40b Leyland Royal Tiger coach

Moko Lesney Matchbox 40b Leyland royal tiger coach

Perhaps Lesney jumped the gun including the Leyland Coach in the Matchbox 1-75 range because it was based on a prototype vehicle that never actually went in to full production so it would not have been a familiar model to the children buying them but it is a very common piece and judging by the amount of them still around it must have been a very popular toy in its day.

The Leyland Tiger was only available in a light silvery metallic blue and it can be found with either knobbly grey, silver or black plastic wheels or later finer tread grey or black plastic wheels that were mounted on dome head axles with rounded heads and it was fitted with either a green tinted or a clear plastic window unit.
It had silver trim to the grille and headlights and the early issues can also be found with red trim to the rear lights, The die cast baseplate was painted gloss black.

Most variants had a baseplate that was held in place by a tongue and slot at the rear and by small pins on the sides of the baseplate that were located just behind the front axle that fitted into holes in the body of the coach to secure the baseplate to the body,
There was only one casting modification which can be found on the final variant where the locating pins were removed from the baseplate but it was still attached by the tongue & slot but now this was at the front and a round rivet was added to secure the rear.

Supposedly there was an error when setting up the pantograph that was to reduce the real coach dimensions down to Matchbox toy size so it was made slightly longer than intended and the finished toy was larger than the other models in the range so as a result of this the box had to be enlarged making it longer than the other 1-75 boxes in the range.
It was in production from 1961 to 1967 and was available in box types'C' 'D' and 'E',
Except for the grey wheeled versions it is very common.

above: with grey wheels & 'C' box

above: with silver wheels & 'D' box

above: with black wheels & 'E' box

above: two different ways the baseplate is fitted

code number	general	wheel type	baseplate type	window type
code 1	light metallic blue body, black baseplate, silver trim	9 x 20 silver plastic	tongue & pins baseplate	clear windows
code 2	light metallic blue body, black baseplate, silver trim	9 x 20 silver plastic	tongue & pins baseplate	green windows
code 3	light metallic blue body, black baseplate, silver trim	9 x 20 black plastic	tongue & pins baseplate	green windows
code 4	light metallic blue body, black baseplate, silver trim	9 x 24 silver plastic	tongue & pins baseplate	green windows
code 5	light metallic blue body, black baseplate, silver trim	9 x 24 grey plastic	tongue & pins baseplate	green windows
code 6	light metallic blue body, black baseplate, silver trim	9 x 24 black plastic	tongue & pins baseplate	green windows
code 7	light metallic blue body, black baseplate, silver trim	9 x 36 grey plastic	tongue & pins baseplate	green windows
code 8	light metallic blue body, black baseplate, silver trim	9 x 36 black plastic	tongue & pins baseplate	green windows
code 9	light metallic blue body, black baseplate, silver trim	9 x 36 black plastic	riveted baseplate	green windows

box types	notes
C	"new model"
C	none
D1	one black side one blue
D2	one black side one blue
D2	two blue sides
D2	light blue sides
E3	one black side one blue

values

silver or black wheels £25

grey wheels £45+

values are for mint models in mint boxes

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