When you think about the words of “famous miniature cars”, it usually comes to mind matchbox cars. The tiny vehicles are know the world over, and later Mattel would make the line of tiny cars and truck famous. Finding out what the history of the play toy is, is a must for collectors. Being informed, will certainly help to decide if it is an original, their true value, and if it is a good deal or not, to buy one.
It might surprise you to find out that the original matchbox design came from an English product company, and by a co-owner, named Jack Odell. He redesigned the first car for his daughter, from a toy that was sold at the company, except it was a much smaller version. The need for the small car was that apparently, she could not take any toys to school that would not fit inside a matchbox, so this is how the idea of die-cast small cars was dreamed up.
Lesney company, as it was known, marketed and distributed through the Moko Lesney company, and after the Lesney legacy went out of business, all of the rights to the name and design went to Moko. If you want to collect the line of vehicles, then be aware that the original distributing company name will be on the toys.
One of the most brilliant plans for the Lesney line was when they developed a retirement plan for their line for the diecast model cars. Vehicles would taken off the market after a season of production for the buying public. That is why collectors look for them so vigorously, and will pay high prices for originals. Also, production would be limited, which today draws the value of them to high prices on the open market.
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The Matchbox brand of cars dominated the die-cast toy car industry for decades. In fact, they had no real competitors during their reign as the only prominent die-cast toy car maker. That is until Mattel introduced their line of Hot Wheels in 1968 and had immediate success. Matchbox’s sales in America dropped from $28 million to $6 million in the following year. There are a number of reasons why Mattel’s new line had such an immediate success.
The first and primary reason for their overnight success was the wheels. Co-Founder of Mattel, Elliot Handler, had created new wheels that are described as ‘friction-less.’ These new wheels allowed the cars to race at up to 200 mph (for the scale of the car). These ‘hot’ wheels allowed Mattel’s line to quickly surpass all competitors, both car to car and sales to sales. Children simply enjoyed having a toy car that ran much faster down the plastic track.
Mattel’s new line also had a great advantage starting out. The Lesney company (forerunner to Matchbox) started from scratch with a condemned building, limited funding, and grew out of a die-casting company’s slow season. Mattel was the leading company in many toy categories and had highly successful lines of toys like ‘Barbie’ and ‘See N Say’. In fact, when Mattel introduce Hot Wheels, they did so with a $10 million advertising campaign. They also had an advantage in the production of their cars. They had their models build in places like China and the Far East, where labor costs were significantly less than in England, where Matchbox originated.
Another huge factor that caused Mattel’s cars to be successful in America was the fact that it was an American company. Their initial success was limited to the United States and sent Matchbox sales in America plummeting as stated earlier. Matchbox was able to maintain a foothold in the die-cast toy car industry due to its worldwide sales.
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