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Thanks Hugh and Mick, for the additional information.

I came across this link after following a link in "hot tip offs" E-bay selection of the forum ( (just to see what else the seller had for sale) http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Matchbox-lond ... 4ada0b2bfc This bus is interesting in it's own right and perhaps is worthy of discussion in another thread, however I thought to mention it here, as if you scroll down and read the sellers item description (assuming it's valid)) of how this particular bus came to be, it seems to tie in to some of the theories that have been mentioned here, with regard to the SF19 Lotus.

SMS88 wrote:5.Dont forget Nigel telling us about the tray(s) of black #17 Londoner bodies he saw in R&D - there are still small batches of special purpose odd coloured castings to be discovered by the online collector community - these YUM YUM Lotuses are simply 1 of an unknown number of special jobs done by Lesney
6. Lesney had litterally tens of thousands of stickers and water slide decals available in the factory to choose from for these racers and as we know from colour trials and pre-pros they were not shy applying them to factory specials. The fact that no known Lesney stickers or decals were applied to these proves that somebody intended them to carry the YUM YUM message NOT anything random or race themed. The F1 Lotus was a very fast car & race winner so the YUM YUM message was applied to a toy all who saw it would perceive as a ´´RACE WINNER´´ which I personally interpret as a message targeted by a company at its management and sales force NOT CUSTOMERS. I also like MARS over in Slough (or perhaps the canteen brand buscuit maker) as the most likely client for these yellow SF19 because they almost certainly supplied Lesney factory canteen + vending machines so were in a position to ask for favours like a few dozen yellow racers .........

GHOSTHUNTER wrote:Over the years, Lesney must have been approached by many companies asking for promotional models to...'Promote' their products, food, services etc, etc. Lesney would not want to interupt their planned full production run, just for a few hundred 'promo' models for a small company, in a colour not currently being used,they would however supply any surplus models left over from said production run and top-up to a useful quantity with slight seconds and colour trial models, remembering that those actual models are now promoting a food product and not a "Matchbox" toy, so the colours are not too important and any decoration is easier and cheaper to apply by an outside company or persons on behalf of that company.

A major promotion is a different story, anything over a thousand models would be painted in a matching colour for a company and the decoration would be handled by Lesney themselves, in a professional manner, making those models pretty close to standard catalogued models. GHOSTHUNTER.

zBret

zBret wrote:I came across this link after following a link in "hot tip offs" E-bay selection of the forum ( (just to see what else the seller had for sale) http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Matchbox-lond ... 4ada0b2bfc This bus is interesting in it's own right and perhaps is worthy of discussion in another thread, however I thought to mention it here, as if you scroll down and read the sellers item description (assuming it's valid)) of how this particular bus came to be, it seems to tie in to some of the theories that have been mentioned here, with regard to the SF19 Lotus.

Very interesting indeed: a non-standard colour with paper labels. I wonder how many were made? It looks like the body castings were put down a spray paint line since I cannot see any evidence of the same kind of marks that we have seen on Mick's 19d.

Tricentrol Cars was a Ford main dealers based on the Robjohns industrial estate in Chelmsford during the 1970's and possibly into the 80's I think they was taken over by another dealership called Perry's . I can remember my late dad buying a bright red escort van In 1973 from them when I was 10 , I would assume these busses were given/sold to promote the dealers , don't know why they would choose a bus as the nearest to that type of vehicle available from would have been a transit minibus

White bus looks genuine to me and seller´s tale seems a reasonable explanation for its creation. Perhaps Tricentrol also dealt in trucks and buses - if they did, even back in the 1970s, white was a standard colour for new coaches bought for dealer stock or short term leasing fleets - Ford did make a popular full size R series coach chassis.

Just to clarify a few points...

The term...'Yum Yum Yellow' was coined by US Navy Sailors in responce to the proposed colour for safety vests they were developing for easier sighting when in water, fearing Shark attacks.

'Safety Yellow' is/was a high visibility colour with high reflective properties, meaning less light is absorbed which makes the available light registered by human eyes appear more abundant, easier to see in dull conditions.

Putting a bright Yellow colour on a certain Matchbox model in the early 1970's has triggered someones memory into thinking..."that looks bright, it's almost like Yum Yum Yellow".

'Yum Yum' on its own can only be linked to a food produce and it has been printed as stickers for a food product and something like a jar or bag (bag of Doughnuts), could use the stickers to help seal the product (Mick's security labels and sticker idea working here).

If all examples of the Lotus in bright yellow had the 'Yum Yum' stickers on their front sections, I would be happy these models were done to promote a food product. Without looking back, how many examples have the sticker or remains of a sticker, Two?

I personally think the stickers have been added later than when the models were painted bright yellow.

GHOSTHUNTER.

GHOSTHUNTER wrote:If all examples of the Lotus in bright yellow had the 'Yum Yum' stickers on their front sections, I would be happy these models were done to promote a food product. Without looking back, how many examples have the sticker or remains of a sticker, Two?

It''s three, possibly four: Mick's plus two in the auction lot (one of which was only a part sticker). Also, what I designated as Car 3 may have adhesive residue on the bonnet (visible as very dark areas), but I cannot see any such discolouration on Car 4. (If Car 4 never carried labels, that would fit in with Mick's suggestion that the labels are a post-Lesney addition.)
However, with three of them the same, it seems reasonable to conclude that the fourth label (if there ever was one) was also a "Yum Yum" one which, in turn, points us in the direction of the bright yellow paint and the "Yum Yum" label being part of the same promotion idea.

Thank's "Idris" for checking that. It is looking as if these are going to be proven as food promotional models and the fact it is a racing car instead of a Van or Lorry may be down to models available at the time something suitable was asked for by 'Yum Yum Foods Inc' (my made up title here), and if Lesney had a surplus of the Lotus but not a Van or Lorry, is that why we have it?

Ghosty.

GHOSTHUNTER wrote:Thank's "Idris" for checking that. It is looking as if these are going to be proven as food promotional models and the fact it is a racing car instead of a Van or Lorry may be down to models available at the time something suitable was asked for by 'Yum Yum Foods Inc' (my made up title here), and if Lesney had a surplus of the Lotus but not a Van or Lorry, is that why we have it?

Ghosty.

An F1 racer symbolizes a race winner, so the choice of Lotus was obvious for such a promotion. Question is why not the 34d racer which ended up coming out in yellow as 2nd colour??? Perhaps these were made before the 34d was in production or perhaps Lesney just used up some surplus Lotus parts left in stock after the toy was deleted from 1-75 - difficult to tell unless assume these were made at the same time as the yellow Setras.

SMS88 wrote:An F1 racer symbolizes a race winner...

The 19d Lotus could also have been selected because of the association with speed (which dovetails with Mick’s suggestion that the models were painted “safety yellow”). However, by 1970, anyone with even a passing interest in F1 would recognise that the design had become dated, so perhaps the aim was simple to have “a racing car” as the promotional vehicle.
The fact that the 19d rather than the 34d was selected could be for a number of reasons:
- The promotion was scheduled to take place before the launch of the 34d,
- Lesney did not have enough capacity to create launch stocks of the 34d and meet the expected promotional demand,
- Lesney felt that having a promotional version of the 34d available at the same time as the market release would harm new model sales.
- Using the 19d (which Lesney management must have been aware was scheduled for deletion) rather than the 34d for the promotion would have enabled to Company to effectively extend the life of the model and so gain a better return on the investment which had been made converting it from RW to SF.