I used to be friendly with the guys at Matchbox R&D when that department was based in England
They would use their own or their friend's own car's reg numbers as number plates when making these toys
The first Matchbox Dinkies all had the number plates of R&D personnel
Some collectors eg Nigel Cooper, have their names immortalised on models
Quite a few racing and rally cars eg the Audi Quatro have the names of Matchbox personnel on them
This sort of kept up a tradition
In the old days Jack Odell used to insinuate his name in reverse LLEDO (which had been his call sign when he was in Signals in the army) onto quite a few Kings
This is another part of what makes collecting these things fun