The Lesney model of the Beford tipper first appeared in the Matchbox 1-75 series in 1961,
Its first colour scheme was a grey body with a maroon tipper bed and later models had a grey body but the tipper body was recoloured to red.
The tipper body could be lifted as it would pivot on a regular dome head axle pin.
The first issue had a grey baseplate but all subsequent issues had a black baseplate, Silver trim was applied to the grille & headlights on the early issues only.
It was fitted with a variety of grey and black wheels on dome head rounded axles.The first casting modification was to add a small brace to the end of the exhaust pipe,
The next modification was to add a block to the underneath of the tipper bed because the tipper body was not held on securely enough and had too much side to side movement.
The next alteration was quite strange because in the middle of its production run one issue was fitted with a baseplate with a very small number '3' on it, This was soon replaced with the original baseplate with the larger number '3'inscribed.
The final modification was the addition of a ridge across the tipper bed just inside the tailboard supposedly to add some strength to the end of the tipper body,
It was quite a good seller as it stayed in the range for six years,
It was packaged in 'C', 'D' and 'E' type boxes and deleted from the range in 1967 to make way for the new 3c Mercedes Benz 'binz' ambulance.
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