Lesney Matchbox Superfast #48 Sambron Jacklift

The Matchbox name started in 1953 as a brand name of the now-defunct British toy company Lesney Products (named after its co-founders Leslie Smith [b. 1918 or 1919 - d. May 2005^[1]] and Rodney Smith), which had been founded in 1947 as an industrial die casting company. Almost immediately after assuming production, the company began producing toys. A 1948 model of a road roller, based on a Dinky toy, was their first foray into the transportation theme. Their first major sales success followed in 1953, with the million-selling model of Queen Elizabeth II's Coronation Coach. Shortly thereafter, Lesney co-owner Jack Odell (b. 1920 or 1921 - d. 2007) created a toy that effectively provided the final, missing link to the company's future. It was designed for his daughter: Her school only allowed children to bring toys that could fit inside a matchbox, so Mr. 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 of the mass-market success story of the Matchbox series. As mentioned above, because the one defining factor for the toys was that each model had to fit in a match-box, the idea was born to sell the models in replica matchboxes — thus yielding the name of the series. It also resulted in the description (either derogatory or admiring) of the models' scales being "1:box" (as opposed to more "serious" scales such as 1:87, 1:64, or 1:43).