Matchbox Toys

Lesney Products was formed in 1947 to make zinc castings, mainly for the building industry; toys were a sideline when business happened to be slow. To cash in on the 1953 Coronation of Princess Elizabeth, they modeled a miniature of the Coronation Coach. When this sold a million pieces it spurred on and financed a new venture that would become a household name: Matchbox Miniatures. In 1954 came the #5 London Bus and the #7 Horse Drawn Milk Float and the range took off, with road vehicles of all sorts, all modeled at a size that would fit in a child’s hand. Then in 1969 came great change. Mattel had released their range called Hot Wheels, with high-speed wheels and axles, and in order to compete Matchbox retooled everything to have their own Superfast wheels and axles, along with brighter or newer color schemes. Beloved of two generations of children, and now highly collectable, the Matchbox 1-75 range is a British institution that has now found its perfect introduction in this book.

Nick Jones has been collecting Matchbox toys since 1980. In 1996 he built and compiled his first website ’Vintage Matchbox toys’ which evolved into the ’Vintage British Diecasts’ website, which now has over 5 million returning visitors. It features a lively toy forum populated by collectors and friends from all over the globe.