History of Lledo
The History of Lledo
Lesney was founded in 1947 as a die-cast company by Leslie Smith and Rodney Smith. The two men were not related by blood; they had been school friends and served together in the Royal Navy during World War II. Shortly after they founded the company, Rodney Smith introduced to his partner a man named John "Jack" Odell, an engineer he had met in a previous job at D.C.M.T. (another die-casting company). Mr. Odell initially rented a space in the Lesney building to make his own die-casting products, but he joined the company as a partner in that same year.
Lesney began making diecast toys in 1947. The Matchbox company got its name because one of Jacks daughters had a show and tell day at school so he gave her a prototype of a diecast model he had been working on and she took it to school in a matchbox! The popular Matchbox 1-75 series was so named because there were always 75 different vehicles in the line, each packaged in a small box designed to look like those used for matches. These toys became so popular that "Matchbox" was widely used as a generic term for any diecast toy car, regardless of who the actual manufacturer was.
The popularity of diecast toys developed in the 1950s, as their detail and quality increased. Consequently, more companies entered the field, including the Corgi brand, produced by Mettoy, which appeared in 1956 and pioneered the use of interiors and clear plastic windows in their models.
Following the demise of Matchbox in the early 1980s, Jack Odell created Lledo in 1982 (Jack was a former Matchbox founding partner). The brand name mimicked Jacks call sign during the war, quite simply Odell in reverse. Odell believed that British collectables for British collectors could still be profitably produced in England. Lledo bought some of the Matchbox production machinery and set up a new factory in Enfield, Essex and introduced their " Days Gone" range of diecast vehicles in 1983. The first series of Days Gone models included re-makes of some of the most popular and respected first and second-generation Matchbox Models of Yesteryear including the Horse Drawn Cart and Model T Ford.
Today the Lledo brand still remains an integral part of Corgi Premiums with over 150 castings available for promotional use. In addition to the heritage brand of Lledo, Corgi has in excess of 7,000 die cast models available, ranging from post war Taxis to modern day commercial vehicles.
In 2008 Hornby Hobbies acquired the Corgi brand, and still to this day people of all ages enjoy the Corgi collecting hobby and the associations, memories and interest each model evokes.
