VBD2 is closed. Please go to https://vbd3.co.uk instead.

When I was a kid, I wanted to have all Matchbox models in my collection. Unfortunately, I was born on the wrong side of the Iron Curtain. Sometimes, Matchbox models came to us, but it was very difficult to obtain them. Therefore, I began to learn english and with my broken english started to correspond with Lesney. Unfortunatelly, most of my correspondence is lost, but one envelope was found in an old book. Now it hangs framed as a holy picture above my collection.
Antonin

Great story and history.Thanks Antonin

Amazing Antonin!!! I cant believe that you kept an envelope from the 70's.

That's pretty cool!

Thank you. Do you know what was for me the biggest problem? Not English language, but to get the address of the Lesney factory. Today, we have internet, free flow of information, no Iron Curtain. But in the sixties, no internet and behind the Iron Curtain .....
Antonin

I can imagine there would have been many matchbox collectors behind the Iron curtain back in the 60's.

motorman wrote:I canr imagine there would have been many matchbox collectors behind the Iron curtain back in the 60's.

Hi Motorman
You're right, there's perhaps the greatest number of Matchbox collectors in the world relative to the population. The best publication about Matchbox ever written (in my opinion) was written behind the Iron Curtain.
Antonin

Courtesy Steve at regularwheel.com
Read the second column from "Craftsmanship" to "Russian Police" for Jack Odell's own experience of a Russian trade fair.
http://www.regularwheel.com/p951561337/ ... #h210a2391

Very interesting Nick, I did not know that the Matchbox models were sold even in Russia ( I have supposed that they had better and tighter Iron Curtain ). Maybe it was the beginning of a relatively nice diecast production "Made in USSR"
Antonin

i wish i had the presence of mind to save more stuff from when i was a kid...that very cool document Antonin