"MATCHBOX" copies etc.

[matchboxmarcel]

Wow, Ghosthunter you know a lot about these copies !
Here is another set I recently won and which arrived today.
It was very dirty and it is not the best condition.
I just cleaned it the best I could and here are the photos I just made.
I realy like this treath.











marcel

[GHOSTHUNTER]

Hello Matchboxmarcel, some more wonderful plastic toys. 'LIDO' is a 'Brand' name used by the 'Lido Toy Co' of New York during the mid to late 1940's, they made and marketed many various toys for children of all ages right into the 1950's. by which time they had thought of the 'Tag' slogan...Lido Toys for Girls and Boys...

Towards the late 1950's, they were just importing toys from Hong Kong and re-packaging them for their own marketing purposes. Many sets of toys were in their product line, including Historical ships, Locomotives, Farming, Construction trucks, Cowboy and Indians sets and of course sets of cars, including the set you have shown above.

Being originally made in Hong Kong the toys have come from various suppliers of such toys, but the veteran cars and road roller in your set look very much like the 'KELLY TOYS' products, possibly also the Horse drawn Fire Tender.

'KELLY TOYS' tend not to have any logo or brand name on their toy vehicles, making identification difficult because the base will probably only have a catalogue number and Made in Hong Kong, you have to actually own the models with it's box to be able to be sure you are holding a 'Kelly Toy', but I am confident what you have are re-packaged 'Kelly Toys' and a Locomotive I don't reconise, on that blister card set, marketed during the 1960's.

GHOSTHUNTER.

[nickjones]

LIDO Toys For Boys and Girls
Hmmmmm........
I think it should read
LIDO Toys For Boys, Girls and Old Men Recapturing their Youth

[GHOSTHUNTER]

[johnboy]

LIDO Toys For Boys and Girls
Hmmmmm........
I think it should read
LIDO Toys For Boys, Girls and Old Men Recapturing their Youth

It doesn't quite have that commercial snap to it though

[matchboxmarcel]

The only text i can see is HONGKONG on the rear under side of the Merryweather Horse Drawn Fire Engine.

marcel

[motorman]

Marcel, Any design on the back or is it plain?

[matchboxmarcel]

The back is plain but with the terrefic information supplied by Ghosthunter I googled Lido and found this terrific website:

http://www.angelfire.com/biz/toysoldierhq/Lido.html

There we learn:
LIDO
Lido was formed in 1947 by the nephews (Seymour & Effrem Arenstein) of William Shaland the biggest importer of toys in the country.
1964 Lido was sold to Bala

And between the many wonderfull photos i noticed this one which is similar to my set but the models are in different colors !



The set is mentioned there as:

NONE - Set #268 Vehicles of Yesteryear, blister card with five snap together soft plastic vehicles.

I also this with copies of Models of Yesteryear:



- Set #304 Vehicles of the "Good Old Days", blistercard with five snap together vehicles.

and this one with some Models of Yesteryear copies:



- 2662 Old Time Transportation. 10 Vehicles in 7 models including two fire trucks.

and this one with some Models of Yesteryear copies:



- 3662 Antique Motorama. 20 Vehicles in 7 models. Rubber bands degraded so use new ones. Large box is 20 x 15 inches.

I will say it again, i realy like this tread !

matchboxmarcel

[Sir_Matchbox_96]

Hi all,
very cool to see so many copies.
Today I went to a fleamarked found no matchbox but a copy of a rw #29 'Fire Pumper Truck'. The copy is made by Maisto and is called 'Denver Pumper'. Maybe it is a mixture of the normal casting and the later 'Code Red' issue because it has the cast in side control panels. (Maybe someone could post a 'Code Red' issue, I do not own one) I took some pictures for you. I also own a Sf #28 Mack Dump Truck copy made by 'Zylmex' in Hong Kong.

Greetings,
Linus

[GHOSTHUNTER]

Thank you Sir_Matchbox-96, I had not seen the Fire Appliance before and it does look as if it is a direct copy of the Matchbox model. The green truck is a fairly well known model from 'ZYLMEX' as a Matchbox copy. If more of these Zylmex Matchbox model copies turn up, I may create a listing of them here in this thread.

GHOSTHUNTER.