Upcoming Matchbox Auction by Toys Trains and Other Old Stuff Auction

Sunday, April 28, 2024

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Upcoming Matchbox Auction by 

Toys Trains and Other Old Stuff

Auction

The last auction of a sequence of 4 auctions will start on June 8, 2024.

However, you can visit the website to look at the Matchbox toys up for sale.

This auction consists exclusively of a broad range of Matchbox toys. 

Toys Trains And Other Old Stuff is

a well-regarded online company that sells lots of toys.

In this case, the auction will be online.

Please click on this line to visit the auction

History of Matchbox brand of toys

(Courtesy of Wikipedia and notes from the Internet)

Matchbox is the specific name of a toy brand in which the toy comes in a small box, hence the name "Matchbox".  The Lesney Products Company  was created by 2 British die casters by trade, and a partner in 1947. Their names were Leslie Smith and Rodney Smith. Their partner's name was Jack Odell. Interestingly (and I never ever knew this) the small-sized toys were created because of restrictions and shortages of metal use during WWII.  In 1952, Mr.Odell, inspired by a rule at his daughter's school that limited the size of toys that students could bring to school. You most-likely guessed it to be a matchbox size!

I haven't added the descriptions, because they don't appear on the website.

I searched but I couldn't find the descriptions. It might be that since the opening auction day starts on May 24, 2024 and finishes on  June 8, 2024, the company doesn't present future auctions too early in the calendar year.

So what I'll do is wait and keep a lookout as to when the auction starts.

So that's it for today and

thank you for dropping by.

My name is (Mr.) Stacey Bindman, and I can always be reached at:

toysearcher@gmail.com

Have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be.

More Lesney Matchbox Toys

Friday, December 8, 2016
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More Lesney Toymasters

Please click here to visit this fine ebay merchant

Matchbox is a very small type of toy that literally fits into a matchbox, hence the toys are called Lesney Matchboxes.  The original company was started by 3 people, Leslie Charles Smith and Rodney Smith and Jack Odell (who subsequently left) started the company in 1953.The company name was devised from the partial first names of the two Smiths. Their first  best seller was the toy  model coach of Queen Elizabeth II, who made her coronation travels in  the original coach . This sold more than a million toys.

The impetus for the size of the toy was based on Jack Odell's daughter. Children in her school were only allowed to play with toys that would fit into a matchbox. Mr. Odell had one of those "Eureka moments", and got the idea to manufacture toys that would fit the size of a matchbox. The first toys were the Elizabethan coach, a dump truck, and a cement mixer. Subsequent toys were mostly  modelled after British Cars, with future models being American, and even included farm machinery, and busses.

By the end of the 1960's, major competitors, such as Mattel USA) started to compete with Lesney. Mattel's small toys were called "Hotwheels" and were quite popular. They weren't as realistic to scale or design to those of Lesney, but children all over the world wanted them. Eventually Lesney went into bankruptcy, were bought up by an other company, which also went bankrupt, and Mattel in 1997 came to own the Lesney brand of Matchbox.

Like all collectibles, the Matchbox toys are in strong demand, and sell for a fair amount of money on ebay and other toy-selling websites. Some of the Matchbox toys can demand up to $ 5000.00 USD or more!

*Please click here to read the whole story about Matchbox from Wikipedia