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Wolfie Ginsburg wrote:....When I met Jack Odell in Cape Town in 1970 he slipped this out his pocket and gave it to me - he must have taken it off the production line before it passed quality control.

Amazing! I would've loved to meet Jack myself, and get an inside 'scoop' on the Lesney goings-on!

That door does look a bit chewed-up, though.. factory 'Elves' sure were a hungry bunch!

Cheers, Ken

Wolfie,

Did you have your photo taken of you with Mr Odell??...... If so lets see it!!!

What a wonderful memory that must be for you!!

Not for a moment doubting your story Wolfie, but wasn't the Maserati only introduced in 1972? Does that mean that you have a really early prepro from 1970?

Cheers,
Gavin

Gavin
My year may be wrong - But the story is true.
Jack came to meet with his South African agent Jeffrey Stein and I contacted him. He invited me over and I spent an afternoon with the two of them. Until then I didn't know of any international collectors. Jack gave me Harold Colpitt's details and it was though him I joined AIM and entered a new world. My meeting with Jack was reportedon in an AIM magazine at the time - but my old magazines are in a box in the attic.
I emigrated from Cape Town to London in 1978.
In about 1988 when researching the 40 year book I spent a wonderful afternoon with Lesley \smith at his home in London. He then attended one of the MICA conventions where we all had a chance to chat to him.
By complete coincidence I worked with Lesley's nephew at PwC in London for over fifteen years. It was only after someone told him I collected Matchbox toys that he told me about the relationship

Wolfie Ginsburg wrote:...In about 1988 when researching the 40 year book I spent a wonderful afternoon with Lesley \smith at his home in London...

That's really incredible, thanks for sharing! Folks, here we have an actual living link with Lesney's illustrious past! If you have any more tales or anecdotes, Wolfie, please let us know!

Cheers, Ken

Amazing story Wolfie.

Great story Wolfie. I'm a huge fan of the 40 year book - it must have been great fun researching that one - such a rich and well written history.

Cheers,
Gavin

I met Leslie Smith and Jack Odell at the Hackney Museum Matchbox toys exhibition in 2002, For those that never saw the page see here -
http://www.vintagebritishdiecasts.co.uk/museum.htm

What a great night that must have been Nick. It must have been fantastic to meet those two great men in person.

nickjones wrote:I met Leslie Smith and Jack Odell at the Hackney Museum Matchbox toys exhibition in 2002...

I'm still kicking myself for missing out on that historical occasion, to meet the legendary founders of Lesney in the flesh (and the intrepid founder of VBD too!!)

Cheers, Ken