The Lesney model of the 12a Land Rover was the first car type vehicle in the Matchbox 1-75 series.
It was painted in military olive green and shades can vary but it is not as much as on some models.
It had a tan metal driver which was held in place by a hole in the drivers seat which a pin in the drivers backside located into and it was held in place by simply being a tight fit in the hole but this was not a very good method of securing the driver as the Land Rover is often found without its driver. Due to the simple design of the earlier models like this no baseplate was fitted although it does have 'Lesney England' inscribed underneath.
The axles and would locate to the body by passing through holes in tongues which hung down from the body,
It was always fitted with 10 x 18 grey metal wheels and these could be on either flat head or dome head axles and both types had crimped ends.
There was only one casting variation and this was on the underneath on the inside of the bonnet(hood).
There is a raised brace between the front wheel carriers on the inside of the bonnet, On early issues it stopped short of the radiator grill, on later issues the gap between the brace and the radiator is filled.
It was made between 1955 and 1959 and was packaged in 'B' type boxes,
It is not too hard to find and there are no rare variations. It was replaced by the much nicer 12b land rover series II.
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