender pickup look to it.  This one looks more like a realistic truck except that it is not.  It does have an interior and pickup bed, and being in the golden age of Matchbox between 2005 and 2011 they never skipped or cut any corners.  The front has a honeycomb grille with square flared headlights and signal lights, and a lower bumper with winch and round foglights.  The flared fenders gives this truck some attitude and still retains the crew cab pickup roof that adds roof rails and a kink on the lower rear corners of the rear windows.  The rear has taillights, tailgate handle, and rear bumper where the similarities begin between the Badlander and the Honda Ridgeline.

The Ridgeline was introduced in the Matchbox line in 2007 and is a replica of Honda's first pickup using the Pilot platform.  The downside is that it has to rely on a unibody frame with only one cab style (crew cab) and all-wheel drive-only to compensate for the front-drive 3.5L SOHC V6 and 5-speed automatic transmission.  Styling is boxy, if a bit too much for some taste, while the bed area uses some nifty practicality with a trunk in the bed where more storage and the spare tire reside.  After some sales neglect the Ridgeline ended production in 2014 only to return in 2017 as a more smoother, Pilot-looking truck still based on the Pilot platform.  The Matchbox version shown here is the 2009 Superfast version in burgundy with added detailing and 5-spoke Superfast off-road wheels that complete the look of this truck.  The Ridgeline has the similar headlight design as the Badlander but in a more upright front-end with horizontal Honda logo grille and slit foglights with a chrome bumper bar added to this Superfast version.  The sides do not have that aggressive flared fenders that Badlander has, but it does have stamped louvers on the doors and that rear window kink is there.

The rear taillights are finely detailed on the Ridgeline and along with the bumper is very similar to the Badlander, but the tailgate handle is flush with the gate and there's a trailer hitch added on the Ridgeline for more practicality.  On both trucks the bed has gear, yet the Badlander only has a few tents and rope while the wider Ridgeline has more gear in the bed area, along with Ridgeline along the rear window.  The bases underneath share the same design with the front engine and transmission, driveshaft and exhaust, and rear axle.  The Badlander removes the rear trunk details and adds mud flaps on all four fenders.  The interiors are even similar with the same seating for five and door panel design with square door handles.  The upright dashboard is also similar to the Ridgeline, as is the sunroof, with only a few slight tooling differences between the two.

So after comparing the two is the Badlander Matchbox's version of the Honda Ridgeline?  It is possible, or either the team got lazy and took a bunch of Ridgeline styling cues and added them to the generic truck body casting.  Either way it's one interesting easter egg find!