EVERETT — Everett Transit wanted just a couple of Matchbox replicas of its buses to show children at Imagine Children’s Museum. So the transit agency called the world’s largest toy maker, Mattel, Inc.

Toy-mad Geoff Price, 58, has spent £40,000 jetting round the world buying model buses for his 11,000 collection at his home in Walsall, West Mids.