Lesney Matchbox MG1 Service Stations See also our price guide for the Garages on our GIFTSET + GARAGE pages.

The first Service Station was introduced in 1957, It was molded in red and yellow plastic and it had two opening doors at the rear and a sliding door to the front, It had a clear plastic window and a paper label displayed "Matchbox Garage", A recess in the forecourt was to hold the newly introduced Accessory pack number 1 which was 3 die cast petrol pumps with attendant plus an Esso sign, It was supposedly based on a real garage somewhere close to the Lesney factory and it stayed in production until 1959. At the time this was made Lesney did not have plastics molding equipment so it was actually made by Raphael Lipkin Ltd and the box front displays the LRL trademark that is shown below. >

In 1959 Lesney obtained their own plastics molding equipment so now the garage was made in house, The colours were reversed when compared to the first version and the LRL trademarks were removed from the box front, This version stayed in production until 1961. Shown below is Raphael Lipkins "Pippin" version of the "Flyover Garage" which probably dates from 1959 when their agreement to make Lesney garages came to an end, Photo courtesy Mick Flack.

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