RIP Jack Odell, Founder of Matchbox cars

[Everglades W68]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1184...googlenews_wsj

[Everglades W68]

Re: RIP Jack Odell, Founder of Matchbox cars

JACK ODELL (1920 - 2007)
Matchbox Founder, With an Eye
For Detail, Popularized Miniature Toys
By STEPHEN MILLER
July 14, 2007; Page A4

A self-taught tool-and-die maker in post-World War II Britain, Jack Odell became the founder and chief designer of Matchbox, the iconic miniature toys that have entertained car-crazy kids for half a century.


Jack Odell
After creating a miniature steamroller for his young daughter, who wanted something that would fit into a matchbox to show her classmates, Mr. Odell -- who died last Saturday at age 87 in Herfordshire, England -- realized he had stumbled upon a product that the company he co-owned, struggling Lesney Products, could sell.

After producing such early models as a cement mixer and a dump truck, the company had its first hit with a miniature of Queen Elizabeth II's horse-drawn golden coach -- produced in the year of her coronation, 1953. More than a million of the coaches sold for the equivalent of about 40 cents in U.S. currency at the time; online today, they sell for hundreds of dollars.

MILESTONES


1947: Lesney Products founded
1953: Matchbox line of die-cast cars begins
1960: Lesney goes public; one million cars produced weekly
1970: Lesney introduces "Superfast" line to compete with Hot Wheels
1973: Odell retires from Lesney
1982: Lesney declares bankruptcy, Matchbox brand sold
1982: Odell founds Lledo to produce retro-model motor vehicles
1997: Mattel acquires MatchboxMatchbox toys, packaged in realistic "matchboxes," went on to become wildly popular both in England and the U.S. (Some British reports compared it to the 1790s craze over yo-yos.) While Mr. Odell designed many of the cars, partner Leslie Smith took care of marketing and sales.

By the early 1980s the company ran into trouble on several fronts: a strong British pound, the global recession of the late 1970s and a shrinking population of British children. In 1982, Lesney declared bankruptcy and was sold to Hong Kong's Universal International (Holdings) Ltd., which moved most production to Macau. Mattel Inc. of El Segundo, Calif., acquired Matchbox in 1997.

Mr. Odell, who left school at age 13, held odd jobs before enlisting in the Army, where he repaired fighting vehicles during World War II and had a profitable sideline of repairing Primus stoves.

Meanwhile, a pair of unrelated ex-servicemen named Smith -- Leslie and Rodney -- founded Lesney in 1947 in a bombed-out London pub called The Rifleman. The pair struggled to find die-making work for electrical sockets and other products. Soon, they brought in Mr. Odell, and Rodney Smith sold his stake and left the company.

When Lesney went public in 1960 it was producing one million cars a week. Production eventually rose to one million a day, and employed about 6,000. "We produce more Rolls-Royces in a single day than the Rolls-Royce company has made in its entire history," Mr. Odell told the New York Times in 1962.


One of Matchbox's earliest toys, a steamroller.
His eye for detail and abilities as a die-cutter led to realistic dashboard dials and hoods and trunks that opened. Car companies, sensing free advertising, eagerly provided blueprints to ensure accurate reproduction. Clad in a white apron and sporting a close-trimmed mustache, Mr. Odell could be found checking on quality on the factory floor.

In the 1970s, Lesney was making Matchbox-sized fighter planes and submarines, the U.S.S. Enterprise from the "Star Trek" franchise, and even Baby Burps, a doll. Mattel became a big rival with its Hot Wheels, generally considered less interesting as collectibles but better as racing toys.

Today, Mattel sells many Matchbox cars in sets for about $6, although pricing and size varies a lot. On current sales, a spokeswoman would say only that Hot Wheels outsells Matchbox in the die-cast car category, and that more than three billion Matchbox cars have been sold in the line's history, since 1953.

Mr. Odell bought some of Lesney's equipment when most of the company's assets were liquidated in the early 1980s and went back into business under the name Lledo, his name backward, producing larger-scale model vehicles for companies such as Coleman's Mustard and Esso (now Exxon Corp.). Charlie Mack, editor of collector's magazine Matchbox USA, recalls a 1989 tour of the Lledo plant in which Mr. Odell pointed out that he'd "liberated" several die-casting machines at Lesney's liquidation auction for £1 apiece.

Despite the Lesney bankruptcy, Mr. Odell was wealthy and not shy about it. In the 1962 interview, he said, "Oh yes, I'm a millionaire now -- in pounds sterling, y'know."

[mloaks]

Re: RIP Jack Odell, Founder of Matchbox cars

Great post, thanks.
Have mercy on the Vols in Sept!

[TheGr8Schlotzky]

Re: RIP Jack Odell, Founder of Matchbox cars

I had hundreds (still have many) little cars. Even though I had so many, I had several favorites, which all seemed to have more detail and better build quality, and normally had some kind of a suspension. I realized that those were all Matchboxes and the rest were hotwheels. Hotwheels FTL.

Sucks to hear he died, but 87 is a pretty good n long life. RIP

[mloaks]

Re: RIP Jack Odell, Founder of Matchbox cars

With my two son's collections, I step on what seems like 1000s.
What I liked about Matchbox was all the cool 60-70's Euro cars I'd have known nothing about otherwise, like the Iso Grifo, or Maserati Mistral...

[SpeedingFirebird]

Re: RIP Jack Odell, Founder of Matchbox cars

With my two son's collections, I step on what seems like 1000s.
What I liked about Matchbox was all the cool 60-70's Euro cars I'd have known nothing about otherwise, like the Iso Grifo, or Maserati Mistral...

by far my son's favorite toys. He has hundreds of cars with more pouring in every month (gifts from his grandparents). Any time we travel, we carry a child size backpack full of cars for him to play with.

His latest given to him this weekend: a white 1970 firebird. :D