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| A Lesney Matchbox truck box |
Lesney Products & Co. Ltd. was a British
manufacturing company responsible for the conception, manufacture, and
distribution of die-cast toys under the "Matchbox" name.
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| Leslie Smith & Jack Odell |
Lesney was founded in 1947 as an industrial
die-casting company by LeslieSmith (March 6, 1918 - May 26,
2005) and Rodney Smith (August 26, 1917 -
July 20, 2013.
Rodney Smith introduced to his partner a man named John "Jack" Odell, an engineer he had met in a previous job at D.C.M.T. (another die-casting company).
In 1947 they received a request for parts for a toy gun. They started making die cast model toys the following year. Seeing no future for the company, Rodney Smith left in 1951.
Rodney Smith introduced to his partner a man named John "Jack" Odell, an engineer he had met in a previous job at D.C.M.T. (another die-casting company).
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Lone Star Toys London double-deck bus - about 4.5 inches long.. Lone Star Products Ltd. was the name used by British company Die Cast Machine Tools Ltd D.C.M.T for its toy products.
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In 1947 they received a request for parts for a toy gun. They started making die cast model toys the following year. Seeing no future for the company, Rodney Smith left in 1951.
Three major company milestones:
1. 1948- produced their first model toy– a
die-cast road roller based clearly on a Dinky model (the industry
leader in die-cast toy cars at that time) – in hindsight proves to be the first
of perhaps three major milestones on the path to their eventual destiny. It
established transportation as a viable and interesting theme.
2. 1953- production of a replica of the
Royal State Coach in the coronation year
of QueenElizabeth II. Two versions were created, the first in a larger
scale, followed by a smaller-scale model. It was this second model that sold
over a million units, a massive success at the time. The profits from the sales
provided valuable capital for further investments.
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| 1953 Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Coach & Horses Moko Toy by Lesney |
3. Selling the model in a replica matchbox
(hence the name of the series) which
would propel Lesney to worldwide, mass-market success. The matchbox idea was originally designed for Mr.
Odell ‘s daughter as her school only allowed children to bring toys that could
fit inside a matchbox, hence a scaled-down version of the Lesney green and red
road roller was crafted. The road roller ultimately became the first of the
Matchbox 1-75 miniature range; a dump
truck and a cement mixer completed the original three-model release.
By the mid-'60s, Matchbox was the largest
brand of die-cast model vehicles in the world, and had diversified the line into
multiple series. On July 11, 1982, after years of difficulties due to the
economic climate in Britain at the time, Lesney went bankrupt and into
receivership. The Matchbox brand as well as Lesney's tooling were bought by and
became a division of Universal Holdings/Universal Toys, where the company
re-formed as "Matchbox International Ltd." Tooling and production
were moved to Macau. Jack Odell went on to form a new company, Lledo, where he produced models similar to
early Matchbox Models of Yesteryear. Today, the Matchbox
brand is owned by Mattel, creators of Hot Wheels.
Some of the tools and dies created in the
Lesney era were still used in the Matchbox line of 2007.
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