| Lesney Aveling Barford road roller |
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This was Lesneys very first toy, It was a copy of the Dinky Aveling Barford road roller which Lesney had made for about a third of the price for the Dinky model. It was very similar to the Dinky toy but the Lesney version had no tinplate baseplate like the Dinky and the roof supports were die cast as opposed to the Dinky model which had wire roof supports. The tow hook was die cast on the Lesney where the Dinky tow hook was part of the tinplate baseplate. The first issue was released in 1947/8 and it had no driver or flywheel but it is easily identifiable as the first issue because it had an X shaped brace between the rear roof supports, This was later modified when the X was removed from the rear roof support, Later a flywheel was added to increase interest in the model but in reality it was a Diesel powered vehicle and would not have had a flywheel. Later still the flywheel was removed and a driver was cast in, Although the Aveling Barford green with red rollers is the most common colour scheme for the roller it can be found in a variety of colours simply because there were shortages of practically everything being as it was so soon after the end of the war so Lesney used whatever colour paint happened to be available at the time. Playworn examples of the Dinky roller with wire roof supports usually end up with a wonky roof but the Lesney never had this problem but unfortunately the roof was prone to coming adrift of the body and getting lost so most of the playworn Lesney rollers that come to light are missing the roofs, Reproduction roofs have been made in limited numbers but these are no real substitute for a roller with it's original roof intact. The roller was deleted in 1949 and is a very hard to find piece which is highly sought by collectors so models of the Aveling Barford command high prices, It was never packaged in an individual box but "Betal" a toy wholesaler that was distributing some of the rollers advertised it packaged in a box of their own manufacture. In 1953 the model was scaled down to become the number 1a road roller in the new Matchbox 1-75 series. |
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collectable toy specialists. |
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collectable toy specialists. |
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collectable toy specialists. |
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collectable toy specialists. |
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collectable toy specialists. |
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collectable toy specialists. |
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collectable toy specialists. |
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collectable toy specialists. |
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collectable toy specialists. |
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