Hot Wheels Aplenty!

Shoes for girls and women.

Cars for boys and big boys.

My youngest daughter when she was about 12, went through a duck obsession. She had every imaginable version of rubber duckies. She collected them on her 'shrine' in her room. As you can imagine, there were duck towels, duck bed spreads, duck clothes, duck curtains, etc. which of course led to this . . .

and a very attentive kitty . . .

who then later found himself on the other side of the equation . . . .

The Jay Leno of kindergarten..

Back in the sixties & seventies I worked for the company that produced Matchbox model cars & we were developing a race track and one of our people went to Japan to source motors, when he came back he bought with him a toy car about the size of one of our Matchbox cars, when we put it on the floor & flicked it, it went for about fifty feet, we could see the potential strait away so we put it to the bosses that we should start to manufacture the machines to make these axles, (just the thickness of a needle ) but because the company had gone public any decisions had to be approved by the board and they knocked it back, 18 months later Hotwheels hit the market and that as they say was it, sales of Matchbox went through the floor, they did start to make a version of fast wheeled cars but were so far behind I don't think they ever recovered.

Bazzer

Matchbox original claim to fame....Queen Elizabeth II's coronation coach...how British...

A "smashing success" as they say....and the start of the matchbox brand...

..."The Matchbox name originated in 1953 as a brand name of the British die-casting company, Lesney Products, whose reputation would be moulded by^[2] John W. "Jack" Odell (1920–2007),^[3]Leslie Charles Smith (1918–2005),^[4] and Rodney Smith (hence the name Lesney, a portmanteau of Leslie and Rodney Smith's first names).

Their first major sales success was the popular model of Queen Elizabeth II's coronation coach, which sold more than a million models.

Shortly thereafter, Lesney co-owner Jack Odell created a toy that effectively paved the way for the company's future success. It was designed for his daughter: her school only allowed children to bring toys that could fit inside a matchbox, so Odell crafted a scaled-down version of the Lesney green and red road roller.

This toy ultimately became the first of the 1-75 miniature range. A dump truck and a cement mixer completed the original three-model release that marked the starting point for the mass-market success of the Matchbox series.

As a result of the inspiration for the toys' size, the idea was born to sell the models in replica matchboxes — thus yielding the name of the series. It also resulted in the description of the models' scales being "1:box" (as opposed to more mathematical scales such as 1:87, 1:64, or 1:43)."...

...funny how things work out...both brands now owned by Mattel...but it's been a long and interesting history...

nice read...↓

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matchbox_(brand)

http://www.vintagebritishdiecasts.co.uk/2index/lcoro.htm

Before the company went public if we had an idea for something whether it be for models or in the manufacture process, ie the way we assembled components we just talked to Jack, (who was the hands on director while Les Smith was more to do with the admin side) & normally a decision would be made if not there & then, then within a few days, the coronation coach was made in a much larger scale but I can't recall it going on sale, they also made a large scale showman's traction engine which was about 10" long but this was shelved for fear it would be to expensive, the moulds were eventually smashed by Jack, The company was an amazing place to work almost everything was made in house from the diecast injection moulding machines, the plastic injection moulding machines, assembly machines, auto spray paint machines, hot air drying ovens & all the departments that did the design, Patten makers toolmakers machine builders they even made their own Mazak in the smelting foundry & their own cups, plates, knifes forks & spoons for use in the canteens. so much talent all gone. I don't know if you are aware that Jack went on to start another company making model vehicles, it was called Lledo, after Jack Odell.

Bazzer

Yup that's typical... and our (British) engineering/manufacturing demise was of course blamed on "lazy workers and stubborn unions" not the shortsighted tightwad management.
Del

On the up-side there seems to be less air pollution...

Lesney was a union free company, they paid above the rates that others paid and as far as I saw everyone took pride in what they were making, there were the few who tried to get the unions in & they used to harass the workforce to join a union, We had a setup whereby each department had elected representatives that took grievances to a monthly meeting and it was discussed or put to the management & this worked very well, so we had no need for outside interference, so yes there were lazy people but very few, we had some 2-3 miles of conveyors that travelled to all departments & some people used to throw gloves filled with castings into the track causing the whole thing to shutdown, probably the same lot that were trying to get the unions in.

Chance to expand his collection...haha