But did you know your Matchbox car or one owned by your child or grandchild could be worth hundreds or thousands of pounds? The die-cast models were first launched by Lesney Products back in 1953 ...

It is the true Holy Grail of Matchbox cars. The company never put the actual truck into production. However, chief model maker Ken Wetton built between six and eight prototypes. Lesney Products ...

(Later, he’d return to the diecast industry, working for one of Matchbox’s smaller competitors.) Despite having just two at the helm, Lesney managed to weather the hard times because it had ...

Lesney would soon become famous as the makers of Matchbox cars. But, first, the company’s two owners at the time, Jack Odell and Leslie Smith, brushed off a toy design they had never put into ...

"I think I have almost every single car that Matchbox put out between 1953 and 1969," he said. The toys were first introduced by Lesney Products in 1953 and dominated the market until Hot Wheels ...

His early acquisitions are part of the collection, which also includes the first Matchbox model ever produced. Lesney Products, a toy company in England, launched the Matchbox line in 1953 with a ...

A spokesman for Matchbox said the 1:64 model is the most detailed Matchbox to date. “Seventy years ago, London-based diecasting business Lesney sold over one million of its 11.8cm coronation ...

Its sales success enabled Lesney to go on to fund the launch of the Matchbox brand – which has produced more than three billion toy cars to date. Matchbox creators visited the Royal Mews to take ...