Matchbox Oversight

[radar]

At school in the 60s the World Map at the front of the class room was quarter "pink." Not sure we want that connotation now but it represented the Commonwealth - down here we were part of one big family, up to Canada and across to the small triangle at the centre - England.

Media here seemed to portray England as the centre of the universe.

Beatlemania, Soccer, Carnaby Street, Her Majesty, Twiggy - Britain had it all. I guess largely the car that represented all this was the E Type. However there is another candidate - the Mini.

Few cars personified Swinging Sixties in England better than the Mini.

Released in 1959, even assembled in Australia, our family acquired a brand new model in 1962.

Who can forget the image of a Union Jack painted Mini in London - as British as a black taxi and a red bus.

Monte Carlo, "The Italian Job," New South Wales Police pursuit cars - they even won Bathurst.

It was well established in UK, of course. Corgi did a lovely pale blue 850. Dad bought me one to match our pale green car.

Yet in 1-75 pre Superfast - never released.

[nickjones]

It could have been because it was so small, To make it look value for money Lesney would have needed to put two of them in each box

[fixer]

It could have been because it was so small, To make it look value for money Lesney would have needed to put two of them in each box

My wife said the same

[kwakers]

When you said Britain had it all, you forgot Tiny Tim with 'Tiptoe Through the Tulips', a cornerstone of the 'British invasion' in America. Twiggy was lame compared to Tim singing and flirting live on T.V. shows in the U.S. at the time.
I agree with your wife and Nick, the Mini is still an icon today, but too small for Odell to accurately scale down for the very early Lesney line. The #64 MG 1100 released in 1966 seems to be a larger scale than normal Lesneys, so the Mini could still have been released later on when scale became less important in the line. Perhaps the Mini was considered Too 'Common' to be a good seller with the youth of the day. My Toys were all the construction line, so a Mini would have been of little interest to me in building my 'roads' in our back yard in the early 60s. kwakers

[misterpop]

Surely there was a Mini.The racing one or is that to late?

[radar]

I was thinking Series 1 or 11 in the early or mid sixties - it was well established world wide by then.
The red mini no. 29 decal I just checked on ebay - says it ran from 1970 -1975.

Scale is interesting - but never stopped the Triumph outfit being sold alongside a route master bus.

[fixer]

I think she ment my box

[misterpop]

Yes you are right about the no 60s missed opertunaty..They should have made it as an assessory for the Bedford Car transporter....I think the first decent Mini modeled in a small scale was the Corgi Cameo one .Now there seems to be dozens of the things..