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Hi all,

I hope you all had a safe and merry x mas. I am going through my collection, and have a few questions.
I have a few matchbox 1>75 that have markings, Lesney England, they are in the 1980>1982 period.
is this a transition period between manufacture in UK and other countries, or were they produced in the UK ?



Thanks Scott

Hi There,

If they say Lesney England on the base, then that is where they were made. The models pictured were all manufactured in England in these colourways in the early 1980's. I believe some castings were still being made there as late as 1984 or 1985.

Cheers,
Gavin

The last Matchbox diecast models to be made in England were the Super GTs, production of which was transferred to China during 1987.

Up until 1986 even some basic range Miniatures were still made in England, including the earliest versions of the newly introduced Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud and Renault 11.

On the other hand, production of Matchbox diecast models in the Far East started in Japan in 1978, followed by Hong Kong in 1979, Macau in 1983, China in 1986 and Thailand in 1990.

So there was quite a bit of overlap between several different places of manufacture.

Generally the country name cast on a model's base can be trusted to refer to the actual place of manufacture. The only exceptions are a few models which were still manufactured in England but had their base moulds already modified to say Macau or China, during the transitional period in the mid 1980s.